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.

Donating Books

As most people who read this blog know Bill and I are bookaholics. One of our favourite things to do is wander around dusty old bookshops looking for that elusive "gem" that we don't own and haven't read yet. We are so book addicted we have a bookcase in our bedroom for those midnight fixes. And yes, we do read books in the early hours of the morning if we can't sleep.

Which is why the following statistics stunned me:

61% of low income families have no books in their homes.

43% of adults with a low literacy level live in poverty. In contrast, only 4% of adults with strong literacy skills live in poverty.

Children who grow up with a large variety of books in their home have been shown to be more creative, imaginative and proficient in reading.

We have so many books they even get their own chair to sit on. These are current bedtime reads.

I encourage you to go through your bookcase this weekend and pick out 10 books you know you are never going to read again. Deliver them to the local school, preschool or womens shelter.It's something good you can do for the environment and your local community that is low on effort and high on feel good factor.

Oops, more books in the bedroom waiting for a home

The hard part for me (as you can see) is physically separating myself from what I consider to be my very close friends. I mean, Pride and Prejudice has been my very close chum through about 8 boyfriend breakups now. So of course, there are books that must stay with you for life.

But I'm sure like myself you have lots of books that are just filling up space on the bookshelf. Just see if you can give away 10 this week - especially childrens books which are so desperately important in the development of literacy skills in our young.

Helping the Hungry

The other day whilst entering our local supermarket, a lady was standing at the entrance collecting food for charity. I went over to her and asked what types of food they really needed the most. She said "cereals" as these are really quite expensive for low income earners and benefit recipients.

Food is the second largest expense for families. A lot of families have limited access to decent healthy food due to lack of money and other resources. That includes many children who need those nutrients for growth and development.

Many soup kitchens in the Sydney area alone serve around 1000 meals a week to the less fortunate. And one in four people in a soup kitchen line is a child.

If you can give some food to the needy, can you do so this week. The Salvation Army and St Vinnies accept all non perishable food.

It's absolutely horrid to think of little children going hungry especially in this cold weather.

Hope everybody is enjoying this woolly weather as much as I am - although I have the most horrible sniffles.

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.

The Smile Challenge.

When you embark on a lifestyle change you start to realise that progress does not come in huge leaps and bounds. It comes in small one degree changes. You baby step your way to a new life and mindset. Every little action becomes part of a bigger picture.

Today you will probably take a shower - maybe 10 minutes of your time (4, if you're good and have a timer in there with you, hehe) but over the course of your life you will spend 6,000 hours in that little cubicle. You will also eat 1200 chickens and buy 678,740 consumable "things". So little things can have a huge impact - even just by little old me (or you).

One thing I'm into, and this is going to sound a bit weird, is smiling at strangers. I really like it when the stranger looks grumpy. If I go for a walk I say hi to every person I walk past - even if they have headphones on. If I am being served by somebody in a shop I smile at them first before I start talking. And mostly people respond in the positive. I mean, some people smile straight back at you, some people nod or smirk but usually there is some response.

But then I met the lady from the drycleaners/newagents at the end of my street. She aint smilin' at no-one - for any reason.

Now normally, I would then refuse to go back to that shop as the service, and lets face it, the atmosphere is less than desirable. But not this time. I am making it my personal mission to get a friendly response from this lady.

Everytime I go in and I remark what lovely weather it is - she keeps her poker face firmly on. I then pay my money and as I leave I say "Have a nice day/ weekend/ evening". No response. But I will not give up. I actually enjoy the challenge - strange little creature that I am. And when she does smile, when she finally cracks open that sour faced shell of a face I may just give her a hug.

TV Free Days

One thing I've noticed during these holidays is my children's reliance on screens for entertainment. Statistics show that children watch 1,023 hours of TV compared to 900 hours in school per year. They view 200,000 violent acts and 16,000 murders before their 18th birthday. Scarier still, is that meaningful conversations between parents and children were logged in at 38 minutes a week.

Our solution as a family is going to be a TV free day each week. I'm going to make it Friday.

Firstly we have after school activites on a Friday and we also do our family Fun Night on a Friday - so hopefully the whinging and whining will be less. I'm going to make a list of alternative activites for us ALL to do during this TV free time - like reading, riding bikes, craft etc.

I'll let you know how it all goes. I just hope I remember as I am usually pretty brain dead by Friday. I also just read that over 45% of homes have 3 or more TV's in their house with most children over the age of 4 having one in their rooms. I must admit we have 3 Tv's in our house although one doesn't get used. Rhianna does not have one in her room. I would love to not have one in the bedroom but Bill likes to watch TV in bed some nights and they are a godsend when the kids are sick.

