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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How to Recycle Plastic Bags and Stretchy Plastic Film. Zero Waste Week, The End.

My challenge to myself to do 'one more thing' to reduce my household waste as part of Zero Waste Week was to recycle stretchy, plastic bag type plastic.  

As promised here is a months worth of plastic, destined to be recycled at the supermarket, in the container for recycling plastic bags.

Magazine 'envelopes',

Parcel wrappings, 

Fruit, veg and bread bags,

Plastic carrier bags and plastic wrap used for packaging,

And toilet roll wrappers.

If you're wondering how I know whether the plastic can be recycled or not, then the answer is that I was guessing and if it was stretchy and plastic and like a plastic bag I put it in.  Quite recently Shropshire Waste tweeted a few tips on types of plastic that can go in carrier bag recycling points (here, here, here and here).  This week, while doing some Zero Waste Week research I found this blog post from Shropshire Composters, and this list from Recycle Now.  Which pretty much confirms what I was doing, and lead me to discover I can put empty plastic cereal bags in the recycling too! 

Some plastic film wrappers have helpful symbols on them too, this blue bread bag even tells me to 'recycle with carrier bags at larger stores'.  You can't get more helpful that that!

I will definitely be carrying on my new recycling habit now that Zero Waste Week is over.  Did you take part in Zero Waste Week this year?  I'd love to hear all about it?

Don't forget, you can still find inspiration for ways to reduce your waste or go zero waste on the Zero Waste Week twitter, facebook, pinterest and website.

Zero Waste Week.

This week is Zero Waste Week, the theme this year is 'one more thing'.  Is there one more thing you could do to reduce your household waste?

My pledge is to recycle stretchy, plastic bag type packaging in the plastic bag recycling receptacles you can find in the supermarket.  Although I knew you could do this, it always slips my mind, so I'm making a real concious effort to collect it all up in it's own designated bag and take it with me once a month to the supermarket.  I started my challenge a little early and have been collecting baggy plastic for a while.  At the end of the week I will show you a months worth of recyclable plastic bag type plastic, saved from landfill.

Are you taking part in Zero Waste Week this year?  You can find inspiration for ways to reduce your waste or go zero waste on the Zero Waste Week twitter, facebook, pinterest and website.

Zero Waste Week 2014.

Have you heard of Zero Waste Week?

This is Rachelle, the zero-waste-warrior behind myzerowaste.com and she has organised Zero Waste Week for the past 7 years.  

Zero Waste Week 2014 runs from the 1st September to the 7th of September.  The theme this year is 'One More Thing', asking you what one extra thing could you do to reduce your household waste.  Although the challenge lasts a week, the idea is to create good habits that will help you reduce waste permanently.

There are loads of ideas for 'one more thing' to reduce your waste on the Zero Waste Week website.  There's a great pinterest board too, where you can see other people's pledges for inspiration.  Some ideas I really liked are sorting through the freezer and eating up left overs, taking a stand against disposable fashion by not buying any clothes or shoes for a month, recycling more in the workplace or office and to use mesh fabric bags to buy loose fruit and veg.

I've already signed up and have pledged to remember to take plastic bag type packaging to the supermarket to recycle in their plastic bag containers.  I always forget I can do this and it's so easy to do!

Will you take part in Zero Waste Week this year?

Check out their website, facebook, twitter and pinterest for more information.

Three Cheap, Easy Ways to Keep your Home Warm...

Even though it's nearly spring it's still cooold!  

I've done all these easy, cheap things to keep the warm in my home, and keep nice and cosy.

1.  Draught excluder - mine is a snake called Sir Sidney Sissington, who you can meet here.

2. Curtain - Mum put a curtain rail up for my above my front door, and gave me one of the curtains from our old house.  I keep this closed whenever I'm in and it really makes a difference...it's cold in the corridors outside.

3. Foil behind the radiator thingys - cut a bit of cardboard box card to a size that will fit behind your radiator, wrap loads of foil round it, tape the foil on and then stick the foil-behind-the-radiator-thingys behind the radiators.  I've done this on the radiators on external walls and walls that join up with my neighbours - I want to keep the heat in my flat not anyone elses!

