Up(cycle) Yours, Hippie Bitch!

I have a confession. I'm about as far from green as you can get. I use Styrofoam plates occasionally, I am addicted to aerosol hairspray, my favorite kinds of vehicles are large ones such as trucks or SUVs and I don't recycle. As a matter of fact, the recycling bins that used to be issued quickly became storage bins/ laundry baskets. 

I know, I know. It's not a good thing. I figure that I can at least rely on hippies to do all of that boring stuff for me. I do try to buy sustainable and organic foods (unless of course I'm making Blue Fin Tuna and Whale casserole.) and I am the queen of upcycling. I think it started when I was a little girl and I'd take my old underwear, cut the crotch area out and sew dresses for my Barbies out of the rest of the material. It sounds weird, but the underwear were clean and my Barbies always had the latest fashions.

Nowadays I've upgraded from using old butt parts from underwear and instead use clothes that are too old or ratty to donate. My sister does the same thing and we share a large bag of torn up clothes that we look through and craft with. She even profited off of this by making and selling small Ugly Doll-like plushies.

The most recent upcycled craft I made was out of an old corkboard, some old cloth from tshirts and jeans and red tempura paint. I made a menu board for my mom's apple themed kitchen. She loved it!
I will admit that this menu board is more whimsical and quirky than most available out there, but that's only because the kitchen (and the person) that I made this for is whimsical and quirky. You can make your own boards according to your own tastes and decor.     

Upcycled Menu Board

Old wood framed cork board

paint

old cloth in coordinating colors

construction paper in coordinating colors

knitting needle

pins

Sharpie marker

Aileen's Tacky Glue

scissors

embellishments such as foam letters

 Paint the frame of the corkboard in your choice of color. Don't worry if some gets on the cork part. 

Cut a rectangle of fabric that you want to use as the background . Put a line of glue along the  underside of the frame and using your knitting needle, tuck the fabric under the frame.

Cut out embellishment from your coordinating  fabric to list the days. In this case I cut a wave out of white t shirt and mounted the foam letters on squares of beige material which I then mounted on the wave and glued to the side of the board in the same way that I glued the green background. Another functional decoration I made were the pockets made out of old denim material. These will hold markers, extra pins and slips of paper.

Cut slips out of construction paper and mount white paper on top. I used red, green and yellow paper  not only because they coordinated with my design, but because they also help me to design a good balance of mixed meals. Red is for beef, pork or lamb dishes. Yellow is for fish and poultry. Green is for vegetarian dishes.

Make a sign that says "Menu" out of construction paper and lettering. Post it to the top.
Write out the different dishes you plan on making throughout the week using Sharpie and slips of paper. Pin them next the coordinating day to answer the question "What's for dinner." ahead of time.

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