Do your part, you buffoon!

So I recently read a blog post asking people if they recycle, why they recycle and how they recycle.

Although I am a fairly new convert to the whole "green" movement and recycling and all of that know-your-carbon-footprint shenanigans, I am trying to do what I can and tell others to do it, too.

Here is a somewhat all-inclusive list of what I'm doing to --go green, go local, go whatever...

RECYCLE...okay people THIS IS NOT HARD (at least not in Indy).
Keep Indianapolis Beautiful (KIBI) has a fabulous webpage of where to take all of your recyclables including everything from bathtubs to old CDs (much more is recyclable than I ever thought, by the way). The easiest things to recycle are paper, plastics #1 and #2, glass and aluminum as most recycling locations take these and in some cities (Indy included) they will even do curbside pick-up.

Other items I physically take somewhere else to recycle:

• plastic bags (I'm trying with the canvas and fabric reusable ones and I do really well remembering to take them with me to the grocery, but always forget when I got to Target, Lowe's, etc) -- Sprawlmart and Kroger accept these (Kroger will also take plastic packaging and dry cleaning plastic
• cardboard --Republic Services has a location near 86th and Ditch that accepts cardboard. Almost everything comes in cardboard packaging--this can be recycled (or some can be put in the compost bin)
• Plastics #3-#7 -- this one is new. I just found a place downtown that accepts #3-#7 called Indianapolis Recycled Fiber so I'll be hauling it a trunkful at a time (gotta conserve gas!)down there. Almost all food containers (yogurt, dips, fruit, butter) seem to come in #5 so I was seeing a lot of that end up in my trash can.

COMPOSTING! So you all know about the compost tumbler and the compost pile. And we already know (from the To Compost or not to Compost post) that all yard and food waste (that is veggie and fruit) go into the compost pile.

Oh, and the newest helper for the compost pile: the compost bucket from World Market.

A W.I.P. (work in progress): the RAIN BARREL. The goal of the rain barrel is to collect rain water and save it for the times when you need to water the lawn. You can use water collected in the rain barrel--it's not treated like the water from the hose and, best of all, it's free!

And, of course, growing your own food is keeping it local, organic and tasty.

I buy as much as I can from Thrift Stores (like Goodwill!) and garage sales. The plan is to re-use or re-purpose it for my house. Granted sometimes this takes some imagination and crafty skill, but it is amazing what you can find. (That will be a future post...)

So, that is a good introduction to doing your part. Oh, and ride a bike instead of driving when you can.

DIY: No-sew new-to-me chair (for the garden room, of course!)

Here is the before pic--a hideous, I'm thinking 70's chair with lime green velvet and a funk that made the birds fly away. I think this is the one that had a mouse living in it at some point.

Why do I own it? Because I saw fabulous "bones" and a fabulous price ($7.99 at Goodwill). It shall be re-claimed for my garden room, where I am attempting to bring the outside in.

PROJECT TIME!

Tools and materials you'll need:

• needle nose pliers
• something with a flat edge for removing staples (I use a flat head screw driver)
• gloves (these things are just dirty)
• hand sander
• spray paint
• 2 yards of fabric (the pretty kind)
• 2 feet of muslin or plain fabric
• 2 feet of quilt batting
• 2" foam (for the cushion)
• staple gun (and staples)
• clear glue (I used Welder in the red tube) -- NOT hot glue
• embellishments, cording, etc

Steps:

1. Strip off all of the fabric, staples, glue, foam, padding, etc. This is what mine looked like when I was all done.

2. Take your pick--strip, sand and stain OR sand and paint. I chose the later because I wanted a lighter finish than the wood. Plus, I wouldn't know how to care for the caning properly to stain. I used 1.5 cans of spray paint on this one chair to get good and even coverage.

This stuff was the easy part. I'd done all of these things before. Now I was embarking to new territory--re-upholstery!

3. Making the seat.

First I put a layer of muslin over the squiggly metal pieces and trimmed my 2" foam to fit into the seat. Next I covered the foam with a layer of batting and now it was time for my fabric (sorry I didn't take pictures of these steps!)

Staple the fabric in the middle of the front of the chair, pull firmly and staple the opposite side in the middle. Make sure you have a couple of inches overhang. Work slowly to the sides. On this chair I was lucky enough to have a indentation where I put the staples. The most frustrating part of this entire project was making sure the fabric lies flat and still looks nice. On the corners I made a fold so the fabric didn't bunch.

I then took an Exacto knife and cut off the excess fabric. I finished it with some golden braid, which fit perfectly into the indentation. I used the clear glue to adhere it to the chair.

As for the top I re-used the cardboard insert and the brads from the old chair. I re-covered the brads using a different fabric and I adhered this using Aileen's craft glue. I then took fabric and covered the cardboard insert (again with the clear glue)

Once it was re-covered, I attached it to the chair using the Welder glue.

Voila! The finished product! A vast improvement for the eyes and for the nose.