A Great Week

We have been working hard here at green-ness this week.

Lots of reading and maths. The concept of time is proving to be a little harder to teach than money - which Rhianna picked up easily.

We have been doing a lot of shared reading in bed at night. I really do think this is one of the most enjoyable moments for me as a parent. I know I spent a lot of time laying in bed reading with Broc and I spend a lot of time reading with Rhianna. Not just her home readers which I find quite dull and uninspiring but lots of other sorts of texts too.

Today we did however finish a HR and then made a book about it.

We focused on the books orientation, characterisation and plot points. These were new terms to Rhianna but she picked up the concepts behind then easily enough.

Then some shark craft. We made some shark cut outs and painted them and then researched their features on the web. Tomorrow we are making a diorama for them.

For me, this week I have been focusing on the eco side of things.

A few more crocheted dishcloths to add to the collection....

...and yesterday I was in Katoomba so headed to the Food Co-op there to get some organic fruit and veg and found this little gem - I'm stockpiling for Winter.

Was pretty expensive but oh so worth it. (I hope).

Three Degrees of Buying

I have been reading a good book lately called "Enough". It's about (funnily enough) having enough. Enough food, enough stuff, even enough work and happiness. It's got me thinking about stuff though today. In this house we definitely have enough possessions.

To create our current standard of living we have farmed one quarter of the land on this earth, overexploited our ocean life, increased the level of carbon dioxide by 30% and mutilplied the extinction rate 1000 times. Not much to be proud of there!!!!

Now when we have to buy something to add to the house I try to buy in the following ways.

I always op shop first.

Firstly, because the "stuff" in those shops already exists. Meaning resources have already been used to create them. So it's best to get as much use out of them as possible.

However, op shopping is an art. Yes, really.

Say I needed some jeans as mine are falling apart. You can bet your bottom dollar if I went to an op shop looking for a pair of jeans for myself I wouldn't find them. No way! That would be too easy.

No op shopping requires forward thinking. You have to browse with the future in mind.

last week I picked up a t-shirt foR Rhianna - almost new and she has very few shirts.



I also found two great non-fiction books to add to our collection. Both of them at her reading level and she has been interested in both these subjects lately.

Now, I am not perfect and I did manage to squeeze in a non essential purchase - a vintage handbag to add to my very small collection.

But really, it was only $2 and will be loved forever by myself and Rhianna who has taken a bit of a shine to it. It's the gold one.

After second hand I try to buy green and organic. For instance, I always buy recycled toilet paper and purchase things such as cosmetics and sunscreen from reputable organic sellers - usually off the net.

Lastly I'll buy new if I have to. Things that fall into this category are specialised clothing such as swimmers, electrical goods such as cameras and of course food that I can't get organically.

The whole purchasing thing is such a juggling act sometimes that often I do without.

Then there is always the law of the universe that says when you need something it will come to you.

Like yesterday, I mentioned to a girlfriend that I was going to begin teaching Time to Rhianna and she mentioned that she had an old magnetic clock set that she was finished with - a match made in heaven.

Do you buy green or organic or second hand. Or are you trying to reduce your consumption in other ways. I'd love to know.

Thursday 20th January 2011

Rhianna is away for 2 days at a sleepover so as you can imagine the house is suddenly very quiet.

It was a good chance to get stuck into some cleaning but I won't bore you with photos of that.

While I was cleaning Rhianna's room, I was thinking about how "green" kids are becoming these days.

In our family the kids....

Drink from reusable drink bottles and everybody knows not to bring a plastic (shop bought) water bottle into the house. These are evil and should be banned by now. But that topic in itself is another post.

No cling wrap in lunch boxes.

Only using the half flush on the toilet and during the night we let the "yellow mellow".

Turn off the tap when brushing teeth.

Recycle every bit of art and craft that goes through the house.

Turn off lights when we leave bedrooms.

Reuse packaging for craft activities.

We try to borrow rather than buy where possible.

Op shop clothes where possible. (Becoming increasingly difficult)

Take scraps out to the worms

Plant some of there own vegies - lettuces at the moment.

Not a bad start for us - but of course there is always room for improvement.

I think one of our goals for this year is walk to school at least once a week. (It's quite a way and almost all uphill.)

In the Post today....

Hello lovely ladies (and Dad :: I think he's the only man to read this blog).

Continuing on with "lovely goodness arriving on my doorstep" theme, I have two lovely little tidbits to show you today.

This is a reusable sandwich wrap (purchased from Etsy).

I'm sure most of you have seen these by now.

And I would have attempted to make my own except you have to be quite careful about what you use as the interior fabric - it has to be something that can be used next to food.

I bought two so I could have one wrapped around Rhianna's sandwich and the other in the wash.

