Reusing Baby Food Jars

My two kids are past the baby food stage, but I still have a collection of glass baby food jars that I like to reuse for making container candles. Cheers to Earth's Best Baby Food for holding a contest to collect people's ideas for how to reuse glass baby food jars. Check out their web site for the winning ideas. Ideas relevant to the holidays include the jar Christmas tree, hot cocoa holiday gift kit, and place cards for dinner parties.

Deck the Halls With Reused Materials

It's the holiday season, so for the next few weeks, I'll focus on reuse as it applies to our winter holiday celebrations. Have a look at the Wrap Art web site, which provides some unique suggestions for wrapping gifts using a variety of materials. Their "repurposing materials" section features some eye-catching packages wrapped up in bits of reused materials such as junk mail, calendar photos, a wine bottle mesh, foil and strings from shopping bags, and bits of ribbon among other things. It's nice to know that I'm not the only person who saves little bits of this and that in crow-like fashion just knowing that someday I'll find a nice way to reuse them. The "recycling commerce" section is cool too. I especially like the use of stickers found in junk mail (which I either give to my kids to play with or use to decorate my filing cabinet); I'm going to have to try that one!

It takes time and creativity to wrap your gift in a way like those displayed on the Wrap Art site, and that puts all the more "thought" into the "thought that counts." Even if the gift inside goes over like a lead balloon, the recipient will surely feel special if you put so much energy into presenting them with a one-of-a-kind package. And when you reuse materials before you recycle them, the Earth gets a gift too.