I'd love to know how many TV's you have in your home?

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!!!!

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.

One Man's Trash........

I am lucky to have a wonderful and very generous girlfriend living nearby. As well as helping each other out with our children and drinking lots and lots of coffee together, we also swap our trash. Now, I know that sounds weird, so let me explain...


Julie and I are both on a decluttering mission this year. But as we pack bags ready for the charity shops we swap them first so we can dig through each others clutter. We do this just in case there is something that may be useful to the other person. Very often there is.


Last month Julie was getting rid of these shoes. She just doesn't wear them. I've been looking for a pair of clog type shoes for ages and all they need is s polish. The black leather shoes will be great for winter and just need a resole at the cobblers (are they even called that anymore?)

Gotta love a girlfriend who is the same shoe size.

Julie is finally having her kitchen remodelled and she had this fabric up in front of her lower cupboards to hide the clutter. I had commented often how much I loved the fabric. (I must of known it was coming my way someday!) When it came down Julie asked if I could do something with it......

How about two new "vintage" looking pillowcases. I still love this fabric and now I get to rest my head on it every night. Thanks Julie.

My second Simple Savings tip of the month is to have an alcohol free month once a year. I have a friend who has been doing this for years. Hi Natalie. Natalie and her husband make February their "dry" month. It not only saves them money but detoxes them after the Xmas and New Year festivities.

I am making March my No Alcohol month as I know how much I like a red wine through those cool Autumn and freezing winter nights. So I thought I better get this tip out of the way as soon as possible.



Hope everyone is enjoying the change in the seasons.

Hello Autumn

Hooray, it's the first day of Autumn. Ignore the date at the top of this post. The computer has a mind of its own. I have a couple of unrelated things to blog about today so don't try and find a theme there isn't one. LOL

It's Monday again and that means Meatless Monday. On the menu tonight is Cheese souffle. Of course we have it with a bit of salad to "green" things up.

Over the weekend I had to work REALLY hard to keep plastic bags out of the house. Every retail person on the planet wants to put your purchases in a plastic bag.

The average use of a plastic bag is less than an hour and they take over 2000 years to break down in landfill. So, I've been saying No, No, No all over the place. For the bags I have already, I am taking them to be recycled at my local supermarket. IGA provides a bin to put them in and I'm using cloth bags wherever I can.

I have some in the car and some on the wall near the front door for if I walk to the shops.

The white one was my grandmother's and was crocheted about 60 years ago and the "Iconic" one was a present from my sister in law for Xmas this year.

You might remember that I belong to another site called Simple Savings whereby people help each other save money (in theory anyway). Each month this year they are having a challenge. For March, it is adopt a tip month. That means that each day I have to implement a new tip from their site that either saves me time or money or effort.

So I looked through all their tips and found 31 that I will implement through March that have some relevence to myself and my family.

A nice easy one for the first day of March is to put a clean Chux underneath your vegetables in your crisper. It absorbs moisture and therefore extends the life of your vegetables. Sounds good to me.

One Small Change

This year I've decided to start making small changes to become more sustainable. One of the first changes I have made is to move away from disposable products as much as I can. I bought these handmade dish cloths from Made It, which is an Australian website that sells handmade items. These dish cloths are 100% cotton and they wear really well. I love them so much I just ordered some more. I only use one a day and then throw it in the wash. I hope never to buy Chux again. Next month its time to get rid of the paper towel.

Handbag Voyuerism

Libby from Life is a Journey and Not a Destination asks what is in our handbags? Well, mine is very boring I have to say. But I embraced the challenge as it was a good excuse for a cleanout.

Handbag in the background is brown leather. I love brown bags as they go with everything and can do Summer and Winter.

Keys are on a blue lanyard as I've found they are easier to find this way and I can also throw them around my neck if I need to.

I have a small date diary as when I run into people they often say what are you doing on such and such a day and without my calendar there I have no idea. This allows me to answer people on the spot.

Nurofen and quickeze. What can I say, I hate to suffer.....

Nail file....obvious

Wallet and phone....obvious

Breath mints for after a garlicky lunch out.

Wipes...for Rhianna.

Little black wallet....for those girlie things you (or your girlfriend) may need when in the middle of a good shopping day out.

Tape measure... I never go into Spotlight without it.

See....boring.

I might think of something unusual to put in there in case I am ever hit by a bus and they check my bag. I'd just like one person, even if it is a paramedic, to think I had an interesting life.

Any suggestions????????