To create this hanging flower display we used an empty lemonade container. Â By punching holes in the sides and inserting and knotting a ribbon we were able to hang it on a doorknob.
And since the container is plastic, there are no leaks. Also, it can go right into the recycle bin when you are done.
When you just don’t want to dig out that giant lead crystal vase you received as a gift, try looking around your kitchen for other interesting containers to hold your flowers.
Carol had this beautiful milk pitcher (that she never uses for milk) but it makes a lovely vase.
Again, we put dome sage and basil to create this savory bouquet.
Our next re-purposed flower display container is a vanilla bean tube.
If you have never purchased vanilla in it’s natural bean form we highly recommend it.  The taste is incomparable to vanilla extract.  Oh, and you can use the empty tube to display a beautiful flower bud.
With half of citymade out of town this week, we chose some low-maintenance re-purposing.
It’s the time of year when the flowers are blooming and we are trying to soak up as much warm weather as we can before the winter hits (shudder). So, this week we’ll show you some items that you can re-purpose into containers to display those blooming flowers.
We begin with an ordinary tin can. Â Simply remove the label and you have an instant vase for your shorter stemmed flowers or herbs.
We filled our can with fresh basil. The great thing about this, is when I need to throw some basil in a recipe, it’s right there.
The rumors are true, this is the last post by Christian and me. Is it the last post because the ladies have had enough of our shenanigans and want their blog back? (Read on for the astonishing answer . . . [Christian entices])
No, it is the last post because we husbands can barely get this done, and it has only been one week. We are very impressed with Melany and Carol and their ability to balance family, work, and this website. We are proud of them. The time and effort they put into this blog does not go unnoticed. Christian and I often have conversations about what they do, and we think this site is pretty cool. Whenever we think we have a great idea, we bring it to them, and they already have a better idea than we could ever come up with. Thank you for giving us this week on your blog, now please, take it back, Melany and Carol. You are much better at this than we are.
For our last post, we wanted to pay homage somehow to the Godfather of re-purposing:
Flavor Flav. The way that he can re-purpose clocks is astounding. He is our inspiration for our last post. We are not even going to attempt to create a clock necklace the way that he does. However, the re-thinking of clocks became our launching pad.
Christian had this old clock in his office, and [while he still liked Salvador Dali’s work (Christian)], the photo behind it just wasn’t doing it for him anymore. The clock kit was worth keeping. We just wanted to use it for something else. We both like to read, but we don’t waste our time reading .
I had this book up in my storage closet that I got at a political/theological/economic think tank conference a couple of years ago. I have not put the book to good use yet.
What is the book all about?
Is it because I don’t know what the Mystery is all about? Is the Mystery that I do not ever have enough Capital? Is the Mystery how we have survived this long on Capitalism? In any case, the book is rather far down on my list of “books I own but haven’t had time to read yet, but will eventually” list and instead could serve two purposes. It could tell time, and it could be a great conversation starter.
We were able to cut some pages out of the book to make it less thick. Then a simple push of the electric drill and you have a hole in the book that you can slide the front of the clock kit through. You probably have an old clock kit somewhere in your house you are not using, if not they can be picked up at any hobby store.
After attaching the back battery pack and hanging device to the book it is ready to be put on the wall and do its job.
Christian and I have enjoyed the challenge of re-purposing one thing a day. Thanks for following along. If anyone wants to create a viral video campaign to have us back (I know you are already starting one), we probably won’t listen to the cries of the legions of fans we have amassed [unless generous remuneration is promised [Christian]), so this is our swan song. This is it. (Time has come today. [Christian])
Now back to your regularly scheduled posts by Melany and Carol. (I am sure you have all been patiently waiting to hear those words)
Much of our house is devoted to the the storage of books. We have three bookshelves in the front room, one in the parents bedroom, 2 in the kids bedroom and three more in the office. Book shelves may be ideal for holding books. It’s not unlike a computer with lots of hard drive space, tons of giggly bytes.
But what of accessing that information. You’ll need migs and megs of memory. If nothing else, pulling out one’s books demands that I have a place to rest it, even better if the platform for accessing that information displays the data in a user-friendly way. Enter the angled writing desk.
Supposedly, monks during the medieval periods used desks that were angled . They were serious writers and readers. They spent hours copying texts, maintaining the slim thread of knowledge from the past for future generations (of monks, one supposes, though they had to convert because they couldn’t breed). If it was good enough for them, why not us.
