Maker's Giftguide

Christmas is fast approaching & although I want to make most of the gifts I will be gifting family members this year, I think its equally important to support the makers. Those super talented creatives who spend many hours lovingly creating by hand.

1. Mum Sophie from Netherlands makes the sweetest Studio-escargot toys which kidlets are bound to love for many many years.
2. Local artisans sell their wares at these Kalamunda village markets on the 1st Saturday of each month. The light up Leederville carnival & Fremantle Bazaar markets are both coming up & worth checking out.
3. Clean slate skincare (located in Fremantle's Many6160 creative hub) is vegan & free of animal cruelty. I want the mandarin, lime & ylang ylang perfume!
4. Mum Sarah sews the sweetest kids harem pants & makes ceramics for her label sshannah.
5. I look forward to the Turban chopsticks Indian gourmet food stall by local Perth foodies Suresh & Mei-sann at most of the markets I frequent. They are also stocked in various gourmet grocers. The royal festival biryani is my favourite!

Happy Sunday friends!
Grace

Minimizing waste

Originally I was going to do plastic free November which is pretty much plastic free July but thought why am I putting in extra effort for one month only, why not make more changes to reduce waste (then what I already do) & continue on from that.

*Investment pieces which help me tread lighter on this planet by reducing my wastage.
*Drawstring bags to take to the grocery shops to store mushrooms in (so I stop using the brown paper bags).
*Keepcup (or Thermos), to store coffee on the go or if I want to grab a takeaway coffee.
*Bee eco wraps (the blog header photo features a wrap covering the homemade bread); these wraps are an alternative to using gladwrap on sliced fruit/veg, sandwiches, cheese. (They aren't recommended to cover spicy greasy food thou).
*I made cloth bowl covers. Handy to cover leftovers.
*Camelbak drink bottles have a lifetime warranty although I do have to replace a straw because Kobe bit it?!? Still testy over one bottle being lost at prekindy so now I just use them on trips out or at home.
*If I shop at a butchers/bakery, to take a container so my meat doesn't come home wrapped in plastic & paper. I do tend to buy my meat at grocery shops so it comes home in gladwrap:(
**On my wishlist to buy is stainless steel straws. Bit nervous about Kobe chipping his tooth on the straws. But never realised how many straws we sent to landfill a month:( Im a sucker for McDonalds Frappes...

I started documenting what was thrown out in October so I knew what areas I had to work on.

Plastic wastage
*Bandaids- 11.
*Straws- 14
*Grocery plastic bags (used as bin liners)- 14
*Toothbrush- 2
*Gladwrap (single uses on meat & cut fruit bought at the shops)- 9
*Yoghurt soft plastic tops- 9
*Tea foil packets- 3 (I usually don't drink tea but I had the flu & I was desperate)
*Chocolate wrappers (goodies eaten from Royal show & Halloween trick or treating)- 15
*Plastic gloves- 2
*Toilet brush- 1
*Medicine foil wrappers- 6 (from my pain medication after having a C-section)

**The following plastics I recycle at Coles; packaging from bread/pasta/fruit & veg. I save about half a grocery bag of plastic going to landfill a week:)

I know I can always do better.
Anyone have an alternative to bandaids?

Some websites that can help reduce, renew, recycle.
*Eco warrior princess
*Biome
*Ohdeardrea
*Planet Ark

Happy Saturday friends!
Grace

Core values

Something to grow

Something borrowed

Something handmade

Something preloved
Something to share

 

Other than trying to nurture my kidlets in being people who are kind, honest & mindful. I try to live my life incorporating these core values too.

 

Something to grow; Kobe & I are growing a number of herbs & vegetables in our garden bed & we are about to add pumpkin, cucumber & marigolds. I get Kobe to help plant the seeds then tend to them by watering & then picking.
Something borrowed; I like to make fortnightly trips to the library & borrow anything decent. Currently skimming the pages of The honest life. Kobe borrows out a couple items per trip as well, it teaches him we don't need to buy every book/dvd & to look after things that aren't ours.
Something handmade; I love nothing more than throwing myself into a creative project like these calico bags to store bought mushrooms in (& to save me putting them into brown paper bags at the shop).
Something preloved; Kobe loves repeating the mantra "reduce, renew, recycle" so it if we can rescue anything of use (like these toy dinosaurs which are perfect for outdoor play) we will. I also instilled in him how important it is to donate anything of quality we don't need to charity shops & why.
Something to share;  It must be love when I share anything sweet. I made this dirt dessert (caramel yoghurt, biscuit bits, sprinkles of ovaltine, topped with nasturtiums & a carrot top from the garden) for my grubby child.

What are your core values & how do you incorporate them into your life?

Happy Thursday friends!

Grace

 

D.I.Y. Spider Costume

 

I had planned to do a few crafty Halloween activities with Kobe like last year but time got the best of me with the addition of newborn Dylan, we did manage to make eyeball cookies (only 4 as Kobe broke the rest of the cookie pack when I turned my back for a minute... so we ate those cookies plain lol). I didn't want Kobe to feel left out now he has to share my time so I promised to take him trick or treating for Halloween & make him a costume of his choice which was a spider (but not spiderman).

 

 

1.I used an old skivvy, some goggle eyes, felt, cushion insert, elastic, white wool, black fabric and red ribbon.

 

 

2. I used a dinner plate as a template to cut out a spider body then sewed on scrap red ribbon for the red back spider line.

3/4. For the legs, I measured 30cms length & 12cms width with a stitch length of 1.5cms. Kobe helped me stuff them with cushion insert. I sewed them onto the spider body then onto the skivvy.

5. For the spider webs, I roughly measured white wool along the back of the legs & hand sewed them in place.

 

 

6. The mask was the easiest bit, I cut out 2 bits of felt, measured elastic to go around Kobe's head then glued on the goggle eyes.

 

 

Halloween is clearly a winner with Kobe. Knocking on people's door & being given delicious candy to eat. We are quite lucky a good friend of mine's street goes all out for Halloween, we went early to beat the crowd. Everyone went all out for costumes, I even saw a Mr Potato head! I was a bit slack & went as a cat (which was basically cat ears, some face painted whiskers/nose & wore all black). I think next year I will be a hamburger hee hee.

 

 

Happy Sunday friends!
Grace