Some Sewing and a Challenge!

Since moving to our new house and having an area designated to my sewing, I have found myself having sporadic bursts of sewing enthusiasm. This will be a rather image heavy post, but I hope you enjoy some of my latest creations. You'll have to read to the bottom to read about my newest challenge though ;-)

Firstly we have a couple of little outfits I made for the girls at the end of last year. The pink dress was cut out a LOOONG time ago and only just finished, but G's little dress and the top she is modelling (which is actually E's) were from the Ottobre Magazine - I am totally in love with this magazine for inspiration!





Next is a little Pencil Roll I made for Miss G - I made E one for her birthday last year and there were far too many fights over the pencil roll, so now they have one each!





Now, some gifts! These are amongst my favourite things... actually, no I can't say that - everything here is pretty much a favourite! This bag is an eco bag inspired by both our regular plastic supermarket bags and my Enviro Sax bag. The recipient, J, is a great conservationist and tells me she thoroughly loves it and her Mum wants some too!



And for J's little man, almost 3 year old E, a T Shirt. I had wanted to make the shirt from scratch as well, but couldn't find a nice quality fabric in the colour I wanted. So I compromised and bought the shirt and just appliqued it myself. Master E loves his "Froggy" shirt I am told! There were also some reusable tea bags for J's Husband (and E's Daddy), S, but I forgot to take a picture of them :(


And finally, Miss G's weighted vests. G has a sensory processing disorder and her Occupational Therapist has her wearing 1kg of weights all day every day. It's certainly helping, but rather than having her wear the too-big, plain navy vest that I bought from the OT, I have been making her some custom designed vests! These have pockets on the inside so the weights can be easily moved, and as they snap up at the back, she cannot take it off. It was recommended that G wear her vest under her regular clothing, but it is just far too hot up here to be wearing too many layers, so I have made these to be worn as outer wear. This is just one of the selection!

(Forgive the Fairy Skirt - some days we are a Fairy Princess, other days we are a Mermaid and other days we are Dora the Explorer!)

But of all the vests I've made, this one is my favourite - a dress-vest! So the same as the vest, but I attached a little skirt to it. This is by far G's favourite too. I love the fabric which was just from Spotlight believe it or not. I do have a couple more dress-vests started, so I really need to get some sewing mojo back and finish them.



So there's some of my sewing! I have quite a few projects on the go and a WIP list as long as my arm, so over the next few months I am hoping to get that list under control. The only problem with that though is that I am making gifts for Birthdays and other events throughout the year so they will be added to my To Do list!

Now, my challenge... Last weekend whilst the girls were visiting their Dad, I emptied 2 of my 3 large plastic storage tubs of fabric, sorted it all out and neatly re-filled the tubs. I have SO MUCH fabric its not funny. Some stuff I will probably never use, some I had forgotten about and some I have a definite plan for...

So, my challenge is not to purchase any NEW fabric until I have at least 1 box completely empty! Now I'm saying NEW because if I happen upon some nice stuff at an Op Shop that I think will be an asset to my collection I want to be able to purchase it :D

A Dilemma...

I’ve been slowly working my way through all my thoughts on the way the girls and I live, and the aspects we need to improve etc, but it’s left me with quite a dilemma.

Where I live, there are not really many options available to us with regards to sustainable living products – although every time I go near a shop, I do spot the odd improvement, so at least there is some progress. So, if I wish to use recycled pens, or biodegradable bin liners, or not pay a huge cost for compact fluoro lights, I need to order them in.

Now this is obviously not a huge problem – I have access to the internet and am a very capable online shopper LOL.

BUT, my dilemma is that I’m concerned that the costs associated with shipping these products to me outweigh the benefits. I’m not talking just the cost of posting/shipping the order – but the full costs of packaging, emissions and not supporting local businesses etc.

I honestly have no idea how to work this out either – is there a calculator that can somehow “tell” me, or is it purely an ethical decision that I need to make? Has there been any research into this? Am I over-thinking things?

Obviously a good first step for me would be to do a bit of research and see if there are any thoughts on the matter on the wonderful world wide web! But, somehow I need to make a decision on this because it will really impact on my decisions in the future.

And on the topic of sustainable living, I have been thinking about the most common products we use that are either disposable, or not very sustainable.

