DIY Eco-Gift For The X-traordinary Techie On Your Holiday List

Do you have a techie on your list that goes to extraordinary measures to repurpose electronic items that would otherwise be relegated to the landfill? I bet that person has a bunch of dead computers lying around (doesn't everyone). When a dead computer gets thrown away, it does not biodegrade. It just lives in its toxic hole and continues to die a slow death - Yikes!

Computers can be reincarnated, and 62 Projects To Make With A Dead Computer (and Other Discarded Electronics), by Randy Sarafan will have your techie turning dead computers, printers, cell phones, iPods and keyboards from trash into treasure. They'll even learn how to make an iMac terrarium, a laptop digital photo frame, a mouse pencil sharpener, and a slew of amazing new creations.

Who knew?

Photo credit: Amazon (...but buy it locally if you can)

DIY Eco-Gifts For the Vegetarian and Vegan On Your Holiday List

"Passionate" is too lightweight a word to describe how some folks feel about the dietary decision to become a vegetarian or vegan. It is a distinction that I think a lot of people don't understand. So, let's curb the confusion and set the record straight:

People tend to have a clearer idea of what a vegetarian is, but when someone mentions being a vegan, all sorts of questions arise. The VegeKitchen explains,

"Vegetarians avoid meat, fowl, and seafood; vegans avoid all animal products in the diet, including eggs, dairy products, and honey. They also avoid any animal products in daily life. No leather, no wool, and no cosmetics tested on animals. For most vegans, ethical factors weigh in equally, if not more so, as health and environmental issues. Concerns for animal welfare and the embracing of a more compassionate lifestyle means that in general, any products that are animal-derived or that contain animal byproducts are avoided."

Like most cooks, vegetarians and vegans have food-stained funky folders stuffed with tried and true recipes. Plus, there are loads of cooking websites and blogs with tasty meatless recipes. Why not turn those recipes into a cookbook for the vege/vegan on your holiday list? DIY Vege/Vegan Cookbook

Creating a personalized cookbook for a vegetarian or vegan from their own recipes will show them that you respect their dietary decision. Making a cookbook is easy with the TasteBook. It is a straightforward site that collects and organizes recipes and creates a published cookbook. Yum.

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