Each year, Calgary Public Library employees round up their white elephants and hold a silent auction whose proceeds are donated to charity. In fact, there’s more to bid on than just white elephants. There are Christmas crafts, hand-knit scarves, baked goods, electronics, and a variety of other items. This year, we collectively raised and donated over $3000 to Calgary's Inn from the Cold.

In a similar vein, the staff in Central Library’s Business, Sciences and Social Sciences department holds an annual white elephant lottery. Staff purchase tickets and place them in envelopes assigned to each elephant. The more tickets you buy, the better your chances of winning the item – but it’s still a draw, so things are tense! As a department, we raised $200 and donated that to Inn from the Cold, too.

Prior to the lottery, as I rooted through my home, searching for perfectly good but unused items, I found myself thinking Who’s going to want my set of only 3, slightly inelegant wineglasses? But sure enough, someone did. And as I lugged my own not-quite-new treasure home, I thought Who would ever part with a totally wicked turtle lamp (with glowing shell!)?

If you don’t use it, need it or love it, then give someone else the chance. White elephant sales are a festive and fun way to support a cause or charity of your choice. They’re also an opportunity to reuse and reduce, and to avoid the chaos of holiday-season shopping malls.

Hope you had a great Christmas holiday!

Everyone should have some basic sewing skills such as sewing a button back on or taking up a hem. This allows you to take in or let out the side seams of jeans from skinny to wide as fashion or figure dictates instead of buying new. Mending and transforming prolongs the life of good quality and treasured items. Sew some cool scraps or patches over moth holes or turn a shrunken sweater into a throw pillow.

Garage sales, swaps and charity sales are great sources of fabric for scrap quilting and other sewing projects. A family member has scored metres of Liberty print cotton for $4.00 total or less (it's normally upwards of $100.00 per yard from the Liberty store in London). More and more fabric stores are closing and the quality and durability of new clothes has really declined (not to mention the distance travelled and the working conditions of the factories), so alternate sources of fabric are the wave of the future. Try sourcing environmentally friendly fibres with safe dyes on-line. Hemp silk is now available. It's not just for t-shirt cotton anymore!

In the meantime, the library has some great books that inspire green sewing projects:

Sewing Green and Sew Eco focus on sustainability and re-use.

Denim Revolution- What to make when cutoffs don't cut it.

Generation T-This book and its sequel show you how tomake yourself a cool halter top and other clothes from the humungous t-shirts found in abundance everywhere.

Dozens of ways to Repurpose Scarves and Dozens of ways to Repurpose Pillowcases-fun quick projects when you're inside over the winter.

And there's always scrap quilting...

On October 16th, I’ll be attending an event called Take Off Your Clothes, which is a giant clothing swap for women. Here’s the idea: before the event, people take stylish but unwanted items to drop-off locations, and exchange them for coupons. They’ll use those coupons to “purchase” new items in a swappers market.

And here’s why I like the concept:

The experience of swapping reminds us that there are alternatives ways of consuming, and that purchasing new items may not always be necessary.

The clothing left over at the end of the swap will be sent to charity stores, to have its lifetime extended a little further.

Local designers use the swap as an opportunity to showcase their creations - and thriving local economies keep cities vibrant and interesting.

Visit the facebook event page!

I know, you just sent the kids back to school and the holiday countdown is upon already. Scary!

According to Statistics Canada, we spent over $196 million in 2004 on Hallowe'en supplies, with all the wrappers and waste than ensues.

Try greening your Hallowe'en this year:

If your house didn't come with metres of fun fur stuffed in the ceiling like ours did (?!) you may want to run to the Calgary Kids Costume Swap this Saturday, September 10 at the South Calgary Community centres. Go to www.calgarykidscostumeswap.com for details.

If you can't attend, consider using paperless social media to organize your own informal event with friends and neighbours whose children may have outgrown their outfits. Second hand stores often have fun finds and kids may enjoy using found items such as carboard boxes and tubes to make their own costumes, and the library has great books available.

Pumpkins are bulky but compost down nicely. Go to Map Downloads at www.calgary.ca for the city's leaf and pumpkin composting drop off locations if you don't do your own backyard composting.

Parties can cut down on wrappers if you offer unpackaged treats such as baked goods, flavoured popcorn, or fruit and chocolate dip (not so good at the door). Remember that the library has great Halloween craft and recipe books.

Use solar lighting whenever possible in your outdoor displays. Tiny plastics bags hanging from the trees are scary, but not in the way intended. Go for re-usable good looking, high quality and least-toxic, or hand-made items that you can enjoy for years.