Christmas 2019

Blooms from the pohutukawa - New Zealand's Christmas tree

Wow, where did the past year go??
It's Christmas Eve here in New Zealand. The eggnog is prepared in the fridge, as is the trifle, parts of the salads prepared to go with the cold chicken and ham. Family are bringing the potato salad and cheesecake. Plus there are all the trimmings, like cherries and fudge, camembert and crackers, pistachio nuts.

We've got raspberries and strawberries from the garden -  a benefit of Christmas in summer. The weather forecast is for cloudy and around 23 degrees - typical Christmas day here. 

Wooden Christmas tree, handmade by the seller's grandad, bought from a garage sale near Raglan.

How fortunate we are. It is this life that makes me want to help those less fortunate during the year - by redirecting spare food, books and clothing to those in need, saving those things from being wasted at the same time. 

Reusing old T-shirts is a great way to wrap bulky boxes. T-shirt yarn for ties.

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas wherever you are. May 2020 bring enlightenment to the world and prosperity of spirit. Kindness to all.

Random Musings

Hi All. I was going to take a little blogging holiday, but thought I'd just fire some random things on here to let you know that we made it back from the cruise ok. It's not all about the trip tho.
There were good times, but as I suspected, it's not our preferred mode of travel, mostly because of the sheer number of people. 

Dravuni Island, Fiji

Dravuni Island in Fiji has only about 158 inhabitants (not 400 as I thought), no vehicles and no roads. I thought that arriving there with a cruise ship full of passengers would be awful. However it was better than I expected. The Islanders were so gracious and the island was just beautiful. I hope they made enough money to keep themselves going all year by selling coconuts, icecream, barbecue lunches massages and colourful lavalavas.

Suva Market

Suva market (Fiji) - the biggest fruit and veg market that I've ever seen. I wish we had one like this. Very little plastic.

We didn't buy much - I'm not one for souvenirs, but this lovely coconut chandelier came home with us and came through customs with no problem whatsoever.

We're happy to be back home with our solitude and garden, which is looking pretty, although a little overgrown.

I'm busy with Intercept Fabric Rescue(earlier post) since my return. It's only been going 7 weeks and we are working hard to get systems in place. We have quite a few new volunteers joining us following a great article in the local paper.
We've rehomed a lot of clothes and bedding with those in need and some of the team are skilled upcyclers.

Upcycled by Jenny Hill

Zillions of soft toys go to the landfill throughout the world - this one has been rescued, plastic nurdles removed and restuffed with fabric waste to make it a dog toy, others will become hand puppets. 

There's lots to get on with. It certainly makes me appreciate home.

A Day of Sadness

March 15th 2019 will always be remembered here as a day of sorrow in the wake of the mosque shootings in Christchurch. Fifty lives taken as they went about their peaceful practice of prayer.

Hopefully it will unite all New Zealanders even more as they stand in solidarity with the Muslims who call New Zealand home. 
Our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has vowed to change our gun laws to no longer allow semi automatic weapons and to tighten gun ownership regulations.

We are a peaceful country so this is unexpected and shocks us all to the core.

Kia Kaha - stay strong 

Arohanui - great love  💓

Anne

Holiday Asides, Simplicious Flow, A Buzz

Hi All.

Remember before I went on holiday, I had made these passport holders from my stash of things, so they cost me nothing - I just wanted to say that they held together perfectly and were a delight to use. A win for DIY.

Another aside from my holiday..I am fond of reading magazines on the plane, but that can get to be expensive. I try to pick up reasonably new copies in our op shops before I travel, which is also more enviro friendly.
I had a laugh when I opened one to find that someone had commented in pen a few times throughout the magazine -  funny/ witty comments. I only saved one to post.

Don't be afraid to do this if you are passing a magazine on - it had me chuckling away.
Also, if you go to Dubai - a magazine will cost you an arm and a leg (I walked away without buying). A common Australian Woman's Weekly was $30NZ, and all others were even more!

Have a look at this newly-out cookbook, Simplicious Flow by Sarah Wilson, of I Quit Sugar fame.

