Recycyle, reuse, remake, modify

I get an enormous kick out of getting usable items for very little money, or for no money at all.
Recently my neighbor gave us some much needed shelves, and I can't thank her enough! I did nothing to this one at all, except dust, drag in and fill up:

We have quite an assortment of stuff which we just can't seem to part with just yet, especially the useful books. I have a tremendous amount of books crammed under my bed too.

I decided to paint this next shelf:

Here is how it looks now, and I am still not finished:

I used an old can of latex paint that my mother bought as a sample color God knows how many years ago. Since the top shelf is a later plywood slap on, I am going to experiment with disguising the mismatched wood via layering some contrasting colors and textures with some supplies that I have had on hand for several years. Then I can kick the set of wire utility shelves out of my room, and put these to work!

And as for recycling...I got so excited when I stumbled upon this information: http://www.inspirationgreen.com/plastic-bottle-homes.html I found it to be truly inspiring and encouraging, along with earthships, and earthbag building techniques:

This is fabulous! I hope to find some unrestricted land preferably in the middle of nowhere, as far from prying politically correct eyes as possible, and build our own self sustaining place. In the meantime, it's study like mad, and save like mad.