Robot Fun for a Curious Nephew ;D July 29, 2010
Posted by Sindy in Favorite Instructables, Recycling.2 comments
My nephew is a curious little bug. He will put his little mitts on anything and everything (and subsequently take it apart when he can – we think he’ll grow up to be an engineer). Of course, with such a curious fellow it’s hard to keep him distracted. I’m sure he would go absolutely nuts for a robot (he looooooves electronic gadgets), but he’s a little too young for just any robot. Luckily I found a fun one for him (that he won’t be able to take apart very easily):
Of course, I’ll have to glue up the seam, and a switch would be nice, but all in all this will loads of fun and really easy to make!
This reminds me of when my cousins came to visit before moving to Japan (their Dad was in the Air Force). We had a little rolling ball with a fake little animal (I think it was a ferret or something like that). It was the ball that was actually moving, but it looked like a little animal playing with a ball. Our youngest cousin loved it, and it helped her make it through their very long plane flight. I could do that kind of thing with this project too. 
One more note before I sign off. This project uses what is called a Bristle Bot (a little robot that uses a bristle head as sort-of legs), but since I don’t want to spend the money for an extra big tennis ball I found a tutorial for something smaller (and that I have the parts for already). Or how about this other one which is even smaller? In fact, I’m sure my nephew would love the bristle bot by itself (then again, he might be able to take it apart).
Oh yeah, this ought to be loads of fun. Maybe I’ll make it tonight (and report back what my nephew thinks of it – when I see him next).
Freecycling – Getting Something for Nothing December 5, 2009
Posted by Sindy in Recycling.Tags: cheap, free, freecycle, freecycling, recycle, Recycling, save money
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Okay, I’ve known the concept for a long time now, but someone has finally put a name to it – Freecycling. Basically it means that you hit up dumps and trading centers to get what most people would have thrown away for free. It’s the basic “one person’s trash is another’s treasure” concept, and it can save you a lot of money.
One of the things you could do with this is building. There’s a show on one of my local TV stations called Junk Raiders. Sadly, I couldn’t find any videos of it on YouTube, but the idea is that a big shot has hired a team of freecyclers, designers, and architects to renovate a city loft for him. They’ve gotten all sorts of stuff from thrift shops, trade centers, construction sites, dumps, etc. Including lumber, a bath tub, and even a 27″ flat screen TV! (Apparently the previous owners couldn’t find the on switch 
). They made a lighting fixture out of a car hood and a chair out of a shopping cart. Pretty cool if you ask me.
And here are a couple of resources:
- Freecycle.org – Find a freecycling group near you.
- Freecycle.net – A great resource including FAQs and guidelines. (Did you know there are apparently guidelines of etiquette for doing this stuff?)
Sweet Recycled Decor! October 13, 2009
Posted by Sindy in Recycling, Weekend Project(s).Tags: chair, crafts, DIY, EL wire, floppy disks, MSN, Recycling
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I love finding great ideas online. These I found on MSN this morning: http://lifestyle.msn.com/your-home/simplify-your-life/staticslideshowdg.aspx?cp-documentid=21375757>1=32028
My favorites include the “Don’t Walk” chair (just don’t take them off a local corner – you’ll get us both in trouble), the CD case chandelier (I’d like to do that with those clear CDs you get on the top of the package), the floppy disk notebooks (check below for an awesome link for more things to do with old floppy disks), the bike chain bowl, the “soda glasses” (I’d love to make some from Jones soda bottles), and the coin chair.
Speaking of old floppy disks, that reminds me of some of the cool things I saw on Instructables! Check out this link for a bunch of projects: http://www.instructables.com/tag/?q=floppies&limit%3Atype%3Aid=on&type%3Aid=on&type%3Auser=on&type%3Acomment=on&type%3Agroup=on&type%3AforumTopic=on&type%3AforumTopic=on&sort=none
My favorites are the bill caddy and the floppy disk bag, but if you go to the next page you’ll find a project for a floppy disk bag that uses EL wire (now that’s some uber awesome stuff).
Recycled WHAT Bag? October 3, 2009
Posted by Sindy in Recycling, Sewing, Weekend Project(s).Tags: business ideas, crafts, DIY, garbage, Nike, Recycling, Sewing
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It’s a recycled cat food bag! – http://www.instructables.com/id/Funky-recycled-pet-food-bag-pursetote/
That’s right, turn the bag from your favorite cat food into a purse for your human! They will love you for three whole seconds! (Oh, right, that’s if they were a cat too.)
You gotta love all those crafts that turn garbage into stuff like purses – sewing juice bags into a purse, crocheting aluminum cans together into a purse, even ironing (aka “fusing”) grocery bags together and making all sorts of stuff from purses to rain coats. There’s even a guy who’s turning ramen packages into baby shoes and selling them on Etsy! Now that’s one cheap product supply.
I’ll tell ya, one of these days I’m going to make something out of my garbage and make some extra cash too. Hmm, I’m thinking using old Nike shoes to decorate t-shirts? (Except, I don’t tend to buy Nike.)