I was impressed to see that she's dealing with the subject of food waste - giving recipes that use up all of the ingredients, plus addressing the use of plastic wrap and plastic waste. I've never seen that in a cookbook before - it's definitely different.
There are of course some great healthy recipes in there too that I'm looking forward to trying.
Oh, and look what else is in there...exciting! 

Yes, that's a mention of my little blog with my adapted recipe for Miracle Pan Grease.
You just never know what's going to happen next in this life.

It's Good To Be Home

We've been flat out since getting home two weeks ago, but oh what a wonderful holiday - 6 weeks in England and France. We visited friends and family and just ambled through those beautiful old villages in both countries, then a week in Paris to finish off.
It's difficult when you live on the other side of the world to those wonderful places - it increases our footprint a lot by doing all that travel, and all I can say is that we try to do what we can to balance it back.
Some of our souvenirs included vintage items we found in the markets. 

Some unplayable instruments that we lugged home to add to our wall decor

I bought no new clothes for myself and popped into a lot of thrift shops, finding that an interesting insight into different countries. I must say that I think ours and Australia's stack up pretty well against those that I visited. 
The produce markets in France were just gorgeous. Such beautiful displays with no plastic - I wish ours were that good.

The market in Bordeaux

Now that we're home I have hurriedly planted all my seeds, but I'm a bit late with them so I've been scouting around looking for plants that don't come in plastic punnets (found some lettuces) - will try our local Sunday market.

There's nothing like going away to make you appreciate what you've got.
Yesterday's walk on the beach coincided with low tide, so we picked a bag of pipis - which I cooked for my daughter's lunch today - much to her excitement. (Seriously, she loves them)

Sorry I've missed a lot of others blog posts while I've been away and still not caught up - I'll be back with you all soon.
Cheers,
Anne 

Some Novel Ideas and Some Travel Plans

I love to see unwanted items reused for a different purpose, so when we saw this wall decor in a cafe in Auckland, I had to get a shot.

An industrial style cafe uses old baking pans to give texture to a wall

The next item I had to think hard about whether to buy it or not. It's plastic and it's a gizmo (generally 2 reasons not to buy). But if you've read recently where I rub on sliced lemon or lime for deodorant, you might see why I found this attractive.

spray on deodorant

It gives a fine spray and the citrus lasts in the fridge for a week with the nozzle screwed in. There are two different sizes, so when I run out of limes, the bigger one will work on lemons.

There is an added bonus that no one will now accidentally use my deodorant lime, and this way it can also be used to spray on fish, salads or fruit to stop it browning. I love it.

My reading stack lately

I've been sewing with scraps

You may see a recurrent theme beginning to appear...

I think neck pillows are a great idea on long haul flights, but they take up so much space (unless they are inflatable - and I'm not about to go and buy one). So I had the brilliant idea of removing the foam filling of the one I already have and replacing it with those spare clothes that you should pack in carry on luggage, in case your suitcase goes missing.

I copied the pattern and made another one for Derek. 

It looks a bit lumpy but is really comfortable

Next was something to replace those awful plastic travel folders that travel agents give out (and we refuse). I could have bought some - but hey, I thought it would be more fun to add it to the things to do the week before leaving...

Made using materials on hand

So yes, we're off. You've probably guessed the destinations by the reading material. There's a concert at the Royal Albert Hall, and a Van Morrison performance scheduled in, among other things. 

Right now I'm just sick of cleaning to make sure it's all ship shape for the housesitters.

I might not be able to publish your comments meantime. I've had to edit comments thanks to a few spammers and I'm not sure that I can do it from my phone.

 So I'll be back here in a couple of months. Until then - au revoir!

Keeping Rice Crackers Good, a Dinosaur, a Phone Holder...

Hi there. 

We were out for lunch a couple of days ago and it reminded me of a hack (that is a tip for the older generation) that I learned from my daughter. 
The grandson had these rice cracker type things, and it reminded me how quickly they go soft - but my daughter taught me that you store them in the fridge and they stay crisp - you don't even have to seal the packet! I thought maybe I was the last person in the world to know this, but seeing as my stepdaughter didn't know that - I'm sharing it.

