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Big thanks from MuMam for the mention and return link!  For more information on "Google Juice" and how reciprocal links make it easier for your website to be found, shoot me an email at lmoody31@gmail.com.

UPDATE: Waterproof mats from plastic shopping bags: lessons learned.

Special thanks to T.W. Starr and WAAY31 for featuring Denise's work and commitment on a WAAY31 First News "Did You Know?"



After Denise taught me how to make crcochet mats from plastic shopping bags, I got right to work on my own mat.  Note that I am *NOT* a crafty person.  This is super easy and a great past-time for people like me who have a hard time "unwinding".

The majority of my first mat was completed during Spring Break, using bags we collected as we traveled.  The car is a great place to crochet!  When I returned home and showed Denise, I learned that I was stitching much too tightly and have since loosened the stitches...and saved the nerve endings in my fingers.

I got excited and tried any kind of plastic bag I could get my hands on.....Justice, Bloom Dancewear, Ulta.  These large, thick bags are great...but adjust strip width to about .25".  Cut single strips and tie together, instead of looping the plastic rings to make 2-ply yarn.  

My original three foot wide mat has gradually drawn up and the width is currently down to just over 2".  I've also gotten pretty attached to my first piece of handiwork.  I plan to stop this mat soon and keep for my own and use it as a gardening mat.  With my initial lessons learned, I can't wait to get started on a full sized bed roll!

I will be assisting Denise this Friday at the Goldsmith-Schiffman Elementary GREEN FLING this Friday.  Send us your plastic bags!

But what do we really DO?

Many of us save our recyclables or have changed our habits to be more "green".  We also say prayers for people in need, donate when the occasion comes up.  But at the end of the day, how much labor can we really say we've put into saving the environment or to helping other people?  If you're like me, not much.  There always seems to be a time, money, or priority conflict that prevents me from the grand acts of selflessness that I know in my heart we should all contribute to our world each day.

Denise Miles is not like me.  Denise not only has a heart for other people and the Earth we live on, but she also has a "DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!" attitude.  She's focused in her career, her relationships with the people around her, and her conviction that, being blessed beyond measure, she is socially responsible to DO whatever she can to make others' lives better.

I was humbled when Denise started telling me about the process she goes through to turn shopping bags into sleep mats.  She reminds neighbors not to throw away their plastic shopping bags, but to give them to her instead and keep them out of a land fill.  Her goal is to create one bedroll a month in 2011 and she works almost daily to reach that goal.  For someone sleeping in the street, her dedication means a dry, padded, and light-weight bed.

Denise broke the process down, step-by-step, for me and I was thrilled to find it was actually something *I* can DO!  Size L crochet needle $1.38.  Plastic bags found in homes we've visited as we road trip, I've started my first mat.

Think you might like to try it?
Watch below as Denise demonstrates how to make bed rolls from waste plastic bags.


Thanks to Pearson Homes for allowing us to shoot this project in the kitchen of their model home in Hampton Station.


The same technique can be used to create mats for other purposes, such as seating mats for kids' classes or as a water-proof layer for any camper or picnic goer.  Mats are practically weightless and easily cleaned.

Denise will be demonstrating the bag making project at Goldsmith-Schiffman's upcoming "Green Fling" and training the children to assist in the process by saving, cutting and tying the bags.  Many thanks to Denise for being an inspiration and for sharing this great idea!

Do you already have a favorite "give back" project.  What do you DO?  Comment below or post a link.

Chelsea...the rest of the story

When Disney's new "it" girl, Chelsea Kane (formerly Chelseas Staub) was asked to pick a personal song for this week's Dancing with the Stars performance, she chose a song appropriately titled "Chelsea". As part of the show, we learned that the song was written for her by a boy she grew up with and that it represented the first time she fell in love.

The rest of the story behind "Chelsea" is actually much sweeter and straight out of a Disney princess, Lala Land sitcom.

And what did The Summer Set lead singer think of Chelsea's DWTS performance? He tweeted, “Speechless for the first time in my entire life. That was incredible, @ChelseaKane. I gave you a song, you gave me a dance.”

Did you vote for Chelsea and partner, Mark Ballas? Who is your favorite star to take the title for 2011?

UPDATE:  Special thanks to my friend Jeff Rosado of The Culture of Pop for once again inviting me to be his guest for our weekly Dancing with the Stars podcast.  For a recap of last night's dances, or just to hear me talk, listen to the podcast. 

Are school curriculums keeping up with the Millenials?

Recently the mother of a second grader shared with me that after becoming increasingly frustarted by "ABC order" spelling homework, she taught her daughter to type the words into a spread sheet and sort. I was taken aback at first and many readers may argue that this mom is teaching her child to cheat. But, hasn't she actually taught her child a more useful, real world skill?

Alphabetizing words manually warrants weekly practice in the second grade. The only application for the skill is "to look stuff up". Student curriculum writers seem not have recognized that a child who is eight years old today will likely never, ever browse through alphabetized keywords to find information. Today's eight year old already knows how to use the "search" field.

My own second grader came home last week with the much anticipated instructions for her big "STATE RESEARCH PROJECT", which included a full page of questions that must be answered about the assigned state. I looked at it with dread. She fired up her ipod and had the questions completed in no time, not once having touched a book.

In the world of the Millenials, a generation that now outnumbers Baby Boomers as the largest section of the population, phone books exist only for the purpose of recycling. Encyclopedias are collectibles. They've never seen or heard of a "card catalog". Hard copy filing systems stand alone as the holdout application for "ABC order". Most of these are being replaced by electronic systems and, for the ones that remain, a review course of the alphabet song for workers as needed would be more efficient than weekly training for all students.

What other traditionally important assignments need to be eliminated or altered to reflect the world our children will grow up in?