Tell the world.

World Organic

This is what I did with the money I haven't spent on booze.
:-)
Actually, I've been saving up. I haven't spent any money on skincare in ages. (Determined to use up everything in the bathroom cupboard.) A couple of days ago I got down to the dregs of my Trilogy - Enegizing face lotion. In a timely fashion, I also reached the dregs of my Neutrogena - Deep Clean foaming cleanser. So, at last I can order the stuff I've been dying to try from The Organic Skin Co!
I picked up some Calming Calendula Cream at a Sustainable Business Network showcase in town over summer (I also got to try out their other lovely products). It's brilliant stuff for eczema, and smells absolutely divine. Like lemon vanilla cheesecake! I've been desperately crushing the metal tube to try and get more out for weeks, while also eyeing up the website in anticipation of ordering more.
If you follow that link, you might notice a "summer series" special scroll past. (I certainly didn't notice it at first.) The general gist of it is that if you spend $100, they send you a set of River Veda stuff worth $94.50 for free! But I didn't quite realise this when I ordered myself a Calming Calendula Cream ($38), and a "Back to School" set (Organic Skin Co. Rosehip and Orange Day Moisturizer, Juniper Face Wash, and Almond Seed Face Exfoliant) which has disappeared off the website now, but was $75. plus $5.50 p&p. So, a rather extravagant $118.50!
Today, the cute little box arrived, with all the lovely extras! I am irrationally excited. The Freebies are from the other organic range sold by World Organic, called River Veda. A cleansing milk, lip balm and eye cream.
I gotta say, just tried out, Juniper Cleanser, Almond Exfoliant, Eye Cream and Lip Balm from River Veda, and Rosehip and Orange Day cream. My skin feels fricken amazing! And smells soooo good. All these super critical extracts and lovely organic bio-active things are awesome!
The exfoliant is very fine and wet compared to what I've been using, so you only need a tiny amount and it spreads really well and feels great.
Both ranges are Ecocert certified, and free from a whole range of nasties, and not tested on animals. Infact, everything carries the stamp of the Vegan Society, except for the Lip balm, (which contains beeswax).

When I find a new product I love, I just have to share.

*I should mention, I have not seen these for sale in any stores yet! They seem to be going the "Party Plan" route, and signing up consultants and beauticians. So, if you get a chance to try out the products, grab it!

Making and Doing

Just doodling around with photoshop. When I was supposed to be posting this.

Very bored with my thermal curtains, I found this nice trim at the fabulous Geoff's Emporium. The curtains are very large and dark, and have come to dominate the room when I draw them at night. The trim helps a little (and the green matches the old bit of carpet I had overlocked to make a rug).

While I was loading the photos onto the 'puter, I found a whole bunch of photos on the memory stick. Stuff I can't remember if I've blogged about...

Soy Candles I made at christmas time, for presents etc. And by etc, I mean myself! I bloody love the smell of the Ecoya French Pear soy candles, but no way can I afford $50 for a nice large one in a glass jar. Fortunately, I can make my own with supplies from HERE. Their "french pear" fragrance smells exactly the same as the ecoya one. Soy wax has a lower melting point than parrafin or beeswax, and is cleaner burning. The fragrance "throw" is much better too.

Valentines day last year, I made this for Himself. Potato chip bouquet, with a large Toblerone stem.

My classic "perfect bag". I've made about 4 for myself and worn them out, 2 for a friend and 2 for my mum (both their first ones wore out too) and made at least a few others for various people. I'm not currently using mine, as the leather one from a few posts ago is in daily use. If I could make one of these in leather I would. Seriously considering getting into leatherwork just so I can!

Funny, just when I say I've stopped making stuff, I find all these photos!

In other news, the plum wine had a miss-fire at the start. First lot of yeast didn't make a go of it. Luckily the second lot seems to be working. First lot I just chucked in the barrel (it's what the instructions on the pack said to do!). The second lot I made a starter in the hot water cupboard. Think I've learned my lesson! Wine has been delayed about a week.

If you were wondering how the lack of drinking is going, well, I stayed up until 5.30am on Saturday night (Himself was DJ-ing), got up at 11am, and offered to work a couple of hours for a friend who had been up all night with me, but working on the bar. It worked out well all round! I did not get grumpy, actually woke up feeling good!
My other big change has been cutting right down on bread. Seems to have made me crave sugar a lot more though. Have not lost ANY weight. Sigh. Still have exzema on my fingers, so a month off the booze hasn't helped that yet. Definitely need a more concerted effort!

