Taking some baby steps ...

We try to live lightly on this earth but we are a long way from perfect, the fact that we fly long haul will attest to this!  But I think we have come a long way and take for normal what other people would see as, well not abnormal but more effort than they are perhaps willing to put in - does that make sense?

Whilst visiting a variety of blogs I like seeing what other people are doing in their efforts to be greener (not that I really like that word but I think you all know what I mean by it).  Some people seem so far down the road that I think I could never catch up.  But it's not really a race is it?  In my opinion it's about doing what you can, when you can and fitting it into every day family life.  I know that something that doesn't fit into the rhythm of our day won't last for long.  We tend to have spurts of improvement and then reach a plateau doing all those 'normal' things until I read or see something and then I get motivated all over again to make some more changes.  I'm always fascinated by those things that people find easy to do without/find an alternative for and those people struggle with - they are all so different, something I find easy and normal is difficult for another family.

I have been reducing our exposure to chemicals for many years and this took a huge step forward when we had children.  I periodically go through the house trying to reduce our chemical footprint but then some do slip back in and some I have never tried to substitute before.  I have two products which I don't like having in the house and I don't let my children anywhere near due to their toxicity, and that is dishwash powder and washing powder.  I've just realised, as I've typed that, how weird it sounds: 

"I don't let my children anywhere near them"

BUT

I use one to wash our dishes, which my children eat off, 

and

I use one to wash our clothes in, which the children wear each day.

Doesn't quite add up eh?!

So inspiration has come from blogland once again.  I have seen various recipes for household cleaners over the years but this one from ecoMILF caught my eye last Friday and on Saturday I went and bought the ingredients.  It's nice to know someone's using it and likes using it so I thought I would give it a go.  It will also be interesting to see how much it costs as that is a factor for us.  However, even if it does cost a little more but we're reducing chemical consumption then that has to count.  Of course I've also got to make it!!!

So, on the shopping list were bicarb of soda, washing soda, borax and Dr Bronner bars of soap.  I made a substitution - the Dr Bronner soap was $8.49 each and the ecoSTORE were $3.50 each.  I guess they'll do the same thing - we'll have to wait and see.

The other item in the photo is my knitted dishcloth, which I made over a year ago and haven't used yet!!  I was so pleased with it that I didn't want to get it dirty - pretty silly really as that's why I made it.  But now that I am a knitter (in the loosest sense of the term) I have decided to use it and make some more!  And I also want to make some scouring clothese which I have seen recently over here, via Norwoods Walkabout (who by chance is making her own deodorant which I will have try later), and here.

So I have decided that for the month of July I am going to try and take some baby steps on my journey towards living lightly, or at least a little lighter

AND I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO ASK FOR YOUR HELP ......

As I mentioned earlier, each person and family is unique and each do things in different ways so I would love to know what you do to make your environment less toxic, to reduce your waste, to live lighter?  It might just take a different slant on the same issue to make me see that it is something I could incorporate into my daily life.  Maybe you have already posted about some issue and could leave a link in the comments, maybe you too are incorporating some new changes to your life - I would love to know how you get on.

I'll post again once I've made the products and costed them out and then again once we're using them - I have to say I am very excited by it all!!! x

The day started with making this:

Inspired by a bag I received in my first ever swap I wanted to make a pattern suitable for children for the homeschool sewing group at my house today!

Pattern decided, people arrived, 3 adults, 4 girls, 2 toddlers and 2 babies later we ended up with these:

Maia was the youngest girl who wanted to sew and I was so surprised at what she could do although I guess she's seen it enough times!!! It was great to see all three girls working at the bags. Lunch called and so we decided to leave the finishing off for next week when I think we'll have 3 very proud little girls. x

PS The other thing I'm all about at the moment is quilting - one of my blocks even made it onto someone else's blog today - check it out!!! From one very proud newbie quilter!

Curtains, curtains and a little something else

So these are what I spent all day yesterday making and they kept us nice and cosy last night.

