A shameless plug.
Ooh! Almost forgot to say: For any of you who live in or near the Twin Cities, some friends of Allen's (and mine, really) just opened a terrific little shop that I believe I mentioned in a journal entry back towards the beginning of the summer. It's called Re-Gifts, and carries gift and decorative items made entirely from recycled products and/or found items, or at the very least made using a green process.
Allen and I went to visit their shop for the first time on Friday evening, and I was enchanted. We purchased a bowl made out of a warped vinyl record (Chicago Original Cast Recording--we have a soft spot for it, especially it was the first show we did together) and some delicious-smelling eucalyptus/balsam soap. But they have all kinds of wacky and creative items: jewelry (that actually looks very nice, trust me, though it sounds like it wouldn't) made out of everything from forks to legos to shapes punched from alumninum cans; wastebaskets made out of chopsticks; glasses made out of altered wine bottles; sculptures made from scrap metal. They stamp their logo on the back of cardboard clothing tags and use them as business cards, and re-use grocery sacks for their bags (of course) too.
Tina (one of the proprietors) said that they had a local elementary school class visit their shop last week on a scavenger hunt, because they were doing a recycling unit in their science class. Their job was to find items in the shop that were made from each of the items on the list their teacher had given them. Not only is that one extremely on-the-ball teacher, especially considering the shop opened just two weeks ago, but I also think it's a terrific hands-on way to get kids thinking about recycling. Bravo!
So yeah, check it out, it's a great place and Tina & Ryan are nifty. End of sales pitch.
**Edited to add:
It's in the comments now, but I'll put it up here too, because somehow I managed to omit it the first time...
The address of the shop is:
1832 E. 42nd St.
Minneapolis, MN 55407
And for good measure, here's their website: http://www.re-gifts.com/
NOW end of sales pitch.
Allen and I went to visit their shop for the first time on Friday evening, and I was enchanted. We purchased a bowl made out of a warped vinyl record (Chicago Original Cast Recording--we have a soft spot for it, especially it was the first show we did together) and some delicious-smelling eucalyptus/balsam soap. But they have all kinds of wacky and creative items: jewelry (that actually looks very nice, trust me, though it sounds like it wouldn't) made out of everything from forks to legos to shapes punched from alumninum cans; wastebaskets made out of chopsticks; glasses made out of altered wine bottles; sculptures made from scrap metal. They stamp their logo on the back of cardboard clothing tags and use them as business cards, and re-use grocery sacks for their bags (of course) too.
Tina (one of the proprietors) said that they had a local elementary school class visit their shop last week on a scavenger hunt, because they were doing a recycling unit in their science class. Their job was to find items in the shop that were made from each of the items on the list their teacher had given them. Not only is that one extremely on-the-ball teacher, especially considering the shop opened just two weeks ago, but I also think it's a terrific hands-on way to get kids thinking about recycling. Bravo!
So yeah, check it out, it's a great place and Tina & Ryan are nifty. End of sales pitch.
**Edited to add:
It's in the comments now, but I'll put it up here too, because somehow I managed to omit it the first time...
The address of the shop is:
1832 E. 42nd St.
Minneapolis, MN 55407
And for good measure, here's their website: http://www.re-gifts.com/
NOW end of sales pitch.