Toodlefetties Love From Upcyclers

What an honor...

for my Toodlefetties Etsy Shop to be included in the Etsy team

Upcyclers Meet & Greet on the team blog today!

Upcyclers Member Meet & Greet

About the Upcyclers Team straight from their Etsy page.

Upcyclers are artisans who repurpose existing materials or post consumer waste to create fashion, art or products with a new value, purpose or aesthetic appeal, thereby reducing the consumption of raw materials, energy and resources that must be conserved for the environmental health of the planet.

And here are a few of the vintage Toodlefetties items that were included...

 Vintage Blue Glass Insulators 

 Vintage Cigarette Lighter & Case 

 Vintage Paperback Cookbook

This is a great team of people that are concerned about the health of our earth and you can find a wide variety of goodies made out of things that could be headed for the landfill or worse, just dumped somewhere and left to pollute the environment.

So why not create new, useful, artistic beautiful things is what I ask?

To quote Donna at Funky Junk Interiors...

 "But you see, the moral of my story in creating unique things is to invent new ways of doing things. Because if I invent, I grow."

Funky Junk Interiors 

 Just giver her button in my sidebar a click and pay her a visit, she is an amazing

example of creating a beautiful home by repurposing.

As for me...

being thrifty is just a part of life, and I love the history behind old forgotten items and wonder what stories could be behind them. Using those items in some other way is just one way of preserving them and keeping them from becoming waste.

Thank you Valerie and Team Upcyclers for the spotlight, I appreciate being included and enjoy being a part of a team of such amazing artisans and collectors.

Do you enjoy collecting vintage items or reinventing them into something else? Please share...

Have a great day!

~Toodles

'Tis The Season For Ghost Poop

As the holiday season looms ever closer, I have had on my mind, or maybe it's in my nightmares I'm not quite sure, but I can foresee the days when I will feel like I am suffocating under the mountain of leftover packaging that seems to find it's way into my house this time of year. You know the stuff....chunks of squeaky styrofoam, millions of packing peanuts (lovingly called ghost poop in our house), shredded paper, cardboard boxes, gift wrap, bows, tags, cards, plastic air pillows, bubble wrap! This is the part where I scream and start to pull my hair out, not really but it does significantly raise my anxiety level.

On the up side I feel a small sense of relief knowing that I can and will reuse as much of the packaging as possible when I ship items that have been purchased in my Etsy store, Toodlefetties.etsy.com. However that may only make a small dent in the mammouth pile, and no matter how organized I keep it if I try to store much more stuff in our modest three bedroom house, I just may have to deal with the wrath of my hubby, who I've noticed the excuse and I quote myself..."but honey I may need that someday, I can find a use for it" is starting to fall on deaf ears. Probably because he's heard it more than a zillion times in 24+ years of marriage, he is a good sport though and has been coming around more and more to conserving and reusing.

A couple of handy websites for ideas on how to craft with or reuse discarded items I have found useful are About.com, search Trash to Treasure or Green Crafts and checkout a great article by Ann Johnson on eHow.com titled Trash to Treasure Crafts. While I wish I could claim to be a total creative genius and come up with an unlimited amount of ideas for Trash to Treasure myself, like any mom with a plate full and then some it's more fun some days to pick others brains or follow other tips and hints and then put my own creative twist on things. Always with the goal of reducing all of this crazy waste our disposable minded consumerism mentality causes on a daily basis. The good Lord only gave us one chance to care for this beautiful planet of ours and if we all do just a little, collectively we will be able to accomplish a lot.

Upcycled Art Not Just The Next Green Thing

Up cycled art is becoming more popular with home crafters and the environmentally conscious. Creative entrepreneurs, home crafters and artisans are making a business out of turning re-usable fabrics, ribbons, laces and everyday household objects destined for the landfill into decorative reusable items for the home, garden and more.

If art imitates life then this trend bodes well for the green movement and also seems to be calling attention to the end of the crazy consumerism that has characterized American society since the industrial revolution.  Going green is not just about recycling tin cans and changing your type of light bulbs. It's a trend in jewelry, home decor and art, a definite shift in our way of thinking. To quote a very famous Martha,  "That's a good thing."