Breaking Habits

This is one of my coffee grinders. It hasn't seen a lot of action lately.
I got sick a few weeks ago. Just your average cold but with a bit of an upset tummy. So I thought it best if I didn't have coffee for a day or two. Not so hard to go 2 days without coffee if you are barely able to leave your bed anyway! But on day 3, I started to think maybe me and coffee should take a bit of a longer break. So I started drinking tea instead. It was only when I found myself NOT desperately thinking "Oh my god, I NEED a tea!", that I realized what an addiction coffee was for me.
I'm not a person who goes out much for coffee any more, I haven't been for a few years, can't afford that sort of thing on a regular basis. But with a coffee machine at work, with $1 coffees, it's easy to find myself having 2 a day in addition to the plunger or stovetop espresso I had for breakfast. I had a hard time dealing with the american coffee situation when we went to the states, (I can see now why they all think starbucks is so great compared to a lot of what's on offer).
I am also a person who really struggles to get out of bed in the mornings. When I do manage to get up, it's usually to get as far as the kitchen to make coffee before plonking down on the couch and staring into space while my brain attempts to get into gear for the next 15 minutes or so, while I drink my coffee.
I'd come to believe that I MUST HAVE COFFEE in order to function. Which is obviously a ridiculous notion. It makes me cringe to think of all those bourgeois stereotypes - "oh darling, I couldn't possibly manage without first having my cup of coffee!" I'm not one of "those" people, am I?
Well anyway, I went 19 days without coffee. On day 19, I thought to myself, "I think I'd fancy a coffee." Because I hadn't thought "I NEED a coffee", I had one. It was really delicious. I sat down and drank it, rather than walking around drinking it while doing other things. I savoured it. It was delightful. It was a treat!
Now, if I can just hang on to that feeling!

Coincidentally, it's been 3 weeks since I consumed any alcohol. I think I'll stay off the sauce for a while. The hangovers were getting ridiculous! But speaking of sauce, I've got some black doris plums in the fermenter. About to add the yeast to start turning them into wine! I'll go for a sweet wine this time, as I don't think I put enough sugar in for the feijoa wine last year. One of the batches came out very dry. The SG on the plums (1.7kg plums + 1 kg sugar) is 1.110, which should theoretically put it in the dessert wine range. Here's hoping!

Anti Fashion-Consumer Minimalist ?

I don't know what label to put on this idea. I don't even know how to articulate it properly! I guess the general gist of it, is that I realized I had too much stuff quite some time ago. One of the facets of this realisation, was that I kind of stopped making stuff. If you have too much stuff, why make more? Right? Another was that I stopped going op-shopping. The joy of finding a bargain was being crushed by the guilt of the space it would take up, and doubt over if I would really use it, or if I was just kidding myself. Having your possessions condensed down to one room really makes you think! (ok, there are still boxes and furniture stored out in the shed! I admit it!)
But another part of this involved looking at my wardrobe. I would sigh over articles like THIS and THIS thinking how much easier those "what-to-wear" decisions would be if my wardrobe only contained 24 items or 30 items or whatever the magic number was! But it got me thinking.
I'm a jeans and T-shirts girl anyway. My work clothes are usually black jeans/pants and black T-shirts, and my casual wear is not much different. Why did I need a draw full of blue jeans? Hell, most of them were too tight, or worn at the seams anyway! I had a draw full of tops, of which I only wore about a quarter. There were dresses in my wardrobe I had worn once, and never felt comfortable in. (It's not like I ever go anywhere that requires me to dress up beyond the level of jeans with high heels!)
So I packed stuff up that I hadn't worn in ages or didn't quite fit right, and stashed it under my bed. After 6 months I hadn't pulled a single thing out of that bag to wear. So out it all went. "To market to market" to sell a pile of clothes for $2 a piece! It was a relief. Now the hard part. NOT replacing them!

In May last year I went to New York, and I had a plan. Alongside all the sight-seeing, I would shop judiciously. I had in mind some items I knew I would get good wear out of. I would be careful.
Of course it didn't go completely to plan. A heatwave in New York had me buying singlets, my handbag broke and I had to replace it, I caved and bought an expensive pair of high heels. But some things have proved excellent buys. I replaced my old chuck taylors, I bought 3 pairs of levi's in the "juniors" department(now these are my only jeans), and a replacement for my old denim jacket, a pair of Havianas which got good use until I lost them in a stream out in west auckland, even the silk scarf I bought to keep warm that first day in NY has gotten good use (though not in that subsequent NY heatwave!) I bought some Mac make-up, just powder, neutral eyeshadow and an eyebrow pencil. It was a revelation! Lovely stuff! And no skin trouble with it at all! Dior perfume, a black top with rose detail that I keep for "going out".

A lot of what I bought that wasn't "fashion related", was gifts. The only items I haven't gotten good use out of, was my "San Francisco" jacket (how did I not notice that this looks a bit silly unless it's zipped up???) and those high heels I mentioned (there's hope for them yet! I have a wedding to go to soon.)

Now. Compare the photo above to the one below.



These are my fashion purchases since I got back from the USA in June 2011.(8 months ago)
A leather handbag (which I um'd and ah'd over for weeks, and I'm now sooo glad I bought it).
A black cotton embroidered top for work. (a well considered impulse buy, if there is such a thing, since I've worn it almost every week).
A band T-shirt and a pair of socks, purchased this weekend. (the socks to save me from blisters on Saturday night in town).

