My 2009 Wrap-up

Hello everyone!

Well, tomorrow it will be December and no doubt I'll get busier than ever. I wrote a whole post about me being a bahumbugger but I realised that pretty much every post I've put up about Christmas is about me being a bahumbugger....and after awhile that just gets old. (hehe) So I will spare you and concentrate instead on my highlights.

Now I've always wanted to do a yearly wrap-up but have always planned to do it after Christmas...and of course I get too busy and so I don't do anything. So I thought I'd do a wrap-up now.

2009 has been a great year for me overall. It had been challenging at times but I definitely learned a lot.

Consumption highlights for me:

• January: Finally getting rid of my credit card debt
• February: Attended the first ONC* Handmade Markets
  
• March: Finally started to build my nest egg
• May: My lemon tree suddenly gave me HEAPS of lemons (after years of giving me only 1 or 2 lemons for the year).
  
• August: Cadbury Dairy Milk Australia NZ announced that they will be getting fairtrade certification (the thought of this still makes me smile)
  
• April to September: Furnished my entire house (including kitchenware) for under $1,000.
• September: Got "free" food from my garden for the first time.
  
• October: Made my first dress without using a pattern or online tutorial (completely freehand).

On more personal fronts, I think I will remember 2009 as the year where I've realised the full extent to which I can use the skills that I've learned since my no-buying brand new year. Its the year when I finally adjusted to being a sole parent. Its the year where I can look back and see that the skills I've learned in living a simpler life (like cooking, sewing, mending etc - ie living frugally) have helped me so much in that adjustment.

"Zen/Striped Rock" Photo by Mandolux

Three years from when I stopped buying brand new, I look back now and see just how far my little steps have taken me. I now live according to the values that I espouse. I have become more confident in my abilities to learn. By living simply, I am experiencing true freedom of choice in regards to what I *do* spend my time and money on. I am now doing things that I love (but had once thought I didn't have the time for). Not only am I continuing to craft and sew, but I'm also now back to cycling, to playing the piano and doing martial arts.

Of course, there are still challenges ahead of me. I have a long way to go in learning how to consistently get food from my garden (with the weather here becoming so unpredictable - I have come to realise that it will be hard work to become successful at what I like to call "extreme gardening"). I have many little things to do to make my house more sustainable. I would also like to get back into photography again (I found my old manual SLR camera this weekend! I'll have to go out and see if I can remember how to use it...and see if there are still places around that can develop rolls of film.)

Anyway, this has become a long post so I will sign off now. In my next post, I hope to answer Ryan's question about what I meant regarding placing a fabric strip on top of my curtains. (I'm so sorry for taking so long Ryan. Its a little hard to explain and so I've been waiting for the opportunity to show you what I meant using pictures.)

I hope you are all having a wonderful week.

**********************
*ONC = Our Nation's Capital

Kahlil Gibran: "On Children" (Happy Birthday to my Daughter)

On Children
Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Hello everyone!

I hope your weekend is going well. As you can see, I haven't quite found bojo*. I'm afraid that until the weather gets cooler you may find me being a bit erratic in my posting here. (Oh dear, that would mean April 2010! hehe)

Anyway, back to the purpose of this post....

When I first read Kahlil Gibran's poem above, I have to admit, I didn't really understand it. I had come into parenthood with such grand ideas about how I would raise my children and how they would be. It was a shock to me to realise that I couldn't plan and manage my babies the way I planned and managed my work. I spent months trying to do so and it just made me (and my firstborn) miserable.

It wasn't until I stopped, looked and listened to what my baby was trying to tell me that I finally learned how to let go. Let go of the idea that I can force my children to fit into my own ideas of what I think my children should or could be.

And it wasn't until I let go could I read Kahlil Gibran's poem and finally understand the beautiful truths in it.

