I'm big on birding in my own backyard! I have several bird feeding stations and my little feathered friends come daily to visit and eat from these.  The bonus is that most seed feeding birds also eat bugs, so by attracting birds into my yard I'm also reducing the mosquito population!  Talk about using green to my advantage!

I like to feed birds year round, but it becomes even more important in the winter when the food supply from native plants is not as abundant or hard to access due to snow cover. 

Making my own suet for my suet feeders saves me money each autumn and gives me a good supply for the winter months. Not only that, but the birds aren't getting some overly processed food filled with additives to make it last. 

Suet is a great supplimental food for birds in the winter when they are burning more calories just to keep warm.  Suet is a high fat, high energy food for your backyard buddies.

I've developed this recipe for the birds in my local area.  It's a money saver with suet cakes running anywhere from $1.25 to $3.50 per cake!

I've had Pileated Woodpeckers, Northern Flickers, and Sap Suckers on my suet feeders along with more common Juncos, Chickadees and Towhees.

 You can adjust this recipe to include berries and rosehips common in your area that you notice birds eating.

Here's my recipe:

3-4 Lbs rendered pork fat

1 C Blackoil Sunflower seed

1 C peanuts

2 C woodpecker mix bird seed

1 C rolled oats

1/2 C craisins

1/2 C dried fruit

1-2 C crumbed dry cereal (several varieties)

1/2 to 1 C peanut butter

1 C cornmeal

1 1/2 C corn masa mix

1-2 C frozen blackberries
1 C rosehips

First, render the fat.  I heat and melt mine in a large crockpot.  When the fat is rendered add the peanut butter, and mix with spoon until incorporated

Next add the birdseed and other dry ingredients, stir in until moistened.

Finally add the fruit, berries and any other wet ingredients. 

Allow the mix to cool down to a temperature that you can work with. 

Then pour or spoon into your recyced suet molds.  If you don't have molds, reuse a clean paper 1/2 gallon milk carton (when suet cools cut into 1" wide slices)

Once the suet is hardened and cool, reuse a bread bag and wrap the suet cakes inside. 

Place in freezer until needed.  In  the freezer this suet will last indefinately.  If you keep it outside of the freezer it will only last for about 4-5 days.  Don't worry though, it's usually eaten up in about a day once the birds find the suet feeder is full.

Enjoy and have fun watching your own backyard birds!

Christi

Crafting is such a great way to express our unique and individual creativity while making useful items for your friends and family.

Over on FatBottomBags facebook page we've been talking about the many different ways that crafters are recycling everyday items for use in craft.  We've had so many great ideas that we'd like to share!  I'll be writing an ongoing blog with different ideas and links, instructions and pictures when possible.

These ideas are from Runway Crochet  who makes beautiful handmade crochet items.

Use stiff polystyrene foam from packaging to  make great blocking boards for crocheted items. Simply shape your wet crochet item and pin in place against the styrofoam.  Allow to air dry.  When you remove the item from the styrofoam it will be nicely shaped.

Recycle cotton wadding from vitamin bottles and use it as stuffing for small items like crocheted buttons.  It holds up better than polyfill, it's a natural material and it holds up well after much use!


Samantha, who does beautiful beadwork that can be found at http://samathasjewelry.webs.com/ had a great recycle project that you can craft from your junk mail, old magazines, and even old phonebooks.  She's making paper beads!  These beads are pretty, fun to make and they're recycled!  There's a great how to DIY article for making your own beads over at http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Paper-Beads

Kristy at http://textiles4you.blogspot.com/ shows us how crafting and recycling go hand in hand.  She has all kinds of great ideas, how to's and DIYs on her blog.  My favorite one is her 4-ply spun brown plarn She's combined plastic bag colors to make an absolutely gorgeous varigated yarn from plastic shopping bags.  Another thing Kristy's up to at her blog is her 30 day challenge.  She's going 30 days of crafting with items she has around her home.  Cool!

These are just a few recycle ideas.  There are many more to come.  If you have some ideas for crafts using recycled everyday items, please drop me a note info@FatBottomBags.com Include pictures, instructions, or links to websites and I will include in the next Recycle Craft Blog
 

Remember when we all do our small part we really can change the big picture!

The city of Seattle recently took on the issue of plastic bags.  A proposed 20 cent bag fee went to the voters.  Unfortunately, but not suprisingly, this failed.  The problem I think is that in the state of Washington our taxes are so high already.  In this economy, people just couldn't imagine paying another fee, which was interpreted by many as another tax.

Now I don't live in Seattle, but I do support legislation that would help eliminate and reduce the ever growing problem of plastic bags.  Many cities across the country and around the world are bringing these types of legislation to the table.  In Edmonds, a waterfront city here in Washington State, a bag ban was passed and is going into effect in the next year. In New Dehli, India, a bag ban is in effect and in Ireland, there is a plasti-tax on bags which reduced their consumption of plastic bags by 90%.

I've had a lot of questions lately as to how I can support any of these types of legislation when my business is recycling plastic bags.  The answer is simple really.  The reason I started FatBottomBags is to reduce plastic bag use and plastic bags in our landfills and more importantly in our oceans.  FatBottomBags is my recycling project and reducing plastic bags is my number one reason for making FatBottomBags from plastic bags.

I hope that someday plastic shopping bags will be banned in my area and when there are no longer plastic bags to be made into FatBottomBags I will gladly work in a different media!

I am supporting The world's first Plastic Bag Free Day will be on the 12th September 2009.  Please join me on this day and make a statement about your commitment to bettering your environment.  24 hours + 0 plastic bags = doing a small thing to change the big picture!

I've printed up posters for my local bulliten board and you can do the same.  Let's spread the word about reducing our use of plastic bags!   For poster go to:  http://www.adoptabeach.org.uk/downloads/aab/PBFD_Poster.pdf 

Christi Spangler