Because I live in a big concrete flat this is about all I can do to keep warm.  I don't have any cavities to insulate and I can't even put that foam-strip-stuff round my doors (have tried, they wouldn't close! It takes longer that you'd think to remove sticky foam strip from around your door frames).  I do have thick carpets and underlays though, and lined curtains, which I close as soon as it starts getting dark to stop heat escaping.  I am also a big fan of sitting around in my big, pink, fleece dressing gown with a hot water bottle - very warm!

What do you do to keep warm in the winter (or unseasonably cold spring)?

Linking up with Lakota's Ta-Dah Tuesday.

Composting at Work...

We have a Lot of recycling bins at work, paper, plastic, card and tins, all looked after by the council, which is great.  But no composting.  The council here don't collect kitchen green waste and a lot of peelings and tea bags are going into the landfill bin at work.  I asked a few of my colleagues if they would use a compost bin if I provided one and they said they would, so I checked with my manager, who after I reassured her it wouldn't be smelly and dirty and I would take it home to empty at least twice a week, said if I bought a little kitchen waste bin we could have it in the staff kitchen.  After much googling I found a company called Garland who make compost caddies that ticked all the boxes on my checklist - made out of recycled plastic, has a handle for carrying home, has a lid that stays on.  It arrived today!  Tomorrow I shall have a grand unveiling at work and hope all my work buddies use it!

Do you recycle at work?

My Green Bag Lady Bag...

A week or two ago I entered a competition on The Green Bag Lady blog...I didn't win the competion, but I was sent a lovely, pink reusable shopping bag!  So far the Green Bag Lady has given away 16,274 fabric shopping bags, free, in exchange for the promise to stop using plastic ones.  My pink bag is great, not only because it is pink which is my most favoritest colour, but it's also got nice short handles, excellent for short arses like myself who end up dragging long handled bags along the floor if we're not careful!  It's also flowery! Yey! 

Do you have a green bag lady bag?? She's having a give away on her blog that ends today, winners get a lovely set of bags, any one else who hasn't already got a free bag will be sent one, what are you waiting for??!

How to Construct a Worm Bin...

Mum was lucky enough to find a can o' worms style worm bin in the charity shop for £6, we used to have one of these ages ago, it was a slightly different style and all the worms dies in it :(  But we have gained much composty knowledge since that tragedy and felt ready for another try.  I was put in charge of setting up the wormery, and I decided I didn't need or want to buy any of the expensive extras off the website.  Luckily you can download the instructions from the wiggly wigglers website (link above), I didn't really have anything the instructions asked for, so I improvised, and so far it seems to be working! 

The instructions say to take the circle of cardboard from the packaging and use it to line the base, I didn't have the packaging, so I used some old cardboard, easy peasy.  Then you're meant to add a rehydrated coir block and some compost worms bought from the website.  Luckily, we already have compost worms (we took the survivors from the first can o worms tragedy and out them in our normal compost bin, where they have reproduced on an epic scale) so we dug them out, along with some of the compost and some confused woodlice, and used them instead of new worms/coir combo.  Then I added a layer of kitchen scraps and some bits of cardboard for a good greens to browns mix.  The instructions ask for a moisture mat (which costs a fiver) or says you can use newspaper as an alternative, you can guess which option I went for.  Then you put the lid on and wait for the worms to eat through the kitchen scraps, before adding more.  When the first layer is full, you add a second, then a third.  then you empty the nice compost out of the first layer, and add it to the top, where you continue adding your kitchen scraps in a lovely cycle of composting! 

It lives right next to the back door at the new house, we take our kitchen scraps with us each time we visit (we haven't moved in yet, but the worms have!).

Do you have a worm composter?  Any tips for not killing the worms would be much appreciated!

Packaging Request...

Today (very exciting!) I ordered a rag rug making tool online and decided to add this note to the area where you can write comments/special requests...

" I'm trying to reduce the amount of plastic that comes into my home, if you add any plastic to this product in the form of padding or packaging for postage (apart from the envelope, because that would just be silly!) I would be very grateful if you didn't for my order.  Many thanks, Susie :) "

I don't know how effective it will be, but I figure if you don't ask you don't get and at least I'm asking!

