Thursday, July 16, 2009

Amigurumi

After cleaning out Sabrina's bedroom again lately, I was disappointed by the amount of plastic toys and junk I hauled out of there. McDonald's toys, dollar-store toys, trinkets from loot bags, the sources are endless.

So, after a plastic toy is no longer usable, where does it go? Yes, it can be recycled, given to thrift shops to sell, and regifted, but you know where it will ultimately end up. The garbage dump. How can we in good conscience continue to fill our houses with a crazy amount of plastic that we cannot recycle? Is this the gift we want to leave our children and grandchildren with?

I started to research toys made from natural, recyclable materials, or fibers that could be composted, and discovered amigurumi. I've started crocheting a little clown and Sabrina is so excited that I'm making a toy for her that she is constantly asking me to work on it. Thankfully, these projects are simple and small and can be worked up in a few hours to a few days.

I'll post a picture of the finished product when it is done. If it goes well, I have a "kitty in pajamas" and a frog that I also have patterns for.

1 comments:

mom_of_4 said...

This was posted on my other blog when the comments weren't working on this one yet. I wanted to post it here because I like her ideas:

Hi Lisa,

Happy Birthday to your beautiful twins. I think about you and them regularly. Your post for their birthday was beautiful.

I wanted to tell you that I read your post on the new blog but couldn't comment despite clicking on post a comment several times. Not sure what's going on. One trick that I recently tried with the girls is to offer them an ice cream instead of a McDonald's toy. I too hate all of the plastic toys around here. There are also some great companies out there that make environmentally friendly toys like Melissa and Doug, Blue Orange, Plan etc. They can be quite pricy however. Chapter's now carries some of their games.

I hope that you are finding strength today from the love that surrounds you and your beautiful family.

Kristen

July 19, 2009 11:00 AM