Vegan Coconut and Oat Biscuits...Biscuit of the week...

We had the oven on last night for a veggie bake and garlic bread (mmm!) and so I baked some coconut and oat cookies too! Sadly the first batch got burned, but the second lot are delicious!


I got the recipe from here, but veganised it by swapping the butter for vegan margarine and the honey for golden syrup. I froze half the dough so I can have fresh cookies next time I have the oven on too!

Clothes recycling week...Day 1...Dress to Skirt Upcycling...

To keep myself amused this week I'm going to tackle the mountain that is my fabric stash - lots of it is fabric and lots more of it is clothes that need altering or something mending on them to be wearable again.

Apparently 900, 000 tonnes of clothing is thrown away in the UK each year (thanks, myzerowaste!).

I've had a big clear out of my wardrobes (yes that's a plural on the wardrobes!) and have ebayed some stuff, charity shopped the rest, collected the un-giveawayable stuff (like tights and socks and extremely holey things) to think up uses for later (maybe stuffing for something? Fairy wings from the tights stretched over some wire??!) and kept some things that I really loved but needed to be turned into something more usable - these are the things I'm going to tackle this week!

This dress/tunic thing was in the sales when I still allowed myself into establishments where the word 'sale' is displayed (always deadly) It was down from £10 to £1 so I obviously had to have it, despite it being perhaps the most unflattering item in the history of the universe.


So I'm going to turn in into a skirt. Here's how I did it...

1. cut a little hole through one layer (the layer facing inwards towards your body when you're wearing it)of the material in the hem at top (luckily this dress already had a hem at the top I could use otherwise I would have had to make one first).

2. attach a piece of elastic to a safety pin, thread it into your hole and wriggle it all the way through the hem until it comes out of the hole again. (if you were being v. environmentally friendly you could make a drawstring, maybe out of the straps to tread that through in the same way - but I had the elastic so I may as well use it)

3. figure out how tight you need the elastic then pin the elastic together and sew it.

4. try the skirt on and see how it fits, if it doesn't unpick your elastic stitches and try again, if it does then sew up the hole you made for the elastic.

5. cut off the straps, you could do this first, but I was being cautious, if I didn't like it as a skirt it may have been remodelled into a top instead.

6.If you're me, then dew up the hole you accidentally made when cutting the straps off.
7. Wait for the summer, when a lovely thin cotton skirt will be lovely to wear! As you can see I did try to take a picture of myself wearing it, which is especially difficult if you're reluctant to take off any of your clothes or let go of the blanket you're also wearing cos it's soo cold! So there's a picture of it on it's own too!

See you tomorrow for something else made from something else!

Fail!

I was doing sooooo well on my pledge to give up plastic bags and bottles - I haven't used one for ages, then this weekend I went shopping with my friend (or following him round while he tries on lots of pairs of expensive jeans as I like to call it!) and then we went to Costa coffee because he really likes it in there (I don't, I definately don't now, but I hate those big coffee shop chains but he's having a stressful time so I was being a good friend and doing activities he liked to cheer him up) I don't drink any hot drinks, except mint tea made form mint in my own garden or by beautiful morrocan boys, and EVERY SINGLE cold drink in the place was in a plastic bottle!


I even brought it home so I could be sure it went into the recycling!
I'm so cross!
I feel a letter coming on!!

No more plastic post - continued...

I got a reply from one of my emails to companies about the plastic 'envelopes' they send their mail out in...I was quite pleased to get a reply and to know that they are aware of the issue, but I think I will email them back and ask about maybe doing an online version of the magazine, which would cut out both the plastic 'envelope' waste (which even if it was biodegradable wouldn't be great because it doesn't biodegrade properly!) and the paper, magazine waste!

'Dear Susie,
Thank you for your e-mail. I am sorry for the delayed reply.

This is an ongoing problem we are trying to resolve. It seems that most makes of polywrap can only be recycled by specialist centres. The alternative is biodegradable, but it seems that is problematic, as if a bit of biodegradable plastic gets into normal plastic recycling, it contaminates the whole batch. The cost of paper or card alternatives is also quite high. However, we are taking this seriously and costing out the options and hope we can come up with a solution soon, as it has long been a concern of our.

Our policy is to be environmentally friendly and within our office we use 100% recycled paper as well having numerous recycling facilities on site. I hope that answers your queries. '

I also managed to find an opt-out button on the website for one of the catalogues I get sent and I'm keeping check on what pops through the post box every day so I can identify more targets to eliminate!

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cupcakes...