I have mentioned many times here that my journey towards a simple lifer is mine alone, and not my children. The best I can do is to show them that values are important and that it is possible to truly live within one's own values. At the same time, I acknowledge that in the end, it is up to them to define what their values are.

Today, my daughter celebrated her 7th birthday with her friends. As I watched my beautiful girl laugh, play and dream, I see that she is well on her way in her own journey. I am so priveleged to be her mother.



*bojo = blogging mojo

Egg Carton Sewing Box

Hi everyone!

I had a lovely day today. My friend Bec came over and we had a lovely time catching up and crafting together. There's something wonderful about sitting around a crafting table, chatting with a friend while we made things for our families.

Anyway, it will be my daughter's birthday soon, and I will be giving her, her own sewing machine. I have managed to score a travel sewing machine and I wanted her to have her own little sewing box.

So using felt pieces left over from our Felt Faces Cards project, embroidery thread (bought some time back from the op shop) and an egg carton I came up with this:





I still need to buy her a pair of scissors, that's why you can see a big gap to the right of the fabric pens.

I filled her sewing box with things from my own sewing supplies and made the two pin cushions (though the alien pin cushion is for embroidery needles).

I hope she likes it...

Depression Cooking (Baked Apples)

Hey everyone!

Okay, so I'm determined to find my bojo* by forcing myself to blog. So I went over to one of my favourite sources of blog-writing inspiration, Blog This, and saw that this week's challenge was to blog about my Quick Fix meal.

I had a little laugh at this one because quick (and frugal) meals are a speciality in my house. Regular readers will know that my children (ages 6yrs and 5 yrs) often cook for me. I have found that the key to successful cooking by children is to make sure that they make simple and quick meals. They are too young to have the attention span to make anything too complicated and I am a big believer in setting up my children to succeed when they are learning new habits.

Further, as a sole parent, I have to admit that I often find myself not having the energy or motivation to allocate enough time to cook elaborate meals for myself and my children.

So pretty much every recipe I have shared here is quick - often with less than 15 mins preparation time.

Having shared a few links now with you (in the paras above) on my quick meals, I've decided that its time I learn more quick meals. A few days ago, one of my Facebook friends shared this great youtube channel "Depression Cooking". The videos on that channel are of Clara, a 94 year old American woman who shares her simple and frugal recipes from the Depression era. I have been enjoying watching her videos and thought I'd share this one that I want to try soon.



It looks so simple, frugal and more importantly, yummy! So that's my next cooking project. (Grocery shopping this weekend for apples). Me, being me, I've decided to vary it a bit and add some sultanas as well - inspired by Elana's Pantry's photo**:



I will be serving mine with ice-cream...

**********************************************
*bojo - blogging mojo

**Note that all photos on my blog have a Creative Commons General Attribution licence on them - which means that the photographer has given permission for others to use their photos provided that they are attributed.

Searching for Bojo...

Leopard Sleeping on the Tree. Photo by Najeebkhan
I chose this photo because this is how I'm feeling at the moment.

Hello everyone!

Firstly, a big sorry for the long time in between posts. We've been having some really hot days lately (and its not even summer yet!) and I find that I always lose my bojo (blogging mojo) when its hot. Instead, I prefer to just sit around reading books and perhaps indulging in a boggle game or two (snort, okay more than two).

I have done one new thing though! I made soap from scratch today! Details are over at Simple Green Frugal Co-op.

My garden is also not looking too good. I kept believing the weather man when he said it would rain...it didn't. And so my veges are now looking very very dehydrated.

I have not yet gotten close to achieving my November challenge: To ask for help. I need to do this soon!

Oh dear, I've just realised that this entire post could be summarised into three words: I'VE BEEN SLACK.

Ah well.

If you see my bojo anywhere, please send him back! In the meantime, here's me wishing for cooler weather.

I hope you are all well.

Subsidised Ceiling Insulation

Hi everyone,

Regular readers here would know that I recently took advantage of the Government's Green Loans Program. The house inspection was fantastic and I got heaps of tips on how to make my house more sustainable.

