Recycling

You're preparing for the holiday gift giving season. You think gift boxes are a waste of cardboard and money. Your day is bookend by a heaping bowl of Fruity Pebbles for breakfast and a satisfying soggy bowl of Cookie Crisp as a midnight snack. Don't toss those empty cereal boxes just yet. Try recycling those cardboard babies into stylish gift boxes.

Instructables member My Home Boutique has a quick and clever way to recycle your knee-high trouser socks into some deliciously cozy leg warmers for your tiny tot. Check out her Instructable "How to Turn Old Socks into Toddler Leggings for the magic. This witty little how-to is fun, easy, practical and full of clear photos and humor.

Sleepycat of Learning My Way Through has generously provided a pretty genius way to transform a few household items into a quick and easy play kitchen. She's provided a very clear DIY play kitchen tutorial complete with instructions and nice pictures.

MagPie Time is a new show "dedicated to teaching arts and crafts to children in an accessible and entertaining manner by re-using found everyday objects in creative ways." And whose main character "Magpie" is played by none other than the most excellent Maggie Wheeler or "Janice" from Friends minus the annoying laugh but with new rapping action. You can catch a sneak peek of the show by checking out their offical sizzle reel on Vimeo.

We've been invited to a family Halloween party and the hosts are very insistent that EVERYONE come in costume. Seeing that I haven't put any thought into a Halloween costume this year mainly because planning the perfect grown-up Halloween get-up seemed to take a backseat the moment we had our first kid I really didn't know what to do.

The most excellent kiddie lifestyle site Ohdeedoh has posted two tutorials for making your very own baby wipes. Why do this? According to blogger Erin "I'd been freaking out about the non-biodegradability of traditional polyester baby wipes.. (300 years to disappear is a conservative estimate!) So I figured out how to make my own less environment-hatey ones. It also doesn't suck that they work out cheaper than traditional wipes, even when you use unbleached, recycled materials. So you know, win-win."

Maven of all things wonderfully crafty Maya Made is so generously sharing her really great "Portable Art Studio" tutorial. Her precise, well-written tutorial with clear pictures explains how a cardboard box can be transformed into a nifty table top easel and a milk carton made into a swell art caddy. I love that she even thinks to use recycled baby food jars as paint containers.

As mentioned in a previous OH Guide it's our goal this year to move our son's packed school lunch towards zero waste, something we started last year and have received a lot of satisfaction from doing. Not to mention the bonus karma. In order to accomplish this goal he'll begin taking reusable cloth napkins as opposed to paper napkins.

The beginning of each new school year brings new adventures and routines. As the first day of school approaches we find ourselves anxious and excited about all the possibilities. This includes the making of the school lunch or "brown baggin' it" if you will.

Why bring a lunch?:
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), a group committed to making changes in school lunch programs, has an informative site

An article on TreeHugger titled "Saving Kids and Precious Resources, One Set of Dentures At A Time" explains how Japan is taking preservation and charity to all new levels proving just how resourceful and kind of gross they are willing to be.