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Grady's GreenLiving Tips was created in 2014 by Grady Management, Inc.  Grady Management was founded in 1965 and continues to provide a full service residential, commercial, and consulting real estate firm in the greater Washington and Baltimore metropolitan area.  Learn more from our  website  or  Facebook  page.

Crafts and Projects the Whole Family Will Enjoy Love living a green life but struggling to encourage friends and/ or family members to do the same?  Try to find greenliving crafts, events, and activities that everyone will enjoy! Many items that cannot be traditionally recycled can be "upcycled", a term that means reused, through fun, creative, DIY crafts and projects.  Family members of any age can find DIY projects that reuse household items and, simultaneously, promote a green lifestyle. Have a bunch of old crayons lying around the house?  Learn about three craft ideas that can turn old crayons into creative, new ideas: 1) Create a melted crayon painting : This unique craft idea (featured right) turns old crayons into the perfect piece of art for gifts and/ or decor.  To make this type of painting, all that is needed is a canvas, crayons, glue, and a hairdryer.  Glue old crayons to the canvas and wait a few hours until totally dried.  Then run a hairdrye...

Reuse and "Upcycle" These Common, Household Materials Using tape, glue, scissors, and a few other craft supplies, you can easily turn the following materials into decor, art projects, and other items, such as...  1) Books and Magazines :  Turn book and/ or magazine pages into wall decor, gift tags, magnets, and/ or even jewelry.  Use the bindings of books and magazines, or stack the books on top of one another, to create shelves, jewelry boxes, shadow boxes, and other small containers. 2) Boxes : Decorating old boxes, such as a shoe box or a shipping box, can create: ottomans, decorative storage containers, shelf organizers, and more. 3) Bottles and Cans : Turn bottles and cans into planters, pencil/ utensil holders, self-watering plant vases, bird feeders, and more. 4) Newspapers : Tearing newspapers into strips can create the material needed to be threaded into baskets, picture frames, and trash cans. 5) Milk Cartons : Old milk cartons and jugs can be washed and then ma...

Recycling Clothes and/ or Fabric to Make a Comfortable Blanket This upcoming winter is a great time to experiment with green ways to stay warm. One green craft this time of year could be to make a recycled blanket or quilt out of materials already available around the house.  In order to create a blanket or quilt, three methods include: 1) Pick the Fabrics : Choose a surplus fabric around the home that can be used as the centerpiece for the new blanket or quilt.  Options could range from college tee shirts, old sweaters, or worn-out jeans for the top of the blanket and another, sturdy, fabric, such as older blankets or fleeces, for the base. 2) Decide on a design : The next step is to decide on a functional design.  A blanket is typically a single layer of heavy fabric with a design while a quilt contains padding or stuffing, oftentimes a cotton material, in between layers of fabric.  Decide on a style that works with the materials available! 3) Create a Finished Pro...

Green Crafts for this Season Last year, Grady's GreenLiving tips shared information on how to create a bottle garden: an ecosystem in a bottle or series of bottles that is the perfect size for an apartment patio or balcony.  Read below for a reminder, step by step guide on how to create bottle garden this summer: Select an appropriate container : This really depends on the size of the plant desired.  For small plants, like basil or a small flower, a two liter bottle should suffice.  Bigger plants in turn would require a bigger container, like an old laundry detergent bin. Cut holes for drainage : Any flower pot has a hole cut on the bottom for drainage.  Do not forget to do this for your bottle garden or the plant will quickly deteriorate due to improper drainage. Decide the type of garden:   Bottle gardens can be a hanging upright, or placed on a vertical or horizontal orientation.  Determining the type of garden you want is necessary so all containers mat...

Create a Mini Garden for an Apartment It is officially springtime- spring cleaning is a must!  Clear out old clothes, furniture, and supplies and donate resources no longer needed. Once spring cleaning is completed, a nice spring project for the whole family would be to build and maintain a garden either inside or apartment or outside on the balcony or patio area.  Not all gardens need to be the same size, they can fit a variety of needs and lifestyles. Some examples of ideal garden styles for an apartment include: 1) Inside- Interior Design: Use flowers and plants to spruce up apartment interiors.  Some plants, like the spider plant or bamboo plant, do well in interiors with little to no direct sunlight.  Bare tables, bookshelves, or under windows are great locations to place plants to spruce an apartment.  For added flair, plant herbs like basil in pots arranged in your kitchen. 2) Outside- Traditional Garden: Utilize an outdoor patio or balcony place as an a...