We had an email from Richard the other day:

I have recently designed and restored a cast iron roll top bath. I’ve taken an antique original bath and I have recently designed and restored a cast iron roll top bath. I’ve taken an antique original bath and have given it a bespoke twist using ceramic handmade mosaics as decoration. With the iron legs chromed too I feel it would stand out in any bathroom.

Replica cast iron baths take large amounts of energy to produce and thus leave a large carbon foot print. This is my greener alternative!

This is a great idea – there are so many old baths dumped because they’re no longer pretty but this now is pretty flash.

Our bath in our last house was very old – the original one when bathrooms were installed in the houses in the 1960s (when the council decided that the 60 year old houses weren’t actually “temporary housing” as planned) – and as a result, the enamel was damaged & stained by water deposits. It was always our plan to explore re-enamelling it but as with many things in our lives, we never got around to it. Has anyone else had any experience re-surfacing a bath? Did you do it yourself or is it a job for a professional?

A lot of baths nowadays seem to be made from plastic or fibreglass – not quite so cold but more prone to cracking that a solid hunk of metal. Has anyone fixed a damaged plastic/fibreglass bath?

Earlier this week, someone on my local Freecycle group asked if anyone had any old plastic guttering/drainpipes because she wanted to cut it in half to use for seedlings. I thought that was a pretty genius idea but wondered what else could be done with it…

There is a section of old drainpipe in the woods next to our house too – I haven’t investigated it too closely yet but I think it’s an old metal one, so not as easily hackable but still potentially useful.

Any suggestions?

Compared to our old tiny yard, we’ve got a pretty big garden now but not that many flower beds – and the previous owners hinted that the beds we have got aren’t that deep (even though some of them are already raised) because the entire garden is built on, essentially, a cliff face. The rock is handy as it stops our house from sliding down the hill into the beck but it means my root veg will have to grow in containers instead.

I plan to scavenge some round tubs from somewhere – old plastic barrels or the like – but I’d like some nicer planters – probably trough/window-box shaped – for on the balcony/patio bit, and for the slither of space between the front of our house and the road. They don’t all need to be deep enough for root veg as I want to grow plenty of above ground stuff too.

My father-in-love has suggested making them out of scraps of decking – a box with decking for sides – but any other suggestions?

We’ve had an email from Molly:

Our wonderful family and friends brought a selection of home made cakes to our Christmas party and I’ve been left with 5 cake boards. They’re card so I won’t be able to wash them to use them again but I don’t want to just throw them out. What can I do with them?

Actually recycling them might be a problem if they’re mixed materials – cardboard topped with foil or the like. You can rip the foil off and recycle the card but it’ll be better to reuse them if possible.

I’ve seen a pinboard made from cardboard cake boards – stick a couple together if you want them to be thicker/stronger. An alternative to that might be sticking a bulldog clip or the like to the top and using it as a clipboard for shopping lists. The thinner square/rectangular ones might also work as covers for a notebook – perhaps for all your favourite cake recipes? :)

It’s hard to reduce waste when items come as a gift but perhaps you could encourage the cake bakers in your life to use washable alternatives in the future – either a purpose-made acrylic or wooden board, or a large pretty plate — I find charity shops a good source for the latter.

Any other reuse suggestions – or alternatives for future cakes?

Over on the “Suggest An Item” page, Lizzy asked:

How about ribbons? I always nab ribbon from shop bought cake and the slightly more upmarket clothes tags thinking ‘That’ll come in handy’ but I never seem to find a use for it – especially ones with brand names written across them. Thanks!

I also add them to my craft stash too – but I doubt I’ll be using the branded ones in anything decorative any time soon. So suggestions?

The thin ribbons from new clothes are another challenge – they’re not long enough to use for many “tying up” tasks but are still useful for some things.

Anne says:

They make great gift labels along with old birthday cards.

And Alison Bailey Smith also uses them in her work:

I roll them with wire and then coils them or recently I have used them to wrap around combs when making fascinators with wire used to hold toys in place and flowers made from toothpaste tubes.

They also make great cat toys – tied together, they were just long enough to hang to cat-height from the door handles of our old house and just about every door had one for ongoing cat amusement.

What do you do with them?