Friday, February 04, 2022

Every Part of the Buffalo

     It all started with a packet of licorice that a friend gave to John.  Just as he finished the last piece and I was about to throw the bag away, I thought, "What really cute packaging.  It seems a shame to throw this away.  I wonder if there is something else I could store in it for a while."  Laugh if you will.

    Then I was reminded of when I was in high school, there was a trend where the girls started carrying purses that were made of empty, sewn together Kool-Aid pouches.  Alas, I never had one.  But this got my wheels turning.  I turned to Pinterest to see if this was still a thing.  It is.  I even saw some totes made out of plastic coffee bags.

    Then I remembered that a while back I had pinned a tutorial for a tote made out of a chicken feed sack.  Perfect!  I go through plenty of chicken feed sacks.  In my excitement, I started telling Colton about Kool-Aid purses and feed sack totes.  He was smiling (sort of), but I could tell he was questioning my sanity.

    "You want me to start saving trash?"

    "Well, just the feed sacks."

    "So you can make bags."

    "Yes."

    He shook his head and laughed and asked what he was going to do with me.  I told him that he was going to love me forever.  He agreed.

    But not without sarcastically saying, "Because we use every part of the buffalo in this household."

    We had a good laugh about it and he teased me a bit more (and I'm still going to make those feed sack totes).  The funny thing is that we have started to seriously adopt that saying.  Now I am not advocating saving worthless trash.  That is a good way to end up on an episode of Hoarders.  But we are trying to look at cutting back on waste and seeing if there is a way to get more use out of things before tossing them.  (The key is that is does actually have to be useful or beneficial and worth my time, otherwise it's just clutter.)  It is one more way to stretch those hard-earned dollars, which is becoming more and more necessary as we see the price of just about everything going up!  It also puts into effect one of my favorite sayings:

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."

    So this week, in keeping with my Unfinished Project theme, I went through my mending basket, in which I not only have mending, but also old clothes that are past saving.  They may no longer be wearable, but I can still pull them apart for materials! 

    I had three sleepers that James had outgrown, but not before he wore holes in the knees.  I harvested the zippers out of them (they are very long, but zippers can be shortened) and cut rectangles out of the biggest parts of the fabric.  I serged the edges and now I have three soft baby washcloths. 



    Another thing I had in my project stack was this box. 



    This is what I bought when Colton sent me into Sam's Club by myself while he stayed in the car with the sleeping children.  I am not responsible for my actions when left unsupervised in the seasonal goody section and there is European chocolate.  They will get me.

    Once  we had eaten all of the cookies, I was about to throw the box away when, if you can believe it, Mr. You-Want-Me-To-Start-Saving-Trash said, "Are you sure you want to throw that away?  It's a good box."

    He was right.  It was just like those decorative boxes they sell at the craft store.  It even had a magnetic closure.  I made it over into this using what I had on hand:




    So basically, if you want to think of it this way, it was like buying a decorative box at the craft store, only this was cheaper and it came with cookies.  Thank you, Colton.

    Have you ever saved anything from the trash to turn it into something useful?  


  

    

15 comments:

  1. Such a cute box, Kelsey! Great job! What did you use to stick the paper and lace on the box? Decoupage glue? I think I have some of those boxes here, too...from Costco chocolates. :)

    I love your saying, too. But you're right, you have to draw the line somewhere, or you just end up with piles of "potential" that seem to build up faster than they can be transformed! (Ask me how I know! Ha, ha.)

    xx Jen in NS

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    1. Thank you, Jen! And I can totally relate, hence my goal to actually use what I've been collecting. Other times things are just not worth my sanity. 😅
      For the adhesive, I used Scotch double sided adhesive roller. It is kind of like glue dots that you just roll onto the surface. I like it because it isn't messy, and it works on slick surfaces (I get the permanent kind). I also use it for my card making and have never had any issues with my paper separating from the card, even when using slick magazine pages, unlike with glue. I buy mine in the home office section at Walmart.

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    2. Oh, but I did use decoupage glue (Mod-Podge) to glue the lace on!

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    3. Okay...Thanks for the tips! It looks really great. xx Jen.

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  2. I started laughing, when you said that Colton asked you: "You want me to start saving trash?"! XD
    I remember a few years ago, seing lots of women using totes made out of coffee packages. I never had one, but there were some cute ones! I can't wait to see how your feed sacks tote will come out. I'm sure it will be very cute!
    Those baby washcloths and that box came out SO pretty! If you haven't showed us what they were in the first place, I would never guess. You are a very talented woman, Kelsey!
    Have a blessed weekend!
    :)

    This is a link to some pictures of those tote bags made out of empty coffee packages and some other materials, from Pinterest. It's in portuguese, but you can see many examples in there.

    https://www.pinterest.pt/pin/416934877990364880/

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    1. Thank you, Paula! It's funny- now Colton is running with the mindset and tells me, "Hey, maybe we could make something out of this." 😂
      I think the coffee bag totes are cute, too. We go through quite a bit of coffee, so I could see myself making some in the future, once I whittle down my current stash of supplies.
      I hope you have a blessed weekend, as well!

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  3. Kelsey, do you mind if I borrow your green gingham background? I think it's so pretty and fresh and I would like to put it as my blog background, but I would like your permission.
    Thanks!
    :)

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    1. I don't mind at all! It came froma site called Free Pretty Things For You.

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    2. Thank you! :)
      I didn't know that site, but it's full of beautifull things!

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  4. Kelsey, your post goes along so well with my theme of 'What's that in your hand?' this year! The box is beautiful and how smart to salvage everything you could out of the sleepers. You are very wise and talented!

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    1. Patsi, I love your theme, too! I think ours are very similar. We have some big savings goals this year, so we are doing our best to work with, as you say, what's in our hand as opposed to buying.

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  5. I love this! It's something I think about often, how to get more use out of what we have. Imagine my surprise when this message was driven home a few months ago by a children's book we received, Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by Simms Taback! (Goodreads link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/417524.Joseph_Had_a_Little_Overcoat?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=XPq5qEEPS8&rank=1 ) It's all about using, as you say, every part of the buffalo, and it's a great read- check your local library. We loved this and have read it a few times since we received it, and it's sparked some great conversations. :) (I too saved a really good box a few days ago...)

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    1. It looks like a few of us have saved some good boxes! Thank you for the book recommendation- it looks like a good one and goes along perfectly with getting the most out of things.

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  6. Love, love, love your projects! And your sense of humor ♥️ It's been busy and I feel I've gotten a bit lax on waste. These projects have my wheels turning. Thank you for the inspiration! :)

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  7. I love the way you have "upcycled" these things into other useful things. The soft washcloths is a great idea and the box is so pretty. :-) I'm sorry that I only discovered your page after you have stopped blogging (for perfectly good reasons). Congratulations on the new little on the way, btw.

    If you would like a way to upcycle old jeans into gift bags or treasure bags for kids, here is a link from my own blog: https://thecottonapron.blogspot.com/2021/01/cheap-pretty-and-good-gift-wrapping.html

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