What happened when I tried to have a Plastic free Friday.

Last Friday I had the day off work so I decided to try taking part in Friends of the Earth's new initiative, Plastic free Friday.   You're meant to go without single use plastics one day a week - Fridays - to help the environment.  I'm going one step further, because I've already cut out a lot of single use plastics, I wanted to have a completely plastic free day, but as you can see it was more difficult than I thought...

Breakfast.

Despite trying really hard to have a plastic free breakfast, it didn't happen.  My organic mushrooms from Abel and Cole came in a plastic tray, my vegan margarine is in a plastic tub and although I store my seeds in glass jars they come packaged in plastic bags.  I made my own bread to save using pre packaged bread, but I used oil in a plastic bottle and even the bicarb was in plastic!  Urgh!

Getting up.

I'm not wearing deodorant because it's in a plastic tube, it's about 20 degrees today so we'll see how that goes!  I have washed my armpits with soap (came in a paper wrapper) and a cotton flannel, so that was plastic free at least.  Sorry to say I've brushed my teeth with a plastic electric toothbrush and paste from a plastic tube, and put on moisturiser and sun cream from a plastic bottle too.

Chores.

I washed up with some fairy liquid from a plastic bottle left by the previous owners of our house.  I use a loofah and wooden brush to wash up, and some really old cloths that get washed and reused to wipe the kitchen worktops.  I use Method eco friendly cleaning sprays for the kitchen and bathroom, and Ecover loo cleaner, all three have had a use today and all are in plastic bottles.  I put the dishwasher on, the tablets come in a cardboard box, but each tab is wrapped individually in plastic.  I usually use Ecover laundry liquid, but I have soapnuts so I used them, and white vinegar as fabric conditioner, to do a couple of loads of washing, which I dried in the sunshine.

Shopping.

I went to Wilkos, Holland and Barretts and Boots on the hunt for some plastic free sanitary towels, I found some in Boots and they were suuuuuper expensive, but I bought them and had a nice chat with the lady at the till about being plastic free (she buys her apples loose in the supermarket!).  I bought some antihistimines in Wilko, which come in plastic blister packs. I Really wanted some crisps but resisted, and instead bought some loose nardicotts, a cauliflower and a lettuce from the market.  The lettuce was all wrapped in plastic, but so is the organic lettuce that comes in our veg box, and I'm still waiting for my homegrown lettuce to get going.  FYI I am regretting not wearing deodorant. 

Lunch.

I had a huuge green salad with the aforementioned plastic wrapped lettuce, another homemade flatbread, vegan cheese, nuts and pretzels.  The cheese, nuts and pretzels were all in plastic.  Sigh.  I am beginning to feel disheartened. 

Gardening.

This was a fairly plastic free afternoon, but I did use some compost that comes in a plastic sack.

Dinner.

Joe came home super late from work, and I fell over in the garden like a wally and twisted my ankle, so we had a takeaway.  And some snacks before the takeaway came. Ahem.  

Bedtime.

Back to my plastic-y tooth bush and paste, and my medicine - at least the eczema cream only has a plastic lid, the tube is metal.

I tweeted companies throughout the day asking them to reduce their plastic packaging, but only got replies from a few (Abel and Cole, Oral B, Aldi, B&Q, Wilko), I suppose as long as we keep giving our money to companies that use plastic packaging they won't change their business practices - it's hard though because who doesn't use some pre-packaged foods, household and personal care stuffs!

So, as you can see, Plastic free Friday is not easy and I have to go away and think about how I can cut more plastic out of my life.  Have you ever tried Plastic free Friday?

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Make your own upcycled paper seed packets.

It's the time of year for saving seeds, and I like to make these cute little packets to store them in.  

They're a great way to use up or upcycle pretty paper, I use magazines or colouring book pages.  And they're super easy to make, with no measuring or using templates.  In fact it took longer to write out these instructions than it does to make a seed packet!

