Glass painting with acrylic paint

I love the painted windows at Kindergartens, they're so cheery and fun.

Adam and I washed up some empty coffee jars and peeled off the labels. I used Tea Tree Oil on a cloth to get rid of the sticky bits (that's an adult job)

We just used acrylic paint and had a heap of fun. He loved his little jar and had fun deciding on which treasures would be lucky enough to live in it.

We dropped blobs of paint on the lids and used a pencil to make swirls and pattern

I had a lot of fun doing mine...maybe too much fun :D

Day 5 - Energy

Today was about using as little energy as possible.

We do this in many small ways already, so it wasn't a massive change for us.

We turn off lights when not in use, use the quick wash on the washer and dishwasher. We dry our clothes on the line, we don't use a hairdryer to dry our hair.

I have a little tip though that we started doing this week though. Boil a kettle full of water when you make your morning cuppa and then put the boiling water that is left into a flask. Ours stays steaming hot for hours and when you drink as much tea as we do it's great to save a little energy...and not have to wait for the kettle to boil each time

Day Four - Food

The idea today, is to buy seasonal, locally produced food. Avoiding packaging as much as possible too.

This should be fairly easy. We have been doing this pretty much since the start of the project and before too...

I don't understand why some companies package fruits and veges...what a waste! They don't need to be packaged.

It's funny actually. I went to the bakery yesterday and I had forgotten to bring a green bag so I just said to the girl behind the counter that I didn't need a bag. She looked at me like I was mental and asked if I wanted a carrier bag instead..."erm no thanks, I'll just carry it". Heaven forbid I carry a loaf of bread for my family.

Anywho...I wrapped the bread in muslin when I got home and it has stayed just as fresh as if it was in a stinkin' plastic wrapper. Plus, it was so yum that it didn't have a change to go funny at the ends as it got eaten up.

I plan on making some little bags out of muslin, for stuff like mushrooms and smaller items that need individual bags (grapes, mandarins etc).

Day three - Transport

Well, we changed our gas guzzler to a prius which is definitely a step in the right direction.

I wanted to walk to and from school with Adam, but this isn't working as well as I had planned. It's a 6km trip for the little fella (all up) and it's more than his little legs can handle. Even on a scooter.

So we have agreed that we will only walk in the morning and I will pick him up from school in the car on the way home.

Hopefully, when I can find a decent second hand bike, he will be able to ride the whole way there and back.

:)

Day Two of the No Impact Project - TRASH!!!

Ok...it's a pile of garbage... I know that! It's not quite as cute as the pictures we normally look at. But for me it's been an experience.

The beer is all Marks and I know that we should be avoiding waste, but this particular beer company also does kegs which you can refill and refill and refill :) Happy me because from now onwards we will not be disposing of beer bottles and happy Mark because he still gets beer...and pretty tasty beer by all accounts.

The milk cartons are a little misleading as there are three empties. It just so happened that two of them only had a teeny bit left (yes I know, my family often have more than one carton open).

Same with the wine bottle, I used the remaining wine in my risotto. So no, I didn't have a full bottle of wine :(

The papers are school letters - why they can't e-mail us the information I do not know...maybe something I could suggest.

Lastly there is a bottle of Sukin, which is a body wash product. It's a nice product and pretty 'clean' as they say. It only has a small amount of preservative in it and the rest is natural. However the last scrap here is a wrapper from the soap that I will now be buying instead of plastic bottles. The paper can be composted and there is no waste!! Yay!

Lastly there is a pile of veggie scraps which would ordinarily be composted, but we are moving house in two weeks so it is a little unrealistic to be composting now :)

We use washable nappies and wipes, so no waste there and when we went to the market yesterday we brought our own drinks and only bought stuff that was not packaged...like fruit and pretzels :)

No Impact Week - day one

My family and I have been inspired to follow Colin Beavan's No impact Week.

I first saw this on Nikki from WR's blog.

Day one is Sunday (today) and it's all about consumption.

Which in a nutshell means STOP BUYING STUFF. To be honest we are pretty good in this regard. My aim is to improve our practices and to find some ways of doing things better.

