My Favourite Green Quotes

“The earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need but 

not a single man's greed."

- Mahatma Gandhi


"Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one 

thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to 

ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.” 

- Chief Seattle

"If you think you are too small to make a difference, try to sleep with a mosquito in your room."

- Dalai Lama 


“Oh beautiful for smoggy skies, insecticided grain,

For strip-mined mountain's majesty above the asphalt plain.

America, America, man sheds his waste on thee,

And hides the pines with billboard signs, from sea to oily 

sea.” 

- George Carlin


"Everyone wants to park their vehicles in shade but no one 

wants to plant trees."

-Anonymous

"Man is a strange being: he makes deserts bloom and lakes

 die." 

- Gil Stern

"The only thing that can't be recycled is time."

-Anonymous


"Men are from Mars and 

Women are from Venus

And that's where they'll have to go

If this earth they don't clean up."

-Anubhooti

Green Crafts - Upcycling A Paint Bin

After my apartment was painted, I was left with many empty paint bins. I wanted to convert one to a waste bin and a few others to potholders. We had recently started garbage segregation in our community, so a bin for reject waste was needed. I wanted to beautify the bin by twining a rope around it but never got around to hunting for the rope.

On a trip to Sikar, Rajasthan, I spotted this rope while going around in a local market. It is called 'moonj' and is used to weave 'charpais'. (cots woven with ropes). I am always attracted to rustic things and was delighted to find this. In fact, I wanted just a little bit but the shopkeeper would only sell the whole bundle. It was way too much for my requirement but there was no choice. When I reached home armed with a bundle of rope, everyone scoffed at my purchase and wondered what I was going to do with it. They ridiculed my idea of lugging the rope all the way to Bangalore:)

The rope, however, did get lugged to Bangalore. One fine day, my sis-in-law came to pay me a visit. She loves doing crafty things and I like to have a partner in crime, so we went ahead dressing the bin. After getting it cleaned and dried, we set about our task. It was alright to get the outside covered by a rope but the insides still looked unappealing. So we decided to line it with some fabric. Checkered fabrics always look chic and I remembered a dress that I had stopped wearing. It took a lot of cajoling from my SIL to sacrifice my beloved dress but then it was sheared and we got a lovely lining for the bin.

We pasted the bottom with cardboard. Then came the task of twining the rope. It was hard work and I was glad that I started this project with my SIL around. She is very neat and while one person applied Fevicol, the other held the rope tight and stuck it along the binder. After a couple of hours of hard work and sore fingers, we were rewarded with this. We were very pleased with the outcome.

I found a bow and stuck it at the top. What a difference a bow can make!

Now that it looked so lovely and also because it was lined with fabric, it couldn't be used as a waste bin and of course not as a potholder. So we decided to use it as a magazine holder.

The other bin has been painted with a basic coat and is waiting to be adorned further. I am planning a few worli motifs on it. Let's see. If and when it gets ready, I will post a picture.