The re-user and the organizer that coexist within me live in almost constant tension. The organizer knows there are surfaces in my home that will never be clear for more than a few hours at a time. For example: our kitchen table, that’s perpetually cluttered with dishes, daily mail, partially finished[Read more]
Teaching a weekly class on The Art of Upcycling is really 20% instruction and 80% planning, practicing, and making samples of what I’ll teach others to make. You know I love living in that briar patch, spending time every week practicing what I’ll preach, er, I mean teach. Pinterest is,[Read more]
A common conversation, when I’m teaching classes on the art of upcycling, is how old this seemingly “new” concept is. We’ve given it new names (like “creative reuse”) and much better PR (Pinterest alone can be credited for making “upcycle” a household word). Still, at the end of the day,[Read more]
Just after I wrote a post about unachievable Pinterest projects, I tried my hand at crocheting an infinity scarf that kept cropping up in my Pinterest feed. Allow me to eat (or at least retract) some of my words. This project was totally doable. Even better, I think it’s easy to[Read more]
Do you recall when you first learned that women pictured in magazines really aren’t flawless? When someone pulled back the curtain and showed you the air-brushing, special lighting, tailored clothing and spray glue that held everything in place? The more I try to recreate projects I find on Pinterest, the[Read more]
Our oldest son has always loved maps. One of his gifts, thanks to his place on the autism spectrum, is the ability to recall directions to and from any place he’s ever been and any place he’s ever studied on a map. One summer, when he was 4, maybe 5, I[Read more]