Recycling

Growing up in New England makes me frugal. We re-use everything. I'm not talking about just clothes but sandwich bags, waxed paper, aluminum foil, even pieces of paper can become bookmarks. Recycling to the max. So it really didn't seem all that strange to go to work for a recycling company here in California when my children were little, a gazillion years ago. And as I was discussing how that was good training for working in a law firm, it occured to me that there were recycling things in crafting that we all do that nobody even thinks about a second time.

For instance, I sent a package out this week and the box my Secret Pal sent my gifts in was the perfect size. The side of the box said "Joann.com" and it got me to wondering how many times this particular box has been used to ship craft supplies to someone. At least 3 times that I can discern.

How many of us share patterns with others? That could be considered a form of recycling. My mother has a cousin who is preparing to move out of her house. She and her mother were big into crafts of all kinds including knitting and crochet. The cousin is going to send me all of the knitting and crochet needles she found. She already sent me a bunch of old pattern books which I love. So that's recycling.

Scraps of yarn can become granny squares. Odd beads can become part of a project. As my friend LB can tell you, anything can become part of a scrapbook.

So we're not just crafting here. We're also recycling. Something to think about.