What I Bought This Month...plus a summary...

perfume
blue wool
2 fair trade vest tops
Driving theory test book
diary of a wombat

Soooo, I bought some new things this month.  The perfume wasn't really necessary, it was an impulse purchase that was a bit naughty - I was shopping with my friendwholikesposhdesignerthings and smelling all the nice perfumes with him  and it sort of just happened (at least I only bought a £7 one and not the very delicious smelling £40 bottle - eek!).  Vest tops and theory test book were essentials - my vests have shrunk to crop tops and the marks and spencers fair trade ones are very nice replacements (old vests to be used in my up coming rag rug project!!) and the driving test book was hard to find an in date one 2nd hand - I'll make sure to pass mine on though! 

Diary of a Wombat is a children's book I bought from the discarded pile at the library for 25p.  When I was a baby I had the most enormous cheeks (I still do now!) and my mother used to call me Susie Wombat (she still does now!).  So I had to buy this book...



To make room I sent a bag of books from the loft to the national trust for their 2nd hand bookshop and a bag of old clothes and other stuff to the charity shop.

I've been trying to make a graph to show the number of things I've bought each month to see if keeping note has made a difference, but I can't get the graph making thing to work, so here's a list instead...

Nov 2009 - 12
Dec 2009 - 8
Jan 2010 - 9
Feb 2010 - 3
March 2010 - 7
April 2010 - 7
May 2010 - 10
June 2010 - 17
July 2010 - 13
Aug 2010 - 7
Sept 2010 - 8
Oct 2010 - 15
Nov 2010 - 18
Dec 2010 - 8
Jan 2011 - 6

As you can see I've had good months and bad months...to me this still seems like a lot of stuff to be bringing into my life...in fact I'm going to scare myself now and add it all up...148 things...in the last 14 months...eeek!  Some of the stuff I've passed on, or used up (like books and soap and stuff) but that's still a lot of stuff coming in!

I already get rid of at least one item for every new item I buy, write down what I'm buying, properly think about what I'm buying and why before I buy it and avoid shopping...I'm a bit at a loss to see what else can I do to stop this naughty spending habit!?

For the next 6 months I'm going to limit myself to only buying 5 things per month.  I'm going to discount spending on food and toiletries, because they get used up, and going out and on plants  - some of my above numbers came from buying seeds and plants, which I think is unfair because plants make the environment happy, and as I can make up my own rules I'm ruling plants out!

Do you buy too much stuff??  How do you stop yourself?

National Zero Waste Week...

National Zero Waste Week is from the 6th of September until the 12th.  My Zero Waste are running a food waste reduction theme ('Cooking for Victory')

I found taking part in last years My Zero Waste's Zero Waste Week's challenge really effective - the challenge was to reduce your household waste somehow, I chose two really simple steps, no more buying bottled water and no more using plastic bags.  Since then I think I've bought one bottle of water (it was very distressing, I was very hot and it was the only choice other than feel increasingly wibbly from being dehydrated) and rarely take a plastic bag. 

I really wanted to take part this year too, but I feel like food waste isn't really a problem in our household (food packaging waste is a different story, but as I currently don't buy the food I don't really get much of a say!) - we control our portions, eat leftovers, eat things before they go off and compost the peelings, etc.  So, after a bit of a think, I decided to use this years Zero Waste challenge as a chance to test myself and see if I really am as low-food-waste as I think I am.  I'm going to take a photo after every meal I eat to show what food's left over.  Then I'll post them here, of course.  This will show that either I really don't have any food waste, or where I can improve if I do.

Is anyone else taking part in the Cooking for Victory challenge?  I'd love to hear what you pledged to do!

Scary Plastic Statistics...

I just came across this on Easy Eco to Go blog and it gave me the shivers, I knew we had a too much plastic problem but I can't believe it's so much, it actaully makes me feel sick!  So I thought I'd share it with you...


Use Less Plastic from TakePart on Vimeo.

Ethical Clothing Pledge...

While I was randomly clicking about on the web I came across Isis' blog and saw that she has created an Ethical Clothing Pledge, which you can read more about here

I pledge to only wear clothing that is one or more of the following:

1. Pre-loved

2. Handmade (preferably by me)

3. Reconstructed

4. Made with ethical / environmentally friendly materials

5. Made by a company with strong ethical policy & workers' rights

* Companies with environmentally friendly practices (such as cutting down on waste/energy/water) get brownie points

* If I get one little inkling of sweatshop labour, I'm outta there!

