December 19, 2007
I have always been a granola-crunching, paper-recycling, environmental-worrying, semi-activist. Though there are seven of us in our home, we put out less than one can of garbage each week. (It should go down even more when I start composting in the spring.) We also put out five or six blue bins of recycling. We shop second hand, only replace items that we can’t fix, and generally try to live simple lives.
Yet I am constantly being challenged and inspired by those who are doing so much more. MrPages has already mentioned No Impact Man. I also follow the stories of Beth at Fake Plastic Fish who is trying to eliminate her plastic consumption, and the Dervaes Family at Path to Freedom, who are living off the grid in the middle of Pasadena, California!
With such heroes from which to gleen insight, I present my first, I hope, of many “Steps to Green” (MrPages says I should trademark it!)
Anyway.
Reclaimed, Reusable, Multipurpose Gift Wrap:
A friend gave me a bag of fabric scraps. I found a bunch of squares that might have been meant for a quilt. Beth’s post about Christmas wrap, and her link to Furoshiki got my creative juices flowing. The result is a smallish kerchief-like section of cloth that can be used to wrap our Christmas gifts. I used the Furoshiki fold for flat objects and then just to be sure it stayed wrapped en route I secured it with some yarn (which is also reclaimed.)
I’m dreaming of a green Christmas!
Related posts:
December 19th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
My mother-in-law has been using cloth christmas wrap for years now. It makes so much sense! We typically use gift bags and reuse them year after year.
December 20th, 2007 at 4:49 am
Holy Cow! Is this the wrapping method I was looking for? Of course the cloth wraps are better, but I’ll just bet this would work with paper too. I haven’t tried it, but I’m turning it over in my mind like one of those spatial relations tests they give in school. I wonder if this would hold better than the method I came up with.
Thanks for linking back to my site. I am loving all these online connections and sometimes wish I could meet everyone who reads and comments on my blog and give them all a great big hug.
December 22nd, 2007 at 9:09 pm
My mom has used cloth for years – it is trickier to secure, but reusable!
This year she made lots of bags out of leftover cloth, and my dad put drawstrings in them all. They’re kind of like shoe bags, but of various sizes. Anyway, they’re great for gifts and even more re-usable than the cloth-wrapping-paper. She gave away most of the bags to family, including me.
I love my mom!