We’ve already covered a multitude of Valentine’s Day-themed items but Tamara came up with a new one for us:

I’d like to know if anyone has a suggestion for how to re-use Valentine’s candy hearts? The chalky kind with writing on them, I mean. They passed them around at work yesterday. I only like the orange ones, and so I’ve been left with a card-deck sized box of other colors. I thought they might look cute as pins, but i think they’d melt if I tried to shellac them. So what to do?

From their pages on Wikipedia, the UK Love Hearts and the US Sweethearts sweets look a bit different but since Tamara (who I’m presuming is based in the US from her use of the spelling “colors” ;) ) refers to them as being “chalky”, I guess the texture and ingredients are pretty similar.

So any suggestions? I like the cute jewellery/badges idea but agree that it might be problematic – any ideas on how to get around that?

(Photo by kymmie_xox)

Jen of the tape dispenser suggestion had another query:

Another suggestion is all those old metro cards that I’ve been keeping… I’m not sure what I want to do with them yet. Any suggestions?

I’m such a sucker for keeping old train tickets too – credit-sized bits of card – because like so many things, they seem like they’re really useful. I’ve used them folded up under wobbly chairs/tables in restaurants on occasion but this really isn’t enough to justify keeping as many as I do.

So suggestions?

(Photo by eurok)

Just a quick post to point you in the direction of a few ideas for reusing and recycling all those Valentine’s Day gifts.

We’ve got:

• How to reuse or recycle dried fresh flowers – such as roses
• How to reuse or recycle the plastic wrapping from a bouquet
• How to reuse or recycle greetings cards
• How to reuse or recycle wrapping paper
• How to reuse or recycle chocolate boxes
• How to reuse or recycle wrappers from individual chocolates

So there are plenty of ways you can show your love for the environment after someone’s shown their love for you :)

We’ve had an email from Jen, saying:

So I was wondering if you knew any good ways to reuse Tape Dispensers when it runs out of tape.

The tape dispenser that I use can just be “refilled” – just slotting another roll of tape onto the wheel – but I did break manage to break the wheel while doing the swap at one point so it’s not as useful as a dispenser now.

I suspect Jen’s dispenser is less easily refillable though so does anyone have any non-tape reuses for a generic reasonably heavy contraption with a cutting blade thing at the front?

(Photo by Nbauer)

We’ve had an email from “Pondering of Bristol”, saying:

Sorry to be a bit morbid but my daughter’s pet rat, Ellen, is on the way out and we are wondering what to do with her once the inevitable happens? We don’t have a big garden, just pots, so can’t really bury her. Should we put her in the compost?

I wouldn’t put a dead animal in an open compost heap for the same reason I would steer clear of composting any animal products – it may attract other unwanted vermin or insects to the heap while it’s decomposing. People using sealed composting systems are usually more happy to do this type of thing though.

We’ve always been able to bury our ex-cats in their favourite spot in the garden so I haven’t really thought about alternatives – does anyone else know about this sort of thing?

(Photo by puellakas)