Idea of the Day: Yard Sharing

Junk Gypsies

Recycled Housing

Always A Bridesmaid?

Always a bridesmaid and never a bride? Being part of a wedding party can be tough on the wallet. The worst part is shelling out for an expensive gown you'll never wear again. Let's face it, even the most flattering bridesmaid gown is still a bridesmaid gown. Who dresses that formally any more?

Well, Recycle My Dress has come to the rescue. Pennsylvania designer Nicole Kulp has found a great niche for herself recrafting and reinventing those wedding dresses.

“Every one of my recycled dresses is original, sustainable and has a story behind it," she writes on her web page. This page has before and after photos.

Necessity is the Mother

Necessity is the mother of invention. So how much inspiration and invention can you expect from the person who has everything? For new ideas, turn to the person who has nothing.

This is the thinking behind an Utne Reader article that suggests the economically deprived city of Detriot may lead the way as a shining example of successful, sustainable, urban farming. According to historian Mark Dowie the fact that Detroit "is home to zero grocery chains or big-box stores—leaving 80 percent of the population to get their food from convenience stores, liquor stores, and gas stations—helps position it to 'become the world’s first 100 percent food self-sufficient city.'”

Dowie meets some forward-thinking Detroiters “who imagine growing food among the ruins.” He writes about people who share visions of “chard and tomatoes on vacant lots (there are over 103,000 in Detroit, 60,000 city-owned), orchards on former school grounds, mushrooms in open basements, fish in abandoned factories . . . livestock grazing on former golf courses, high-rise farms in old hotels,” and many other adaptive farming techniques.

Read more at The Utne Reader.

The Graffiti Grannies

From a web site called English Russia comes a feature on a team of grandmothers who were so tired of graffiti in their public spaces that they decided to take matters into their own hands.

They have covered the dirty lobbies, playgrounds and walls with flowers and verses of poetry, which they hope will be uplifting for local children.

Apparently the teenagers with spray paint are too scared to mess with the grannies. You can see some more of the grandma graffiti by following the link above.

Another Celebration of Resourcefulness

How creative is it to simply go to a store chock full of consumer items and buy exactly what you imagine (and a few impulse items you never imagined in the first place)? Real ingenuity comes from necessity, not stuffed pockets. Here's an example from Russia Today:

Resourcefulness Celebrated

From last night's Daily Show, an interview with a person who truly embodies the Broke is Beautiful spirit. William Kamkwamba of Malawi was inspired by a diagram in a library book to use salvaged materials to build an electricity generating windmill for his village. (It's a good thing Constantine Xios didn't live in his village.)

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
William Kamkwamba
www.thedailyshow.com
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