Sure, you’re forced to take down the ghosts and fuzzy spiders (news flash: your neighbors are pissed if you haven’t done so), but some of the seasonal elements we put up to get in the mood  should endure until the end of the year, if not beyond.

Here is my list of favorite affordable decorative displays for the festive and frugal in all of us.

1. Lanterns

Rice paper lanterns bobbing outside (with solar lights) or in your rooms make a huge, happy statement. I love the cylinder shapes with Asian motifs like the ones found at My Green Party Goods, $3.50 each.  Keep out of wind and rain and purchase eco options.

2. Mini Pumpkins

Don’t toss these babies out with the bad Halloween candy. They transition to the Thanksgiving table (orange+pumpkin) and even co-mingle happily pomegranates and pepper berries for winter holiday merrymaking. You can buy organic by the case at Baldor, if you haven’t already succumbed to the adorable guys at the farmers’ market.

3. Bowls of shells

It’s likely you have amassed these already. Gather them in a pretty bowl for the coffee table, scatter on the table, line them on the mantle. Shells – often used to evoke romantic, seaside summer lazing – work just as well in fall and winter. I like combing the beach for sand dollars and tossing them into my mix.

4. Strung Cards

I string three rows of natural wire along my dining room wall to hang beautiful cards from the high holidays and my daughter’s October Bat Mitzvah to Halloween, Thanksgiving and winter holiday greetings. Just pick up some clamps and you’re in business. Guests love them and cards are so cool, why toss them out?

5. Photo Displays

I’ve mounted many photo walls for clients and friends, which is affordable art for the home and a way to display treasured memories from the year. Of course, assorting eco frames on various tables throughout the house works well, too (school photos, Halloween shots, other fun scenes).

6. Foliage

Harvest leaves, twigs and pine cones and branch out in your earthy styling of tables, entryways and other venues that smack of fall color. I like how Arenamontanus gathered a grouping for a desk.

7. Candles

Beeswax candles come in all shapes and sizes and really set the mood for seasonal statements. Mix ’em and match ’em, turn off the lights and turn on the tunes. For a great assortment visit 1000 Markets.

8. Recycled Cloth Coasters

Like these vintage treasures from Etsy, turn your excess fabric into coasters with easy sewing for delightful results. When do you put them away? Never.

9. Table coverage

Roll out the organic runners and roll out the fun, kids. This sumptuous moss design from Amenity can take you through the seasons and inspire unique styling. I use them to dress up many surfaces from the dining table to the buffet and entry way.

10. Vintage Dishes

This peach glass from Step Toes is a lovely example of the menagerie of collectibles you can break out to display and use for serving, from favorite heirloom porcelain to tea pots and even plates hung for display. This is where you canhave blast and save on that styling budget.

The post Styling on a Yulestring? 10 Frugal and Festive Fall and Winter Displays appeared first on EcoSalon.

Is there a hole in the heart of that beloved camel cashmere from your freshman year at Stanford?

Don’t become unraveled! The crafty set – people like Stefanie Girard, who wrote Sweater Surgery – take the green approach to spinning yarns, reconfiguring new objects d’smart from those ratty pullovers that once warmed our bones.

Handwash your old sweater (I like to use baby shampoo) and treat it for unsightly coffee or red wine stains. Then circumvent those Jarlsberg cheese holes in the wool and make something cool!

Here’s a look at 10 reclamations, from Ugly Dolls to pretty petal pins:

1. Stuffed Toys

A favorite project at Brandeis Hillel Day School in San Francisco, parents are asked to contribute old sweaters for the students to conjure their own, arty Ugly Dolls. My own 10-year-old, Lauren, made this creature in just a couple of days and they instantly became BBF’s.

2. Bitchen Boatneck

Deborah Lindquist makes her groovy dog wraps from recycled cashmere sweaters, and you can do it, too. Just find a square without holes and make two for the front legs. Then your pet can walk the walk!

3. Beaded Cuff

I love this upscale take on the 70s tennis sweat band. The beaded cuff woven by Olive Brown is simple to make, by cutting your own elongated rectangle from your rescued sweater, stitching the borders and embellishing with beads or other hot glue glam.

4. Pet Bed

Lately, my pug has taken to sleeping in the laundry basket. Why not take your old sweaters and other scraps and make a patchwork pet bed, like Apartment Therapy suggests? Gather an assortment of old sweaters and a pillow and get working on that soft place for your pooch to land.

5. Pullover Coasters

Olive Brown made these from a shrunken woman’s fair aisle v-neck pullover. The set of eight, sold at Etsy, is something you can also try to make by cutting the circles and top-stitching the front, leaving a zigzag stitch on the back. The edges are finished with an overlock stitch.

6. Snuggly Slippers

Follow the footsteps of Craft Stylish, and avoid booties made from yucky  synthetic materials. These old woolen slippers are stitched with love. All you need is paper, a pen, scissors, an old sweater, thread, a machine, a scarp of yarn and a crochet hook. Have fun padding around!

7. Doll Clothes

If you or your child can knit, this book from Amazon provides patterns and ideas. I always loved sewing my own Barbie clothes from discarded items that wound up in our rag box. Let your kids try their hand at Project Runway ensembles using old sweaters. Try some lederhosen for that Heidi doll!

8. Flower Brooch

Thick rose wool felt from a rescued cardigan is paired with a heavy vintage bronze shank button in this classic flower. Found at Etsy, you can arrange your own floral jewelry with scissors, glue and a pin from your neighborhood craft store. Add a center flourish and attach to blazer lapel. You grow, girl!

9. Cell Phone Cozy

Craftbits is calling! Pick up and read the steps for making your own, fetching felted mobile phone pouch with a key ring at the top for attaching to jeans or your purse.

10. Teapot Cozy

We adore these at EcoSalon and even touted the beauty of the pot sweater for Mother’s Day this year. This one from Etsy is ideal because the pretty blue yarn is washable. Accented by a handknit multicolored flower with a vintage button for the center, it’s about 19 inches around and stretches over a 4″-to-6″ teapot. Not handy with a needle? Ask a friend to help.

Main Image: Amazon

The post Operation Old Sweater: 10 Great DIY Rescues appeared first on EcoSalon.

If your daughter’s heartthrobs are Tim Gunn and Al Gore, then Wee Scotty is the place for her. Not only does the San Francisco sewing school teach kids how to sketch and assemble a garment, its Scottish owners take the high road in their Rip & Recycle course, which is patterned after the sensible, waste-not mentality that got our ancestors through the first big depression.

Students are asked to bring to class a pile of old favorite clothes they no longer wear. At the end of the one-week, $275 session, they will take home an updated, adorable top or dress that even Heidi Klum would agree is greatly altered – and, in a good way.

The deconstruction approach to the wardrobe, touted by sites like Crafting a Green World, can be employed by all green fashionistas in possession of treasured garments they cannot part with. I took apart a Dolce & Gabbana black top to make a prayer book cover for my daughter to use at school. It had a stunning Asian applique that I sewed onto the cover (two women flanking a floral urn), embroidering Lauren’s Hebrew name at the top. It emerged as a an Asian-Jewish style I like to call Oy-Soy. No one had a siddur cover like ours. Meantime, a designer top that was too small was converted into a cherished, holy object that will live on.

Yes, Wee Scotty’s method of taking a pleasurable week to rework old material sure beats trekking to Mood Fabrics and buying cheap yardage to whip together a couture number in 24-hours that might be Bryant Park-worthy. Project Runway, take note!

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