After much messing around with this material here I decided that I would just have to go out and buy some curtain material. I have been looking for second hand curtains or suitable material since February and it's just not turning up! So I went to Spotlight, they had 20% off everything last week, and I bought the fabric for the lounge and our bedroom. It's not really what I wanted but then I figured that sometimes you have to compromise on your principles, and if that compromise is going to keep you warm and keep you sane then it must be worth it right?!

Craig was working on his parents' new house today and his Mum said that she'd have the girls so I have had a whole day to myself (they left at 7am and they're not back yet - 6.30pm!). I decamped to the kitchen and set about making curtains for our bedroom.

There's 1 large window and 2 small, high windows so I concentrated on the small ones today. American Idiot by Green Day got me through the cutting and side hems. The Offspring/Ixnay on the Hombre took me to fully hemmed and ready to have the pleats in.

The music then went off whilst I concentrated on getting the pleats right. One of they things I dislike about making curtains is the amount of pinning required so I was very pleased today that I didn't use one pin until this stage!

Once the pleats are sewn they are stuffed and then pin hooks put in. Ta da!!! Two pairs of finshed curtains - by 12.15pm. How much can you get done when you don't have two hinderers, sorry helpers, with you?!!!!

Sorry no pics of them up and in place but there's no curtain poles up yet. I could have put them up but Craig had all the tools with him so that's a nice job for him tomorrow!!!

And now for something completely different! The idea is from Creative Family by Amanda Soule and I love how it's turned out. Maia drew straight onto the fabric and then I stitched around it. I think it will become a small pillow for Maia's bed. Lots more of these planned - just got to get Maia drawing.

I've done it ...

It's cold, wet and windy outside but I don't care because we have curtains in the lounge!!! After a long day making them I am looking forward to sitting down with the fire going, some Whittakers chocolate and Grey's Anatomy. Some photos tomorrow. x

Thrifting happiness ...

Yesterday I mentioned a 1/2 price sale at our local Sallies - so of course I had to buy!! Nothing like a spot of good thrifting to make you feel a bit better!

First thing I saw were these pretty little glasses at the bargain price of 25c each:


I aim to limit the amount of plastic in our house and certainly haven't bought anything plastic for a long time. Subsequently the girls have been drinking out of glass and china since they were old enough to hold it (I mean I hate the taste of drinks that have been in plastic so wouldn't little ones?!) so these are a great addition to our collection of 'small glasses'.

Next up were men's ties - 50c each.



Since I very quickly made this skirt for Maia for Kindy (JUST REALISED I NEVER SHOWED THIS SKIRT SO WILL HAVE TO POST LATER!!!) I've been on the lookout for some more because with a little thought, preparation and careful sewing I think I could make something quite nice! But the price of things, especially men's ties has stopped me buying any. The most expensive I've come across yet in a op shop was back in the UK recently - 2.75 pounds, that's about NZ$7.40!!!!!!!! Now I could have a huge rant about this but luckily for me someone else has done it!!! Take a look at what Steph at lovestitches has to say over here. Couldn't have put it better myself!

Next stop - the material/linen area and this stash of fabric:



And then to the last aisle where all the bedding, sheets and curtains are hung up and I came across all of this!!! A pair of unlined curtain in this fabric. Each one measures 3 1/2 ft by 11ft (no I didn't measure them but an old tag was still attached!). So skinny and long but I loved the fabric - not sure whether these are destined for curtains or alternative use yet.



And then this fabric - much heavier and warmer than the first:

and much more of it!

There are 7 'bigger' curtains and 2 'smaller' curtains, some have sun fading on some areas and some are made better than others! However, I'm sure that with all the fabric available I'll be able to make some curtains for somewhere! And for $7, that's right $7 it's not a fortune if they don't work out. I was talking to someone at the weekend who paid $32.50/metre for curtain material so I am very, very happy with this purchase. It may not have been my first choice of fabric if I had been in a shop but I think they will make up really nice ance suit our style of house (1930s Californian bungalow).