I think I missed a week of this and I'm cheating this week because 1. they're cupcakes not biscuits, and 2. I didn't make these (mum did, because we needed to celebrate her getting a pay rise at work, and because when I try to make cakes they do turn out like biscuits!). But despite that, here's our recipe for vegan cupcakes...

4 oz flour
2 oz sugar
2 oz margarine
2 'eggs' (we use this egg replacement powder)
a couple of handfuls of chocolate chips (I cut some chunks off a vegan chocolate bar - because it's impossible to get soya free vegan choc chips and I'm allergic to soya, but at least the chocolate bar comes wrapped in paper and foil, not a plastic bag like most choccy chips - so all that chopping was worth it!)

Put all the ingredients in a bowl, mix them up, add water or liquid if it's too thick, add the chocolate chips (or anything else you want to put in), put into bun cases or a cake tin and bake for about 20-30 mins, we do them in the middle of our oven on max (which is the setting above gas mark 9!) because our oven is rubbish, so mid to high heat would probably be fine.
Yummmm!

Oh food dehydrator of joy!

I bought this with the last of my birthday money, I've wanted one for sooo long, and next year when I have my own garden (my friend's contract on her flat runs out in 5 months and then were going to rent somewhere together with room for a veggie patch! Excited!) I have plans to grow all sorts of things and then dry them to eat them when they're out of season, to reduce the amount of imported (ie. with a huuuuge carbon footprint) foods I buy/eat.

If you ever read the Brambly Hedge books when you were little, I'm aiming to have a 'store stump'!
photo from here

I like to name my appliances, so this is Daphne the Dryer! She also came with a free LED torch (if I was being truley eco-friendly I would have declined the free gift as I don't really need it, but I only thought of that after I placed my order) Anyway, the LED torch came in very useful for shining through the holes at the top during 'is it drying, is it drying? is it drying yet?' moments!
After about 8 hours I ended up with this...

This is about 8 apples!

ehn...

Is the noise this garlic would have made if it could speak! Two of them suddenly turned brown and died...I know, I know, the whole family were in shock, it was so unexpected.

So, after much watering and putting in different positions around the garden and greenhouse I decided they weren't going to come back to life, and 'harvested' them - they've certainly changed from the little cloves I planted, I seem to have small bulbs now, they don't seem to have segments but I have seen garlic thats just a whole bulb rather than a bulb with cloves, so we'll see what it's like when I eat it!

My other 4 are still going strong (touch wood) so maybe I'll get some segment-y garlic out of those!

What I bought next month...

I already buy a LOT less than I used to when my favorite weekend activity was shopping (was that really me??! now it's guitar playing and sewing stuff and reading and watching films and gardening and general faffing about), but in order to REALLY think about what I'm buying, if I REALLY need it or will be very, very, very sad without it (please note - I'm not one for making myself (or anyone else) feel guilty about buying things that are necessary or completely beautiful and unliveablewithout) and if it's an ethical choice, I'm going to start posting a list each month of what I've bought so I can keep an eye on myself. I'm not going to include food shopping or spending on food, drinks or general merriment while I'm out on adventures. It's more of a 'things' thing, I have enough things, there is no room in my room for more things, what are these things made of and where are they coming from, where will they end up!!!??!?! I refuse to buy unneccassary things!! Starting from this month, every month at the end of the month (ish) I'll be posting a picture and list of any things I've bought and shaming/analysing myself to see if I could be doing better!

Baby Name Book and Fleece Bunny...Home Made Presents...

I'm S.T.I.L.L unemployed! But this week I've been using my time creatively and made some presents for two of the smallest, cutest people in my life. Both were made with things I already had, so although I don't think felt and fleece are the most eco-friendly fabrics out there, at least I was using up stuff I had rather than buying something brand new.

I sewed this little felt book for my cousin's little girl, Grace, who is being Christened this weekend. It was a bit of a rush job and it's a bit wonky and weird but I think I'll just about be able to give it to her without feeling too embarrassed!

Giraffe, Rabbit, Apple, Caterpillar, Elephant...spells Grace!

I also made this bunny for my school friend's new baby, Heidi (she's sooo beautiful!), out of some fleece and other bits I had lying around - I've already given it to Heidi and her mummy thought I'd bought it rather than made it, which made me super-proud!

He even has a fluffy bunny tail!!

Made from this free online pattern.
So do you think hand making things better for the environment, because you're not running a big factory that uses lots of power, and you can buy or re-use things that are eco friendly, and you're not giving your money to big businesses that you're never quite sure about (depending of course on where you get your supplies from!)?

Vegan Double Chocolate Chip Cookes...Biscuit of the week...

This week I made double choc chip cookies from this recipe, from vegweb.com.

Nom Nom Nom!