One of the things that came up in the inspection was that my ceiling insulation no longer works. I had not realised that after a long period of time, ceiling insulation gets compressed by gravity and once compressed it no longer acts as insulation.

So last week, I started to look at how much insulation would cost (I would take advantage of the Government's interest free loan), when I stumbled on this: $1,200 Free Ceiling Insulation (link takes you to the Bunnings Website). Apparently, the Government is subsidising home owner's costs towards getting ceiling insulation into their home. To be eligible, you have to:

1. Be an Australian citizen or permanent resident,
2. Own and live in the home, and
3. Have no ceiling insulation or have ceiling insulation that is less than 2.5cm or 1 inch thick.

I talked to the Bunnings person and they said that insulation is free for the first 93 square metres (about 10 squares). I have estimated that my ceiling is a bit bigger than 93 square metres but not by much. So I'm hoping that my ceiling insulation will only cost me in the hundreds of dollars rather than the thousands I thought I might be up for.

So I have the ceiling insulation people coming out early next month. I am quite excited by it all.

By having proper ceiling insulation and by having seals on my doors as well as the fabric strip on top of my curtain, then I hope my energy bills will become much lower.

I hope you all are having a good week.

"Save the Earth" Photo by Lori Spindler

Little lessons on keeping perspective (teaching my children about money Part 2)

Hello everyone!

I hope you've had a good start to the week.

The last few months have been, understandably, challenging ones for my children. There are times when the stress they are under has meant that they fall apart under the slightest "wrong" or provocation. They would fall to the ground crying because someone else got a bigger piece of dessert, or I cut their sandwiches into squares instead of triangles, or because I gave them water in the "wrong" glass etc.

I have to admit, I often find times like these things frustrating. I know that in most cases, its not the actual "transgression" that has caused it but more a build-up of a number of little (and big) things that they have not been able to process and understand.

As a mother I try to help them process things as it happens, but I've since realised that there will always be things in life that is hard to process and understand. And while their little melt-downs are understandable, I would like to show them that there are also other ways we can cope with uncertainty and change.

So the last few weeks, I've been playing this game I made up called "Keeping Perspective". Basically, its when I would come up with scenarios for them to think about and tell me if its "big deal" or "little deal". Interspersed with exaggerated or wild scenarios (eg. "Mummy got lost and we ended up on the moon instead of at school - big deal or little deal?") are realistic scenarios that happened during our week (eg. "You can't play outside because its too hot and got told to play inside instead - big deal or little deal?"). The children are loving this game and have started taking turns on making up scenarios. We then get to talk about why something is big/little deal and how we would react.

Now I had made up this game to help ourselves as a family in managing (and also laugh at) our little disappointments and our over-reactions. What I had not realised was how big an impact this little game has had in my children's understanding of money management.

We were out at the local shopping centre (buying groceries) when I hear my son ask his big sister to buy him stickers because she had her pocket money. My daughter refused because she had earlier earmarked the money she was carrying to take us to the movies.

So my son's lower lip started to tremble and my daughter started to look anxious. I braced myself to intervene, when suddenly my son said: "What's big deal - stickers or movies?" To which my daughter answered: "Movies!" And my son smiles and says "YES! You're right!" and they happily kept following me as I finished shopping.

And I realised that I've just overheard my children prioritise their spending without my help.... what an amazing moment. By keeping perspective, they were able to see the bigger picture as it relates to them.

Incidentally, we ended up seeing that movie my daughter had saved up for. She is now in the midst of thinking up her next financial goals. I have instituted a new rule re: pocket money. No goals, then no pocket money. Yep, I'm a tough mum. :P

**********
P.S. For those who are interested on my approach to pocket money you might want to read this post of mine explaining it: Teaching My Children about Money. In my family, I have decided that the primary purpose of pocket money is to teach a life skill on how to manage one's income.

