Recycled, Repurposed, Reborn, and Reformed

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It’s not always about Chanel.

Yes it is — well,  I say yes, our bank account says no.

Whatev.

Moving on.

As much as I loves me some designer fashion — especially Chanel —  I really don’t like to throw anything away ‘cos I think I’ll always find a use for everything if I save it long enough.

No need to toss out those nasty old cracked and faded Crocs,
merely fill with a little soil and some succulents!
Voila!

crocs

Crack a wineglass when you partied too much???
Fill with a little soil and more succulents.
Just don’t try and drink out of it again…

wineglassplanter

Chipped a dish?
Once again, fill with rocks and soil — and more succulents!
These need a little water; looking kinda sad…

dishgarden

Yeah, I break a lot of things.
More broken coffee cups, more succulents.
This is the desert, after all.
And yes, that’s a broken tile, too!

coffeecups

Repurposed fruit basket stand.
I painted it black ‘cos it was all rusty, lined the baskets with black plastic, filled with soil and planted begonias on the bottom and fuchsias on top.
Did you notice that the basin beneath it is not very photogenic?
It will have to go.
I found the Trix rabbit whilst digging. No one knows where it came from!
No, I’m not from the UK, but sometimes “whilst” is a great word.

fruitplant

Tell me about anything you’ve recycled, repurposed, reborn, or reformed.

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45 thoughts on “Recycled, Repurposed, Reborn, and Reformed”

  2. I may just have my next blog entry…all the things I’ve repurposed! Let’s see…pails, shipping crates, tall ashtrays from the gas station, old brake drums off trucks, and an old metal mop bucket with ringer have all become planters. The top of an old propane bottle is a bird bath. A rake to hang my necklaces on. An old gas grill is a planting bench.

    Upcoming redos: a barstool tipped upside down to corral rolls of wrapping paper. An old school desk will become a vanity for my new walk-in closet. Oh, oh, oh…the one I can’t wait to do…hubby found 3 old WWII wooden ammo boxes without lids. I’m going to clean them up and seal them (printing intact!), attach them together with hinges, put a top on and upholster it, and voila! it will be something for me to sit on in front of the new vanity. And it will have added storage, which I never seem to have enough of.

    I’m sort of addicted to these sort of projects…:)

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  4. Great ideas. My problem is that with the breakage rate at my place, I’d have enough succulents to populate a nursery in no time. Kinda like the suggestion to use old socks as as dust rags. At the rate my beloved goes through his, I’d have to dust every 10 minutes just to use them! Got any ideas on what to do about that? I’m not buying that much, either. Honest.

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    • I use old socks for dusting, cleaning, polishing furniture. I use them like paper towels LOL, I’ve got a drawerful of hubs old socks–he uses them too to polish stuff in the garage, wipe up spills painting. Good to know you’re a thrifty gal like me! In the winter if it gets really cold (not that often in SoCal) I stuff old socks into a tube I’ve sewn from old fabric and place that in front of a door for drafts.

      On Thu, May 2, 2013 at 12:08 PM, Enchanted Seashells…Confessions of a Tugbo

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  5. I love this post!! So creative and has given me some ideas. 🙂 I’m not the most creative egg in the pack but one thing I did once I really enjoyed (although it was for our dogs). I took socks and undies (hubby’s) and tied them together with big knots and made a funny-as-hell pull toy for them. They loved undoing those knots leaving socks and undies all over the place. They must have been bachelors in a past life. Really enjoyed this one. Smooches. 🙂

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  8. What fantastic ideas and love them. I took a old entertainment center and put it in the kitchen. Put the microwave on top and in the center put some baking pans like my baguette and french loaf pans that are long along with some measuring cups. The 2 drawers below that hold cookbooks.

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  10. I’m not the best at re-purposing stuff to be honest. But I do take stuff to the thrift store and let other people do it. I also shop at the thrift store. So I guess in the end, I do do it, so NVMD. 😉 Love all the plants.

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  12. I recycle a lot, but I rarely break anything to use in a different way. We have hardwood floors & slate floors, so if you drop something – it’s shattered & totally unusable for anything else. But maybe it’s just my stage of life where I’ve been around for so long I just don’t break anything anymore. Hubby uses old towels with holes for sweat bands (when we used to have a lawn & yard to take care of). Clothes get recycled as rags or if they’re still usable they go to Goodwill. I make my own dishcloths instead of buying. Hubby likes them better because you get can a good scrub with homemade ones.

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    • OH yes, I so agree. I use old towels until they start to disintegrate! As for shattered pieces, they can be used if you are at all crafty, to make an interesting mosaic tabletop. I have yet to do that, but I have mixed up my own cement and played around outside to see what I could make, like stepping stones. No pics cos it turned out bad but I’ll just try again!

      On Thu, May 2, 2013 at 11:38 PM, Enchanted Seashells…Confessions of a Tugbo

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