Upcycle Living

We made a Christmas tree with some tinsels and a broken tripod in both 2015 and 2016 , with a little change in the trimmings. But the tripod has finally given way to even more wear and tear over time and humidity - all the plastic parts are falling off. It's time to have a renewed theme for our Christmas tree this year! After a few nights thinking over it and several sketches later, I've decided to make use of an existing hook on the wall and make a tree hanging down from it, and wrapping a table lamp within. I found a cardboard lid for an A4 paper box that's been tossed in the office (so that it can get one more use before going for its recycle round), and cut holes around it: Putting it through the table lamp that will be the light source: Then I tied 2 separate loops using some ribbons (out of my craft box collection) through the tree top star and hang it onto the hook: What I did next is just to poke each strip of tinsel through 2 h...

Since the broken tripod from making last year's tinsel tree is still here, I thought I'd cut myself some slack this year and redo the same thing but with a little tweaking here and there. Start the long tinsel on the top with a knot then twirl it around the tripod until it's all covered up. Tie the end to one of the tripod legs to secure it. Connect all the tinsels together to make a really long one This time I first wrap up the tripod with some red net fabric we saved from a gift hamper. This way the tinsel holds better in place when twirled around the frame. And the angel lights are placed first so that the wire is not visible over the tree.

Angel lights are placed inside of the tree for a softer feel The bad news is, our tripod was broken (the top bit - heaven knows when and how that happened). The good news is, I can now use it for something else with no guilt (especially to all the photography enthusiasts out there) - as a base for our 2015 DIY Christmas tree! DIY Christmas tree from a broken tripod and some Christmas tinsel This has got to be the easiest-to-assemble Christmas tree to date. All I did was set the tripod up to the height I want, then tie the strips of Christmas tinsel around it. Everything can be packed away easily and reused for next Christmas. The wired ribbon has been used a few times on the 2012 Christmas tree on the wall , the 2010 CD Christmas tree , and our very first DIY Christmas tree in 2008 .

I shall sit under these lanterns to enjoy my mooncake with some green tea... It's been a while since we got our hands on some silly little crafty projects, about time to get those old paper lanterns out from the storage - as Mid Autumn Festival is just around the corner. Last year we turned some paper lanterns into tea light shades , and although the idea can still be reused, I thought we could do something different with the unused ones. The biggest issue we have with these paper lanterns was that they get burnt easily, so a non-fire related solution is essential. I saw some lanterns that use bulbs and thought that we can have our DIY ones: If the power sockets were designed in a more intelligent way, i.e. higher up on the wall and not all the way down close to the floor, we could have hung the lanterns horizontally, across the window. But since the angel lights cable isn't long enough and this is the furthest it can reach so it will have to ...

Thanks to Aeon Supermarkets (previously known as Jusco) in Kuala Lumpur, we've learned to reuse those netty foam fruit wrappers as bottle protectors when we buy wine. It's really simple - just pull it over the wine bottle and that's it. It prevent any glass bottles from knocking on each other or on other hard/glass objects in the shopping bag. Very useful tip. And I'm really impressed with Aeon that they actually saved and reused thousands of those fruit wrappers that are otherwise disposed of, at the same time educating their customers. But we don't have to stop just there do we? I have kept quite a few of those wrappers from my shopping trips to Aeon, just to reuse them again and again. And today I've just figured out another possible function for these little darlings. Here's a picture of my suitcase, with the trolley handle extension next to the base of the case. It looks as if it could be broken with just any force from the back. So I took 4 foam fruit ...

It's that time of the year again - you're right - time to get busy preparing for Christmas! And what can be more fun than getting the tree up? As usual, the rules here is to have nothing (or very little) bought. Everything must be old, used, or recycled. We had a great success last year with our CD Christmas tree , and the CDs were then stored away for their future use in God-knows-what; maybe rebuild the same tree, who knows? But this year we're going to be away for the holiday so we'll just have something really simple and doesn't require much work. As I was going through my craft boxes, I found this stack of beautiful glossy cardboard that used to be the body of some Christmas crackers we used last year (yes I actually saved those bits). Was initially thinking of making some party crowns for my nieces, but then it strikes me that I can use them to make a Christmas tree. It's really simple; each card has a die-cut slit and slot mechanism, that made ...

No matter how hard we try to buy everything in the least packaging, we somehow still end up with quite a bit that we can't avoid. These net packaging came with some of the potatoes and onions that we bought from our local store, when we had absolutely no choice but to get them. Over time, we've collected quite a few and here's what I've done with them instead of throwing them away: 1. After cleaning thoroughly, fold the net opening out- and downward. 2. Keep folding down, as if rolling down a sock. 3. When fold till the end, turn it up-side-down and we'll get what looks like an apple. I learned to do this from my sister who brought the craft home from her preschool one day years ago. It is extremely easy and fun to do, and they are now in my 6 year-old niece's toy fruit basket :-) (which she would then create a story around whilst playing).

Bin liners / bin bags are one of the most ridiculous household products sold to consumers: something that you buy just to throw away! I can't agree with that, especially when it is absolutely unnecessary. Some people wonder how I survive not buying a single bin liner, yet not taking the plastic bags given by vendors to use as rubbish bags. The answer is: easy! We get plastic bags from packaging alone, and most of them can't be avoided; for instance, bread wrapper bags. We'll try to use up any wrapper bags our food comes in: bread, oat, flour, rice, etc, as long as they are not too fragile or easily torn. We still get the odd plastic bags whenever we can't avoid it, but the key is to moderate and reduce consumption as much as we can. Life isn't what consumerism tell us to have, we don't have to buy bin liners just because the label says that it is for the bin. We can create our own lifestyle without depending on what's sold in the shops :-)