* Above all though, I think the most important thing is reducing the amount of things we use in the first place. Not purchasing ANOTHER piece of clothing just for the sake of it is the biggest statement we can make.

That's the pledge, up there! I'm very glad to find it, because it echoes a lot of what I think about clothing and buying clothing. If you read this bog you'll know that I keep my eye on what I buy, and I buy mostly 2nd hand clothes anyway. But recently I've found myself tempted by shiny beautiful new clothes and thoughts that when I get a job I'll buy new clothes, I think a pledge like this will remind me to 'stay strong' and avoid all such unnecessary purchases!

What do you think? Is anyone else part of the Ethical Clothing Pledge?

Preparing for a Zero Waste-ish trip...

Next week I'm heading down to Essex to visit my family (my cousin's just had a baby and my other cousin and her son are coming from Australia to visit - I'm so excited, it's going to be lovely!) and I want to make as little waste as possible while I'm down there, which I always find really hard, mainly cos of food (I'm vegan and I have allergies and I'm a picky eater too! And we're staying at a travel lodge so there'll be nowhere to cook, so it's eating out or buying snack food) and cos we won't have recycling facilities....so I need your help, dear blog readers, to change these wasteful ways and to think of lots and lots of ways to make my trip as green as possible.

Here's what I've already thought of...

*Me, Mum, my brother and his girlfriend are all driving down in the same car (rather than brother and girlfriend driving down separately) to save petrol/pollution
* Taking snacks and food from home in reusable plastic boxes rather than buying stuff while I'm there (I'm taking nuts, some roasted seeds, dried apple, raisins and breakfast cereal) Mum also bought me some biscuits, some in a horrible plastic wrap and some in a nice plastic box that can go in the recycling.
* Taking my flask (Mum bought me a new bottle of water to take, as well as one for her and bro and gf, ever feel like you're not being listened to!? lol *sigh* but I'll leave the one she brought for me at home and take my flask instead) so I can fill it up with tap water whereever I go!
* Taking reusable shopping bags - everyone in my family likes shopping (except me) so I'd better go prepared!
* Taking some sort of huge recycling bag to bring back all the recyclable waste we'll be creating in case we can't find/don't have time to check out the recycling facilities of Essex (I'll be collecting crisp bags, plastic, paper, card, metal, and anything else I can get my hands on!)

Can anyone think of anything else to make my trip greener??

Proud...

My mum works as a teacher in therapy groups for children with special needs, and while the children are in the groups their parents have a cup of tea and a natter. They've been drinking their tea out of plastic cups, but this weekend my mum went and bought some mugs, took them into work and declared to her workmates that she 'couldn't stand the waste of all those plastic cups going into the bin'!

Hurrah!

No More Plastic Post...continued...

As some of you might remember I've been trying to STOP any post from being delivered to my house in those plastic 'envelopes' - because they offend me a LOT! I can't recycle them locally and I want to cut down the amount of plastic that I use (because it's made from oil and what not that's running out).

I'm having trouble with one magazine I am repeatedly sent (from a teaching union I used to belong to when I was studying for my PGCE, that I'm not a member of anymore, because it stopped being free and because I can't find a teaching job! Talk about rubbing salt in the wound lol!) To make it even worse, my mum is a member of the union and she gets sent their magazine every month too - so we get 24 plastic wrapped magazines per year sent to our address!! There is no way to contact this company! There are no contact details on their website or in their magazine, there is a phone number I can call, but at my own expense, so I'm reluctant to do that. I have found a semi satisfying way of dealing with their plastic post though - sending it back with a sticky label asking to be removed from their mailing list - I've done that for the past 2 months (along with the numerous membership packs they keep sending me too) so maybe next month will be teaching magazine free!!!

I also got a catalogue wrapped in plastic from www.expertverdict.com who I've never heard of, but actually have a special 'remove from mailing list' contact on their website - which I'm really impressed with! I added a little note to the end of the part where I had to put my details about how I was trying to reduce waste and that an unnecessary paper catalogue and plastic bag weren't helpful and could they please reconsider their mailing methods. Lets see if it works!

