My father-in-law is also a fan of the upcycled. Several years ago, he rescued a huge pile of bricks from a building being torn down in our small hometown. (This was with permission of course). He has used them all over their landscape. He has used them mostly as garden and sidewalk borders but he has also built a few walls and steps with them. This is how my husband used some of them at our house. This is one of my favorite things about the front …

For the past several weeks, my family has been using water bottles from Liberty Bottleworks. From the minute I took the bottles out of the box, I was excited about them. They just look cool. Perhaps because the unique graphics are designed by actual artists from all around the United States. They go way beyond just looking cool though. They are made from recycled aluminum with BPA free materials. The bottles exceed FDA requirements. They are non-toxic and non-leaching. The deep drawn aluminum construction results in less dents …

Go visit our new friend Stephany over at Tribou Mosaics. She is making some cool coastal mosiacs from upcycled materials. Great work Stephany! Check out Camic Designs. They have clear step-by-step directions for turning jar lids into trendy drawer pulls. Not the crafty type? Upcycle without the hassel and buy some jar lid pulls here too. Look at this fun new blog recyclofashion (we love new words!) It features recycled fashion.

Check out this denim conforter made from old jeans. My dear sweet Grandma made this many years ago from my Grandpa and my Aunt’s old jeans. We had many comforters similar to this in my home when I was growing up. My Great-Grandma used to make the same style with her old clothes and material scrapes. The reverse side is a cotton flannel and the filling was either a lofty quilt batting or an old blanket that needed a new use. This particular comforter measures 70 inches by …

See this cute little girl. Here she is wearing just a small portion of the silly bandz that live in our house. The craze hit us hard last spring and summer. I would like to say that we don’t always fall for the latest and greatest but silly bandz seemed relatively harmless and are very inexpensive. Of course, the craze has passed. They still wear them on occasion but mostly I just find them in random locations around the house. My first instinct was to just toss them …