greenUPGRADER

Make Your Own Sweet Potato Dog Treats

Becky Striepe — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:00:25 +0000

I was at the grocery store the other day shopping for the week and I popped into the pet aisle to grab a can of wet food for our pup who's being a little finicky about eating lately. It was right there that I spotted them: organic cans of pureed pumpkin and sweet potato for dogs!

This is something I'd never seen before, so I did a little research. Apparently, sweet potato and pumpkin in moderation can be good for dogs who have unpredictable tummies. My dog tends to get car sick and she also barfs when she's stressed, so working a little sweet potato into her diet sounded like a great idea! If you do feed sweet potato to your dog, there are two things to keep in mind:

It's fattening. This should be a treat, not a major food source. For a small dog, a couple of tablespoons of sweet potato will do the trick. If your dog is larger, you can feed her 1/4 cup or maybe even 6 tablespoons a day.
Skin your sweet potatoes. The skin is full of fiber, and the idea here is to settle their tummies. Plus, if there's any mold at all on the skin, it can be bad for your pup.

A quick peek at the ingredients revealed that there was nothing particularly special about this food. All that's in them is the pureed veggie. And they were charging almost $3 per can for the stuff! That seems crazy to me. Instead of shelling out big bucks for a dog on the label, try these simple alternatives to expensive store-bought sweet potato treats:

Organic canned sweet potato or pumpkin. The kind you'd get to make pie is basically the same as the kind I saw in the pet aisle, but it costs over $1 less per can. Just make sure it's unseasoned and not salted. You want 100% sweet potato or pumpkin.
Cooked sweet potato. Microwave or bake a sweet potato, remove the skin, cut into cubes, and cool. My dog wasn't interested in eating the plain sweet potato, but you can also mash some up with their regular food to make it more appealing.
Dried organic sweet potato. Use your food dehydrator or your oven to dry strips of sweet potato. Need a recipe? This dog treats site has some great info on how to make your own, natural, dried sweet potato treats.

Do you guys make your own dog treats? I'd love to hear what homemade goodies your pups love best!

An Upcycled Valentine: Plantable Pansy in a Newspaper Pot!

Karen Riley — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:25:22 +0000

What is black, white and read (or red) all over? This sweet and earthy Valentine!

Using my PotMaker and a new batch of pansies, I rolled 3.5" x 10" strips of newspaper to form the pots and popped a singular, cheerful viola inside each one. A few scraps of lace, ribbon and a sticker embellish this gift. There is no glue involved, just twisting and tying!

Pansies are perfect cool-weather flowers with their velvety, heart-shaped petals. When Valentine's day is over, your sweetie can transplant the flower; recycle, compost, or even reuse the newspaper; and reuse the embellishments on her next project or as gift wrap!

Image Credit: Photo by Karen Riley

Craft Recycled: Upcycled Lamp from a Wire Waste Basket

Becky Striepe — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:00:43 +0000

For folks who are into cross-stitch or weaving, the texture of a wire waste basket begs to be fancied up with stitched or woven fiber, and Poppytalk did an awesome job transforming a wire waste basket into a lamp! They used strips of fabric, but you could also use yarn or grouped strands of embroidery thread - this is a great project for busting that fiber stash. You can check out the full instructions on how to do it over on Poppytalk!

The folks at Poppytalk used a new waste basket, but you can hunt at thrift stores for a second hand one to make this an upcycled project! The trick is cleaning that waste basket well because, well...it's a waste basket!

How to Clean Your Waste Basket

Wire mesh is not a joy to clean, but with the right tools on hand, you can make it easier on yourself. Here's how!

Get scrubby. Use a scrubby brush and hot, soapy water to get any gunk off of your basket.
Rinse. Rinse it out under running water. Your bathtub is a good place to do this, if you don't have a hose in your back yard.
Soak that sucker (optional). If you feel like it's still not totally clean, grab a bucket that's larger than your basket, fill it up with water, add a generous squirt of dish soap, and submerge. If your basket wants to float, use a brick to weigh it down. Soak for around 30 minutes, then rinse.
Dry. Set your basket out to dry. You can dry it in the sun, if it's warm and clear out or just set it upside down on a clean towel to drip dry on the bathroom or kitchen counter.

Ta-da! Easy peasy, and you're ready to make an upcycled lamp!

10 Awesome Wine Cork Craft Projects

Becky Striepe — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:00:35 +0000

If you know me, you know I like a glass of red wine on a chilly winter evening. After quite a few chilly winter evenings, though, what I have is a big bowl full of wine corks. Don't judge. Let's get crafty instead!

There are companies that will take your corks back to recycle them, and if you're not feeling crafty that's a great way to make sure your wine corks don't end up in the landfill, but before recycling, they get shipped to some central location, and you have to consider the carbon footprint that comes with all of that transportation. With a little crafty love, you can transform your stash of corks into all manner of fun things, no shipping required!

1. Make stamps! I've seen stamps carved out of cork, but these wine cork stamps from Michele Made Me use foam that you glue to the bottom. You could use recycled felt in place of the foam to green up this project even more!

2. Plant markers. Have you started planning your spring garden? You can whip up a simple batch of cork plant markers, so you'll know what's planted where.

