Adventures with DIY dyeing

I was determined not to buy Kobe a new school hat to replace his faded hat from last year, it turned from a navy blue to a faded grey (I blame harsh uv rays from the sun). And a kind friend gave me a Spotlight voucher to use so I bought some fabric dye. I would of loved to experiment with dyeing with nature but unfortunately nothing is naturally blue, the closest I could think of is blueberries which is purple which isn't the school colour ( Although I could easy dye my clothes with spaghetti, I could just put it on Dylan then feed him lol).

So I settled on Rite dye in a navy blue. I found a couple pieces of stained clothing that could also be frreshened up with a new colour. I love the shorts, the cut is so abstract, it's just a pity Kobe had a blood nose & wiped his nose straight on them. The white shirts had stains on them.

Dyeing wasn't as easy as I first thought & I'm not sure if I will attempt this ever again. Even though I may redye the shorts if I do another attempt.

I'm lucky I had a stock pot which I use to mix diy laundry powder which I could use to soak the clothes in. I had to sacrifice a bowl to mix the dye in hot water before it goes in the stockpot.

Another thing I had to buy was plastic gloves, which I have washed & will reuse as cleaning gloves to get more use out of them. I had some elastic bands (from vegetables like baby carrots & broccolini) which I tied to the shirts to get the tie dye effect.

I stuffed way too many things in the stock pot & didn't stir enough so the dye came out unevenly which was ok with the tie dye as it was that effect anyway. The hat miraculously turned out ok. The shorts I was hoping were going to be an even colour but were patchy:(

The packet instructions said to wash under warm to cold water the excess dye but instead I washed outfront with hose quickly then left in rain to wash out excess dye.

I worried if sweated the dye would leach onto skin but so far in this heat, no blue stains on the skin.

According to here, the carbon footprint of a t-shirt is 20 times that of its weight. Considering how much resources it takes to make a new garment; taking into account water to grow crops, energy to manufacture t-shirt & fuel to transport a cotton garment. It was more sustainable to dye these items then buy new. It will be even better if I could naturally dye them. The dye chemical ingredients were sodium chloride, anionic & nonionic surfactants & I have a tiny patch in the garden that I poured the excess chemicals onto. Its where I also pour the oils/fats from the kitchen & dirty water from soaking nappies, I did not pour to pour these into the drain). I shall be experimenting with more stained clothing in the future dyeing naturally with coloured flowers & anything of colour I find in nature.

I would love to hear your dyeing/upcycling stories.

Happy Sunday friends!
Grace

Thoughts on reducing plastic packaging whilst living with someone who isnt on the same page (yet)

The past couple weeks, our house has been rift with tension as I try to further reduce wastage in the house whilst being met with some resistance from Luke. I know we can't change each other's habits or values but I do try to live by example & hope he follows but most the time he doesn't see the extra steps I take to reducing plastic. I wished more people cared without having to be pushed or nudged into making better choices to reduce plastic consumption, sadly people rarely do anything out of their comfort zones & think that recycling will solve all. And its starting to grate on me.
Luke and I are the complete opposites, he is the ying to my yang. He is easy going to me being slightly highly strung. I take forever to make decisions about buying any new products as I like to make sure that said product is ethically, financially or sustainably made (and hopefully all 3). And this can annoy the heck out of him (among others).

Spoiler alert; this is the part where I unleash all my worries & stresses in a sh1tty tone

Vices
*Luke has a love of single use plastic in the kind of bought water bottles & coke in bottles. I made him watch "Bag it" documentary with Kobe & now they both refuse them & take their own water bottles (which I pack or they will be forgotten). Kobe willingly but Luke doesn't want to deal with me complaining about the single use bottle being brought home. It use to be 3 plus a week...
*When he takes Dylan over to his parents with a cloth nappy & brings it home in a plastic grocery bag. He now takes an empty bag (from our stash people have brought into our home (see next photo)). 
*I usually do all grocery shopping but on the few times, I have forgotten one or 2 things & he has to run to the shops, he has brought them home in yet another plastic bag. After a few upset words, he now either takes a cloth bag or carries them as is to the car.
I'm going to secretly squirrel away his single use bottle slips up to show him at the end of the year . 
**After rereading vices, I know Im being hard on Luke & am grateful for any effort he makes to help reduce what we send to recycling/landfill:))

Compromises
And because it wouldn't be a fair relationship if I had my way all the time, there has to be a healthy balance so here are our compromises.
*Takeout every 10 days. No combination meals unless they come with a can not bottle.
*The occasional ice cream in a plastic tub (I keep these as good to make more from scratch, my raspberry sorbet turned out ok).
*We like to go out for fish & chips every 3 weeks. So I make a conscious effort to pack cutlery, stainless straws & condiments. And a spare container to take home the salad for lunch the next day.
*1 juice bottle a month, he hasn't complained we haven't had any in fridge the last 2 months. We do have oranges & grapefruit on hand to juice manually. 

And because vices don't stop at Luke (sorry grandparents!)

