It's Photo Friday Again!

  For this Photo Friday we’re doing a little feature on a DIY project we’re trying in the office. We recently re-pinned a tutorial on Pinterest that teaches you how to take old 2-liter bottles and turn them into self-watering, seed starter pots. It’s a great way to use up some of that old plastic and it works really well! For ours, instead of starting out little vegetables, we planted a small Blue Moneywort. It is a cute little crawling plant that does great along the bottom of flowerbeds as well as hanging baskets. Its small blue-violet flowers are really lovely to look at. We planted this little guy with some soil, and of course compost, about a week ago and so far it has been thriving. Thanks to Skruben.blogspot.com for the great tutorial! Here is the link to their tutorial: http://skruben.blogspot.com/2012/03/how-to-self-watering-seed-starter-pots.html

Top 5 Bizarre and Beautiful Recycling DIYs

We've already shown that we love Pinterest, and that it can be a great source for eco-savvy DIY-ers. We've found some pretty bizarre DIYs that are a little off the wall but pretty cool as a finished product. Here are our top 5 of the bizarre and beautiful recycling DIYS.

Original Pin

This pin leads to a whole list of bizarre but awesome. It's really hard to find something to do with those one time use paint chips or paint samples when you're done with them. This list gives a plethora of different DIYS to help you use all of your old samples.

Original Pin

At first glance this pin just looks like a regular necklace. However, this DIY teaches you to make necklaces and other things out of old aluminum cans. While you may not want to do this with your pepsi can, this is a really fun tutorial and will definitely create some unique jewelry.

Original Pin

Anyone who has ever tried to gift baked goods knows that it is always hard to get them to their intended recipient unbroken, squished, or in any other way harmed. This repurposing of an old plastic or aluminum wrap box creates a unique way of gifting muffins, cupcakes, and other baked goods.

Original Pin

Coffee addicts out there go through a lot of those cup sleeves. Now, there's a way to reuse them to create coasters, so their coffee mugs at home don't leave rings on their tables. With the number of patterns and designs used by different coffee shops, these could be pretty cool and colorful.

Original Pin

Remember doing shrinky dinks either as a kid or with your kids? Well, here's a more "grown up" way to have all the fun of shrinky dinks with all the style of store bought jewelry. This bracelet is made out of plastic that was shrunk and hardened in the oven and then bound together. It's a fun way to keep your plastics out of landfills.

Are there any great DIYs that you've found that are off the wall but awesome? Leave them in the comments, we'd love to check them out!

Our top 10 Reusable Bag DIYs from Pinterest

Last week another city announced a plastic bag ban. These bans are happening all over the place, so we decided to scour Pinterest for the best Reusable Bag DIYs. We narrowed it down to ten, and now you can make a great reusable grocery bag of your own!

Tutorial here

This reusable bag is made out of 2 pillow cases, so if you're looking to redecorate your bedroom this is definitely the reusable bag for you! It is simple, but it looks stylish and unique.

Tutorial here

This bag is more your tradition bag, but with a handy pocket on the outside for your phone, keys, and wallet! It's so convenient that you don't even have to bring a purse to the store as well if you don't want to and it's insulate, so it can help keep your cold items cold and your warm items warm longer.

Tutorial here

A fold-away reusable grocery bag? Why wouldn't this one make our list? It's so compact and convient, but looks cute and functional when you unroll it. It's small enough that you could easily keep it in your purse or glove compartment if you need to stop by the store after work.

Tutorial here

This bag is a lot more like the original bags that were sold in grocery stores, but it allows for customization, which makes it unique and personal.

Tutorial here

This is another bag similar to the original reusable bags that you could buy at the grocery store, but this one seems like it'd be a stronger alternative. With the double layer of fabric at the bottom, plus the reinforced cardboard we don't think this bag should have any trouble handling your heavy groceries!

Tutorial here

This is one of 3 t-shirt bags we chose. The beauty of t-shirt bags is that you're only using materials that you already have and the ones we've found are all no-sew. It's a fun way to re-purpose t-shirts that you might have outgrown but still want to keep around.

Tutorial here

This t-shirt bag is very similar to the other one we featured, but it has fringe rather than a small amount of string at the bottom. Both are a fun way to keep using that t-shirt, and both tutorials comment on how surprisingly durable they are. 

Tutorial here

Our final t-shirt bag is the only one that requires sewing, although it ends up functioning much more like a produce bag. If you wanted the reinforcement of sewing without all the holes for a produce bag, you don't have to cut them, you can just call the bag done once you're finished stitching up the sides.

Tutorial here

Ever had an old bag from a food product that's really sturdy, so you feel bad throwing it away but you have nothing to do with it? Well, your answer is here! This reusable bag reuses old groceries to make it! The tutorial uses old rice bags since they're pretty strong, but it could easily be substituted with another exceptionally strong bag. 

Tutorial here

Our final tutorial is for a bag that says it's purpose is for a convertible clutch purse, however, we think it could work extremely well as a stylish reusable grocery bag as well. 

Those were our picks for our favorite reusable bag tutorials. Do you have another one that you couldn't live without? Share it in the comments!