A Corking Good Time Crafting

4"x6" 'cork' trivet

cardboard and cork wreath

cork wreath hanging on door

Recently, I came across a box-load of wine corks that had been accumulating in my basement for years. I just don't like to throw things out but watching those Hoarder shows on TV has had an effect on me and I've become more serious about throwing things out. Or, in this case, getting a bit creative with some of the old rubbish lying around.  I sorted the corks by type, that is, whether they were real cork or that new plasticky-cork stuff that you find.  I used these plasticky ones to make a hot plate trivet. I arranged them in some semblance of order and just glued 'em together with some clear transparent super sticky type glue that I found in a tube in a drawer in the kitchen. Yes, I'm dehoarding kitchen drawers too!  Then I sorted all the real cork corks and found a lot of them had lovely little pictures or numbers or words or letters on them.  After finding a wreath-shaped piece of cardboard (yes, I'd saved that too and it was up for either the trash, re-cycling or crafting!) which I painted red with some, you guessed it, left-over craft paint I found in another drawer. I used red paint as it was the only little paint can that was still wet enough to use! Once the paint dried on the cardboard I started to arrange the corks around the wreath, first a lower level and then adding other ones on top, in a sort of higgledy-piggledy design.  I should say here that I went out on the Internet first and searched "What To Do With Old Corks?" and found numerous websites where people had pictures and descriptions of making stuff with old wine corks. So, suitably inspired by their ingenuity, I made a wreath and hot plate rest meself and feel quite satisfied with the final results.  I've already had some compliments from house guests about them, including questions. One asked about "how long it took to accumulate all those corks?" from my brother who is clearly checking up on me to see if I'm a wino or not.  The answer is "about 10 years of tippling," which seemed to disappoint him somewhat.  Another person asked "if the corks smelled?" which was an unexpected question.  The answer is "no as all the corks were quite old and dry when I used them." So, I will use these items for as long as I like and then I can either trash, re-cycle or upcycle them again whenever.  These items really didn't take long to make nor were they too complicated to put together as I had everything at hand somewhere ('hoarded'). And I do take pleasure in keeping things out of the landfill as much as possible though, don't you too?

Stinky DC Taxi Cabs

Today was too much. I often take cabs in DC because my back hurts from a slipped disk and I can't take the buses as often as I used to. Today I got stuck with three different cabs, all of which were stinky. The first was a ride to the Hill for my job, to meet with some Hill staff on some policy issues I am working on. This cab didn't have air conditioning, the inside of the passenger door was duct taped together, there were fingerprints and smears on everything and the cab smelt dirty. Worse, the brakes were snatching so at every light or stop, the cab lurched, jarring my spine. I thought I'd get better luck in the cab back to the office, but oh no, even though it had air conditioning, something was very wrong. It smelled of fresh nauseating gasoline, like someone had spilled fuel in the cab or there was some sort of leak. I staggered out of that one practically barfing on the sidewalk from the odor and with the taste of gasoline lingering my mouth. My last cab of the day was to go home. It had air conditioning. No duct tape. Brakes worked. BUT once again this one stank. Of driver body odor, half eaten food on the front seat and a dozen air freshener cards dangling from the rear view mirror. By the time I got home my stomach was churning (again) and I had to lie down to recover. I've had good and new clean cabs in DC but today took the cake! Maybe I should just calm down and thank God I have the means to take cabs. Note: the image above is NOT an example of a stinky cab but is an example of one of the good cabs -- clean, AC, courteous driver.