So to add it all up I got everything shown, oh and the little one below, for $21 - now if that wasn't good bargain hunting I don't know what is!

Welcome winter!

Today heralds the official start of winter, and with the snow coming down on the mountains all around us it certainly felt like it yesterday. Some things that we're going to count on this winter. First and foremost is this:



Generally New Zealand houses don't have central heating so you rely on the woodburner a lot. This is the first house where we've lived in in NZ that has such a great fire - and we've a woodshed full of dry, seasoned wood to boot! However, the fire is only in the living area so for the bedrooms you need these:


flannelette sheets! I tried my best to find some second hand but the local op shops were not forthcoming, and when it gets so cold at night you can't really wait for them to turn up. So these are new but so worth every cent when you get into them at night! However, I was more imaginative when it came to Maia's bed:



When Maia was born we had brushed cotton wraps which we used for wrapping her. They were then used for Cassia and have now been re-invented into a patchwork top sheet for her bed and a pillowcase. I was pretty pleased with this little conversion - it cost me nothing and it took about 10 minutes! Even with flannelette sheets you still need lots of these:



the left one has such beautiful colours that I would really like to turn it into something but it has only been loaned to us so it just looks pretty on the bed! The right one was an op shop find and has been cut up into a single blanket and the other half will be used for something, eventually!



The pink blanket is one I made for Maia when she was born - it took me months - what was I doing? The bottom one was one my mum nade to use up her scraps and which Maia took possession of when we were home recently!



This is still a work in progress but may be called into action if it get too much colder!




And this is one I relieved my mum off when we were back - daughters are good like that I find! It was crocheted by my Nan and I hadn't seen it before. It's lovely to have something made by my Nan in my house. In fact there's three generations of crochetetd blankets in my house - pretty cool eh? So for outside of the house we'll need these:

these (with not a handmade one in sight unfortunately!):

these:

and these:

And finally if all else fails this little lot can help boost you up!

The saga that is curtain making ...

I have made many curtains in my life: small ones and large ones; floral ones and stripy ones; ones I am very happy with and ones I'm not so happy with, but none have vexed me as much as the pair I'm making at the moment!




The material looks innocuous enough. In fact I was very pleased to find it because it was on special at $6/metre. It's lovely good quality, thick material. And therein lies the problem - it wasn't really curtain material but I thought I would use it as such! There have been several casualties. First off two needles.



This is unheard of for me. In fact I'm somewhat ignorant about needles and their various functions. I learnt to sew from my mother and she doesn't believe in changing needles very often. In fact she only ever used to change them when one broke, hence why she never liked altering jeans because inevitably the heavy denim would break one of her needles! Now I guess I just thought that they were very expensive but they're not! One lady's since told me that one needle lasts for 10 hours of sewing and then last week another lady said she uses a new needle for every project!! So the silver lining to my broken needles was that I actually then used the right needle for the material and how much easier the sewing was. Note to self - always use the right needle for the right project! The next casualty? My finger!


A pin hook went straight into my finger joint - now I know it doesn't look much but it really hurt! The last casualty has been my head!!! I've not enjoyed making these curtains at all. They have already taken me a week and I've still only finished one!!!

Here's the proof! Tying up the curtains to set the pleats is a great use for the selvedges, however I've always wondered what else I can do with it when I cut it off. Do any of you crafty people have any ideas?

OK I know there's only one up there but I guess it was worth it when I see them up.

Ask and you shall receive ...

