Upcycled Giftwrap and Decorations

As promised, a little more on ideas for eco friendly gift wrap that means not buying something new for this purpose.
Hopefully this idea will be good enough to be reused again and again - even better.
Not everyone has access to a big advertising poster like this one that my daughter got hold of before it was thrown out - yes, that is what they do with them.

But ask around, often there is a supply of brown waste parcel paper in good condition, or pristine white paper, posters, corrugated cardboard etc at businesses.
These envelopes are quick and easy to make with a sewing machine, and can be closed in various ways from buttons to double sided tape, or tied with sewn on tapes made from cut up old tee shirts.

Upcycled advertising poster turned gift envelope

Upcycled advertising poster turned gift envelope

The possibilities are endless - here is my Pinterest Upcycled Giftwrap Board if you'd like some inspiration.

Parcel Trims

I think handmade trims are more exciting than something that anyone can buy in a shop, and they dress up that brown paper parcel beautifully.
These ones I made up with no pattern because they are simple. I love being able to use old single buttons that I have inherited from my mother and grandmother. 

And Christmas decorations

Christmas decoration - upcycled sheet music

These are made by sewing through the centre of 5 circles of old sheet music, and adding a few beads and a tie.

Some Upcycled Domino Pendants

I made a few of these for my market stall - which is looking more and more like being next year as I am busy with the band for the rest of the year.

Handbuilt Jewellery n Bustin' Flies

Handbuilt Jewellery
Lets start with the prettier side of the blog.
Some pictures of a couple of pieces I made a while back using all sorts that I had been saving, from old buckles, broken jewellery and coins to a button from a dress my mother wore in her twenties as a bridesmaid.

upcycled jewelery necklace #1

upcycled jewelery necklace #2

Fly Tipping
Months ago I noticed that someone had dumped an old tv and other rubbish on the side of our road - including some cactus plants which were starting to get a foothold. I finally took their photo and sent this with the location to the man at our council who manages the rubbish, and presto - it was gone! Well done to him (and me).

Fly Busting
We get big blowflies here. It doesn't help living beside a horse paddock. I just detest fly swatters, and have been using an ecomist, with canisters at $20 each. "Good" magazine that is just out has published a solution...

16 drops of lavender essential oil
16 drops of basil essential oil
10 mls of almond oil

Place these in a jar with a small cloth, and use the cloth to anoint the window and door frames. This will need to be repeated fortnightly, or weekly in hot weather.

I'm also going to haul out my old oil burner to use with these essential oils when I am cooking meat. I will report back on how it works.
The other suggestion was to have pots of basil, lavender and tansy near doors and windows.
I'm going to have loads of basil for fly busting and pesto after my second planting came up in abundance.

Basil seedlings - hooray!

Slow Living Speeds Up

It has been a beautiful long weekend of glorious Spring weather here. My slow living went out of the window with the events of the past few days, which reminded me how hard it is to live an eco friendly life when involved in the hurlyburly of social interaction on a big scale.

That's me on sax at the Paihia food and wine festival

Crowd of 2,000 people, beautiful Spring day.

Our band played two very different gigs, which was fabulous for us. On a different note - in line with my blog - the weekend has been uncomfortable to someone who is trying to keep away from the disposable world.
It has made me more determined that the big birthday party we are throwing next year will be as green as possible. I am already sourcing compostable plates and giving thought to reducing waste.
I also ended up buying a birthday present a bit last minute so that I could give it personally and not send it - which meant it got beautifully gift wrapped in the shop. That felt at odds with my ethics, my no gift wrap pledge, so I have determined to be better organised for Christmas - because that is the key to being able to hold the green stance. 
Last year for Christmas we went with a low-key Pacifica theme. We decided a purpose raised Christmas tree which can be composted at the end was the greenest option, especially as it supports the St John Ambulance.
It felt really refreshing not to have the artificial decorations.

Pacifica themed tree, with my own painting "Pacifica" in the background

my driftwood angel

mini flax kete, with flax flowers

The gift wrap was made from large white sheets that someone had written one line on, then thrown out in our paper recycling at work.
There will be more Christmas ideas to come in later blogs

Lovin' What You Do

"Let the beauty of what you love be what you do"

Rumi

My sister in Australia is a caregiver, a job that is much better paid there than here. Yesterday she was paid for 2 hours to play Scrabble with a 90 year old lady, and she frequently takes another out for lunch as part of her job. Awesome! 

When I was younger I always said that the best way to earn a living is doing something that you love. For me - I thought the epitome would be playing music or singing for a living. It was something I thought other people did - but when you form an idea, sometimes it happens all by itself. At that stage I hadn't started playing sax.

My alto saxophone

This weekend I am playing sax, bongos, and doing backing vocals at two gigs with our band.

If you are new to my blog - it is really just a journal of my year of slow living - taking time out to do the things in life I enjoy, and hopefully making the world a better place along the way.
My point in the entry above is to follow your dreams, and dream big. It is doing that, and reading a lot of books, that has allowed me to retire at age 53.
I first picked up a saxophone at age 43.

Miscellaneous
Because really I need to go practice, so some random stuff...
Taking garden items that are hanging around and adding them for their decorative touches..

A little change in shopping...do it often enough and it makes changes in your green footprint.

I like how the one on the left says 100% cotton - but fails to mention the plastic stick. I must ask our supermarket if they will stock the Go Bamboo ones - they are the only ones we can put in the compost - packaging and all.