P.P.S. And the stick insect Stevie (her first goal) is still alive and has now doubled in size.

Well-being goals - November

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. A big thank you to everyone who contacted me or commented me here to talk about their own experiences with depression and self-harm. I still have the "love" henna tattoo'ed on my arm and I will continue to talk about it to all those who ask me about it. I had some wonderful conversations online and in real life about it. I think self-harm, especially, is such a taboo subject. We do have so much help available to us.

Speaking of well-being, I thought now would be a good time to talk about my well-being goals for this month. Some of you may already know that I have the BIG goal this month.

This month, I will be asking for help. Not help from professionals - ie people who are paid to help me - but help from my community. To ask for help from my neighbours and my friends. Asking for help is a big step for me. Its only recently that I've learned to accept help graciously. I've realised that my inability to ask for help seems to have resulted in many people just doing stuff for me without asking. (Today, I came home from work (yes I worked this weekend) to find that my neighbours have weeded my garden and taken my bins out. Aren't they wonderful?) I'm lucky that my friends have not given up on me. As Karen (from Bundaberg) said in my previous post about this:

"Allow people the privilege of helping you"

And she's right. I know that I feel very privileged when someone asks *me* for help, its time I start returning the favour.

Now to date - I still haven't asked for help. I was going to do it this weekend but I kept putting it off and finding other things to occupy me. So I need to get tough on myself! I have written down 2 things I need help with. I won't write them here, just in case people I know read this and do it for me without me asking. BUT I will also set myself this coming weekend as the deadline for at least ONE of these things that I need help with.

My other well-being goals for this month are:

1. Increase my exercise regime from twice a week to three times a week; and
2. Catch up with friends I haven't seen in a while.

Yes, this is a social month for me. I've come to realise how important my community is to me and I need to start participating in it again.

Anyway, I hope you are all well and I hope you all have a good week ahead!

"Two different birds, one helping the other" Photo by John Piercy

To write love on her arms

Hello everyone!

I'm very excited today. Because today, I will be going to work with this henna tattoo on my arm:



I have "love" on my arm so that I can raise awareness of depression, self-harm and suicide. To Write Love on Her Arms is a non-profit movement dedicated at presenting hope and finding support for people.

Today (Friday, the 13th of November) is the international To Write Love on Her Arms Day. Here's an excerpt from the Facebook invite I got to participate:

1. Read the Story here: http://www.twloha.com/vision/

2. On Nov 13, write 'LOVE' on your arm. This is just like wearing denim on Jeans for Genes day, or a red nose for Red Nose Day.

3. When someone asks why, tell them about the TWLOHA cause.

4. YOU DON'T HAVE TO GO ANYWHERE AT A SPECIFIC TIME, JUST TREAT IT LIKE A NORMAL DAY.

I had a wonderful time last night with an old friend and a new friend playing with the henna. I tattoo'ed my friends and they tattoo'ed me.

I forgot to ask them if its okay to upload my photos of their arms, so I won't do that for now. I will amend this post if they give me the go ahead!

Now I know that many readers from the US and UK read this blog, so Friday will not be for another 24 hours for you, so its not too late to participate! If you do, please let me know and if you blog about it, leave your blog link so I can check out your arms too.

In the meantime, I thought I'd leave you with these facts from Beyond Blue:

• 1 in 5 Australians will experience depression at some point in their lives.
• Almost 6 Australians (5.7) commit suicide every day as a result of depression. This figure is actually under-reported because there are a large number of backlogs of deaths needing investigation.

I have experienced depression and post-natal depression myself. For those who are in the midst of this debilitating illness, please hang in there and use all the help that is offered to you. I know that if I hadn't accepted:

• the drugs,
  
• the counselling,
• called Lifeline, and
  
• also the Crisis Assessment Treatment Team Mental Health on 1800 629 354 (24 hour service),

I would no longer be here today.