Just this morning, whilst talking to Craig, I said that we had a serious lack of storage in our new house. Having just moved I have not yet frequented the local Sallies or op shops so haven't seen what furniture is on offer. The local paper only listed 2 garage sales much to my disappointment and I was tempted not to even bother. But 2 is better than none surely? Well it certainly was when I walked down the drive to the first one and came across an old kitchen unit in excellent condition. I wasn't quite sure exactly where it would fit but knew it would go somewhere and for only $6 I wasn't going to pass it by. And as if by magic it seems to have been made for this exact space in the laundry (yes I am now the proud owner of a separate room in which to do the washing and ironing!):

If you look closely you can see that it's sitting on a piece of hardboard that is covering a rather large hole in the floor - so perfect positioning when there's two little ones around the place! The photo's not great because we've no light in the room, as evidenced by the wires hanging out of the hole in the wall. But it will be lovely - the walls are all the orginal panelling so once I rip off the nasty, nasty hardboard covering I will have a room where I actually like to be (once I've treated the borer/woodworm in the wood that is, but that's a another story for another time!).

New Beginnings ...

Finally we have broadband back in our lives and I can delve further into blogland and be extremely inspired by all you lovely people out there!

What a journey we've had so far - lots to say and lots to show but for now a quick hello.

Wednesday was Moving Day - yes yet again I have had to pack up a house and move! On Wednesday night we all had a home cooked tea and had a bed to sleep in so I thought things had gone quite well!

Thursday was the Day after Moving Day - I had lots of plans and ideas but in reality we all chilled out and just relaxed in our new home. A couple of beers in the sun surrounded by boxes and life seemed alright!

Today is Waitangi Day, which is a public holiday in New Zealand to celebrate the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. In the spirit of new beginnings we decided that it was too nice a day to just stay home unpacking so we headed for a festival being held in our nearest city and took in the festivities - great acts on stage of drumming, dancing and singing, I tried my first hangi, which was absolutely delicious, along with rewena bread, a traditional Maori bread made from potatoes.

So that's it for now - we're all alive and well and looking forward to catching up with the blogs again and of course finding new ones. I couldn't post without at least one photo so here's one of the beach where we've been hiding out the past three months!!!

Some real little grubs!

So the first unwanted visitor we had to the garden came some time ago but thought I'd share the photo with you. We had found a whole load of slugs that afternoon and I thought I had dosposed of them all - but obviously not. When I went out that evening I found this one:

It really was amazing to watch it - you could see his mouth working and the lettuce leaf actually disappearing whilst you watched! Now slugs are one of the only things that make my skin really crawl but it was incredible to watch.

More recently I found these unwanted little grubs!

I don't really mind them and I know I was fascinated by them as a child and so too are my little girls. They find it very funny when they crawl all over their hands and arms. When I looked at this pot there were 10 caterpillars on it and they had decimated the nasturtium but hadn't touched the geranium.

Also note the black dots around the base of the pot - caterpillar poo!

Is the scent in the geranium leaves a deterrent? I don't know that for a fact but it certainly looked that way to me. Now, once we'd had a play with them and gently put them back on the leaves I carried on with other jobs in the garden with a reminder to the girls to 'play gently with them'. Of course it was only a matter of time before I heard a cry from Maia 'Mummy, Cass has squashed one!'. Cassia's not afraid of anything but still hasn't grasped that certain things will succumb to the pressure of her little thumbs and fingers. Now have you ever tried to get squashed caterpillar off hands? It is so sticky and took forever. She understands the word gentle but I guess we just have to work on the action!

Other news in the garden includes more beans

and more courgettes.

But what I'm really excited about is the tomatoes! I was getting quite worried that with the lack of sun we're experiencing that all the green tomatoes would stay that colour, but I saw the first blush of colour yesterday so fingers crossed there's still time.

Finally, after what seems like a really long wait, we had something approaching edible carrots - baby carrots for sure but still big enough to bother with.

And last, but not least, the apple tree. We inherited a building site of a garden that included an old apple tree that was half buried in rubble and soil. It hadn't had any pruning, care or love for many years and we didn't know if it would even survive the excavation. It did, the blossoms came and now the apples. A lot of the apples are falling to the ground already mouldy and eaten by wasps and many still on the tree have large black/brown scabs on them - I'm sure there's a proper name but I don't know anything about apple trees yet. However, there are the occassional ones good enough to eat and both of my little girls love their apples!

