Something I’ve learned as a magazine editor/celebrity wrangler/event planner/TV spokesperson is this: if you look like and act like you belong somewhere, no one is going to question you.    

Case in point: the US Open in Flushing, NY happening right now.

The other night, I was invited as a guest on behalf of my friends at Citizen Watch Company.  Citizen makes the Eco-Drive watch series—a very cool, affordable line of timepieces that never need a battery and use the power of light to run—-and I’ve been a huge supporter of these watches for many, many years.  Having arrived at the US Open this year about an hour early and heard about new eco practices going on behind the scenes, I decided to take a look!

Apparently, the US Open will go through about 25,000-30,000 tennis balls alone this tournament.  That includes qualifying rounds and actual tennis matches happening from Day 1 to the Grand Finale.     Here’s a section backstage where thousands of the plastic tubes used to hold official US Open tennis balls are bagged for recycling.     I asked what happened to all the old tennis balls and most of them are sent to hospitals around the country to be recycled into protectors for the bottom of walker devices so they don’t scratch the floor.

Attendants everywhere were wearing these t-shirts.    Many of them are there to help guests to the US Open sort through their recyclables.   This year, the cutlery was even non-plastic and made from  biodegradable resins; the club suites (where Citizen Watch has one) are disposable free altogether with reusable plates, cups and utensils.

Lots of composting going on behind the scenes….

Even all the grease from the restaurants is collected and turned into biodiesel fuel.    Somebody tell Ms. Daryl Hannah, stat, about this!  She’ll bring her biodiesel fueled cars to Flushing to fill up!

Glad to see a major sporting event like the US Open truly, really getting into the greening of everything.  Impossible to tell for the normal guest, but for a sneaky blogger like me, it was great to see it all really happening behind the scenes.

Happy Wednesday! 

Quick and easy post today: I took an old salad bowl, drilled a hole on the side and threaded it with an Ikea light cord set (Hemma, $3.99).  Once the socket part of the light cord was inside the bowl, I just screwed in a light bulb and plugged it in.    Then I raided the winter storage bins for some de-icing rock salt and just filled it up.    Done!

Can you read by this light?  No.  But it sure looks great by the sofa in the master bedroom as an accent light!

A few years ago, I picked up these vintage ceramic vases from the Renninger’s Market outside of Kutztown, PA.   I loved the feel and shape of the vases and how “organic” the texture on the outside looked and felt.    I’ve been trying to recreate the look of these to a very small degree of success and have blogged about it in the past.   Today, it’s no different in my attempt to pull the inspiration from these vases into a project.

Here are some tin cans I’ve pulled out of my own cupboard or out of a recycling bin somewhere in my community.  Yes, I am that crazy man rooting through your trash.

On a stop to Lowe’s to pick up a canvas tarp for a totally different project, I saw this in the painting supply aisle and thought it might be the product I need to “flock” the cans for the same organic look.   The tubes (taped to the side of the can) allow you to create a fine, medium or heavy finish.     I also like the fact it’s “ultra fast drying,” so I can see results right away.  I do believe this product is originally designed to help people recreate a textured wall surface in their home or something like that.  Who knows?   Half the stuff I buy at Lowe’s I never know what the original intended purpose is anyway….   like a kid in a non-candy store.

Flocking away….  it took seconds to to do this.

After drying for 24 hours, it looks like textured ceramic!    Since the cans are watertight, they can be used as vases.  Thinking this might have to go into the new book, but I need to work on some better looking beauty contenders…

Okay, so I’ve been asked not to share projects we’re doing for the new book Upcyling here on this blog, but to that I say… loophole!

This is a project in the book, so I wont share the tutorial how we made it.

But I love how you can go into the yard and find interesting botanicals—leaves, flowers, pine cones, moss—and find a unique and easy to preserve them for a collection at home.

Eh, give me a glass of wine and a laptop and maybe I’ll come back and post the tutorial, but in the meantime, maybe you guys can figure it out and share here in the comments section.   I’m on your side, trust me.

Last week, I had a group of stylists here from NYC working on my new book Upcycling by crafting, crafting and crafting away. I asked them if they ran across any old computer keyboards (or had one stashed in their closet at home) to bring it along with them.   I have become obsessed with trying to figure out a fun way to upcycle a keyboard.

Hmm…. ripping off some keys, and look what it spelled!   J-O-U-R-N-A-L.

Journal.    Where am I going with this…

Found myself a journal.

Now I’m thinking…. can I hotglue all the keys all over the front of the journal?

I shall share this result with you soon.

Made myself some sauteed chickpeas this afternoon for lunch and as I was rinsing out the can for the recycling bin, I decided I would have some fun and see if I could upcycle it into something fun.

