Happy Earth Day!

As I was getting ready for my day this morning, I got to thinking about Earth Day and the concept of  'Going Green.' I noticed that I had quite a bit of items around my apartment are in fact recycled or reused. I wish I could say I did it to help save the planet, but mostly I just like crafting from old items, making older items like new again. Reduce

Have you been reading E-magazines? This is one of my new favorite things. There are some FABULOUS online magazines popping up, and what better way to reduce your paper usage by keeping it all online? It's a great idea. Check out my favorite: Matchbook Mag. You can't go wrong!

Reuse

Reuse would probably be the one  use the most often, particularly when it comes to magazines. I LOVE magazines, and even more, I love to cut them up. Collaging and using them for other things is one of my biggest hobbies. My latest project is reusing my old Vogue Covers. Recently on Ruelala, Conde Naste (publisher of Vogue and all great magazine) was selling classic, framed Vogue photos. Unfortunately, my current budget could not afford the $100+ photos to furnish my apartment, so I did it myself. I found a huge pile of Vogue covers I had liked, and picked my four favorites. I got four frames, and VOILA! I had my very own Vogue photos for my wall.

Recycle

After cutting my favorite magazines up and keeping my favorite parts, I put them out to be recycled to make room for my new magazines coming in.

Replenish

This is my next project. Replenishing the areas around my apartment and fixing it up to make it an enjoyable place to be. This includes planting a garden so I can have fresh veggies and herbs this summer. I can't wait!

Restore

One of my guilty pleasures is Goodwill. I love going there, picking up a few miscellaneous items such as beat-up frames, odd colored candlesticks, non-working chandeliers or old glasswares and taking them home to restore. My parents are from a small town in Pennsylvania (about 10,000 people) and they have the best Goodwill I have ever been to. Most of the items throughout my apartment are things I have found there have I rebuild, repainted or just cleaned off. All my frames are vintage frames that I have repainted, my chandelier in my old apartment was one that I rewired and repainted and all of my candlesticks around my apartment I bought for 10 cents each and spray painted them. Projects like this are not only fun, but a great way to recycle old goods.

Another great example of restoration is one of the most recent Lilly Pulitzer blogs. They found a chair design who took old chairs and furniture and reinvented it using new and vintage Lilly fabric. How awesome is that? The chairs have turned out gorgeous! Maybe I'll try to get my hands on one :)