So...you open it up. The inside is food grade nylon. Place sandwich or snack in the centre.....

Fold in two sides. They velcro shut.

Fold in the remaining two sides. And again, they velcro shut. The sandwich is now wrapped and ready for the lunch box. No more Gladwrap. And then when they come home, you just pop in the wash...brilliant.

Also today I received this lovely card, letter and photograph from a girl I used to teach with 10 years ago ( I can't believe it's been that long) We had classrooms next to each other and became good friends.

Although we live quite a distance from each other now, she never fails to send me a catch up letter each year with what she's been up to.

Obviously from the photo, you can see she's been quite busy in the reproduction area. Thanks Tamara, your thoughtfulness really made my day.

Now, I must get back to that ironing...........

Finally - We are on Solar Power.

After about six months of research and 6 months of waiting we finally have some solar panels on our roof. And just in the nick of time too I'd say as the last electricity bill was a shocker (no pun intended).

For the moment we have a 1.5K system installed but will look at adding more panels at a later date. They estimate that we will reduce our electricity bill by one third. I'll let you know if that's the case when we get our next electricity bill.

It's so satisfying to finally have achieved one of our biggest goals but don't worry I'm still all about the little things as well.

10 Things I Don't Own.

Because I've been decluttering a lot lately, I've thought that maybe I should become a minimalist. That is, somebody with very few possessions. A true minimalist tries to keep the items they own below 100.

So I checked out some minimalist blogs. And no, I won't be becoming a minimalist anytime soon - it's just too boring and where would all my vintage and retro lovelies go. No, no, no...it was just too awful to contemplate.

One of the minimalist bloggers did have a list of all the common day items she lives without.

So I thought I'd dedicate this post to some of the items you may have in your home that I don't miss having in mine.

1. If you've been reading this blog before you'll know that I got rid of my microwave about 4 months ago. Do I miss it? Nup.

2. An answering machine. Pictured below is my one and only telephone and it has no provision for an answering machine. And boy does it send some people batty when they can't leave a message. (Hi Natalie)


3. Further to the hating new technology theme is the fact that I don't own an MP3 or Ipod or any other fancy named item. I just find all that stuff so boring. And I still have my walkman. (truly)

4. High heels. Hate them. Used to wear them when I was younger and more convinced I had to have them to be fashionable. But these days it's all about comfort.

5. Pixie Photos. Apologies to anybody who has these photos from K-Mart but I think they are the naffest thing people in Australia decorate their walls with.

6. I used to have a cupboard full of cosmetics and lotions and potions. During the "organic" phase I culled the lot. This is my cosmetic cupboard now. Notice the lovely empty top shelf.

7. A garden bed. We ripped them out and laid the areas with grass. Life's too short for weeds.

8. A noticeboard. I was using the fridge for important notices but now I put everything into my family folder and got rid of the clutter.

9. Electric blankets. I love them and think they are essential items living in the Blue Mountains but unfortunately Bill hates them and as you all know marriage is about compromise.

10. A desk. I had a beautiful old antique desk in my main living area but it was basically just holding the computer and some envelopes so we moved it into my son's room as he wanted a bigger desk and now I do my computer work on a laptop on the lounge. Much comfier and more room in the house for other antiquey things.

My new office

I'd love to hear what common household things you've given up or never invited home in the first place.

Op Shop Opportunities

Some days I am in the mood to op shop and other days I just can't be asked to poke my head in. And similarly, sometimes my visits are rewarded and sometimes they are a complete waste of time - like a lot of other things in my life (crochet anybody?)

In the last few weeks I've found these couple of bargains:

I've been hunting and stalking Ebay for some vintage tapestries and I really wanted some vintage rose tapestries. Well, what did I spy in my local cancer support Oppy. These 2 beauties - just sitting on the wall waiting for me to grab them. $10 each. Bill later remarked he wouldn't have paid 10 cents for the two of them. But that's a different matter. He kindly put them on the bedroom wall for me. And ohhhh I do love them.

In the next op shop along the way, I found this gem of a book - full of everything a young girl needs to know - if she was living in 1972 which I very happily was thank you. What a trip down memory lane.

And in the same oppy, this vintage eiderdown. It had a few suspicious looking stains but I took a gamble and parted with a whole $5 to own it. Napisaned it overnight and there you go. More vintage loveliness for the little persons room.

And finally I have worked out the cause of my almost constant headaches. At the age of almost 42 my eyes are failing me. Although goodness knows how many books these poor eyes have had to read over the years. I guess it was high time that they had a little help. And the up side is that Bill thinks I look like a librarian and he's very attracted to librarians. So my glasses are a success in more ways than one.

Have a great week.