3. Make a wreath. Cathie Filian shows you how to turn a big batch of corks into an upcycled wreath! Her tute calls for paper plates, but I bet that you can use reclaimed cardboard instead. You could also use paints you have on hand instead of buying special ones for this project.

4. Coasters. Rhonda at Dollar Store Crafts shows you how to turn your corks into coasters! If you used larger cork circles for the bottom of this project, you could make a trivet instead of a coaster.

5. Stitch up a trivet. I am loving these hand-stitched trivets from sliced corks over at Design Sponge.

6. Create a cork board. Use a wooden frame and some glue to make a cork board out of your old wine corks.

7. Cork mice. How sweet are these upcycled cork mice from All Together?

8. Another trivet. There's something about corks that makes you want to make trivets. I like this different take from Home Re-Design Kaliedescope. Is uses a zip tie! Genius!

9. Pirate ships. Mini wine cork pirate ships can fancy up a place setting or would look super adorable up on a shelf!

10. Make a necklace. Brass Paper Clip shows off a necklace made from sliced corks. I couldn't find her tutorial, but you could use a large needle to very gently pierce the corks and string them together with jump rings. Easy peasy! I love how she used the stained bits to add a splash of color.

Have you guys been getting crafty with your stash of wine corks? I'd love to hear your favorite wine cork craft projects!

Image Credits:

Cork plant marker by My Chic Life
Cork wreath by Cathy Filian
Wine cork board by Becky Striepe
Wine cork pirate ship via Crafting a Green World

Make Your Printer Ink Last Longer

Becky Striepe — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:00:35 +0000

If you're trying to live a greener lifestyle, chances are you avoid printing at all costs. Between the energy, the paper, and the ink, printing is not the most eco-friendly thing you can do. Sometimes, though, there are things we have to print out. Maybe it's paperwork for our taxes or something for work where an electronic document just won't do the trick.

If you do have to print, stretching your resources is a great way to green up that process. You probably already know to print on both sides of your paper or maybe you even fish junk mail out of the bin and print on the back of that. But what about the printer ink?

PC World did a study back in 2008 showing that when the "low ink" light comes on on most printers, between 8% and 45% of the ink is still in the cartridge. If people all replace the cartridge when the light comes on, that adds up to a lot of wasted ink! There are a couple of ways that you can waste less and make that printer ink last longer:

Just wait. Head to the store and pick up an ink refill when the "low ink" light comes on, but don't actually replace the cartridge until your print quality starts to suffer.
Shake it up. No, for real. I used to work at a...let's say "frugal"... office, and when our printers would run low on ink, they'd always tell us to shake the cartridge and try again before they'd order a refill. Just be careful - some cartridges will leak if you shake them, so best to do this over a sink or wrap it in a small rag before you shake.

One word of caution: it can be bad for your printer to let it run totally dry of ink, and it would really cancel out your efforts if you had to replace your printer! Once print quality starts to go down, replace the cartridge to avoid damaging your printer.

What do you guys do to conserve at the office? I'd love to hear your tips in the comments!

Image Credit: Creative Commons photo by freestockimages

Craft Reycled: Vintage Book Page Heart Garland

Becky Striepe — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:00:12 +0000

If you're a regular around here, you know that I love a handmade holiday, and Valentine's Day is no exception! I'm loving this sweet heart garland that I ran across on Pinterest. The Pinterest user who shared this photo didn't include instructions or a link to where you can buy your own, but this would be super simple to make yourself! Here's how.

Materials

Scrap paper. You can use book pages, junk mail, or any other scrap paper that you like!
Scissors
Stapler
Embroidery thread and a needle
Twine
Ribbon

Directions

Cut out 3 strips of paper that are 1/2" wide in varying lengths. Try 9", 10" and 11" to start.
Fold each piece in half.
Take the 9" strip, and nestle it inside of the folded 10" strip, then nestle both of those inside the 11" strip.
Hold the bottoms of the paper together in one hand, and use your other hand to gently press down on the paper where it's creased. You want to work the creases in between your fingers that are holding the bottom of the paper.
Garb your stapler, and put one staple through all of that paper to secure your heart in place.
Tie a knot in one end of a piece of embroidery thread, then use the needle to work it up through the staple, leaving you with a little tail coming out of the top of your heart.
Tie the tail to the twine, and tie a pretty bow on top where it connects, if you like.
Repeat steps 1-7 to create as many hearts as you like for your garland!

[Heart garland photo via Pinterest]

Urban Beautification: Steve Wheen’s Pothole Gardens

Becky Striepe — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:00:17 +0000

Guerrilla gardening is a great way to add some green to a blighted space. Whether we're talking seedbombs or late-night plantings, guerilla gardeners everywhere are doing their parts to make the urban landscape a bit greener.

Steve Wheen takes the idea in a whimsical direction with his pothole gardens. Potholes are an eyesore and sometimes a hazard, but with a little bit of greenery, Wheen turns these blemishes into something straight up beautiful. Not only does he plant greenery and flowers, he transforms potholes into miniature environments!

Here's a video of Wheen talking about his pothole gardens:

I love that he calls them "little moments of happiness." Those bursts of color definitely make me smile!

Have you guys seen (or done!) any creative, cool examples guerrilla gardening? I'd love to hear about them in the comments!

h/t: CRAFT