I also bought a nightie, but I don't think that counts!

I've also scored some freebies. From the lost property box at work, just a couple of T-shirts that I'm not yet sure if I will wear (I'm waiting for winter). And one of my nana's dresses (something to wear to that wedding!)

Sometimes I feel like a bit of a frump, always wearing the same things to work. But the truth is, I'm comfortable in them, getting dressed in the morning is easy, and I actually don't think anyone has noticed! If they have, they haven't said anything about my boring dress code. :-) We all wear black anyway!

On the whole, it's liberating. And I tell you what, the less dressed up you are, the friendlier people are to you! (I always thought it was the other way around, but apparently that's only if you go to snobby places.)
:-)

Contemplating Plastic Free

I'm trying to get my head around going plastic-free for a period of time. As in, purchase NOTHING that has plastic in it or comes with plastic wrap. A kind of cold-turkey to shock myself out of my lazy behaviour when it comes to making purchases.
Even contemplating this is difficult.
How it all started was, I've been dreaming about building myself a trailer cabin, and not putting any plastic or toxic substances in it, but the biggest drawback is that this will make it very heavy. And Expensive. (And of course, I don't yet have a piece of land I could park it on.) Also, the toilet would almost certainly have to involve some kind of plastic! As would the shower!
But back to the much nearer future.
Some of the things that I would have to find substitutes and solutions for:

Toothpaste
Shampoo & Conditioner
Cat food (my cat is particular)
Milk -No glass milk bottles available locally! Only current solution, milkpowder?
Jarred products - often have a plastic skin inside the lid, as do tinned products.
Bulk store products - My local bulk store pre-bags most of it's products in ... plastic bags.
Juice - even the cartons are plastic coated
Gardening - plants and potting mix both come in plastic, meaning seeds only?

The more I think about it, the more difficult it seems!
*I'll probably add to this list as I think of more stuff.

Cracklepops Moscow Mule Cordial Mix

A Moscow Mule is, of course, a cocktail involving vodka, lime, and ginger beer. I made these for a party, know people would be bringing spirits, and that more often than not, the mixer runs out before the booze!

The Mule was the most popular, and I have made it several times since. I like to mix it with soda water from our soda stream machine, or add hot water for a yummy hot drink. It's good if you have a cold too.
At the moment, limes are horribly expensive, so I've been using lemons instead.

MOSCOW MULE CORDIAL
juice of 6 to 8 limes
zest of about 3 limes
fresh grated ginger, about 3 or 4 square centimeters at least?
1 and a half cups of sugar
1 heaped teaspoon of citric acid
1 heaped teaspoon tartaric acid
250mls boiling water

Add juice to sugar, tartaric and citric acids. Pour hot water over it and stir. Mix in the ginger and zest. Stir thoroughly. Microwave it to fully dissolve the sugar. Let it sit to cool a bit, before straining it into a clean wine bottle. Top up with water if necessary, and screw cap on well. Makes 750mls.
I've kept mine in the pantry for about 3 weeks with no ill effects, though it's not designed to be stored for long. Once opened, you will probably want to keep it in the fridge. To serve, mix 1 part cordial with 6 parts water or soda.

YUM.

Daydreaming.

A bunch of links to stuff I'm interested in.
Much of this has turned up as a result of my desire for a home of my own, and trying to find a way to achieve that goal on a limited income. The concept of "wanting less" is the main vehicle.




Tiny Houses. 
Jay Shafer is really into the tiny house movement.
Check out his Youtube Stuff.


Mr Sharkey's Home Page
Housetrucks and stuff.
Check out THIS link to Mr Sharkey's tale of how he got into housetrucks and where it lead him. It's not a finished memoir, but a good read nonetheless.

Frugalkiwi.
Frugal living in New Zealand. There's chickens, craft, cooking, household tips. Just lots of handy and interesting stuff. Check out the DIY Chest Refridgerator.

The Zero Waste Home.
Some people think this woman is crazy. I think it's fascinating.
Here's a youtube link for a quick rundown of what it's about.

1880 Cottage.
The cutest little kitset houses. Although currently still way out of my price-range, I love the style of these little houses.

Green Design will Save the World!
Inhabitat. A kind of newsfeed of green ideas from around the world.

Building an Earthship.
This family is building an Earthship, but there are sections on frugality, farming, technology, etc.

Good Magazine.
This is the online version of the New Zealand magazine. Sustainable, green, that sort of thing. Some of it is fairly simplistic, but some of the articles surprise you with their insight.

That Roundhouse.
Just plain cool.

The earthbag building blog. Pretty self explanatory.

The Halfmoon Earthbag Cabin.
An earthship built with earthbags instead of tires.

Letting go of stuff. (The Joy of Less)
A blog about minimalism.

A Low-impact Woodland Home.
The cutest little hobbit house!

The loveable loo.
It's called Humanure. I'm both intrigued and skeptical as to whether I could actually manage it.


More links to come.