Little grandson turned 2 a week or so back, and he's hugely into dinosaurs. We found him a dinosaur book appropriate for his age, and I made him a rice-stuffed dinosaur that can be heated in the microwave for him to snuggle. Their old villa is incredibly cold in Winter. 

I also made him a sleep sack out of scrap material with an inner of an old felted wool blanket.

While I'm on the sewing with scraps theme...
we end up with a lot of fabric scraps from using the overlockers when making boomerang bags. I don't like to throw them out, so here are a couple of things that I've made from them. 

One is just a lowly pincushion, but the fancy thing about it is that flat piece out behind -  it sits under the sewing machine so that it stays put.
The second is a prototype of a phone holder that I made by copying one I saw on Pinterest. I feel the design could be tweaked a little to get the phone to sit more steadily, but hey - it works.

And lastly, while we're still on the subject of sewing - I wanted to show you our SewGood Station.

Whangarei's SewGood Station - a community sewing machine

This is one of our donated machines, set up permanently in Ecosolutions, in Whangarei for anyone at all to use. So, if people need to do mending or want to sew their own reusable bags - it's free to use, although a koha (donation) is happily accepted. 
There is a stash of materials, threads, scissors - in fact about everything you'd need - right there. There's also an overlocker there for people to use, although it's only a 3 thread. A 3 thread overlocker is only good for finishing edges, whereas a 4 thread is strong enough to sew the seam.
I think it's great - but it doesn't get used much yet.

Oh, and do you like my new blog header? I've been meaning to do this for years, but have just had the incentive provided for me - something a bit exciting that can be revealed closer towards the end of the year. Sorry - going to keep you in suspense.

The Mermaid & What I've Been Up To.

Where does the time go? 
We have been busy - cleaning out our garage so that Katie could have a 17th birthday party in there (eek - but the party wasn't too bad). 

This meant sorting a lot of stuff, so we have been to our local car boot sale early on a Sunday morning selling things off, then donating the rest. The market is pure entertainment - some real characters there. 

I've also been busy selling off the bone china and old cutlery that I started collecting a few years ago. I'm getting a good return on my investment, money going towards a big trip later this year. 
Next to go will be my crystal brooch collection - we can't keep everything right?

The Mermaid
I've decided to share the next pictures with you so that you can see it's never too late to have a bit of fun. On our birthday (Derek and I share) there was something called the Whangarei Fritter Festival - lots of bands, food is mostly fritters (for which there is a competition), and beer and wine. It's lots of fun, but not cheap at $45 each, and then you buy your food and drinks.

The Fritter Festival 2018

I saw that one of the bands was running a competition with free tickets as a prize, for anyone who would dress as a mermaid and post the pic to their page. 
Well I could tell that I had a good chance with few entered, and none following instructions... so at 59, I won my first mermaid competition with this pic.

An unflattering but winning pic haha! Tail is a piece of fabric with a spray painted flipper that we found on the beach. Oh that's a wig by the way.

Bird Scarer, Down the Road for Coffee, Dr Seuss Tree.

Isn't it great when you save something from being thrown out - and finally you find a use for it.

Derek saved these old discs from the bin at his work - and last week they became bird-scarers on our plum tree. I'd always had my doubts about the effectiveness of doing this, but yesterday I stewed a trug full of plums that the birds had not touched since the scarers went up, unless the plums fell on the ground.
I have now added more to the peach tree. 

The plastic cases will be reused to house home-written cds.

It looks like we will have a bumper crop of avocados next year. Got to love avocado trees - we are still picking 2-3 fruit off it every week, and it's getting itself ready with the next crop.

I just had to show you these coffees we were served in a local new cafe/restaurant called Down The Road.

I forgot to take a pic until they were half gone!

Weird name, but it's a lovely old 1930's Art Deco style home converted. The coffees were great by the way.

And lastly...our Christmas tree. This year it's going to be fairly quiet, with Katie still in Argentina as an exchange student. This is an eco friendly, no fuss tree from the side of the road. It is a wilding pine - which is a weed here. It was chosen especially because of it's interesting Dr Seuss-like shape. 

With that I'd like to wish my blog followers and random readers a Merry Christmas, and hope 2018 is wonderful for you. We've had a great 2017 and I hope you have too (but I don't know how it goes by so fast).

