I live in fear of becoming that crazy old man in the neighborhood all the kids point at and whisper under their cookie breath, "that's him..he's the one with
all the junk." Sure, they've spotted me in the dead of winter collecting pine cones and twigs for table decorations and maybe they've caught me clipping branches in the spring to force in vases and, yes, they've probably wondered why I grab every leaf in the fall, dust them off and drop them in a ziplock bag for safe keeping. But earlier this week when I chased Joe down the driveway and snatched the bag of recycles out of his hand, I'm sure that sealed the deal in their little minds..this man, they probably think, is nuts!! Call me crazy, and many have, but I love re-purposing items most people discard as trash, toss to the curb or otherwise ignore. Take these bottles, for example, from various products we've purchased that, once empty, I clean, remove labels and re-use as anything from dish soap holders, fill with water and lemon for dinner parties or, in this case, sassy vases to show off the lovely hibiscus in our backyard. Labels often mask the cool bottles underneath...the bottles above are from hot sauce, grape soda, tequila and vodka. So before tossing that bottle in the recycle bin, take a minute and imagine what it coulda been!
