Crocheting with plastic

Seeing how I've been wrapped up with my gardening, I didn't want to ignore my recycled art.(especially because this hobby brings in some cash) Recycled art is still one of my passions and it's fun talking to people at farmers markets about why I do it and the problems with the amount of plastic that is produced everyday. I do hope to run out of bags at some point but unfortunately that isn't going to happen any time soon. In fact, I joke with my kids about who I am going to will my collection of plastic bags to.

Crocheting with plastic bags has been an adventure because I'm never quite sure of how my project will come out. I know I should be writing down my pattern, but I do like the fact that each fish is a little bit different. My work is constantly evolving and my plan is to start making bigger more sculptural figures. Here is a few pictures of how I go about crocheting with plastic.

A year in the garden.

I can't believe that in April it will be two years since my friends from "Claremont Food Not Lawns" came and helped me put in the garden.
I spent many months thinking about what kind of garden I wanted. I had decided that the lawn must go and a beautiful edible garden needed to take its place. My husband was a bit weary when I started talking about tearing out the entire lawn. I strategically gave him little bits of information like. "Did you know that there is a family in Pasadena that grows most of their own produce?" That saves a lot of money. Once my husband let me have free reign of the back, I knew I had to work fast. Naturally, I started to rip out the garden with just a shovel. This proved to be grueling work not to mention hard as hell. My husband being the nice person he is saw how hard it was for my wimpy arms to even break the sod and said he would help. The part that I took out was about one fifth of the lawn. It also took me about the same time as it took him to do the rest of the lawn. Men are so lucky that they have the upper body strength they do. As for me, I look like sponge bob trying to lift two marshmellows on a stick. Not impressive. So anyway, it just so happened that while we were taking the lawn out, I met a couple that had started a group called "Food not Lawns". When I went to a meeting and they said that one of their goals were to help people convert their lawns to gardens, I almost squeeled with happiness. Seeing how I was getting overwhelmed by all the planning and work that this would take, meeting these two was like hitting the lotto. I also met so many people that helped me know what and how to plant my garden. Two years later, the garden is still teaching me that this will always be a work in progress with me learning as I go. If you want to know more about "food not lawns", here's Claremonts link to it. www.claremontfoodnotlawns.com