But here I am. And I am once again capable of experiencing joy, contentment and hope.

Now I really must head off (or I'll be late for work).

Wishing you all hope for this day.

Family time Vs Extra-Curricular Activities

Hello everyone,

Firstly a big thank you to all of you who posted, emailed or contacted me on Facebook to celebrate my garden's first 'harvest'. Your encouragement on my journey to learn how to grow food has been amazing and has helped me stay motivated as I make many mistakes. I have yet to have a successful green-leafy vegetable grow in my garden - the snails keep getting at them but harvesting my potatoes really lifted my spirits.

On a completely different note, I have been noticing lately that many of the older children and teens I speak to seem to be very very busy people! They seem to have their days filled with school, then about four or five extra-curricular activities - ballet, piano, scouts etc etc. The list just goes on. All these children do seem to enjoy their activities but a part of me does worry for them.

See, I have a strict "one extra-curricular activity only" rule in my house. There are several reasons for this. One of which is that I just don't think I have the energy to constantly juggle my children's times, different requirements etc.

But mostly, I have this rule because it simplifies the rhythmn of our house. We have more days than not just doing things together as a family. I go to the park with the kids and play with them, we have picnics and bicycle rides, and days-in watching movies with popcorn.

As a working mum, I already feel at times that our time together as a family is already limited. And I think I would resent it if our time together was cut even shorter by more extra-curricular activies.

Recently, my son and daughter has been asking me if they could "do more things" so they could be "like everyone else". (Examples of more things being ballet, piano, football and T-ball.) I have thought about their requests carefully and in the end, I explained to them how doing more things (on top of their one activity each already) would mean they would have to give up our picnics and our park time - ie they would have to give up our family-play-time. I explained to them that all the things they are wanting to do are not really geared for all of us to play together.

Upon hearing this, my children decided they'd rather have time together as a family rather than doing all the other stuff.

To me this is good news... because it means that I will have this play time with my kids for a little longer.

But I am also very conscious of my children's reasons for why they asked to do more things in the first place. And once again, I am reminded that my children *do* have a desire to experience life collectively with their broader community - ie to "be like every one else".

And with that, I also understand that there will come a time when I will have to revise my "one activity only" rule.

But for now, I will enjoy my play time with my children and hope that I am also showing them that there are joys to be found in *not* being like every one else.

I hope you all had a good day.

My daughter spinning "faster than the Earth". Playing at the park after school.

Harvested some of my potatoes!

But some of them were really small....is that normal?



Hello everyone!

I came home from work today and got all excited when I saw some of my potato plants had turned yellow and withered! So I spent the next 30 mins happily digging out my potatoes.

I threw the vines back in the compost bin - I hope that's okay. In the meantime, for those who grow potatoes - what do you do with the potatoes that are really small - like cherry tomato small? I felt it would be too much of a waste to throw those in the compost bin too. As you can see from the above, there are a lot of small ones.

I'm thinking of making mash with them.... what do you think?

I think its because I didn't actually plant my potatoes and some of the plants just sprouted in parts of the garden that wasn't ideal for potatoes. Ah well, at least I'll know for next time!

I still have half the potato plants still there and not looking like they'll be dying any time soon.

So this is the first "big" harvest from my garden. I should celebrate, huh!

Hope you've had a good start of the week.

Why is it so hard to ask for help? My next challenge. (oh and showing off a family crafting project)

Hi everyone!

I hope you have all had a wonderful weekend.

I had a busy but productive weekend with my children. My daughter and I went on a mother-daughter date on Saturday night and had a ball eating sushi and pancakes (yes two different types of restaurants!)

Anyway, today I mowed my 30 cm (1 foot) high lawn....with a push mower. I don't have a lawn mower and a reader here suggested that I should regularly mow the lawn so it doesn't get too hard. I've followed that advice except in the last 3 weeks. No real reason, just me paying attention to other things in my life and not paying attention to my garden.