10 Uses for White Vinegar

1. Add 275mls to your rinse cycle and it will drastically reduce the lint in your washing.

2. It's great for preserving the colour of swimmers - soak swimmers in a combination of water and a teaspoon of vinegar after swimming in a chlorine pool.

3. Blankets and woollens come out a lot fluffier from the wash if you add 250mls of vinegar to your rinse cycle.

4. It will act as an insect repellant if you add equal parts water and vinegar and wipe over the surface you want to remain insect free.

5. Clean your windows with a solution of white vinegar and warm water in equal parts. Spray on the window and buff with a soft cloth. Will not leave streaks or marks on the glass.

6. Put neat vinegar on a rust stain until it disappears and then rinse the marked item.

7. Keep fresh cut flowers longer by adding 2 tablespoons of white vinegar and 1 teaspoon of sugar to the vase.

8. Rinsing your hair in vinegar every so often neutralises the alkali left by shampoos and gives your hair extra shine.

9. Douse the outside perimeter of the sandpit in the backyard to keep cats away.

10. If you have an unpleasant odour in the car such as vomit (hello Rhianna!) then place a bowl of white distilled vinegar of the floor of the car and close it up for the night.

No Junk Mail

As most of you know I am a nazi recycler. I recycle absolutely everything that I can. I even recycle the little tags off the end of teabags. Well, every little bit helps. We have our recycling basket behind the bar as our kitchen is way too small for normal rubbish AND recycling.

In recent times I have had to upgrade to a bigger basket as it gets full quite quickly. And that led me to thinking about all the junk mail that is going in there. Specifically, I am talking about catalogues and store brochures.


Now I love my catalouges as much as the next girl. I love to see what's on special at Target this week and what are the good food specials at Coles and IGA.

But you don't need to fill your letterbox with a tree to look at these catalogues. You can go to http://www.cataloguecentral.com.au/ and read them all on there. They even have some I don't normally get delivered so it was quite exciting all round. Then the next thing you have to do is put a NO JUNK MAIL sticker on your letter box. Of course I have sourced a free one of those for you as well. Just ring the Distribution Standards Board on 1800 676 136 and they will send you a free No JUNK MAIL sticker. There, all sorted.

Here is one lady who desperately needs a free sticker

Happy recycling everybody.

Loving Larsson and Lipton

One thing I've stopped buying in the past year is soft drink. As well as being rubbish for your waistline and teeth it's also bad for the environment. A litre bottle of soft drink uses 30 litres of water in production. Instead we are drinking lots of cold water in summer and lots of hot tea and coffee from here through till spring.

Now everybody knows tea tastes better in a nice cup. In a little antique store the other day I found this adorable cup. The art work is by Carl Larsson. The Larsson trust has allowed a very small percentage of his gorgeous works to by used for commercial purposes.

I love the little tea strainer inside and I really like the little ceramic lid that keeps my tea warm as I wander around the house. Too cute!!!!

I'm So Tired

We had such a busy weekend we were all in bed by 9 o'clock last night. On Saturday we had to go up to Rhianna's school to water all the plants. Rhianna has joined the gardening club at school and that means we've ALL joined the gardening club at school. During the holidays the new seedlings and plants have to be watered.

Here's Bill watering in the vegie patch

And here's me watering the new natives

And here's Rhianna, not watering, and playing on the equipment. The things I do!!!

I also won this fabulous 1930's club lounge on Ebay. We had to travel up to Katoomba to collect it.The people we bought it off loved to talk (and talk). We were there 3 hours. But I am in LOVE ,LOVE, LOVE with my new lounges. But boy are they heavy to lift and move around. And that is why we were in bed early on Sunday night.

Not so Fantastic Plastic

There's been a lot of press lately about the dangers of plastic that is used to store our foodstuffs and especially plastic that comes in contact with food when it is being heated.

There is now conclusive evidence that plasticides (DEHA) from some food wraps (clingwrap) leach and migrate into food - particularly when that food and plastic are heated. (Such as in a microwave) Here are some of the steps I have taken to reduce the amount of plastic being used by our family.

If I use clingwrap (rare now) I make sure it does not come into contact with the food it is covering.

I got rid of the microwave and thus the temptation to quickly reheat things.

I use nude food containers for Miss R's lunch or waxed paper if required.

I have now converted my entire pantry to glass storage containers. I did this gradually over time to cut down on the cost. I do have quite a small pantry but because I am at home full time I can pick up what I need for dinner fresh each day. Storing less food means less food waste at the end of the week.

Here is my pantry

Is anybody else reducing the amount of plastic in their homes?

I knew I was kidding myself that I'd have a restful school holidays but today was full on. After Rhianna cooked herself some breakfast, we went op shopping and then to the park.

Back home again, I started on dinner as my energy was getting low. Pumpkin soup and a batch of scones.