🎄🎅Anne

A Home Made Advent

We are off to Australia again soon to visit Derek's family, and I decided to make an advent for his 5 year old grandson, to take with us.
Advent's beginnings were religious, and I hope not to offend anyone, but this is not for a religious family, but one that does love Christmas all the same.  
Warning  - it looks a bit over the top- but actually only a little of it has been shop bought. Much of it we already had, including all of the boxes and paper, which are being reused. Some items had been little gifts bought and never given that have been sitting here for years - a good time to use them up.

The part that has been bought is Lego - the grandson's most favourite activity - and it ties in with a Lego book that we've bought him for Christmas. I bought a set that could be divided into many parts and packaged each component up separately.

So I thought that I would list what has gone into it, maybe you'll see that I'm having a little clear out hehe, but things that we thought a small boy might find interesting.

Apart from Lego pieces I have packaged up....

An alphabet letter magnet (regifted) that just happens to be his first initial

A small dinosaur notepad

Knucklebones

A knob of Kauri Gum, with a little printed out explanation for his parents to read to him. You can read about Kauri Gum in an earlier post of mine.

A minute timer - the sort that the sand runs through when you invert it (I think it came from a Christmas cracker)

Some All Blacks cards out of the cereal.

A snowman Christmas decoration and a snowman joke, plus several others along this line.

Skin Tattoo type stickers (two from a set that had been divided up already).

A joke and a paper hat (ex Christmas cracker)

A slide viewer and slides of aquarium fish. (These had been around since my youth), and the viewer was a spare.

Ooh, an antique

A Winnie the Pooh pen that lights up.

Some foreign coins from his Grandad's coin collection.

A little wooden cat and a fish in a matchbox.

The numbers came from a lotto game that I have been using in mixed media pieces.

It definitely will be a one off, one that I'm pretty sure he will love - more than one from the shop with chocolate for every day (which he doesn't like). 

I almost decided not to post this - aware of how indulgent it looks - it turned out to be a lot bigger than I had planned. We are all different in our approaches to giving gifts - and the biggest thing that went into this was a lot of my time.

The Grandson will be opening it all after we have returned home - hopefully it will remind him of his Nanny and Gdad who he doesn't see much of these days since he moved back to Australia. 

What to do with Pumpkin Skin and About Viscose.

Sometimes I have a collection of snippets that make their way into my blog - this is one such time, so sorry, it is a bit disjointed.

It has been a busy weekend, part of which was playing sax in a charity event after being invited to join a few others.

Viscose for cool playing
I had some idea that viscose and rayon were plant based materials, and being natural, were therefore breathable - which is important when I'm playing in the band as it gets really hot up there sometimes.
Having picked up a viscose top recently, I thought I would check. It turns out that these materials won't wick moisture away from the body, so maybe not so good if it's really humid (and you get really sweaty), but they are breathable.
They won't give off plastic fibres when washed, but the process to make viscose/rayon has a lot of chemical/processing - much more than say, cotton.
More earth friendly if it's second hand.

Is it called viscose, or rayon?

Great question. There is some confusion between the two terms. Viscose is actually a type of rayon, even though “viscose,””viscose rayon,” and “rayon” are often used interchangeably. What started as “artificial silk” in the late 19th century became known as rayon in 1924, with the name “viscose” coming from “a viscous organic liquid used to make both rayon and cellophane.”  Rayon is “the generic term for fiber (and the resulting yarn and fabric) manufactured from regenerated cellulose by any one of six processes.” Keep in mind that modal and lyocell, along with viscose, are also considered types of rayon.

Excerpt taken from www.barnhardtcotton.net

I also attended The Rubbish Trip presentation - which consists of Hannah and Liam, who are travelling throughout New Zealand talking to audiences in every city about reducing their personal rubbish footprint.

I recommend it if you are in New Zealand and haven't seen them yet.They have another 9 (?) months to go. I thought they were awesome, just love what they are doing.
It was practical, and having researched local places to buy packaging-free made it all easier for people.  
The presentation was well attended by about 100 people of all ages. 