So now I realised how much of a fire hazard my lawns were and I took out the push mower and Worked Hard to cut it. My block is the biggest block in my neighbourhood. It took me about 2.5 hours to do with my push mower.

The thing is that while I mowed the lawn, all my neighbours (from all sides, including those up the next block) came out and offered to either lend me their lawn mower or to even do the actual mowing for me. And each time I said "no".

As I pushed and sweated for 2.5 hours, I realised that I was saying no to help for a number reasons...

...ranging from idiotic ("it is possible to mow a 30cm high lawn with an eco-friendly push mower!")

...to self-serving ("I'm getting a fantastic workout - and some people pay to get a workout like this!")

...to cultural ("I need to be independent and do this all by myself").

The last bit, I realised was exactly the type of thinking that feeds into over-consumption. Being "highly independent" is valued in our culture. But I realised that being highly independent is actually a myth. There's no such thing. Instead what happens is that the dependency is transferred from being dependent on other people to being dependent on gadgets, appliances and all the various things that create the illusion that one is highly independent (often marketed as making your life easier - another myth, in my opinion).

As I nurse the blisters in my hands and stretch out my sore muscles, I've decided to embark on a challenge. I am going to challenge myself to ask for help. And I do need help - not because I can't do it (I've learned that I always find a way to cope) - but because its good to depend on other people. That's how supportive communities are created - through the giving and receiving of help. Its time I participate fully in my supportive community.

So my challenge for November is: I'm going to ask for help before this month is out. And that's it. That's my challenge. Sounds easy but I know that this may turn out to be a harder challenge than my previous challenges...

On a lighter note, my daughter and I have been making cards for her friends. And here's what we've come up with so far!



Felt animal faces on paper. It's looking pretty good, don't you think? Anyway, I best get back to it.

I wish you all a great week ahead!

Say No for Kids

Hello everyone,

Sorry for not blogging yesterday. I started to write a blog post but then I lost my net connection...grrrr... Is it just me or don't you think its incredibly unfair when your net connection doesn't work but you don't get any refund of your money back??

Okay, once I again I've digressed...just needed to get that off my chest. :D

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged (among other things) about the Say No for Kids Petition.

The Say No for Kids Petition is about trying to change legislation so that highly sexualised images (commonly known as "soft porn) can not be displayed where children can easily see and access them.

At the time, I told you all that I signed and encouraged you to sign too.

I got an email now with an update on that petition and I thought I'd share (note that I put the links in myself):

Dear Supporters,

***Petition extended to April 2010 - it's not too late to collect and submit more signatures!***

Our Say NO 4 Kids petition to date will be tabled at the SCAG Ministerial Conference this week by The Hon Brendan O'Connor, Minister for Home Affairs. A total of 5,931signatures were collated and posted with a submission late last week (submission available on the website www.sayno4kids.com shortly). Coincidently, there was a total of 2,967 online and 2,964 on paper - just 3 the difference! Thanks to all who made the effort to ensure a strong message would be presented to SCAG this week.

Please note that it's not too late to sign - I am still receiving posted pages, and the online petition is climbing steadily.

A 'working party', made up of officers from the various Attorney General's departments, is currently investigating and reviewing the classification laws and guidelines, and will meet some time around April next year. They are now aware of our campaign, and can't ignore the growing community concern. Therefore, I encourage you to keep helping to raise awareness of this campaign, as we continue to collect more signatures to add to what has already been submitted.

Well done and thanks to all of you who have supported SN4K so far, and made the effort to protect our children from exposure to inappropriate material. It's a great start - maybe we'll get to 45,000 by April?!

