DIY Eco-Gift Guide For The Unexpected House Guest - (Not) On Your Holiday List

Right about now (a few days before Christmas), everything is amped up - the gifts, the grub and the guests! We can plan and prepare, but who can prepare for the unexpected house guest?

They say the best gifts are unexpected. They (whoever "they" are) also say, house guests are like fish, they both begin to smell after a while.

I really love entertaining house guests, even the unexpected kind (who smell lovely). But unexpected house guests remind me of upside down cakes. These cakes push the boundaries of cooking – are they bottomless or topless delectables? Where does it begin and end? Anyway, the same can be true for house guests – What are the boundaries?

The first question I ask is, "How long do you plan on visiting?" Once we've got that set, we're pretty much good to go. I like to make a few easy gifts and store them away, just in case…

DIY Water Carafe This is a quiet little gift (of the upside down kind) that sends a loud message to your guests that plastic water bottles don't belong in your home.

What you need: A few glasses or a bottle and a glass - one tall and narrow, and one short and wider (like the ones in the image above).

What to do: 1. Place a tall narrow glass bottle next to the bed. 2. Cover the tall glass with a shorter and wider one. 3. You can put a recycled sleeve cup cozy onto the glass to add a touch of warmth to the gift.

Photos: Remodelista, Noel Hendrickson/Getty Images from Planet Green

DIY Eco-Gift For The Traveler On Your Holiday List

It is a nightmarish holiday season for European travelers. A high-octane storm blanketed areas of Europe during the peak of the holiday shopping and travel season. Huffington Post reports that Britain, Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark have shut down runways and posted cancellations or delays on many flights.

Scenarios like this can be so stressful for travelers. Stranded for hours and sometimes days, makes packing for the unknown challenging. What do travelers need? Matt Gross, author of the The New York Times blog, The Frugal Traveler believes travelers need to lighten up - "Waste is the antithesis of frugality, and unnecessary belongings can make travel more difficult than it already is."

A gift for a traveler should be: 1. Something that takes up very little space. 2. Something that would be a breeze to get through the scrutiny of airport security. 3. Something easy to carry.

When I asked a master adventure traveler, and the author of Black Smoke, Margaret De Wys what she always takes with her when she travels, her response was, "A journal to write in."

Giving a handmade journal is a thoughtful personalized gift that can be used for the culmination of an eco-globetrotting trip to save the world, or a place to store the utterances and frustrations of a day spent in an airport during a snowstorm.

DIY Travel Journal

Here is a photo journal tutorial from Photojojo (a fabulous resource). It can be made using sugarcane fiber, reclaimed or recycled paper, with inner pockets for storing maps, scraps of fabrics, coins and mementos. I like that the spine opens flat for drawing and writing across the pages.

Here are 10 Reasons To Write In a Journal and for 5 more DIY Journals CLICK HERE.

Photo: Photojojo

DIY Eco-Gifts For The Skier/Snowboarder On your Holiday List

Around here, "'Tis the season" also means, it's time to hit the slopes. We just love winter sports and we all ski and snowboard. What we don't love is the pricey equipment, and an industry that generally gets a thumbs down for eco-friendliness.

Ski, snowboard and skateboarding paraphernalia tends to be highly technical, but damaged skis, snowboards and skateboards make great materials for DIY projects.

When my son was a teenager, skateboards ruled. We created this skateboard bench from a skateboard that he didn't want to toss. The board had seen a fine street life, but it was ready for retirement. With a few screws and four hairpin legs, we upcycled the skateboard into a bench. This is a picture of the underside of the bench (Jimi Hendrix always rules).

Green Mountain Ski Furniture recycles old skis and snowboards into ski furniture in the same manner we did with the skateboard. They provide DIY kits to make chairs, benches, tables, and racks from your old discarded skis or snowboards.

Note about the main image: That is me skiing at Whistler. I have no idea how I made it down that mountain. I went around the turn and I was petrified - it was so steep. Photo: Recycled Skis

DIY Eco-Gifts For Recyclers On Your Holiday List

Maybe one of the biggest differences between growing up in my childhood home and my children's home (mine too), is that now we all recycle. This one small act is something each and everyone of us can do at home to help save the planet.

I was totally floored during a recent conversation with an obviously intelligent woman who blurted out, "I don't recycle." It opened a floodgate of comments here. Recycling is such an integral environmental issue that I come back to it often -  as I did last week in this post, "5 Reasons Why People Don't Recycle and 5 Reasons They Should."

We need to continue to cultivate a culture of recycling. I wrote about setting up a recycling center with my son in his first apartment here. Maybe, just maybe, we can begin to make a dent into the environmental mess we've made.

What do all good recyclers need? They can never have enough recycling bins.

DIY Gift Idea: Recycling Bin and Labels

Recycling bins perform an important task, but the bins themselves are pretty utilitarian. Here are two novel DIY gift ideas: This Barn Wood & Chalkboard Bin is made from a reclaimed wood bin that has been painted with chalkboard paint. Use low-VOC blackboard paint from Hudson chalkboard paint to label the contents of the bin. Or, you can just print out a sheet of personalized DIY Recycling Bin Labels.

I love the clever labeling on the recycling bins in the main image. It makes you think about all the possibilities, while raising awareness.

For 5 more recycling center ideas CLICK HERE.

Photo: Apartment Therapy, VivaTerra

DIY Eco-Gifts For The Quilter on Your Holiday List

A handmade quilt is a true luxury. Quilts made from pieced together scraps of fabric that otherwise may have been wasted, make quilters the ultimate green DIYers.

It is estimated that between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags are discarded annually worldwide. That's more than a million per minute.

Why not give all the materials to create a DIY Eco-Quilted bag. A quilted bag made from organic fabrics or recycled materials such as: burlap bags, dishtowels, old curtains, jeans, used scarves or old clothes will help to curb plastic and paper bag waste, and can become an heirloom worthy of passing down to your children.

DIY Eco-Quilted Bag

This Quilted Bag from Quilting For Peace-Making the World A Better Place One Stitch at a Time, by Katherine Bell is an easy sewing project. Here is the pattern for the bag. Include in the bag a copy of this heartwarming book about a group of dedicated and diverse quilters who create small acts of creative kindness in their quest to make the world more peaceful.

Photo: Garnet Hill, Quilting For Peace