The biggest issues I think we have are:

Baking Paper – a lot of our special recipes only really work with baking paper, so as a result we go through LOTS of the stuff. I do reuse it as often as I can, but after a few uses it really does need to be replaced. Any recipe that can be used with just an oiled pan, or a silicone baking tray, I do these things as well. But, there is still a large qty of baking paper being used in this house and I have yet to see a “recycled” or similar baking paper – I’m also not sure if it can be composted or not? I’m thinking that the greaseproof coating will be problematic but need to research this as well.

Toilet Paper – with 3 girls in the house, and a 2y9m old who likes to use half a roll each time she makes a visit to the toilet, I was amazed at how fast a roll disappeared! We only use recycled paper, but we are now using cloth wipes for wees – no paper. Little Miss G still likes to use about 16 wipes for each wee, but I’m quite ok with washing wipes rather than using a roll of loo paper each day!

Freezer Bags – I order my meat in bulk, so once a month I have a large order to divide up and freeze. At this stage I use as many plastic containers as I can, but I simply do not have enough, so have been using freezer bags for the rest. I’m finding that they really aren’t up to a 2nd use once they’ve been frozen for a while, defrosted and washed. So, I think the obvious answer here is to slowly accumulate enough containers to store all my meat in and slowly reduce the bags.

Transportation – yes, I do use my car nearly every day. I currently have a horrible big 6cyl 4wd, but am in the process of getting a much more economical 4cyl car so at least that will help. I live around 10 minutes out of town, so do try to combine as many trips to town as possible, however I’m finding that between Kindy on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Occupational Therapy every second Tuesday and then every second weekend I do as many jobs in town as I can while the girls are with their Dad, I am still spending a LOT of time in the car. We do live around 100m from the nearest public bus stop, and I would dearly love to use it, but the routes don’t go near the Kindy or Occupational Therapist, and I’m simply cannot put my girls in a closed environment of a bus full of people wearing all sorts of smells – their bodies simply wouldn’t cope with it, and I can hardly ask the bus company to not allow people on if they are wearing deodorant or perfume that might pong a bit… So, I think doing the best I can to reduce my trips to town, and driving as economically as I can is the best I can do at the moment.

Electricity – This is really only a summer problem! We do use our air conditioner significantly during summer, and compared to grumpy, whiney, sweaty little girls, the pleasant, happy, and calm little girls I have when the a/c is on, makes it all worth it! And I know that once the worst of the heat is over, our electricity usage will reduce drastically and there may only be one or two days in winter when we feel the need for a little heating.

Meat – this and transport are my two biggest issues I think. Due to our allergies and the program we are on, we are required to eat a substantial amount of meat each day as it’s the only source of complete protein we have, and given our many allergies, combining proteins is not overly practical. So, I’m sourcing my meat from as local a supplier as I can get, buying in bulk to reduce packaging, and trying to accept that for now this is just the way it has to be.

Obviously our health is a very important consideration, so despite the fact that I struggle every time I get in our car when I see the bus pull up, or eat yet another meat meal, I really do need to learn to be ok with it because without our health, we simply wouldn’t be capable of doing anything to reduce our ecological footprint in other areas.

So, besides these 6 problem areas, I’m actually pretty happy with the way we live. I hope that we are making enough contributions in all the other areas to help counteract some of these issues, and will continue to endeavour to do whatever I can to address these 6 things.

Lots of ramblings from my mind today, but I do feel like I am doing the best I can right now and my nearly empty wheelie bin each week is a good sign!

My Garden

OK, I’ve been spending a lot of time in my gardens lately so wanted to share my progress – it’s become quite an obsession!

My yard is really quite large, and predominantly lawn. There were a few garden beds in situ, but most were overrun with weeds or plants that run wild. The lawn was also scattered with prickles :(

So, I’ve turned some of the existing beds into vegie gardens and am hoping to dedicate a strip around 15-20m x 3m along the back fence to larger grain crops. I’m also slowly but surely working my way through the lawn digging out the prickles – but for now everyone wears shoes when outside.

I have decided to grow the following vegies:
• Sweet Potato
• Carrot
• Green Beans
• Swede
• Beetroot
• Pumpkin – they keep coming up in my compost so I may as well let them go!

