THE URBAN APARTMENT GARDEN

We stumbled upon this on Pinterest. We love this and it looks great.

It reads: Great idea for urban living.... Use gallon bottles/jugs and cultivate what you want.. ideal for anyone who lives in an apartment and cannot afford to have his own garden.

But do you know that this is not too awesome in the long run. It is harmful when soil is exposed to sunlight like this because it encourages bacteria to thrive.

HOW TO MAKE SINGLE USE PACKS FOR TRAVELING WITH SOME STRAWS AND A LIGHTER

DIY - Single Use Packs, made using straws and a lighter. Great for traveling! This would work for all kinds of other things too - toothpaste, etc. BRILLIANT!


From briangreen.net

ART OR JUNK?

Looks like static to us. But do you know that you are responsible in making this 'artwork'. On close inspection...

What are those? Small electronic parts? Capsules?

Soft drink bottles... Not sure if this is art in any sense. Made us a little sick.

SOLAR BULBS : A SUSTAINABLE PROJECT MADE POSSIBLE WITH PEPSI BOTTLES

This video doing the rounds of social network these days shows an inspiring story of how a man brought light to his neighbourhood in Phillipines using empty plastic bottles, water, bleach and innovation.

Didn’t you just love it.

Lets rewind a bit here and know more about this project.

A_liter_of_light

MyShelter Foundation, an organization established by Illac Diaz, strives to create a system of sustainability and reliability through its capability-building and employment-generating projects in Philippines. One of their projects, Isang Litrong Liwanag (A Liter of Light), is a sustainable lighting project which aims to lighten the lives of under privileged communities by harnessing solar energy to generate light by simply using a plastic bottle, water and bleach. Alfredo Moser from Brazil introduced this concept and the students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) refined it concept to bring the Solar Bottle Bulb to Philipinnes through MyShelter Foundation . This project becomes popular as it shows how a small innovation made such a large difference to the world. The video below showcases this project in detail.

But it seems like someone from the Pepsi team got a bit miffed seeing that all the plastic bottles in project video (as seen above) were of Coke (now we know how colors become such a crucial part of a brand’s identity). She instantly spots an opportunity in making a crisp colorful English video using Pepsi bottles that might seem like the official or atleast authentic video of this project. The video also introduces a character, Solar Demi, who seems to have discovered the Solar Bottle Bulb to make the story even more endearing, showing a man’s will to succeed against all odds. But in actual this person seems to be just one of the volunteers / employee of the MyShelter foundation. The videos even lends one to believe that the solar bulb will lighten the nights too. Its like Pepsi lightening up all the ills of energy deficiency. And to vindicate her assumption this smartly produced video goes on to achieve nearly 2 lac views within a fortnight on Youtube. She succeeds in adding a bit of Pepsi to this project. It further leads the viewers to the official site of Isang Litrong Liwanag and thus even making it authentic.

GIVE ME A BUBBLE TO DREAM IN

My life is like a bubble I live in my bubble tent in the forest I am Peter Pan I am going away to the secret place To heal my soul and spirit The best luxury camping in the world today

A CROCHETED SKULL FROM PLASTIC BAGS

This is our latest creation. A crochet skull from plastic bags. Love it so much. So green and so emo.

OUR BROTHER DANIEL'S XMAS TABLE SETTING : THE KOZIOL BABEL

Our Brother Daniel is very dear to us. He has stood by us at all times. We wanted to give him something for xmas. We picked this 3-tier plate because he simple loves presentation. We ordered it at the beginning of December and it only arrived in time for xmas. Phew! What a relief. There was a huge delay in postal services due to the snow. This 3-tier plate is from Koziol.

In 1927 Bernhard Koziol opened an ivory workshop in Michigan City . The registration of the trade took place on 27 November 1927. 1930 barn has been converted into a workshop, several employees of jewelry made of ivory was carved in the. 1935 plastic injection molding machine was a manual purchased. In 1940 staff moved the now 150 in new factories in Michigan City. After the Second World War , the production of plastic products expanded. From 1950 were dream balls fabricated. 1970 Erbach, a factory complex in established. 1980 took the two sons of the founder, Bernhard Koziol jun., Died in 1998, and Stephan Koziol, the line. Since the 1990s, Koziol mainly produces household and gift items.