Creative endeavours ....

Well it's been 5 days since I last posted - where does the time go? I thought I'd have lots of time to do things whilst at mum and dad's but it doesn't quite work out like that does it?! We've been doing a lot of work on the house the last two weeks so my creative endeavours have been curtailed. Managed to do some crochet:

A beanie - which has turned out rather large for me but will probably fit Craig! Just realised looking at this that the colours are the same as my primary school scarf - now what is my subconscious telling me?

Crochet hearts to be made into bunting - I'm going out to a birthday dinner tomorrow and think this will be the girl's gift so I had better finish it tonight!

Had to pop into town today and thought I'd have a rummage in the charity shops. Well I can tell you I have been spoilt! The car boot sale was much more productive and soooooo much cheaper. I'm weighing up in my head whether I'll go this week because we are out to dinner on Saturday night so really should try to sleep in (a virtual impossibility with two littlies), but then the other side is saying that I really should go because the bargains and treasures are just there waiting to be found. Watch this space .......!

Whoops - didn't think it would happen that soon!

So the suitcase I bought yesterday at the car boot, which was to be used for dressing up items, has already been emptied and conscripted into its original job!

Myself and the girls are heading to their grandparents for a couple of days tomorrow and it was just perfect for all their things. Anyone know where I can get another for the dressing up clothes? We've been renovating our house since we bought it last September and have had it comfortable and habitable for the last few months but there's all those jobs that aren't essential to your comfort but really need to be finished. I thought if we headed off for a few days Craig can have a clear run of it and get lots of ticks on the list!

1st time veggie grower

Well I am certainly a convert! My veggie adventures began back in March when I started sowing some seeds indoors. Having read some books I was more confused than ever because they all seem to give conflicting advice. So with some help and tips from the ladies on the Green Parent Forum I began sowing. I don’t know if it was beginner’s luck but everything I sowed germinated and grew!!! Not knowing this, I sowed all the courgette seeds in the packet and ended up with 19 courgette seedlings. I thought that was great until I read that when planted out they should have 3ft between them! I subsequently planted 3 in borders, 2 in pots and freecycled the rest.

The first harvest we had was naturally cress. Maia was amazed by this and both girls would actually pull it out of the containers and eat handfuls of it at a time. It was also a really lovely gift to give family members at Easter. Going through the germinating stage was amazing – in fact I could very easily be accused of becoming evangelical about it. Seeing all the different types of seeds, the length of germination, the type of first leaves to come through – it really was like magic. Every morning Maia would run in and lift the lids to see what had happened in the night – you could almost see them growing as you watched. I have to admit I was as excited as Maia.

At that time we were having the back of our house excavated so I couldn’t really imagine where any of these seedlings were going to go. Diggers, mud, bobcats, mud, workmen and yet more mud!!!!!

However, after a few very hard weeks work we had something approximating a garden. Luckily we had a guy working with us who’s interested in self-sufficiency and very handy and green fingered. He gave us loads of great advice, lent me some great books (including John Seymour’s bible to self-sufficiency, and a great recipe for damson/stout liqueur – will be looking forward to that later in the year if my mum’s damson tree produces this year!). So finally I was ready to make my veggie bed – not big enough I realise now but we all have to start somewhere. And here it is today:

With all the wet weather we’ve been having, and the in-laws staying with us, I’ve not been out in the garden much for the last couple of weeks. Heading out the last couple of days I’ve been delighted to see that everything is producing!!! Broad beans pods, runner bean pods, radishes, lettuces and I even found a tiny green tomato which along with the basil that’s just come through may make a lovely late summer lunch.

The lettuce and nasturtiums have featured heavily in our diet the last few weeks- and as you can see the slugs too! The girls think it’s great that they can just go outside and pick things to eat, although that has also resulted in us having no red strawberries because Cassia picked and ate them all green – yuk!

Here’s to lots of summer sun to ripen all the produce and make for a great harvest.