Sunday, March 31, 2013

Greening the Bend


I hope you all had a wonderful Easter Sunday!  I found this on one of my favorite websites for greener living  Green Living Tips.  It's one small step for a better Earth.  I try to buy my eggs in the pressed cardboard containers so they can be recycled but here are some great idea's for recycling EGG CARTONS.  I bet the Unity Garden's will be needing some for their new chickens when they start laying eggs!

A common household waste item is the egg carton – it’s waste that in many cases doesn’t need to be taking space in landfill.
According to data from the American egg board; in 2011, 247.8 eggs per person were consumed in the USA (egg in shell and in products).
It’s a lot of eggs and while not all are transported in the egg cartons we see in the supermarket; it would still work out to be many millions of cartons each year being discarded.
What are egg cartons made of?
An egg carton may be made from plastics such as Styrofoam or fromrecycled paper and molded pulp. One way to make your egg consumption a little more environmentally friendly is to ensure you buy eggs in paper based packaging as styrofoam is difficult to recycle.
Recycling egg cartons
If the eggs you buy are in plastic packaging that isn’t styrofoam; look for a triangle with a number inside it stamped on the packaging. This is a plastic resin code and depending on the number, it may be possible to place this packaging in your recycling bin.
Even though the paper based version of the packaging is biodegradable, when thrown in with your general household rubbish it will likely wind up in landfill where the decomposition process takes a lot longer and take up valuable space.
Additionally, as the waste in landfill is buried, decomposition occurs in an anaerobic environment, which is one without oxygen. Microbes that thrive in anaerobic conditions give off potent greenhouse gases such as methane as they digest material. Methane has a Global Warming Potential (GWP) 62 times that of carbon dioxide.
Instead of going into your general rubbish bin, paper based egg cartons should be put into your recycling bin; but given the nature of their construction, they also break down very quickly in compost piles – so you can use them to help benefit your garden.
Egg cartons also make for tasty worm food. If you have a worm farm, soak the cartons in water for a while and feed them to the little critters – they’ll make short work of the cartons. On a related point, egg shells are also great in worm farms as the shell provides grit to help the worms digest organic waste materials.
Other uses for egg cartons
Egg cartons don’t have to be waste – there are other ways to use both the paper and plastic forms. Here are a few ideas.
– Inquire with your local primary/pre-schools if they need cartons for craft projects. I still remember an alligator I made with an egg carton when I was a very young lad and using the cartons in class as a type of paint palette. Art departments also use the cartons for papier mache projects as paper based cartons are basically just papier mache themselves.
– Use for craft projects at home for your own children – there’s a stack of ideas here.
– Use the cartons as seedling starters – plastic egg cartons can also be used in this application.
– Handy for organizing small items such as nuts, bolts and screws.
– Use as packing materials when shipping goods.
– As a way of storing delicate Xmas tree bauble decorations.
– My brother was an avid golfer and used egg cartons for storing golf balls.
– Plastic egg cartons can be used as trays for making ice cubes.
– Transporting hard boiled eggs to picnics.
– If you have neighbors or a local farm with egg-laying chickens; they might greatly appreciate your egg cartons – and perhaps may even give you some free eggs in exchange.
Making further use of egg cartons is just one aspect of making our egg consumption a little more environmentally friendly. How the eggs themselves are produced is an important issue from an environmental and animal welfare viewpoint – and not all “free range” eggs come from trulyfree range birds.

Michael Bloch
Green Living Tips.com
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Sunday, March 17, 2013

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Today is the last day for the warehouse sale on  1212 High Street from noon to 5PM.
We've had a fun filled week and wanted to share our recent BoHo projects with you. 

Carpenter Gothic coffee table trunk.

Emerald green shelf

RANDOM PHOTO  Introducing a friend to Cambodian Thai food(she loved it!) and
Linda teaching her how to use chop sticks.

Twin fabric painted head boards I call "Feather Beds."

My inspiration started with these great vintage lamps  (pink with little blue
dots) The repurposed stereo cabinet comes with pull out bins.


A great Plastic 70's table for inside or out.
Lotus Chair from the 60's

A great night stand or side table in antique white

Entry table or sideboad or kitchen Island


Vintage ashtray stand (chair is sold)

Vintage plant stand

A great vintage cabinet with blue and white china

Special Guest Artist Dave Dale drew quite a crowd on Saturday.

Trying out the drums in his St. Paddy's day attire.




Dave Dale and his amazing guitars.  
Dave's band Elephant Rescue will be playing this Thursday at Club LaSalle.  He plays his own handmade guitars if you want to see them in action.

May the luck of the Irish be with you always! 

Friday, March 8, 2013

Life in Technicolor

How do you punch up a dreary room?  With color of course.  Sometimes all it needs is one thing in an all white room to make our heart swoon, and other times it's the combo.  Here are a few of our punches! 


A ladder/shutter shelf

Asian mantel

Child's cabinet

Carpenter Gothic shelf

Lucky Lady Lu's sweater clips

I Love Love Love these as Art-They are so beautifully detailed.  And they
come in handy for sewing too :)

Use a neutral background (grey) to make your collections
stand out.

We have some great sets of dishes in the shop now.

Mix and match them for an interesting tablescape

New earrings


Easter is coming!

Carpenter Gothic cabinet

With a punch of color on the inside
Add caption

Old cabinet turned island


Spring ahead on Sunday!

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Dale Dale Guitars

For more pictures go here  and for more info come to the shop on Saturday, March 16.  Dave will be on hand to talk to for any questions you may have regarding his work.


Sunday, March 3, 2013

BOHO Style

We've added loads of color and lots of spice with exotic Ethnic flavor this month for our Bohemia Rhapsody theme.  Check out our Face Book page for more pictures.  The color is such a welcome site like the first bloom in the spring time.... it just makes you smile.  




Some things are just better with age.

A sweet folding bamboo table and two chair set (Dog not
included).

We packed the house on Friday night and had quite a party with Elephant Rescue aka: Dave Dale and Eric Oliphant.  Notice Dave's guitar, it's handmade and for sale at the shop along with his whole collection made special for this show all from reclaimed wood and vintage elements.  They are really indescribable you have to see them to truly appreciate the thought that went into each one.



Friday, March 1, 2013

Tonight, Tonight won't be like any night...

It's Party Time!  We be jammin with Dave Dale and the Elephant Rescue on First Friday (tonight) from 7-9.  He's got the Blues and New Orleans style music to entertain us and some of the coolest looking and sounding guitars for sale.  We are truly lucky to have him!  He sells his handmade guitars in California and New Orleans, but has made this collection just for us.  Send all the music lovers  you know our way!  



Lucky Lady Lu  aka Lyra Tirotta will also be joining us to kick off her new business venture, and the Purple Porch Food Co-op will be here as well helping with the refreshments.  Trust me-you won't want to miss this!

Oh and one more thing...We just got some awesome new t-shirts in in two new designs by Tap Root T's.