We’d already busted up the chiffarobe, with no help from Tom Robinson, having created a chalkboard and a cabinet, a mirror and who knows what else. So, now, what to do with the rest of the various bits?
I’d actually had a writing desk from Levenger (bought when I was less averse to accessing lines of revolving credit) but left it at an employer upon ditching the place and never had the heart to drive the 90 miles to go get it. I had always wanted to replace it, but remember it not being particularly cheap, so the desire went unmet. In playing around with what to do with the chiffarobe leftovers, I was trying to figure out what do. I realized that the piece I was playing with could very nicely work as a reading or writing desk.
The piece that would be the platform of the writing desk was big enough for a really big Bible or text book. To it, I screwed a piece to serve as a lip at the bottom. Lastly, the piece that had held the mirror of the chiffarobe had two long tapering pieces and a thicker piece connecting them. This seemed ideal for legs, as it was also wide enough. So I connected them with screws to desktop. Lastly, I had to cut the legs down to get the proper angle. The floor tiles in Jeff’s house made a nice grid, so I laid the desk on its side and tested out various possible angles. When I got to one that Jeff and I thought ideal for reading and writing, I looked at the line of the tile that “cut through” the leg, marked it, and cut the desk legs.
It’s rough-hewn but was incredibly free, as in beer. Now, I’m off to write something seriously awesome on this new desk. Or maybe just read a book.
Ok, so you have the iPad and you want to lay in your bed and watch movies from the Netflix iPad app. But you want to hold you significant other’s hand while you watch Zombieland. How can you hold the iPad and her hand? Wait, how did you just get your wife to watch Zombieland, that is enough of an accomplishment for any guy.
Then you get up to get a drink of water, and you happen to stumble into your closet. (Some guys stumble out of the closet [Christian observes]) You are a smart guy, you put 2 and 2 together and figure that there must be some way to take this…
…and turn it into something that will make your night more memorable. (No, not a la Joan Crawford [Christian notes])
With a few bends and twists you can now be hands free to do whatever you do when you watch a movie with your signficant other. (Like eat popcorn? [Christian wonders])
Here is what it looks like:
This was a very easy DIY project to do. It took less than 1 minute to construct.
(In my alternate history of human culture, there was once no such thing as TV. People told stories. Then, they told the same stories over and over again, and everyone got bored. Then, someone started torturing small animals, pulling wings of flies, later lighting the tails of foxes on fire and then dog fighting. Then, someone wrote a book, and people started torturing their kids by making them read. Along came Philo T. Farnsworth with the TV and everyone was happy. Until the digital conversion, that is. Now, old analog TVs collect dust and recollect reruns of Small Wonder and Street Hawk. You know what that means? It’s time to mash up two dead technologies into one! [Christian fantasizes])
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/26/28-not-having-a-tv/
The above article is pretty funny, but please if you are to do this project, let’s not have “not having a tv” be your inspiration.
With television sets boasting about being only 1/2 inch thick these days, you could certainly make a case for tv rotting your brain. However, if you have one of these 1985 Goldstar television sets sitting up in your storage closet, or if for some strange reason you have it connected to your Blu-Ray DVD player, there may be a better use for it. Â I found this tv at a thrift store, can you believe it? No one wanted this anymore!
I thought that you could gut out your old tv and store some books inside of the screen. It is not the most practical of ways to store your books, but it does create a retro aesthetic to your study room or office.
I took it home and with a screw driver and some wire cutters was able to make room for books.
After that it was fairly simple to screw the television set back together and then put some books inside. If we were really ingenious, we could figure out a way to use the knob to (not sure what yet)
If your book really makes your imagination work, you can always look at the screen and pretend it is on tv.
*If you are like me, if I come across books, I want to know what books they are, for those interested, from left to right:
In Search of Paul-John Dominic Crossan (Thanks David Nich Sr.!)
Orthodoxy-G.K. Chesterton
A Man Without a Country-Kurt Vonnegut (Thanks Christian!) (Hey, that’s just borrowed, you know. [Christian’s surprise that a book was gone])
Blue Like Jazz-Donald Miller
Book of Common Prayer
Wisdom of Stability-Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
I Came to the City-Elliot Hurst
Celebrating The Eucharist
With Justice For All-John M. Perkins
Evil And The Justice of God-NT Wright
Chronicles-Bob Dylan
The General Theory-John Maynard Keyes
Thinking About Thinking-Clark McKowen
Working life for the most of us is very different than it was for our parents (or their parents). Can you imagine the likely Facebook status updates of our forebears?