Having said that The Book People have a section for managing mailings, where I opted out of getting catalogues and I still got one last month, maybe it takes a while to process or something, but I'm going to send them a quick email as well to make sure.

Someone from my old university phoned me and asked if I wanted to donate £26 a month for a student fund, which obviously I said no to, and then asked if I wanted to be put on their mailing list, I had a long conversation with the girl all about cutting down my waste and not wanting to get any paper mail, but that I was happy to be put on their e-mailing list (in case I ever win the lottery!). Three days later I received a letter, not in plastic thank goodness, but with about 5 pages in it asking again for a donation. I put it all back in the envelope and wrote an angry letter on the back of one of the sheets, asking to be removed from their mailing list and giving them my email again. I'm not usually angry - but it seems to have worked in this situation, as a couple of days later I got this email (note email not letter! hurrah!)

Dear Susan

Thank you for your letter from which I was sorry to learn that we had failed to act upon your request not to receive snail mail in future. I am afraid this was simply human error, with Sophie failing to make the requisite note on your record. I hope you will accept our apologies and I can assure you that your record has now been suitably amended. Some Aber publications, such as Prom, are not yet available electronically, but I will ensure you receive it this way once it is produced in an e-format.

Best regards

If angry is the best way to beat plastic post then I'm going to have to rethink my tactics!

What I bought this month...

A chocolate advent calendar for my mum
A lush solid shampoo bar
A TV guide magazine
A little green pottery pot - I'd seen it in the charity shop last time I was in and thought it was lovely, it was reduced to 24p this time I went, it seemed rude not to!
A book - also 20p from the charity shop (but I'll take it back to the charity shop so not to worry!)A shopping trolley - like old grannies have, to carry my food shopping home and save my arms and using the car (my old one's handle and wheel broke beyond repair and had a hole it it!)
3 more books - again from the charity shop and to be given back to the charity shop (one of these days I'll get my butt to the library and stop spending money on books!)

So, I think this is definitely better than last month. I obviously need to start going to the library because although getting books from charity shops is better than buying new, I think the whole resource sharing ideology of libraries suits my own ideas about how we should use and share 'stuff' better. Also the purchase of the granny shopping trolley worries me - I did need one, but my thought process went 'I need this, it's lovely, it's £10, I'll have it', then when I got home I started wondering where it was made and what it was made from and if I couldn't have got a more environmentally friendly one from somewhere else. Sigh. At least it will make my trips to the market more happy and arm-ache proof! And the chocolate advent calendar - the outside was recyclable, but I'm pretty sure I spotted the plastic tray in the bin, I need to think of a better alternative for next year!

Handmade Christmas..Part 2...Bags, Mouse Doorstops, Ivy Garlands...

Hello! I hope you've all had a wonderful, magical, happy Christmas time - we certainly did in our household :)

My homemade gifts went down quite well, I think, as well as the few shop bought presents I gave as well, so hopefully next year I won't feel so worried about giving things I've made myself.

As well as the LED fairy lights, earrings and coasters I posted about last time, I also sewed some things....

A couple of reusable shopping bags (all made from fabric from my stash and an old men's shirt bought from the charity shop).

Some mice doorstops, for my mum, these are the most complex things I've ever sewn and I unpicked the seams several (million!) times, but I think they were kind of worth it! Every thing in these are reused, except the eyes, which I bought from a local, independent sewing shop. The fabric is from an old blouse and skirt bought from the charity shop, they're stuffed with some fleece left over from another project, the noses are round beads covered in fabric and I sneaked some gravel off our patio (when mum wasn't looking!) to make them heavy enough to stop doors! I even reused some plastic bags that catalogues and magazines are sent through the post in to contain the gravel before I put it in! See - plastic 'envelopes' are useful for something!!!! the pattern for these is from Sew Hip magazine.

My two best friends and I gave extremely zero waste presents to each other - nothing! We went for a Christmas drink instead!

I also managed to get a photo of the ivy garlands I mentioned before, after the house I volunteer in closed for winter they gave us the ivy ribbons because we worked so hard on them! They've been very beautifully decking our hall (and kitchen) and have just started to wilt after about 2 weeks!