I rooted around the craft room and saw some shells I collected on a previous trip to Florida, the glue gun and a little bit of powdered plaster leftover from a project from last week.    I felt like I was doing the crafting version of trying to cook a meal with leftovers, but in this case, who knew if the results would be good or not?

I mixed some of the plaster powder with water and poured it all over the outside of the can.   Noticing that the seashells were kinda lost under the plaster, I took my fingers and just wiped off the excess plaster on the shells. Looking better!

Eh.   Not sure about this.  I think I need to play around with this idea and maybe adjust the plaster, but I’m not totally disappointed.   I think if it were filled with white flowers, it could kinda work.  

Off to eat my lunch…. quick and easy upcycling!

On the side wall between the kitchen and laundry room, I decided to install some DIY shelves on the wall.

It’s a fallen branch cut up into a few pieces with raw wood “shelves” screwed right into the branches.  It’s kinda of an optical illusion because it looks like the shelves are part of the branches, but in reality it’s all several pieces all puzzled back together right on the wall.

The question is: should I paint the raw wood shelves or should I leave it raw?

Normally, I’d paint it a light shade of gray or cream if there were any other kind of shelf, but looking at the collection of raw wood items and natural wood bark, I’m leaning towards leaving it as is.

Thoughts?

There’s a very good chance that many of you reading Daily Danny just hate your showerhead.  Maybe it’s old.   Maybe it’s clogged with hard water mineral build-up.   Maybe it just, well, sucks.

My good friends at Kohler want to give (3) Daily Danny readers a chance to win their brand-new Kohler Flipshide Hand Shower.  If you can’t afford a bathroom makeover or renovation, one of the easiest and most economical ways to upgrade a bathroom is to swap out the old water-wasting showerhead for a new one with unique bells and whistles to start your day off the right way!

I love Kohler products and the company because they have a long-standing commitment to water conservation with a whole variety of WaterSense and water-efficient products for both the bathroom and kitchen.   

The Flipside showerhead features four totally unique experiences all in one showerhead:

• Koverage: traditional everyday shower spray
• Kotton: a downpour of water that feels dense, soft and enveloping
• Komotion:an exhilerating drenching spray
• Kurrent: invigorating massage spray for aching muscles.

Tell me why you need a new Kohler Fliprside Handshower.   If you’re following me on twitter @dannyjseo, you can enter twice!  Three lucky Daily Danny readers will win! 

Good luck!

CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED.  CONGRATS TO KIMI, MCINDC and CHRISTY.  Check your in-boxes for an email from me on instructions on how to claim your prize!  CONGRATS!

Happy Friday!  

Easy peasy upcycling idea today for vintage looking plates you may have around the house or find for next to nothing at a thrift shop or flea market.

This is inspired by plates I saw on “Visually Vod” (scroll down to see the Precious Products plates).      Start off by taping off the area of the plate you don’t want painted.

Spray paint (I know, not so eco, but it really works the best here) some “metal” paint on top.   A little goes a very very long way here, folks.

And voila!   Gold stripes.    Okay, this isn’t the same as the Visually Vod one, but this was my first attempt.  I think I need to “dip” half the plate in gold or do some kind of silhouette.   The point is, this took :30 seconds to attempt and in my crazy world, I give that two thumbs up.

So, I’ve had this image of a jar lid table on my desktop for a while now.  I snapped it when I was in Las Vegas for the bi-annual Furniture Market presentation for my Simmons Natural Care mattress line.   It’s a great display table at Barney’s New York in the Palazzo Shoppes at the Palazzo Hotel.

Anyway, I was tempted to maket his table until I realized that each individual jar lid was attached to 4 individual metal prongs underneath, and then all of those 4 prongs are sodered together to the 4 other prongs making it truly a work of art.   That is until….

I took the tablecloth off my dining room table to wash and remembered: I have a cheap outdoor table as my dining room table.

If you frequently read this blog, you know I’ve been searching for a dining room table for like—oh, I don’t know—forever now.    So, I kinda gave up and have been using this $99 LL Bean outdoor table covered in more expensive John Robshaw tablecloths for 2 years now.   Well, I got used to it and thought this was a very Suze Orman-type way of saving $2,000 from buying a new table.   Just be happy with what ya got.

Then I realized I could make my jar lid table by using the existing metal grating on table of the table.  And as you can see, I’m slowly making a pattern of collected jar lids in concentric circles in different sizes all over the top.

The question is: how on earth will I attach them to the table?  Any ideas?   The peanut gallery here thinks I should apply a thin coat of thinsete on the bottom and attach them that way and that’s that.  

Would love to hear….