Waste not, want not

At my parents' place of an evening, I get time to fiddle around with various projects and creative bits and pieces, which is fabulous.  It's so so so wonderful to have time to myself without babies or husbands or noise or anything...much as I love my little fam.
As I am always interested in ways to reduce waste, I have been experimenting with a little weaving, using all those long straggly bits of leftover fabric from cutting out.  Yes - I was tired or possibly remotely unsober when I did some of this as you can see by the fact that I skipped several warps or wefts, but next time, I shall take more care.  As is my way, I was in a bit of a rush to get it done to see how it worked out.  Hm.
It's pretty simple - cut notches in a piece of card a bit bigger than the size of the thingie you want to make, tie the warp (? or is it the weft?) threads on and then weave the others through on one side.  Hand stitch all around and then gently cut and ease it off, then stitch on the machine.  I will probably put some photographic instructions up at some stage, but now, dear reader, I want to go and upcycle cardigans for Little Miss O - who, by the way, is now walking.  Clever little chicken.

P.S.  I made a fanTAStic Little Red Riding Hood cape yesterday - will post pics anon, anon, a nonny nonny hey nonny non.  xx

Love is all you need

A little crafty message for the Mister.  Love, love, love.....

The Buck Stops Here

Dear readers, as you all know, I have been working on, or let's say TRYING to work on living a life more in tune with my ideals...eco-friendly, minimalist, crafty, slooooow and so on.  Sometimes, I have been successful and sometimes I haven't, but whatever, it's time to up the ante.  I am still living a life beyond my means and still accumulating more stuff than I need and wasting time thinking about stuff, accumulating stuff, looking at stuff, talking about stuff, shifting stuff...and it makes me cringe.

At present, let's just say that the cashola is not flooding in Chez Les O, so it's time to really take stock and pull my socks up - and whatever other cliches I can come up with.  It is, dear readers, time to Mend and Make Do.  I want to be free of the lure of stuff, free of the desire for stuff.  I want to use my creativity.  I want to keep our lives simple.  I want to save money.  Hell, I want to save the planet.

So - what am I going to do?

1) Firstly, I think I really need to look at my whole way of thinking.  I have to get rid of my "stockpile" mentality and just use what we have and then replace it if and when we need it.  I am such an "in case" and "famine mentality" buyer.  The solution - make a list.  When something comes up that I think we need, I shall write it down and then wait (unless it's a basic need such as food or hygiene products) for a cooling off period of a month before looking at it again and seeing if we really do need it.

2) Secondly, I need to stop the "hobby" shopping - the casual trawling of shops and websites looking for stuff to buy when I don't actually need anything at that time.  This will be good because I will find I have more time to do other things if I stop wasting my time shopping or window shopping.

3) Thirdly, I need to use up and make do.  I have millions (figuratively!) of pairs of shoes, yet I keep going out looking for more, for example.  I need to use up the things that I have until they can't be used no more, no more, no more and then think about replacing them - if indeed, they need replacing.  And if I think we need something, to look around and see if, in actual fact, there is something around the house that we could use instead. And yes - I am going to consider re-gifting.  I know - that's a contentious one, but there you go.  I am going to be brave enough to say I am going to do it.  Not just giving people any old crap, but things they would like.  I also need to make do with what is available.

4) Fourthly, I need to make.  I have plenty of supplies and a fairly creative mind, so I need to put those both to use and start making things that we need and making gifts.  Time is a bit of an issue, but that might increase if I stop shopping!  Win-win.  Woohoooo!

5) Lastly, I need to declutter.  I want all this crap that is cluttering up my house and my life OUT.  I might try to sell some of it, but that is quite difficult to do, so I might just give most of it away, even though the little bit of extra cash might come in handy for our savings box. 


So..here goes....

Yum! And thank you!

A little pic of the lovely feast I had with my childhood friend last night....much wine, much chat, much food. Everything in the pic is secondhand (besides the food of course!). I love my little mismatched world of tableware.

Meanwhile - I just discovered the "Stats" section on my Blogger dashboard, and I just wanted to say thank you so much to everyone from all over the world who has been reading my little blog. It was amazing to see who was reading it right at that moment, who had read it recently (well, not exactly who but where in the world it had been read or was being read) and so on. Amazing. I had no idea such information was so readily available. What fun!

Such a card!

When I was at school, I really used to love getting ready for the new school year - sharpening the pencils, getting the new textbooks and covering my school books and folders - so much so that I would be doing it weeks in advance. I remember being sprung by my older brother's friends one night in the act of making collages for my folders waaaaaaaay too early for it to be cool and being a little embarrassed about my eagerness. However, I seem to have remained undaunted as here is more evidence of my early-birdy-ness...cards for next Christmas! I used;

1) New cardstock - anyone know of a good supplier of recycled card stock? I just don't go through enough cereal boxes to generate enough cardboard

2) Recycled wrapping paper

3) Recycled Christmas cards

What do you do with your old Christmas cards?

Hello dolly!

FINALLY I have an internet connection, so I can catch up on all my emailing and blogging and reading and so on while Little Miss O is asleep.  Hooooorah.  I am about to get stuck into making her some winter pjs from some very cute flannel I got at the opshop and also cutting out a Red Riding Hood cape for my friend's little girl, but I thought I would post this little project.  This is a felt doll circa 1950s that my Grand-aunt gave me recently.  She was very dusty from a long time being stored, so I

• put her in the freezer for a week to kill off any insects
• pulled out all her old stuffing
• handwashed her several times until her felt went back to bright red
• re-stuffed her with clean new stuffing
• stitched her back up, darned a few small holes and stitched her hair and her cap back in place

I am quite pleased with the results although I think she will be a looking at dolly, not a playing dolly.  More of what I have been up to anon...

Oops - I did it again!

I know - what kind of aspiring minimalist am I? A crap one. However, I am trying to be an eco-fashionista at least. I popped into the Lifeline (Harbord Rd, Brookvale) as it was $1 Friday again. But - can you imagine...children's clothes are only 50c. FIFTY CENTS! I have got Little Miss O kitted out until she is about five now. Seriously. Will just have to add a few pairs of leggings and tshirts if I can't make them out of her old ones (more about this later) - fair trade and or eco ones, of course. This swag cost AUD10. Wow. AND - even better - I have been longing for a red heart necklace and almost bought one at a consignment shop for AUD15 the other day but changed my mind and lo and behold - there was one at Lifeline. Fab. I seriously recommend if you have kids or are going to have a kid to go down and check it out. More on my sewing and crafting later.

Oh - by the way - I finished "To Die For". If you are at all interested in eco fashion or worried about the effect your wardrobe is having on the world...READ IT. A fabulous book.