So today our 'to-do' list includes;

- List all the stuff we need to buy this week, and try to limit to the stuff that we really need.
- Fill a re-useable bag with ALL of our rubbish for the day.
- Try not to buy anything new.

Check out more details here

Have a great day :) I'll be putting more information on here about how we get on and the changes that we make :)

Green is the new everything

Ok, so this post isn't really a crafty post, but without the changes that I have made in the last year I would not know how to sew, blog or refashion so I'm going to plough ahead.

I always used to think that I was fairly environmentally conscious. I always put my recyclable waste in the correct bin, I used washable nappies, I turned the tap off when I brushed my teeth and I have been vegetarian since I was 14 years old...so there! I was green and proud.

However, I did not see the oxymoron that is a person who uses washable nappies, but turned her nose up at second hand clothing. That I would save water, but not really worry about everyone being on a different electronic device all at different ends of the house.

I was green. If you compare me to most people...but was I doing my best? My absolute best? No, I was not...am I doing my absolute best now??? Well, I am doing much better, but there is always room for improvement. There have been so many changes in my families life in recent months.

It started when I met a beautiful family who live at the foot of the Dandenongs in Victoria, Australia. I saw that they live simply, but infinitely more beautifully than my hugely expensive and uninteresting house! Their home was filled with love and surrounded by trees. They were doing their best to live neutrally and they just looked so happy. I knew from then on that I could and would do much better.

It has taken a few months, but we are definitely getting there.

We are moving... 8th of May we will move to our lovely California Bungalow on the bayside in a lovely quiet suburb with smaller schools, a quieter lifestyle and a much smaller mortgage.
We changed our car. Our old car ran at approximately 10litres per 100km and that was the book information, so chances are it was less efficient than that. We are now the proud owners of Penelope the Prius and we are competitive with each other as to who can get the best efficiency reading from the on board computer. I am winning with a current best of 2.9litres per 100km... Mark's best is 3.9 HA HA!!! That was over 12km too :)

I have banished all chemicals from my house. All I have left is half a bottle of Ajax and after that is gone I am freeeeee! We use eucalyptus, Tea Tree oil, bicarb and vinegar to clean as well as some Eco brands that I have found.

I took the handmade pledge, which means that I either make, or buy handmade gifts...I am in love with Etsy. I buy my bathroom products from an awesome guy at the local craft market, his family own a lavender farm and the products are lovely. He also does washing up liquid which smells yum.

Lastly, I have taken the Wardrobe refashion pledge. I opted for 6 months, although I was tempted to go for life, straight off the bat. It means that I will make or refashion clothing for myself for the period of the pledge. Not only have I not bought anything for myself, I have made all of my children's clothing since then too. Yay for me.

I am not self righteous. This is not what this is all about. I am just trying to be a better human. Hopefully it's working.

Starting out Green

Where do I start on this topic??? I would love to move to a commune and drop out of modern life completely. However, I have a wonderful husband, whom I love, who does not feel the way that I do...so we compromise!

Luckily, he supports almost all of my ideas. He embraced washable nappies, mainly because they are so damn cheap. Alright, they were a little expensive to buy initially, but after two babies they are still going strong. I try my best to buy homemade, local items for my babes and I have successfully phased out the chemicals from my home...although this is very much a work in progress. We try to use products that contain only natural ingredients and I love chatting to the market sellers at the local craft markets and find the best of these products. I adore Nirvana naturals http://www.nirvananaturals.org/ they do more products than are available on their website. I love their mandarin shampoo and consitioner and their washing up liqid makes the house smell like lavendar when you wash up...it's the only good thing about washing up :)

I have done a little research on the plastic debate and will post some information when I can. I was concerned about chemicals leaching into my children's mouths and environment. I heard a while ago about water bottles being left in the car leaching chemicals into the water. I wanted to know the finer details. It's funny, when you have babies, you start thinking about things that you would previously have dismissed as 'oh yeah, something else that causes cancer blah blah blah'... now I feel genuine concern when I hear these things.

What else...I'm sure I had more to say. Oh yeah. I am also doing some research into environmentally friendly ways of decorating your home. Milk paints etc. I will post the information as I find it.