This Is What I'm Talking About

(Or about what I'm talking?)
Anyway, hell yes. Big shiny hell yes.



http://www.reusenetwork.org/

Repurpose Proposal

We live in a consumer-driven economy. We earn the money we need to spend on the stuff we want by contributing to the creation of goods and services on which other people are willing to to exchange their earnings. Read Brave New World lately?

Ending is better than mending. The more stitches, the less riches.

Alan Greenspan renounced his own faith in the unfettered market; now can we get some of the world's economists to admit that their expertise is no different from making selections on a March Madness bracket, and instead of spending time on the educated guesswork, find and implement a practical way for our economy to move from relying on raw materials to recycling and repurposing the goods already in existence???

::Breath::

In other words: Instead of loggers, wood scavengers/reclaimers. Instead of throwing ANYTHING out, it gets taken back by its industry and used for parts and materials in the latest model.


In other news, my dog smells terrible.

Business Idea for Garage Salers

Like hitting all the garage and estate sales? Find thrifty, recycling-prone friends, neighbors, anyone nearby who will give you money, and have them give you their Target/Walmart/Home Depot/general household item shopping list.

I feel somewhat estranged from Target these days, going when I need toilet paper, razors, moisturizer, and as little else as possible. When my blender died, I found one at an estate sale. Picture frames and the hooks to hang them, a corkscrew, my drinking glasses, the scale I use to weigh packages--all things I picked up from garage and estate sales.

Not everyone has the time or inclination to scour the universe for a "perfectly good electric can opener," six matching wine glasses, and a chainsaw under $10.

But you do.

There's so much stuff out there. Then we keep producing and buying more stuff. There is a market within the capitalist system for the Professional Recycler.

Do other people's shopping for them, but at garage sales. Save them money. Charge a fee low enough that they still save money.

Go forth and thrive.

Eveloped in Wallpaper

I have wallpaper envelopes coming out of my ears.

A few weeks ago I started making a new version of my "screw email" cards with recycled wallpaper envelopes. People liked them a lot. Some people said they loved the envelopes and the feel of the cards but wished they had a different message, so I designed some cards that said "thank you" to fit in the same envelopes.

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Then I was at a favorite local coffee shop and noticed they had gift cards with crappy envelopes that didn't fit right. Lightbulb went off in my head right away. I talked to the shift manager and left some of my "screw email" cards and envelopes with the suggestion that I make specialized gift card sized ones with or without cards that said something giftcardy or the name of the coffee shop or something.
I was back a week later with a handful of envelopes in perfect gift card size and cards with the messages "thank you" and "don't spend it all in one place," the latter being my idea of funny.

That particular coffee shop owner still hasn't gotten back to me despite much cheerleading on my behalf from several of his managers (he went out of town for a week and I've stopped by a few more times, c'est la vie), but on Wednesday a different coffee shop expressed serious interest, and everyone I show any of my envelope/card combos to gets really excited and thinks they're the greatest things since sliced bread. It's all pretty exciting and flattering.

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And the latest exciting news and my real inspiration for writing: one of the people to whom I gave some of my cards/envelopes was my therapist. After all, much of what we talk about is me being sick/demi-dead (really no secret after my last few entries), and this was something I could do/make even on my demi-dead days. She loved them and asked me if she could show them to a friend of hers who sells high-end jewelry. I said of course! She was a little concerned about the confidentiality and what to say if the friend asked how she knew me, but again, I don't think it's such a shameful thing to be in therapy. As long as she's not telling her friend what we discuss, a connection is a connection, and why is a therapist any different from a dentist or a personal trainer? Ideally, if time and money were no object, everyone should have one. It's healthy. You don't want them talking about your particulars, like your gingivitis, flabby arm muscles, or recurring sexual fantasies about gorilla suits, but we're all human and imperfect and seeing specialists to work on things to better our lives is positive. Not shameful.

That being said, my therapist's friend is having a jewelry show on Thursday and loved my cards and wants to feature a display's worth of them for sale! So now I have to come up with a way of displaying them that is

• ●portable (so I can drop it off with my therapist on Wednesday)
• ●classy (I've been doing farmers markets and craft shows, but this is high-end jewelry, which has a different feel to it)
• ●self-explanatory (I won't be there to say "the ones on the top are $1.75 or 6 for $8 and you can choose your own card and envelope combo, blah blah blah")

I'm thinking of going to Target or JoAnns and getting a big cloth bullitin board/frame thing or two and then using cards of the two sizes as "signs" to say "cards my size are $_ and come with the envelope of your choice"

If you have any other ideas/suggestions, I'm more than happy to hear them. Keep in mind I don't want to spend more than about $15-$20, since my profits aren't that high to begin with.

Also, if you own a business and want some gift card envelopes and/or cards, let me know! It's a sliding price scale based on how many you want and if I ever find a faster more efficient way of making them (still working on that...I'm up to about 10 an hour, which is ass-slow but I can watch a movie or listen to audiobooks or have a migraine at the same time, a major plus).

I've been making envelopes for days. Plaid, floral, solid, weird, paisley, stripes, you name it. And they're coming out of my ears. Let's just hope they do well selling Thursday, on Etsy, and in the universe.