Travis left a comment on the ‘Suggest An Item‘ page asking:

What can I do with baby food jars?

We’ve featured bigger jars and littler jars in the past but not specifically baby food jars.

Any reuse suggestions then? In particular, any suggestions that will use them en masse (since some families could be getting through a few a day) or baby-related reuses?

Some ideas to get us started: baby food jar candles; very cute baby food jar pincushion-topped sewing kits; and this month’s craft craze, terrariums in jars (mine, when I get around to making it, will star some little dinosaurs).

• How can I reuse or recycle other baby related stuff?

The other day on Things To Do Today, I mentioned marbles in passing and it made me think of the stash of marbles we have in our board-games-and-assorted-toys chest. You know, the stash we’ve probably touched once in five years.

They could, obviously, go to a charity shop for another generation to enjoy but since the orbs were so fiercely won in many heated battles over the years and hold fun memories, it would be nice to reuse them from something around our house or the like.

My ideas so far: jewellery (albeit heavy jewellery) with the marbles held in bead cages, on display in a clear glass vase or somehow made into a lightshade.

Any other ideas?

What about the really really bashed up ones that won’t look so nice on show? I imagine they’re handy weights – any good uses for them?

(Photo by asolario)

We’ve had an email from Gwyn:

Taking our tree down yesterday, we found 6 (six!) baubles were pretty much destroyed and only staying together through some sort of Christmas miracle and another 10 were fractured and set to go the same way. Bloomin’ cats!

They’re glass so I was thinking I could recycle them with our normal glass recycling but then my fella pointed out that they might not be the same type of glass and they’re all painted/varnished too.

Can we recycle them or not?

I’m not 100% sure but I suspect the answer is no because of the layer of paint – especially if the paint is some sort of acrylic matte stuff or is glittery. Anyone know for sure?

Depending on quite how smashed they are, you might be able to renovate some of them to make a feature of the broken bits – perhaps poke a thin paintbrush through a hole and varnish the insides to hold the cracks together, then place a tiny decoration in there.

Failing that, wrap them in some newspaper (so bits of glass don’t fly everywhere) and smash them up into smaller pieces, then use them to do a mosiac design on, say, a photo frame or something.

Any other reuse suggestions – other than getting baubles that bounce in the future? ;)

(Photo by fishmonk)

Following on from last week’s little bottles that are awkward to clean post, we’ve had an email from Agata:

I’m really into manicures! I use lots of nail varnish and I have lots of empty bottles – any idea what to do with them?

Most nail polish bottles I’ve seen are glass so lid and brush aside can probably be recycled (I’m assuming the recycling process would clean the glass enough to get rid of the varnish residue). But obviously reuses are more fun.

So suggestions?

(By the way, we covered leftover little bits of nail varnish about two years ago.)

A question from my mum – something she mentioned on instant messenger a few weeks ago but I forgot until now ;)

The night we were chatting about it, she had just found a collection of them in a drawer during a clearout. The bottles she has are brown glass, about 6cm (2.5inches) tall but pretty narrow, with a plastic cap and a plastic thing at the top to make drips happen. Other, equally small bottles, come with a pipette instead of the drip thing.

So basically we’ve got some very small bottles that will be tricky to clean out – any suggestions?

Mum thought kids could use them for playing shop – since they’re more kid-size than adult-size – but couldn’t think of anything else. Ideas?