This year we managed to recycle all our Christmas wrapping paper, the council is picking it up with the kerbside recycling. I saved all the foil 'paper' my mum used last year to wrap my presents, and I had enough of that plasticy shiny ribbon to wrap all my presents tightly without sellotape - except three round ones that wouldn't play along! My brother and his girlfriend watched in confusion and amazement as I coordinated a 4 bag system (paper for recycling, foil for reusing, ribbon and tags for reusing and unrecyclable stuff) for collecting and sorting all this wrapping on Christmas morning - they do no recycling in their house (I know!!) and made lots of 'oo we really should start recycling' type noises - I do hope they do!!

We also had no food waste! That isn't unusual in my house (as I usually eat it all!) but seeing as it's Christmas I think it's an achievement! We sent the turkey home with the meat eaters, the left over quorn has gone into the freezer and I ate all of my vegan sausages on the day anyway! The veggies became soup and some of the millions of potatoes fed the birds. We do have a LOT of plastic wrapped snacks hanging around though - I'm not in charge of food shopping and couldn't convince my mum to stop buying them! Maybe next year!

Handmade Christmas...Button Earrings, Perler Bead Coasters, Origami Fairy Lights...

This year I've tried to hand make a lot of my presents, especially taking into consideration being more eco friendly. I'm a bit wary of giving homemade stuff, I'm the only one in my family who does it, so I generally supplement the homemade present with something bought as well, which kind of contradicts my point of handmaking something to cut down on consumption...hopefully by next year I'll have convinced my family to tone down the buying presents thing so I don't feel so guilty when they give me something shiny and expensive and I give them something wonky and weird and made with something from the depths of the drawer! Or even better - convince them to make stuff from the tat in the depths of their drawers too! Here are some of the things I've been busy with...

Button earrings - I had the buttons (from my Grandma's button tin), earring backs and glue already so it was just a case of putting them to good use!

Perler Bead Coasters - I already had the perler beads and felt and glue I used to make these - I copied a pattern on the internet that I can't find anymore (my laptop's died and I've lost all my favorites!), but if you google 'perler bead mario mushroom' then examples come up that are easy to copy - These are for my brother, he likes computer games so I thought he could use them in his games room, that is if boys use coasters at all!?

I think the glue I used for both of these projects was definitely NOT environmentally friendly (judging by it's smell!) but I think it's best to use up what I already have then I'll have to do some research on eco glue!

I've made two sets of these fairy lights for two of my old roomates - LED plug in lights (no batteries and LEDs are more eco friendly) covered in origami paper lanterns - I used white computer paper and I had to buy the blue starry paper - but it's 100% recycled gift wrap from Oxfam, so I think that's OK! I started making the lanterns from magazine pages but only managed to find 2 magazines in my house and they didn't have nice pictures - at least my magazine diet is working!!!

I still have a bit of sewing stuff to finish off tomorrow, I can't believe I've left it so late! Is anyone else having a homemade gift meltdown!!?

Handmade Christmas Postcards...

This year some of my friends organised a Christmas card making party, which turned out to be an excellent method of cutting down consumption. We all brought crafty things we already had at home and shared them, so no one had to buy anything new! Some lovely cards were made by everyone and it was really good fun (my inner eco obsessive also thinks that 7 people in one room saves the energy of those 7 people sitting in 7 rooms in their own houses - we only used one light bulb and one cd player, rather than the 7 we might have used if we'd have stayed home by ourselves!)

I make my own cards every year, and this year I'd been thinking of ways to make them more eco friendly - I saw these in the Amnesty International Catalogue and thought I could probably whip up something similar.

These Christmas postcards use 50% less card (because they have no back!) and no envelopes, I used some foam stamps I bought last year, an ink pad I found in my mums drawer and some card I already had to make these. I figure because I managed to hold back on adding glittery sparklyness they can go in with the normal cardboard recycling (correct me if I'm wrong!). I'll draw a line down the middle of each at the back and write instructions, so people know it's eco friendly (and not just weird!) and that they can leave it as a postcard or fold it down the line to make a stand up card (it'll be quite small then - each postcard is about 1/4 of a sheet of A4 - but I think they'll be cute)

Has anyone got any other tips for eco friendly card sending? I know I could just not send any at all - but it's Christmas!