Recycle, Reuse, and Refashion?

I've been following some great blogs lately that have challenged me to re-evaluate my thinking. Some of it has to do with growing your own food, some has to do with limiting your dependence on store bought goods. We are in the process of becoming the proud owners of a small brood of chickens and I have recently dug out my sewing machine and tried my hand at refashioning some of the kids clothes. I've been pretty pleased with the results:)

Here are a couple of my amazing creations:) The first is a mirror that was given to us from Chad's mom. They are in the process of going through Grandpa and Grandma's stuff and are trying to find homes for the stuff where it can be used best. I've been wanting a mirror out in my studio for a while but I haven't been willing to budget money for it. The mirror is an antique but not to anyone's taste in the family...so I made it to my taste:) I tore off some of the ornamental wood pieces, painted it black, and then coated it with a gloss. I'm happy with the result and can't wait to hang it in my studio, now I just have to figure out where to put it:)

My second experiment was with clothes. Kyla has put holes in the knees of FIVE pairs of pants since September! Luckily, I kept them and now we've made them usable again, right in time for the spring and summer. I loved the pockets on one pair of the jeans and couldn't just toss them, so I made two little purses out of the rest of the pant legs and some left over fabric from another project.

Kyla assisted me in our latest project. We had a hand-me-down summer dress that was looking a bit worse for wear. It was a dingy white and was missing some buttons. Kyla and I picked a bright yellow color and dyed it one afternoon while Gavin was napping. We spent that evening searching for the perfect buttons @ Joanns. (That was a lesson in patience). The color wasn't exactly as I had hoped but Kyla has declared this to be her favorite dress and so I'll call it a sucess:)

Are you up to the challenge?