Green Goal: Shirts and Sheets to Bags and Skirts

This year my New Year's resolution is to be more green - something reasonable and small, like using cloth bags every time I shop. Surprisingly, it has been a bit of a struggle. My top hurdles are #1 making sure the bags get into the shopping cart from the car, #2 making sure the bags get into the car in the first place, and #3 getting my husband to use the bags even after I hand them to him on his way out to the car. And even when I do remember, we never seem to have enough bags for our purchases, so I am working on making a strong bag out of recycled materials. That way I can have several stashed all around so that I will never be caught unprepared. It sounds so simple. But for some reason this project doesn't progress. I suppose I could adopt DC's new bag tax and put 5 cents in a jar for every bag I use, that way I could have a tangible reminder. Or better, make sewing those bags a family project so that I have a little outside pressure to produce and use them. Or maybe I should just go cold turkey and put a "no plastic" date on the calendar. At any rate, that pile of recycled fabrics that I have been saving for bags isn't just gathering dust. Today I made a very cute set of skirts from several menswear shirts I had slated for bags. I picked them and a sheet up at Goodwill for $3.