Kind regards,

Catherine


Catherine Manning
Say NO 4 Kids
www.sayno4kids.com
e. info@sayno4kids.com
t. 0417 355 644
P.O. Box 707
Pakenham Vic 3810

On a related note, I read this "news" story today and was filled with horror and disgust. I'm horrified to see how this man can get away with "sculpting" (mutilating?) his wife's body in this way just so she fits his idea of "perfect". I know that the media tends to sensationalise everything so I am taking the quotes in the article with a grain of salt, but the fact stands that a man operated on his wife extensively so she can fit his view of an "ideal partner".

How do I explain things like that to my children? To my daughter? How can my son grow up respecting women and my daughter grow up respecting herself when they are constantly bombarded with the message that women are nothing but sex objects?!

As usual, my children and I will take it one day at a time, one question at a time...but I do worry.

My children laughing at one of my failed craft projects - a felt beret that was just way way too big...

I wish you all a good weekend!

Get the Government to help make your house more sustainable (and save money as well)!

Hello everyone,

This is going to be a short post because I woke up very very early 6:00am! Okay so I know that's not really early but that's early to me. Since my kids stopped waking at 5am, I've gotten really used to not waking till after 7am.

But I digress. I got up early today because I had a sustainability assessment person coming to my house at 7am.

If you live in Australia permanently, earn less than $250,000 per annum and a home owner (or primary leasor of the home), then you are entitled to a 4-year interest-free period loan of up to $10,000 to make your home more sustainable. Its interest-free because the Government will pay the interest for you. You can take out the loan for a longer period but after 4 years then you'd have to pay the remaining interest on that loan.

So this is how it works.

1. You call the Sustainability Assessment hotline on 1800 895 076 and make an appointment time for an assessor to come to your house.

2. The assessor comes to your house, inspects the house and if you want to, you can discuss your energy bills with him/her. Then that person makes recommendations on how to make your house more sustainable. The recommendations range from really simple (and cheap) to more expensive to implement.

3. The recommendations will be listed in an official report for you. You can then take out a loan to implement any of the recommendations.

If you want to read a bit more about the Green Loans Program, check out this page: http://www.environment.gov.au/greenloans/index.html

Anyway, I got a lot out of my sustainability assessment today - I don't have the report yet, but already I know that my roof insulation is no longer working (I didn't realise that when roof insulation gets too compressed (by gravity and time) then it no longer works. I also have gotten some tips on how to put seals on my doors and even my oven door!

So this weekend, I'll be making a trip to the hardware store to put seals on my doors and repair the oven door seal. I'll also be placing a fabric strip in between my curtain rods and the wall to make my curtains work better as an insulator.

All of these things will not only make my home more energy efficient, but hopefully will help me cut my energy bills.

Huge props to Dixiebelle for letting me know of this great initiative!

Oh as an aside, I also got a pleasant surprise to find that the assessor who came to my house has read this blog! How cool is that.

Anyway, I might end this blog post with this clip I found in youtube. It's an old clip - this girl made this speech to the UN back in 1992. And her fears are as relevant today as it is now. For me, this speech was a good reminder about why I do the things that I do.

Enjoy!

Back to blogging! And check out my latest crafting project

Hello everyone!

I've climbed back down from my boabb*! I have to admit, I missed blogging! Still not blogging gave me some extra time to squeeze in some crafting and sewing - activities I really needed to do. My friend Jess (from Button Beauty) often says that crafting and sewing is just as good as therapy and I have to say, she's right. :) Of all the things I have learned in this journey towards a simpler life, I have to say that crafting and sewing has been something that (suprisingly) continues to give me much joy.

Anyway, a few days a go, I went to a fete from one of the local schools and picked up this little beauty for $1.50.



Its an old bowls bag - totally scratched and the lining inside was ....bleugh...

BUT I loved the shape and it seriously needed rescuing from landfill.

So with a little fabric decoupaging (using curtain fabric I found in the op shop a few months ago), this is the bag now:



The lining inside is 90% done but I've run out of upholstery glue. When I've finished it, I'll show it off here.

In the meantime, I'm curious. If you're a crafster, what are you working on at the moment?