“ZOMG. Arm caught in thresher. Will have to learn to twist chicken necks left-handed, now.” (Hey, I’m left handed already Christian, what are you trying to say?) [Jeff’s comment] (That you’re a freak of nature, maybe? [Christian’s riposte])
Or perhaps
“Practical jokes involving banana peels and high rise construction sites best avoided. I guess I’ll be looking for new partner.”
Many of us desk jockeys spend our days doing battle with that great workplace threat of 21st century, carpal tunnel syndrome, eyestrain and their attendant maladies. Yes, things are better in many respects, but that doesn’t mean that our work places always equip up adequately for the tasks with which they charge us. We must look out for available resources should some need present itself.
My office outfits a lot of its staff with laptops. I’m one of the lucky ones, being in a more “creative” field, and get to use a MacBook Pro. These work well for portable computing, allowing many of us to actually get work done during meetings and on the road–critical email checking, for instance, or live tweeting of our witty asides about a co-worker’s misguiding suggestions during a brainstorming session. (I am not sure I would classify live tweeting as “critical”) [Jeff can be so cynical]
A laptop works less well for me as a full-time computer, at least at its normal height on a desk. The screen is just too low for comfort. The distance of the screen also seems to create some discomfort. In any case, I just had to find some way to elevate the MacBook Pro.
Because computers are everywhere, mail trays have found themselves relegated to storage closets. We don’t need memos, after all, at least not in their printed form. Email rules the communications channels in most places. As it turns out, those mail trays have not yet begun to go obsolete. [What about TPS Reports? As long as TPS reports need printed and filed, there will always be life for the mail tray. Jeff is now optimistic, and not cynical] Just as one turns a frown upside down to make an upside down frown cake (at least that sounds right), turning the mail tray upside down makes for a very adequate laptop stand. Because they stack, two such trays, and I’m giddy as a schoolboy.
This way, I can keep my computer where I want it and hide away treats for afternoon secret eating.
(Bonus tip: wooden mail trays can work for heavy duty CRT monitors that some other department might be otherwise discarding. Go mail trays.)
So don’t be afraid to head to forgotten storage areas at work to look for your own repurposing gold mine. Your boss will reward your resourcefulness handsomely: maybe with a Successories poster.
But first a word from our sponsors:
I look forward to my early mornings. The routine creates some sense of order that helps each day be as productive as it can be (or at least until it is interrupted by children or infoMania). Since Melany is pregnant, I am not making a whole pot of coffee each morning, which is ok, because I get to make French press coffee and it is only 6 cups in the morning, instead of 12. While we are on the subject of how you make coffee, the French press method really is the best. (According the citymade husbands, anyway [Christian’s note])
I like to read, write, or sit in quiet, before the day begins.
But then, as the burden of all of those used coffee grounds begins to plague me, I look down, rather distraught over the amounts of coffee grounds that I have thrown away over the years. My mind starts racing, and I worry, “What if people were to find out?” “They would know I am a husband of the citymade crew, and how could Melany ever be proud to say she is my wife if word gets out that I don’t repurpose my coffee grounds.” (It’s a good thing you are not so concerned about repurposing sermons [Christian’s note]).
Then, almost as a Divine Intervention (I am an ordained minister you know, so, of course, I could pick up on divine interventions rather readily) a single tear is shed, and while falling down on the arm rest of the chair I am in… I notice… (What, a dust bunny? A dirty old head of a Cabbage Patch doll? The remains of a pizza from weeks ago? [Christian’s eager guesses])
It was actually the scuffed arm of the chair on which I was sitting.
I realized that the repurposing gods must be speaking to me, because there must be some way to use one of my favorite vices (drinking coffee) to allow me to go outside and feel good about myself for not wasting the coffee grounds. I then recalled coming across an article about different ways you can re-purpose your coffee grounds. I used a Q-Tip and dipped it into the grounds and rubbed it into the arm of the chair with the mark. After a couple of minutes of hard scrubbing, the mark came off.
Whew, I can now sleep better at night, able now to look at my wife with a clear conscience and not feel bad about drinking as much coffee as I do and having anything go to waste. (Fair Trade, organic, of course, oh and from your local coffee roaster. Oh and one more thing, compost your grounds in your garden. Is that a triple repurpose? Why yes, it is.)
We seem to be getting the hang of this, eh, Carol and Melany?