You will need

A5 paper

scissors

glue

Fold the paper in half then open it out. Cut a centimetre off 3 sides of one half of the paper, starting and ending at the centre fold.

Fold the paper in half again, with the smaller side on top.  Fold the edges over to create a crease, then unfold and cut a square notch in the bottom corner and cut the top into a flap shape.  

Glue the side and bottom flaps down, but leave the top one un-glued cos that's where you'll put the seeds in.  Once the packet is full of seeds you can tuck the top flap in, or glue it down.  Don't forget to label the packet with the kind of seeds and when they were saved too.

Ta-dah!  Finished!  These also make great envelopes.  And you can make them any size you like.

You might also like to learn how to grow mint from cuttings, how to start seeds without plastic or how to fill a raised bed using the lasagna method.

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Make one small change, get a reusable water bottle.

Making one small change at a time can make becoming eco friendly loads easier.  Lots of small changes add up to a big difference.

This is one of those eco friendly changes that always come up in articles like '10 easy ways to go green!', it's so simple and easy but I haven't been doing it properly.  I've been reusing old plastic water bottles and I had a cheapo flask, but I recently invested in a good quality reusable bottle and it feels so good!

Mine is made by Klean Kanteen and it cost about £20 for a 500ml stainless steel bottle.  It's expensive, but I'm treating it as a long term investment - Klean Kanteens have a lifetime guarantee!  I've been using it for a couple of weeks now, and I've found it keeps my water nice and cool and doesn't give it a metallic taste (like my old Poundland water bottle used to do!) - I'm a convert!  And because I'm proud of my shiny new water bottle I'm more likely to remember to take it with me!

In Britain we go through 30 billion litres of bottled water a year, and as we all know plastic hangs around forever and ever and ends up being eaten by sea turtles and is nasty.  It can also leach harmful chemicals into your drink or food, so it's well worth avoiding. 

Do you use a reusable water bottle?

Don't forget to check out my other small changes to help you live a greener life!

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Make one small change, give away your stuff on Freegle or Freecycle.

Making one small change at a time can make becoming eco friendly loads easier.  Lots of small changes add up to a big difference.

If, like me, you have big things you want to get out of your house and no car, then Freegle is the best thing ever.  You post your unwanted items on the website (depending on your area you'll have either Freecycle or Freegle.  We used to have Freecycle then it switched to Freegle, so I've used both and they're both pretty similar and easy to use), someone will contact you if they want your stuff then you arrange a time for them to collect it.  You can offer to deliver items to people too, if you have a car.   

I've got rid of all sorts of stuff, from videos, garden equipment left here by the previous owners of our house to my old TV unit. 

Giving away my stuff has made me appreciate what I have.  What I see as old junk hanging around my house is actually something someone else really wants.  7 people replied to my ad for lots of plastic plant pots and the couple who took away my old TV unit brought a box of chocolates to say thanks.  I feel like a total spoilt brat sometimes! 

As well as being good for the planet, giving my stuff away seems to be being good for my soul. 

Have you tried Freegle or Freecycle?  You can get some really cool stuff on there as well as getting rid of stuff!

Check out my other small changes to help you live a greener life!

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How to Re-Cover a Vintage Hand Mirror...

 Last night at about 5 past midnight my mind started whirring about this old mirror that's been sitting in my drawer for at least 5 years.  It was my Nan's, and I snaffled it when she died, it was covered with years worth of hairspray, and much as I enjoy the image of her looking at her perm and spraying it solid using the mirror, it wasn't very nice to look at.  I washed it a bit overenthusiastically and water seeped into it, making the fabric go all brown and gross.  Last night I decided I could probably find that mirror, take it apart and recover it.  Cue scrabbling about in drawers at 1am (sorry mum.  sorry neighbours!)  

Sadly, I don't have a before picture of the mirror, I only thought to take photos after I'd dismantled it, but you can see in this one the pink with brown blotches fabric (top left).  And my dressing gown sleeve.

