you know that JUNK in your trunk?

It is finally the first day of spring (and my sister's birthday!) and those snow flurries outside my window this morning are not keeping me from thinking about those green days ahead. If your head is linking spring and green and spring cleaning like mine you will want to check out Inhabitat's Wonderful Spring Greening Contest to encourage creative reuse. If you have a project in mind to re-furbish, re-purpose and re-think your trash into something amazing AND functional now is the time to make it happen. The winner receives a $200.00 Inhabitat gift certificate. The bad news is that this contest ends in one week (we always put everything off to the last week anyway, right?)- so you've got to get greening! Check back next week to see my entry and check out some amazing examples of re-use available right now from some amazing Etsy shops (plus a couple of my own).
1. repurposed fabric to dress - Infusion
2. wine cork to necklace - Uncorked
3. vinyl banner to wallet - NottyPooch
4. circuit board to keychain - Debby Arem Designs
5. skateboard to coaster - 2ReVert
6. money bag to business card holder - Chakrapennywhistle
7. plastic bags to lunch bags - Copabananas
8. car signage to necklace - dustDesignCo
9. sleeve to wristlet - zJayne
10. car part to bracelet - Polarity
11. doll to clock - IMOTIME

hiring (?) MODELS

Well, I didn't exactly "hire" them, unless you count the pizza I have promised, but haven't delivered on yet (after all models can't actually eat pizza, right?). At the urging of Noelle, of Xenotees, to get some 'models' in my pics I "hired" these two pretty (and familiar) faces- what cha' think?

this girl's got a PAINT CHIP on her shoulder

I have always wanted a yellow kitchen. I am not sure why. Maybe my first birthday cake was eaten in a yellow kitchen or that popular girl in 4th grade who invited me over for pizza rolls after school had a yellow kitchen. My memory is foggy here, but I know I have always wanted one. I have a picture in my head of this yellow kitchen (of course this picture is of a HUGE yellow kitchen, but I will make do). I know a little bit about color- or maybe I just know what I like, which is maybe all any of us ever need to know about color, so with this picture in my head and my knowledge of color, I head to the paint store. Three paint stores and thirty paint chips later I head home with my little collection of samples, but with a growing feeling of unease that none of these little paint chip yellows is MY yellow. The perfect mustard yellow that my little kitchen needs. The yellow that is in my head. The yellow that will make my little kitchen perfect. So, I hang the little paint chip cards on the kitchen wall and step back. I pace. I chew my nails. I decide to sleep on it. My husband picks a paint chip. My daughter picks a paint chip. I pace ....
1. colour theory 10 - estasketch
2. modern 3D collage - bookeesue
3. create recycled magnetic locket - polarity
4. line 256 southbound - nervousmotion
5. paint chip magnets - claireteschel
6. a paint chip for me - elizaveta
7. chipping paint expressionalism 2- kdukigrl

WIN a girlscantell! WINNER IS TESSA!

And the winner is..... Tessa! Tessa has chosen Sara's amazing anatomical heart coasters! Check out Tessa's amazing website, too!





Sara of girlscantell is Etsy's famous dissecter of all that is complicated into all that is cool!

This amazingly talented ex-Jersey girl (there's actually no such thing as an EX-Jersey girl) lives and works in South Philadelphia diagramming and hand screenprinting everyday things onto everyday things.

She gets her inspiration from city life; a bakery window, a light fixture, a great vintage dress, a construction site, old brickwork, a rusty neon sign. Vintage typewriters, bicycles, kitchen appliances and tons of other goodies are diagrammed onto amazingly incredible coasters, cloth napkins (no more throwaways!), kitchen linens and more!

WHAT YOU GET:
One lucky winner will receive one awesome girlscantell diagrammed coaster set!

HOW TO WIN:
Visit girlscantell's Etsy Shop and check it out. Then come back here and LEAVE A COMMENT mentioning your favorite coaster set.

For additional entries:

(5) Blog about this contest, linking to this post and to girlscantell
(5) Twitter this post
(5) Follow my blog
(5) Follow girlscantell's blog

Let me know if you have done these things so I can give you additional entries.

Sara is also offering a 20% discount (refunded through paypal) through the end of March - be sure to note 'polarity' in the comments to seller section of your order!

DRAWING:
A winner will be chosen at random on March 18th! Good Luck!

My House Is On Fire

Hubby and I recently received a certified letter from our little town to let us know that the local fire department has applied for a variance to build a firehouse directly across the street from our house. Now, we have always been good little townies and pay our taxes and shovel our snow and cut our grass (most of the time) but the idea of fire whistles (very loud sirens, actually) and firetrucks and firemen (this is not a plus, trust me, these are not the kind of firemen whose pictures end up on calendars) directly across from our house all the time does not seem like a good thing. In fact, it pretty much sucks .... unless, of course, our house really does catch on fire, but this is not something I am going to wish for.

So this has gotten us back to looking at land and farms and barns and back to our dreams of organic farming and crafting. I am thinking the only way this will ever be possible is if we actually live in the barn so I have been obsessing over barn conversions lately and found some amazing work by Carrier and Company that I wanted to share.

Waking Up Is Hard To Do

OK, so we sprung our clocks ahead early Sunday morning for Daylight Saving Time and lost an hour on Sunday, but why do I feel like I have been losing an hour every day since? Yes, it is nice to still be seeing the sun at 6:30 pm, but SO hard to get up in the dark. At least for me. I need that morning sunlight to program my sleeping brain to perk up and get those neurons moving! I am not a good sleeper in the best of times and not a good staying asleeper and until my body adjusts to this hour (sometime around the next Daylight Saving Time clock change) not a good getter upper either!

Some Tips To Get Moving In The Morning
1. Get a dog. As long as it has to go out- you have to get up. Juliapott
2. Get a cat. Nothing says good morning like a sandpaper tongue licking your face. Loranscruggs
3. Do yoga. It's the most relaxing way to bring your energy level up. Herbandevi
4. Place a birdfeeder outside your bedroom window. redyellowandblueink
5. Set your alarm clock. Across the room. Pilotdesign
6. Call in late. Uncorked
7. Have children- VERY effective
8. Sleep with someone who gets up earlier than you do.

Team EcoEtsy Goes MAD 4 MARCH

Eco Etsy is a global group of green good sellers who practice and spread the word about reducing, reusing and recycling. About fifty members are having a March Madness sale. Buy something from any of their shops and receive a free gift from that shop - see each shop's announcement for details on their particular giveaway! A full list of the participating shops can be found here MARCH MADNESS.

1. KnitStorm - Tea Mug Cozy
2. JenniferSquires - Purple Flower
3. Ottoman - Lichen Brooch 1
4. Shecological - Sand & Olive Plaid Bag
5. Undertheroot - Undine's Undies
6. Uncorked - Don't Be Trashy Cork Necklace
7. Polarity - Purple Recycled Magnetic Locket