FabMo – RePurposing Designer Fabrics and much more

Recently a woman from FabMo in Palo Alto, CA contacted me about their organization (about to be come a 501(c)3) and I was really intrigued. They are a charitable organization that collects designer fabric, carpet, and wallpaper samples to be repurposed, or upcycled, to benefit local churches and schools, other charitable works and even for personal creative use.

It’s mission is to help their community by reducing waste, creating art and hopefully raising money for some worthy causes.

Wouldn’t getting kids involved in this be a great alternative to having them sell wrapping paper and candy bars on the street? YES! Not only would it help raise money for schools but it could teach kids valuable skills such as sewing and creating art.

If you are local they have distribution sign up days for a week or so every month and you can find out about that here.

There will be an exhibition this October.
FabMo Art Exhibit October 24, 2009 Menlo Park, CA

If you are a business that ends up with such crafty scraps consider donating to this great organization or if you are a charitable org that is looking for fund raising consider checking them out!

Since I am in the Bay Area myself I am most tuned in to things like this from around here. Are there organizations such as this in your area? Tell me about them!

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I hope if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere that it’s getting warm enough where you live to add in some outdoor activities with the kids. It’s easy to do a lot of learning outside when the weather is nice; my daughter has a fond memory of doing long division in sidewalk chalk at her school. But if you need some more specific ideas, here are some fun and educational spring outdoor activities for kids to do at home or at school.

Gather some glass bottles, rocks and other natural materials to make a garden xylophone with these instructions from The Moments at Home. This looks so fun, and you can use this idea to make musical instruments with other objects you find around the home/classroom/playground too.

This post from Child’s Play ABC has a lot of great outdoor learning ideas for kids, but the one I wanted to highlight is going on a rainbow scavenger hunt. Kids can collect things of different colors and see if they can make a rainbow (or just sort things by color). Check out more ideas for scavenger hunts.

Another good activity to do with things you collect from outdoors is making natural paint brushes. Get the instructions from Messy Little Monster, and of course you can test them out by painting outside, too.

Speaking of art, have you ever made paint from dandelions? (I dyed yarn with dandelions once, and it was a lot of fun.) Learn how from Little Cooks Reading Books, and then you can use your natural paintbrushes along with natural paint!

You can also paint with mud, like in this post from There’s Just One Mommy. Or make an outdoor, garden themed sensory bin with real dirt like this one from Mess for Less.

Or kids can gather materials to help them build their own nests as they learn about how birds and other animals build nests. The Crazy Outdoor Mama has a printable and post that will help.

What activities do you love to do with kids when it’s nice outside?

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