Truly Gifted: It's DIY December!

You've heard of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, right? But, have you heard about DIY December? Probably not, because I am introducing it right here, right now on econesting!

Last year, I created an ambitious holiday gift guide for Planet Green. It was called, Truly Gifted: An A-Z DIY Holiday Workshop For Everyone On Your Holiday List. It was my anecdote for curbing spending, raising my eco-consciousness and reconnecting with something I love to do: create handmade gifts for my family and friends.

The introductory post to the Truly Gifted series is the only post not showing up on the Planet Green site, so here's an excerpt:

"I did the unthinkable. I ventured into New York City on Black Friday. It was mostly a social visit, but it was hard not to get caught up in the shopping frenzy. You would never guess from the amount of people who braved the stores with their fellow throngs of holiday revelers that there was ever a weakness in our economy, or that our planet was overdue for an eco-consciousness-raising. I found myself tripping over a minefield of holiday stuff and compromising my personal eco-footprint right and left. After an exhausting few hours, I was happy to be tucked back into my nest. The experience reached my deepest resolve to buy less and make more.

Sure, you could go out and buy eco-friendly gifts for everyone on your list, or save gas and time by shopping online. But why succumb to more spending and unnecessary waste? Creating gifts for others allows you to share your great green intention of respecting the planet, by passing along to your recipients the awareness of treading lightly on the environment."

5 DIY Gift-Making Tips

  1. Take stock of what you already have. Scavenge around and give homage to items and materials that are ecologically sound. These items are just waiting for their secret life to unfold so that they can be restored, renovated, recycled and reused.
  2. Be thoughtful about the person you are gifting. Creating items by hand takes time (maybe not as much time as finding a parking spot at the mall). Personalizing a gift is a sure-fire way to get it right.
  3. Choose materials that are recycled and renewable.
  4. Not only is making your own gifts green, frugal and clever, a handmade gift allows the giver to express their love in a whole new way.
  5. Giving a handmade gift is a truly satisfying experience. It has the ability to transform the way we think about the holidays.

DIY December

During the next few weeks leading up to the crescendo of all winter holidays - Christmas, I will provide an alphabetical array of green DIY inspiration for everyone on your holiday list. Since I wrote a post for every letter of the alphabet (absolutely exhausting, but fun), I'll be including excerpts and new information. The posts will have an eco-friendly DIY project for everyone on your list. How cool is that?

Revving to get started?  Here's a real easy project to get you in the DIY gift-making and giving mood: DIY Gift Tags Forget store bought gift tags, Lolly Chops provides stylish free patterned, downloadable gift tags to print out and personalize.

I'll be posting a blizzard of DIY projects. So don't forget to check back each day for greenest of holiday gifts you can make yourself.

Photos: Emma Innocenti via Planet Green, Lolly Chops

Making Peace With The Holiday Creep

“Time waits for no one.” That certainly rings true during this season. This is the time of year that's been dubbed, “The Holiday Creep” - the commercial phenomenon created by retailers that accelerates the start of the holiday shopping season.

Yes, it’s that time…again. If you’ve ventured into the stores lately, you’d better watch out and you’d better not pout.

Last year, I wrote a post called, “Decking The Halls Too Soon”. It recalls how I had popped into Macy’s two weeks before Halloween to get a birthday present, and the trees were trimmed and the tunes were humming. This was not the case for those who visited Nordstrom's. Those folks encountered this sign:

This year I’m on a bit of a retail diet, and much of the hoopla will pass me by. But, according to the National Retail Federation, nearly 40 percent of Americans started their holiday shopping before Halloween, and nearly 40 percent started in November.

Instead of the Holiday Creep with its ceramic Santas and faux-pine trees, right about now couldn’t we just gear up for the season of peace? I could really get behind this. I might even break my diet, hit a few local stores, and throw up a peaceful decoration or two. It’s much more dazzling, and much less creepy, don’t you think?

Photo Credits: Desire To Inspire, Nordstroms

Solutions For Living With Wood

At the beginning of the heating season, I'm all gung-ho about heating with wood. Hauling wood is exhilarating exercise, and the oh-so-toasty radiance of a wood fire is enchanting. After the initial infatuation wears off, I start grumbling about it…mostly, about the mess.

2 Problems, 2 Solutions:

Problem: There are splintery pieces of wood that gather around the stove which makes walking barefoot treacherous (and messy).

Solution: Remodelista presented a beautiful wall-mounted log holder via Skona Hem. Not only does this wood holder look handsome, it frees up floor space. While it may be an  inspirational solution, I can't read a word of Swedish, and there are no particulars of where to purchase such an item. Has anyone found an off-the-floor solution for the in-house wood stash?

Problem: This morning I piled up a few logs into my arms, stoked the fire, then ran out to have breakfast with friends. Someone commented that my jacket made me look like a porcupine. I looked down and there were spikes of wood embedded into the fleece. Geeze.

Solution: While writing Stalking The Wood Pile, I came across this DIY wood tote on the Whipup site. It’s stylish, functional and easy to make. The creator of the project was in the process of building a house and says, “I made this firewood tote to help move all the logs to the house site. This firewood tote sews up super fast, and will make carrying wood to your fireplace, or building a house just a bit easier.” Brilliant!

Download the DIY pdf instructions and CLICK HERE FOR MORE

Photo Credits: Rais, Remodelista, Whipup

An Inspired DIY Idea: Recycled Sweater Sleeve Cozy

Here’s what often happens to me: I am inspired by ideas and new products that I think could be easily made. That was the case this morning while I was pointing and clicking around the blogosphere. I spied this stunning handmade white matte-satin pot over on Swissmiss. It was created by Paige Russell. The pot appeared to be cradled by a sweater sleeve. Tea cozies are not generally my thing, pharm but this one spoke to me. Not only was it beautiful, cheap cialis it totally made functional sense.

Recycled Sweater Sleeve Cozy

How to: Using a felted wool sweater sleeve, viagra buy cut to fit. Grab a hot drink. So easy, so sweet!

Note: Felting will give the cozy a tight finished fit. A felted wool fabric will not unravel. I explain how to felt a recycled sweater here.

Photo Credits: Paige Russell