Grandparents vices
The biggest issue to date is in dealing with others close to us bringing unwanted plastic into my life.
We see both sets of grandparents on a weekly basis (or they will have my head on a stick for denying them their grandchildren)... Its not without stress.
Both are fierce lovers of all things plastic wrapped. From tiny teddies & cookies in individually wrapped packets, Arnotts cookies, Grainwaves, plastic wrapped strawberries, yoghurt pouches, Lesnak, the list is endless... Im all for spoiling grandkids in moderation & prefer home baked treats, this generally falls on deaf ears:(
I have had to suggest cutting down on what they give the boys which they are happy to do when Im there (they feed them what they please if Im not). But the wastage truly adds up.
So my parents are limited to giving the boys one packet of Grainwaves, Arnotts cookies once a month, & yogurt (from a large tub) weekly. They use to give once a week but we ended up with so much & I couldn't cope with it.
If the kids have these treats at the grandparents, wrappers go straight to the bin where I try to salvage the wrappers to take to the special bins at participating Coles store once a month.
They both have bottles of bought water in their fridges so with Luke & Kobe now refusing, there are 2 less people drinking out of the single use plastic then maybe they will cut down on buying it. If the tap is there, they shall drink water out of a glass out of that.
This past week; I have gracefully accepted leftovers (I hate cooking) in a Pyrex bowl covered with glad wrap. I rewashed & covered some cut cheese to give it second life until it breaks plus my mum brought over some take out also in plastic containers which I have kept & cleaned & can use for bakeswap.
I know the grandparents mean well, its just hard for me to sit back & watch no change. But life has obstacles & I shall overcome it. I just have to remember that I cant change people I can only hope to inspire change.

(Example of plastics brought into our home from family in a week, it may not look like much but times that by 52 (weeks) & it certainly adds up).

I now strongly refuse other peoples plastic bags as I'm not helping them by encouraging them to not change their habits of accepting their plastic instead of reducing/refusing it. Plus Im sick of hoarding it.

Now time for the less bitchier part where I share easy tips for how I reduce packaging

 

 

An example of a few simple things I do to cut back on wastage
*By using brown gift paper drawing instead of cards (it can be composted easily).
*Baking bannana bread with super ripe bannanas instead of composting/binning.
*Taking cloth bags everywhere.
*Making handkerchiefs out of old baby blankets to save using tissues for snotty noses & grotty faces
*Embracing cloth nappies half the time (when Dylan is at home or a short play date).
*Sewing a dress (instead of supporting fast fashion, using my basic skills to sew clothes from my fabric stash or preloved fabric).

And some more ideas
*If you can't go without your coke or takeout, consider cutting back on how much you consume. Or instead of buying softdrink in bottles, buy cans as aluminium is infinitely recycled. Or go from buying 600mls to 2litre bottles.
*I can't go without milk so I try to get the 3 litre bottle & put a ban on buying the tetra packs. I shall be trialling out making my own almond milk too.
*Don't buy any new beauty products for a month/6 months.
*Bulk shop & go in with friends/family.
*Pack your own cutlery & stainless steel straws. Unfortunately not all eateries will remember NOT to give you a straw no matter if you ask them 3 times...
*Avoid tetra packaging of milk & juice as it goes to landfill.
*Provide cloth bags or containers for bread, mushrooms, grapes, strawberries, muffins.
*Commit to use half cloth nappies & pads.
*Beach bathers for babies/toddlers not toilet trained. Dylan has Big grow bathers and Bambino mio bathers which hold in any poo accidents.
*Embrace bamboo toothbrushes for whole family, this company in Vic Park sell them in bulk.
*Join a like minded group either on facebook or locally for inspiration. I even found out where to buy handmade soap in bulk. Search "zero waste groups" for starters.
*Utilise the local library for dvds, magazines & books.

*Asking friends who have guinea pigs or rabbits if they would like your veggie scraps. 

*Using empty bread & cereal packets (if you have them) as bin liners.

 

We do produce waste in our house I just try to keep it to absolute minimum. Last week, we used 3 bread bags 2 grocery bags and 1 brown paper bag for rubbish, there was also some loose orange skins & loose cut grape vines. Over this year I hope to get this lower.

And because I am far from perfect the following are areas I shall be working on in reducing waste

Fails
*Water balloons. My kids love them. We were given some & they had so much fun with them.
*Occasional packet lollies (on special occasions like Halloween, Easter, birthdays).
*Plastic covered meat (I try to buy it at IGA to support local but sadly its wrapped in plastic)
*Salmon wrapped in plastic.
*Straw fails; Bangkok brothers, Soranos, Nicholson. I did ask for no straw several times but the waiter brought me a straw. I wont order a drink now when out unless Im guaranteed no straw. There is always coffee.
*I binned 5 pieces of leftover chicken last week.
*Im still going thru beauty products in bottles like shampoo (I tend to use my Lush shampoo bar when I should use up my shampoo in bottles sitting getting dusty in cupboards). I also received a few bottles of body wash when Dylan was born to use up. I finally put these in the shower & Kobe has discovered & loves cleaning himself with them. When they run out, I think he will enjoy the scented Lush soap bars just as much.

I didn't mean to have this be such a negative post, its been trying/exhausting reducing wastage. I must remember it isn't easy being green. One surprising thing happened this week & that was being approached by someone happy willingly wanting to cut down on wastage. I almost cried happy tears. Go Sarah! And a big good job to Sionna who found the hole in her kids inflatable pool & patched it up (instead of taking the easy way out & buying a replacement one).

I would love to hear your experience & how you deal with others you live with whilst reducing plastic consumption.

Happy Monday friends!
Grace