End of October 2009 drew the previous "Outlet Store" from the old factory building into a new building at the current facility to. At the same time a museum was opened, which documents the history of the company.

In September 2010 the company found itself with a lawsuit for trademark infringement faced. The reason: Koziol has an egg cup in the program, which in plan view a resemblance to an iPod company Apple has, and humorous name eiPOTT "marketed under the.

RECYCLED SELF-WATERING POTS FOR THE NOT-SO-GREEN-THUMBS

Everyone can have a green thumb with these self watering planters made from recycled soda bottles. Get creative, paint and decorate them. Want larger? Use clear gallon water jugs instead.

Want an innovative way to recycle your empty soda bottles or those clear plastic water jugs? Have a garden, you want to start seeds indoors for? Perhaps you want more flowers around the house? Need to repot that small plant but dont have the extra cash to buy another pot? In these busy times it is difficult for most people to keep houseplants anymore. You forget to water and take care of them so they dry out, wilt and die... If this is you read on because, even if you have a black thumb you can have beautiful plants by using recycled soda bottles to make self watering pots.

Things You'll Need:

• sharp pointed knife
• Scissors
• 1 x 6 inch strip of cotton blend fabric or 6 inch piece of cotton or jute rope. (jute works best)
• Potting soil
• seeds or plants

1. Peel the label off of the bottle. you can use alcohol to help remove any extra traces of the label. For myself I dont care if a remnant of the label still exists, I leave it there and instead  I  just turn the bottle so it is towards the back where no one can see it.
2. Cut the bottle more towards the top than the bottom, you want to leave enough room in the bottom for a water reservoir.
3. With a sharp knife you will cut into the bottle about 2/3 up from the bottom. Finish cutting all the way around the bottle with the scissors. Using the scissors you will then trim all the way around the bottle to get a smooth edge.
4. You may need to tie a couple of knots one around the other to get it large enough to stay in the planter top.
5. Remove the cap from bottle. Take your strip of cotton material or rope and tie a not in one end. thread the dangling end of rope or cotton thru the opening in the top of the bottle from the inside out. pull all the way thru till the knot rests in the neck of the bottle. This will be your planter portion of the pot. 
6. This shows how it should look when you put the two together. The weight of the soil in the planter will keep the top piece in place.
7. Place the top of the bottle upside down into the bottom of the bottle so that the wick you just made at least touches the bottom of your base.

You can plant any kind of plant into your self watering planters, even Cacti! With Cacti you simply water less and less often. Starting seeds indoors or growing herbs is simple with recycled planters
fill top part of the bottle with your potting mix, add seeds or new plant and place it into the piece you just made. The bottom part of the bottle will become your water resivoir and the top portion is now your planter.

MORE SODA BOTTLE PLANT POTS

From insdeurbangreen.org

Recycled socks make excellent soda bottle SIP covers ("cloth cachepots"). This one year old Ficus benjamina cost next to nothing. The plant was propagated from cuttings rooted in the same planter about one year ago. The soda bottle SIPs are free and you help the environment. The polished pebbles cost just pennies.
There are single socks and socks with holes just waiting for a higher calling in life. This is it! It's their big chance! You can help them. 
Incidentally, the Ficus is the same houseplant shown in this prior post.

Posted by Greenscaper on February 08, 2010 at 08:19 AM

The same plant (right-hand photo) converted to expanded clay pebble hydroculture. I probably haven’t heard all of the lame reasons for growing houseplants in clay or opaque plastic pots but I’ve heard a lot of them over the years. Pretzel logic and ignorance know no bounds.
By now, you likely know that I advocate repurposed (recycled) soda/pop bottle planters as clearly (pun intended) the best way to grow houseplants. They are also the best plant science learning aid that I know of.

