Chic Chick Upcycle

Two different elderly women chatted me up about this piece. Was I going to use it as a bird house? A bird feeder? A bird bath? 

I told then I was going to spray paint it silver and lost them both immediately. ("Oh, ok, dear.") 

So I did and BADOW!

Cork Trivet Upcycle

Look at me actually doing stuff I find on Pinterest.

Find these trivets at a thrift store or buy them cheap at Ikea. 

Spray paint them.

Spray paint them some more. 

Use them as bulletin boards on walls, above desks, inside cabinets or closets, etcetera, etcetera. 

The People of Goodwill: Teenaged Girls in Mom Jeans

Right now hordes of teenage girls are searching thrift stores for your donated mom jeans. Then they are taking them home and turning them into Iggy Azalea-style high-rise booty shorts. And then they are going back to the thrift store to find your soccer shorts from 1994 and turning those into sporty Iggy Azalea inspired ensembles. 

This is happening. The kids are upcycling your mom pants. 

Religious Kitsch

Gazing at the blessed mother high-fiving baby Jesus while I do the dishes puts a smile on my face. Also, I use the basil she's growing. 

These planters became popular after WWII when the Japanese began mass producing ceramic figurines and the western world braced itself for the perils of the atomic age. 

Display them in their original glory or spray paint your Mary a clean white or bold color. You can very gingerly drill holes in the base of the planter or add rocks for drainage. Then add herbs, succulents or cacti. 

Buying New-to-You Stuff: The Goodwill Checklist

The guy who founded Goodwill -  Edgar J. Helms – was the original upcycler. A hundred years ago he asked rich people in Boston to donate their stuff, and he hired poor people to mend and repair their donations. Then they sold the stuff. 

All these years later, Goodwill is still going strong.

I like to take Edgar’s revolutionary idea to the next level and encourage EVERYONE to buy new-to-you stuff. Be radical. Reuse something or take it and make it better. Leave knowing that the profits from your purchases have more to do with helping people than enriching shareholders.

Living in a major metropolitan area with one of the largest Goodwill’s EVER makes it easy to shop there. The store is the size of an airline hanger and I make twice-weekly sojourns to it.

My Goodwill Checklist is crucial and consists of:

-     (a) Items I am always looking for (vintage Mary planters, mid-century modern stuff, trivets,                 trinkets that trip my trigger etc.)

-     (b) Every day items we need (a ladle or platter – buy it new-to-you at Goodwill instead of new           at Target or on Amazon)     

-     (c) Specialty items (stuff I want to decorate with that I may not find for months – like a portrait)

The thing about shopping at Goodwill is that it requires delayed gratification. You very well may leave with nothing. In fact, unless you’re prepared to leave with nothing, you’re not ready to go. This flies in the face of what it means to shop like an average American; be above-average and give it a go. 

Money in the Bank

In keeping with the maxim, kids break shit, I sought an alternative to the classic breakable piggy-bank. This wooden elephant bank was the color of Pepto-Bismal originally, and the plexi-glass sides were cloudy.

Some Goof Off, minor sanding, and a can of yellow spray-paint transformed that sad elephant into this triumphant creature of change. 

Upcycle Fix #2

Our child could not resist the siren song of this Dalmatian toilet brush holder. I brought it home and washed it. I put the toilet brush in it. Then my kid broke it. 

So we glued the dog back together. Now you'd have to be crawling around our bathroom floor or barfing in the toilet to notice anything amiss.