To dismantle the mirror you need to unscrew the cap off the end (number one) then pull the handle off (number 2), then pull the cap at the top of the handle down (number 3) then remove the metal frame around the mirror (number 4).

You're then left will all sorts of bits from inside...my mirror was padded with this cardboard with a picture of some sort of hovercraft (I think!) on it, which I think is very cute!

Then you need to draw round one of your pieces with the new fabric you want to use...I used this vintage flowery stuff someone gave me...and cut it out.  Next you have to sandwich all the layers back together again...mine went mirror, metal handle thingy, vintage hovercraft cardboard, new fabric, perspex cover and hold on to them really tight while you feed all of it into the metal frame.  This is the trickiest part and took several goes, in the end I had to take out a layer of cardboard (there were 2 originally) but I still only spent about 10 minutes fiddling with it.  Once you have the frame back on you can put the caps and handle back on and tighten it up again.  Et voila!  One newly re-covered vintage hand mirror!  

I'm glad it's been redeemed from that sad and sorry place in my dressing table drawer and can be used again !

How to Make Sock Lavender Bags...

Ok, so does anyone else get attached to their socks?  Or is it just me?  I make my socks last a long time, and I'm always very reluctant to get rid of them once they've gone holey.  So reluctant in fact that under my bed there is a plastic box full of worn-out socks.  And as I've been sorting out stuff for when the house is sold, so I'm not moving stuff to the new house that I don't need, this box of socks has surfaced and it needs dealing with.  I cut some of the socks up and kind of weaved them into a long string to coil around to make a mat, which I'll show you another time, used some as stuffing for a draught excluder snake, but for the socks with pictures on that I like I've been making lavender bags....

You will need..socks, dried lavender, needle and thread...

1.  Take your sock and push the toe up through the hole, so the toe is just poking out and the heel is hidden inside....

2.  Sew up the opening at the bottom with the needle and thread...

3.  Push the toe of the sock through the hole, so it forms kind of a bowl, put the lavender in this sock-toe bowl...

4. Sew up the hole at the top of the sock...

5.  Put in your drawers to make them smell nice...if you add a ribbon while you're sewing up the top you can hang them on hangers in your wardrobe...use different dried herbs for different smells, use mint and keep the sock sachets in and around your shoes for sweet smelling footsies! 

Do you have any interesting uses for worn-out socks?

p.s.- I've had those panda socks since 2006, when I worked in Primark just after finishing my undergrad degree, the elephant ones were a present from my mum and so were the pig ones!  There's a photo of me playing duckies with my little cousin when he was one, wearing some spotty socks, I still have those socks and he's now 8!

Crochet T Shirt Rug.

I have crafting schizophrenia at the moment, I have about 17 projects on the go at the moment!

Yesterday I made this, I'm thwarted by a lack of green/purple t shirts now and can't get it finished until I've found more!  My mum took one look at this and decided it was hers for the kitchen (it matches her new washing up bowl!)...

I'm also going great guns with my crochet starburst flower blanket, there are 25 squares here, I plan on making 200, so I'm 1/8th of the way through!

Are you making anything at the moment?

Home Made Recycled Note Books...

So, I had a big clear out of the wardrobes in the garage (yes, we have wardrobes in our garage, because we had the garage converted into a granny flat and my grandparents used to live there..we never did get out of the habit of calling it the garage...).  I went from having 9 boxes of stuff in there to 6, and along with having lots of things to donate I also got rid of a rather massive pile of paper from my teaching days.  I put this in the recycling, but had second thoughts, because I knew most of the paper was unused worksheets and had only been printed or written on on one side, I knew they could be reused for something, so I rescued them. 

I used this tutorial on Instructables and made the paper into a notebook!  I didn't use the measurements she gave though, I just folded my sheets of A4 paper in half, cut along the crease, folded those pieces in half and stacked them together to make the signatures, then measured a piece of card big enough to hold it all in afterwards. 