I am also planning on these experimental grain type crops as well:
• Quinoa
• Amaranth
• Chickpea
• Chia

For now, I am only going to grow the few things that we do eat a lot of and as our diet expands, I imagine our garden will too. For vegies that I am unable to grow in sufficient quantities, and for other things that I just can’t grow, I will continue to use Lillypilly Organics – a lovely little local business that home delivers fresh organic vegies – mostly from local growers but supplemented by organic growers in Southern Queensland as needed.

So far I have de-weeded, dug and mulched two beds ready for our first round of plantings. I’ve planted the first two slips from my sprouted Sweet Potato, have some Lettuce seedlings in, as well as Carrot, Bean, Swede and Beetroot seeds. The seeds were all planted in the midst of a rainy day, and the Bean and Swede seeds came up within 2 days!

I’m looking forward to seeing how much our small garden beds can provide and would love to be able to grow most of our own vegies.

We also have three very large pots that are now home to some herbs. We have Basil, Parsley and Chives planted in these pots, and Mint growing in the planter box at our mail box.

For Christmas both girls received some gardening implements and their very own little watering can, and they take great delight in watering the pots each afternoon! I am really hoping to foster a love of gardening in them both and I’m sure once they can see the vegies developing their excitement will only increase.

Managing the lawn is certainly much more work than the garden beds at this stage! I’d dearly love to rip up the lawn and put in more gardens! But, for now, I just have to keep watering the lawn and mowing it… And mowing it isn’t really that big a chore with my new toy! I bought an Ozito Push Reel Mower and it hasn’t disappointed me.

Because it operates by being pushed, there are no horrible motor’s to worry about, no ongoing fuel costs or emissions, its quiet and it doesn’t stir up dust like traditional mowers do. For a sensitive family like ours, it’s great because it reduces the number of things we may react to, and Miss G does not cope well with loud noises at all, so it’s been good as I have been able to mow without her being extremely distressed. And best of all, if I take care of it, it should never need to be replaced – I may need to sharpen the blades occasionally but that is it!

It is hard work though! If the lawn is a bit long, or a bit weedy, the effort required to push the mower is increased – so I guess another advantage is that I’m also getting some extra exercise as well as having a lawn that looks great.

The only disadvantage to gardening is that we have very long hot summers here, and the best time of day to be outside in the garden at this time of year is around 6pm – however at that time I also need to be cooking dinner and bathing girls etc… So I can’t wait for the days to cool down so that being outside at 4-5pm isn’t so horribly hot for us.

I’ll be sure to keep you all posted of our progress!

My life... at the moment

Well, the start of a new year… Happy 2009 everyone!

I feel like this year is going to be a year of many changes in my life. The changes that have taken place recently have certainly started to tip my life in the direction I want to be heading, so I feel motivated to continue this journey with gusto!

My life at the moment is fabulous. It’s certainly different being alone and solely responsible for the girls and my life, but I’m thoroughly enjoying it. I feel so much more free… free to make decisions based on my beliefs alone, free to sit up and watch trashy TV if that’s what I want, free to go nuts in my garden, free to just be me.

I’m learning so much at the moment as well – not many days have gone by that I haven’t learned a new skill. Some of the things that I’m most proud of may not be that significant to others, even in months to come when the novelty of doing everything myself wears off, I may laugh that I was so proud of these achievements, but for now I’m savouring that, amongst other things, I have been able to:

• Build a Max-proof Compost Heap Fence (Max is my dog!)
• Repair my broken toilet (this was a major milestone for me!)
• Provide all the physical labour of setting up our new gardens
• Program my new Harmony Remote Control (a Christmas gift – here’s more details)

I’ve also experienced the thrill of buying my first lawn mower and mowing the lawn! Actually my new lawn mower is my favourite toy at the moment  But I’m going to do a post on my garden soon, so I think I’ll save the details for that post!

Because the girls Dad and I still have a very good relationship, they don’t appear to have been adversely affected at all. I’m sure that because everyone is coping well, and there is no animosity at all, it’s easier for me to be enjoying this time. If we weren’t getting along so well, I suspect that life would be very different.

There is a lot of joy in each day at the moment and whilst I have no idea what the future holds for me, I feel ready to embrace whatever comes my way. I’m sure there will be times when I’m not feeling so good about being a single mum, but for now I’m enjoying the moment!