Continue reading "Clearly The Best Way To Grow Houseplants " »

UPSIDE DOWN SODA BOTTLE HANGING POTS

We saw these on our trip to Malacca. The owner of the shop cut the soda bottles in halves and painted the inside black. It is important to do that so that the sunlight will not interfere with the roots growing. There is a reason why most roots grow underground in dark places.

He also drilled a couple of small holes in the cap so that excess water will not cause the roots to rot or be over-watered.

DISSECTED HANDS AND LEGS TO HOLD YOUR COATS

This repurposed clothes rack is so morbid, we love it!

MORE ECO STORAGE IDEAS

A BOUQUET FROM MR WASHY : BUT THE VASE IS TALLER THAN THE BOUQUET

Mr Washy bought a vase to go with his bouquet but the vase is taller than the bouquet.

SOLUTION:

Take some of the bouquet wrapping and place the crushed up plastic wrapping at the bottom of the vase so that the bouquet can sit on a higher platform.

BEST OF REALSIMPLE TIPS : STRAWS

When your stalks are not long enough for your vase, try extending the length with plastic straws. If you buy flowers quite often, it might be a good idea to save those used straws just to keep them handy.

BEST OF REALSIMPLE TIPS : PLASTIC BAGS

Try filling half of a planter pot with plastic bag to save on compost. Just make sure that there is a hole at the bottom of the pot to allow for drainage. Chances are that the plant probably will not need some much soil to root. By the time it needs that extra space, you would probably have to repot it.

Some people declutter their plastic bags by putting them in baby boaster cases, here is another idea to reuse that tissue box.

RETRO CROCHETING

Yarn is expensive, but you do not necessarily need yarn to start a crocheting or knitting project. Think out of the box. Goosepimple Gem have been using unconventional materials for their knit creations, so why not look around and be inspired by items that gives you rolls of material. We found some old cassettes. We have no use for them now, we do not even have a cassette player anymore.

We started crocheting a geometric circle. Not sure where this experimenting will lead us. We are thinking a placemat (no hot objects!) at the moment, that might change though.

WHAT'D YOU DO WITH THOSE PLASTIC BAGS? : CROCHET

We crocheted some plastic bags a while ago and made a shopping bag out of them. Here are pictures of our FF crocheted plastic bag bag and pictures of how to prepare your plastic bag yarn (step by step from hellejorgenson).

We shredded those spare plastic bags into yarn and made them into a big tote for marketing and picnic. We gave this to a friend who relocated. It made a surprisingly memorable leaving present because it is made out of bags from most of the supermarkets and convenient stores in town.


The bags I use are thin shopping bags with handles. They come mostly in white, greys, blues and greens. Occassionally I find a pink,red or orange bag but these are very rare. Make sure the bags are clean. Wash and dry if necessary.

Flatten the seams and smooth the wrinkles.


Fold the bag longitudinally into a 2.5 - 3cm wide strip. Handles at one end and bottom seam at the other.


Cut off handles and bottom seam. These can be used for other embellishments. See Cunjevoi Garden.


Cut remaining folded strip into 'biscuits' to whatever width you prefer. A good width is approximately 2cm. I use a 2.5mm - 3mm steel crochet hook for this width.


Unfold biscuits (loops). Knot loops together into one long piece of double-stranded yarn.


Tighten the knot.


Resulting double-stranded yarn.


Wind the yarn up into balls.

WHAT IS REPURPOSING?

Repurposing is using things in ways that items weren't intended for. By looking for ways to repurpose items, you may find new uses for items that would otherwise end up in the trash and even find alternatives to things you would otherwise have to purchase.

REPURPOSED PLASTIC BOTTLES

Michelle Brand strings together plastic water bottles. You can use it as a room divider, curtain or as a screen. Nice idea. They should be easy to make them yourself. However if you are too lazy to collect the bottles and make them, these are made to order, buy them here.

IDEAS IDEAS IDEAS