I used a coco pops box for the cover and some old cotton thread to do the binding.  Even though this is the first book I've ever made it only took about an hour, including cutting and folding the paper, and I was watching TV too!

Have you ever made your own notebook?  How did you do it?

Memory Jug. Inspiration.

I saw this picture while browsing on ebay and fell in love with it! This is called a memory jug, and is an american folk art idea, I've googled it a bit, but not found out too much, becuase I can't focus on reading stuff when I really want to start making one. I have all sorts of bits and bobs from my childhood that I was going to throw out, but not anymore! I just need to wait until the kitchen and bathroom get tiled in mums new house, then I can nick some grout and I'll be away! Until then I'm gathering my treasures and finding the perfect pot to cover (I'm thinking maybe a jam jar, but it needs to be the perfect shaped jam jar!) Have you ever seen one of these before? Aren't they awesome!?

here

here

Rag Rug Progress and a How To Video.

So, when I posted last time about my rag rug a couple of people asked how it was made, so I thought I'd make a how to make rag rug video to show you.




I hope it's clear, I'm not sure if I explained some things properly, so if it's confusing let me know and I'll have another go. Also sorry for the out of focus bits, my camera wasn't friends with taking a video close up, this was my 3rd attempt and it's still not how I'd like it to be...sigh...

My camera ran out of battery before I finished showing you everything, so here are some extra photos of my rug so far.

Rag Rug. Progress.

Since finishing the Harry Potter scarf I've had more time to dedicate to my rag rug!  I've got all the strips cut up, I hope I have enough, I've cut out my hessian and I've STARTED it!! I LOVE it already and it'll be perfectly pretty in my bedroom, which is a pastel palace.

Here are my rags, I have another boxful too but I don't know where it was when I was taking these photos.  Mostly I'm using nighties that have shrunk too much in the wash, I've used 5 and a couple of t-shirts too.



 It's a good idea to make a template from newspaper before cutting out your shape, I did a freehand heart first, which was interesting and abstract but also wasted some of my hessian :(

You will end up with bits of hessian EVERYWHERE....just warning ya!

Here are my first little bits of rag rugness! I love it!

Rag Rug...Inspiration...

I've been wanting to make a rag rug for ages now, I've always loved the look of them and after seeing how easy they are to make on both Kirsites Homemade Home on channel 4 and BBCs Edwardian Farm I have gathered my rags and am waiting eagerly for the postperson to deliver my tools...until then I'm looking for inspiration...

I took this photo in Morocco - unfortunately neither the rug or the dog would fit in my backpack!

here

here

Have you ever made a rag rug?  Tell me all about it!?

Cunning Calendar Reuse...

Last year I loved my guinea pigs wall calendar, bought in the sales for £1.25, and this year I just haven't seen one nice enough or cheap enough to make me happy. None of them had guinea pigs on them!  So I thought it would be greener (reusing the pictures and twizzly wire bit and using less ink and our recycled printer paper) and more guinea piggy to make new date sections for my old calendar.  There are many many websites that have free printable calendars (here and here), and you can make them on Microsoft Publisher but I couldn't get any that were the right size to stick onto the base of my old calendar.  So I made some in Word, and this is how I did it...

Measure the width of the part of the calendar you want to replace
Open a new word document
Go to table - insert table - change to 1 column and 31 rows, change 'fixed column width' to the width you measured earlier - press ok
Using the calendar on the computer screen (found by double clicking the time, on my computer anyway) fill in the dates in the rows
Print off, cut to size and stick on your old calendar.
You can then copy and paste the chart and change the dates for each month.

Surprisingly it didn't take too long, but I've only got up to April so far, because my eyes started to hurt! 

Before...

After...

Who doesn't need pictures of guinea pigs on sofas hanging on their walls!???!

If you want to reuse your 2010 calendar and would like to use the charts I've made leave me a comment with your email and I'll send it to you :)