Home-made Potting Mix

I found yet another thing that I can make myself to save buying it in, which saves me money and a whole lot of plastic bags.
Potting Mix

Home made potting mix

We have a rotted down pile of woodchip and I had a collection of pumice which we had a lot of on our local beach recently, so when I ran out of potting mix yesterday I thought - "I can make this". I put the pumice in a strong bag and pounded it to mush with a mallet and added some organic slow release fertilizer into the mix. The proof will be in how well my plants grow.

Still in the garden - in one of my earlier posts I showed our aubergine plant which was amazing last season - producing about 40 good sized fruit off the one plant. It died back a little over winter and I was going to take it out - but Derek talked me into pruning it back and giving it another chance for a second season.

aubergine - going for a second season.

It is looking good and is flowering again. It does get well fed and watered so it will be interesting to see if it can have another bountiful season.

Buying Local
New Zealand is a great place to live - food is abundant. Derek often comes home from work with produce that we get from his workmates. Some we buy regularly like free range eggs, strawberries and honey, but others are excesses that his workmates bring in - and we do the same, sending excess in. What is great about this is that we are supporting small enterprise, there is no mileage involved (they were going to work anyway), and the packaging is recycled. The strawberries came in a paper bag! 

local strawberries, honey, eggs and loquats

 Recently we have been given fish, and we get worm tea from his work's worm farm - which is more operational than ours is yet. 
In town the other day I picked a bag of loquats from my daughter's backyard. We are still deciding whether to let some of these grow here as they can become a nuisance plant, but the woodpigeons love them - and so do we. 
I also picked up a bag of 10 lemons for 50c at our local charity shop. Well, we grow our own but we don't have enough yet, so that is a great help.

Have a look at this site - it shows what families have as their weekly food shopping in different parts of the world - it's interesting. 

Clever Ideas

Sometimes I see a brilliant idea and think "Duh - why haven't I thought of that myself?" So here are two simple but clever ideas...

Wendyl Nissen's Bob Each Way Spread
I got this from her Supermarket Companion book. It is a great replacement for margarine - which I don't like anyway because I don't consider it real food, but beats having to remember to leave a little butter in the pantry each day so that it is spreadable. And then there is the whole saturated fat issue - so this cuts it in half.

Mix together equal quantities of butter and olive oil.
I used 200 grams of butter and topped up to 400 grams with the oil on the kitchen scales.
Soften the butter gently, but make sure it doesn't cook. I used a whisk to mix  them.
The more virgin the olive oil, the more olivey it will taste, and could also have a green tinge.
Keep the spread in the fridge. If it separates, just rewhisk.

Bob Each Way Spread

In-Garden Compost Planter 

Now I can't locate my source - but will add it when I do.
So this works by giving the tomatoes in my garden a nutrient source - because they are planted around the base, plus warmth from composting materials, plus something to tie the tomatoes to, and a bit of shade for my lettuces nearby.

It is a bit of mesh, cable tied into a cylinder shape, anchored to the ground with stakes or  wire staples, then filled with compost. Mine has weeds, some stuff out of the other compost bin, plus newspaper soaked in seaweed/ horse poo tea, among other things.
In the middle there is a plastic tube which has holes drilled along it's length. The theory is that I water down that and it spreads through the compost and down to the tomatoes, taking nutrients with it.
I have also planted some of the same tomatoes elsewhere in the garden, so I'll be able to compare.
At the end of the season it can be just dumped right there in the garden.
And that leads me to....

Planting Tomatoes
I have only recently learned that when planting tomatoes to take off the lower leaves and put the plants in with the soil right up to the next lot of leaves. This makes them grow bigger, stronger roots and they will do better.

Pumice and Driftwood Garden Art

pumice and driftwood wreath

I finally found some time to finish something I had started ages ago - my pumice and driftwood wreath, which I had made using an old wire coat hanger. That was the difficult part as it was really hard to bend the hook in to shape - but in the end I wanted it done and found a way.

Pumice totem
While visiting friends last weekend I saw they had some lovely totems in their garden that they had made from driftwood and pumice, and I decided it was time I got around to using all the pumice that I had collected. So here is my pumice totem, which is threaded onto a piece of dowel that cost me $2.30 from Arthurs Emporium (which was enough for 2 totems). Pumice is so easy to drill.

pumice totem

The lower end of the dowel is pushed securely into the ground. The totem moves with the breeze.

Petrol Saving Tip

Turn off your engine if you will stationary for more than 2 minutes. Idling this long takes more fuel than restarting your car. (tip from lifegoggles.com)

More Something for nothing

New Zealand Spinach 

This plant just self seeds and comes up regularly in the garden. I like to use the new tips, which I threw in to my chicken risotto last night. It seems to be unpopular with slugs and snails.

Update on Great White Butterfly
DOC is offering $10 reward for each dead Great White Butterfly brought in. We don't have them in the North, so hopefully that will stop them getting here.

There is also a bird further South that has invaded our shores called a Red vented Bulbul that they are offering $30 for information that leads to capture.

Red vented Bulbul

I hope DOC's bounty helps keep us free of these pests, which are apparently aggressive and prolific breeders.

Well it's a beautiful day out there - I'm off to mow the lawn. I have been looking at it for days, waiting, as I really want the lawn clippings to mulch my plants!