Pumpkin Skin - do you eat it? We normally do, but a recipe that I used recently needed to have the skin off. Previously I would have just composted it - but this time I roasted it while cooking other things and added it to the dog's food. He was really pleased.
Timely for Halloween I thought - cook up any unwanted pumpkin - dogs love it.

Munta - really, he was pleased.

Refreshed post Travel

After 3 weeks in Tasmania and Melbourne, home's still a great place. I'm so grateful to have a home, having seen how many homeless people are out there. It's not really something we see in my local city.

My first discovery was on the plane. I wasn't fully prepared to deal with the disposables on the plane, but had taken my own water bottle, which can be filled pre flight once checked through security, and my reusable cup. Both of these were useful on the flight, with the flight attendants cheerfully filling my own cup for a hot drink. Next time I will be taking the plastic cutlery we were given as I would have been able to refuse these on the Qantas Flight, they didn't come automatically with the meal.

Tasmania has banned single use lightweight plastic bags since Nov 2013 and it was such a delight to see so little plastic in use. Why can't every country do this? I traveled with home made carrier bags, and used them every day.

Op-shops in Australia are fabulous! It is hard to tell them from an actual retail shop - beautiful, colour coordinated window displays and no op-shop odour. Lots of designer clothes. Good prices too.

My $5 leather bag

I learned to use the macro setting on my camera while I was away. This shot is from Nelson Falls in Tasmania, also the video..

Moss, macro shot

We visited the Van Gogh exhibition in Melbourne. We were able to get up so close to the masterpieces. I found it thrilling to be able to stand in front of each piece, not only admiring the work, but knowing that van Gogh himself had stood in front of each of those works all those years ago. He would never have imagined their impact on the world. 

Derek has the best shots ever

I loved this quote of his...

Musings on Travel and Blogging

Driftwood screen

The above pic is one of two screens I whipped up to cover the utilities in our carport when we were expecting lots of visitors, and it is an area they need to walk past. 

I thought it was good use of a couple of free pallets and some of the many fine pieces of driftwood we have accumulated. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but I think better than looking at the rubbish bin and worm farm etc.

This post is going to be a bit of a mix, as my head is in preparation mode for our imminent trip to Tasmania and Melbourne, where we will be holidaying with my siblings and their spouses.

Travel is not environmentally friendly, and it makes the little things we do to help the environment seem like a drop in the ocean. Never the less, we will continue to do them, and use the travel as an opportunity to learn more. 

I'm looking forward to visiting Tasmania, where I understand they have quit plastic bags in many parts. 

I have my reusable bags packed. I also managed to stop the travel agent giving me a plastic folder and more plastic luggage tags.

Why Blog?

With some of the bloggers that I follow deciding to stop blogging (and then starting again when they missed the outlet and their online friends), I thought about why I love my blog - here are a few reasons...(none of which are for money)

1. Just for myself - so I can find my own recipes and references - I've used this heaps. I can log my own progress too.

2. So that one day, should my daughter or step kids ever want to find a recipe or heaven forbid - even find some of it interesting - it will be there. I would have liked to have something like this from my mum.

3. A surprise aspect has been getting to chat with other lovely bloggers.

4. Maybe I'll inspire someone.

OK, the next blog will be when I get back - so until then - so long.

 

The Power of the Mind

So, I've been a little distracted lately preparing for an event that our band played at last weekend - the It! Festival in Paihia. We were on just before The Black Seeds, a top New Zealand band.

The wet weather didn't dampen any spirits

My point is - what you imagine often comes true, in sometimes strange ways.
Since I was young, I have always thought that being able to do what you love - and make a living from it has got to be the epitome of a good life. I thought that being a paid singer or musician would be just the coolest thing.
I didn't have this in mind at all when I decided to learn to play the saxophone at age 42, it was just that I loved it.

Then sometime around age 52, I found myself playing in a classic rock band. It has taken me quite some time to get comfortable with that - but then the boys wanted me to start adding backing vocals in there... and that is how I found myself playing and singing in front of a crowd of about 2,000 people last weekend. Oh, and we got paid to do it.

What you form in your mind can come to be. So you might as well make it something great.