A spot of cubby house building and then into the cubby to colour in and play some games.

Then outside for some trampolining and then some ironing. Phew, I don't think I can keep this up for another 2 weeks.

Happy Easter

Yesterday I made my first environmentally friendly cleaners. I made an all purpose cleaner for bench tops etc and an air freshener.

Here are the recipes:

Cleaner:
600mls of white vinegar
300mls of water
20-30 drops of eucalyptus oil.
Place in spray bottle and shake.

Freshener:
150mls of water
10-15 drops of your favourite essential oil
Place in spray bottle and shake

Tonight some vegetarian Pizza - very easy and yummy.

(Not missing meat one bit)

We did an easy dinner because Miss R had her Easter Hop at school today and then we came home from school early.

Happy Easter everybody and if you are going away -enjoy your holiday.

Electricity is Scaring Me.

Bill and I have been really concerned about recent electricity price hikes. One of our last bills was $660 (that's a quarter) an increase of 21% on the same bill last year.

News reports are estimating that we can expect an increase of another 17.2% by July this year and a further 62% by 2013.

Now, if this doesn't scare you, well .....you're either living off the grid or you have more money than sense.

We have tried really hard to rein in our electricity consumption. I run around like a crazy woman turing off lights, appliances and computers, when not in use. We limit our pool pump time and use our gas where we can. And still we end up with a $660 bill!

So with the money from the sale of the camper we intend to install some solar panels on our roof. For around $2000 we can install a panel system that will cut our electricity bill by one third. As we add more panels, of course the electricity bill goes down further. Until we are generating so much energy we can run our home and put electricity back into the grid for credit.

What do you guys think? Are you worried about electricity prices? Are your bills as crazy as mine or do you have ways I don't know about to keep your electricity bill down? I'd love to hear your comments.

Wheat Bags and Worm Farms

I mentioned a few blogs ago that I am on the school fete committee this year. It's my first time as a parent and its interesting so far. Our class (1C) is in charge of the craft stall. There about 6 Mums in our class who are very interested in craft so we've formed a craft committee to source stock for our stall. We've asked the rest of the Year 1 mums for donations of craft items or resources but at this stage it looks like we are going to be making a lot of the items ourselves.

I've decided to make one item (x10) per month. For March it's going to be wheat bags that you heat up in the microwave. Here is the first one below.


This very unattractive looking item is my worm farm. I've had it for a year now and it's taken that long to really get going.

For those that aren't sure how it works: You put food scraps in the top (except meat, onion and citrus) and the worms eat it. It stops an awful lot of food going into landfill and you get the added reward of worm tea which drips out the bottom of the baskets.

Here is my worm tea ready to go. You dilute the tea 1:10 with water and water your plants and garden with it. It's packed full of nutrients and out plants are thriving. It takes no effort at all and I personally love to vist my worms each day and feed them our scraps.

Third Simple Savings Tip

My third SS tip for the month is to wipe down the shower each day as you are using it.

The theory is: if you wipe off the soap build up every day from the shower walls then you have less to do when you clean the bathroom as a whole.

I had an old Enjo cloth from years ago that is supposed to be for the bathroom so I just popped that over the rail in the shower and I will wipe down the walls each day either as I am showering or before I hop out.

If you are wondering why I have a rail in my shower stall - the lady who owned the house before us had it installed so she had somewhere to rest her foot when she was shaving her legs.

Now there's a lady with too much time on her hands!

Going Vintage

In my journey to become greener and also to save money I have come to appreciate vintage goods. Besides loving the whole "look" of old things, I can appreciate the workmanship that went into things.


Some of the items I have come from the 1930's. That's over 70 years old and still going strong. It's hard to imagine something from IKEA lasting that long.


These are my vintage bakelite cannisters. It took me two years to find some on Ebay that were in mint condition. My Mum and Grandmother each had a set of these and I love to remember days spent baking with both of them when I look at this set. The cabinet they are housed in is a 1940's dresser which we picked up in an antique store in Hazelbrook.



My vintage tablecloth collection (it's in its early days). I'm also collecting and using linen napkins.
Some of this crockery and glassware is very old and some is just from Spotlight and I liked the pattern. The depressionware pink glasses were a find from an op shop for $4.

This gorgeous eiderdown is from a shop in Springwood called Frou Frou. It's full of vintage wares and my girlfriend and I spend a lot of time in here ohhhing and ahhing over things. The shawl is from a flea market and the vintage bag from another vintage store in the mountains.

I got this old fashioned lamp off Ebay for $20. The shade was an aqua colour so I bought some fabric that matched my home a bit more and recovered it. You might think its a bit naff but it really suits my house.

I am absolutely loving collecting vintage stuff and plan to do a lot more this year.