A cute little DIY Heat Pack gift I made for my friends birthday. Courdroy offcuts I found at Spotlight that I sewed and filled with jasmine rice and finished off with a fresh sprig of lavender from my garden.
Making gifts is something I love to do and I am trying to do it more often. People love the thought and effort that goes into a handmade gift. It also can cost a whole lot less than buying gifts and getting sucked into the consumerism funnel of having to spend more and more on gifts. This also means you can give gifts more often. Have you ever recieved a gift out of the blue for no reason? It’s such a nice feeling and I plan to do more of this. Try this DIY Heat Pack for your next gift idea.
Another great gift idea is some of my Nasturtium Salt, you can find the Recipe here.
What handmade gifts have you given? I would love to know, leave me a comment below.
MY GARDENING ESSENTIALS //
Fertiliser spray gun: https://bit.ly/366nL1t
Retractable Hose: https://bit.ly/2TSC0Bo
More gardening tools: https://bit.ly/32IQmbD
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New year, fresh goals! I love taking time to reflect, set new goals and revisit/ refocus on ongoing ones.
So here are my rambling thoughts inspired by Brooke McAlary’s book “SLOW” and some of the steps I am taking towards setting goals and making the next year of my life filled with much more of the things I love!
If you were to think about what are the top most important things in your life (no order). Write them down!
• Family
• Friends
• Pets
• Nature
• Adventures
And then think about where the majority of your time and thoughts are spent each day…
Working? Thinking about going to work? Thinking about all the work you need to do? How long do you spend on your phone a day? How long do you spend scrolling Instagram? How long do you spend thinking about things you can’t control? How long do you spend cleaning your house or washing or even just thinking about doing it in my case 😂 How long do you spend watching tv?
Evaluate, does how you spend your time and what occupies the MOST time/space in your thoughts add up and reflect what you love the most?
Mine definitely doesn’t… So I’m making some changes and Fresh Goals. Small changes towards spending more time and thoughts on the things I love 💕
1. So that doesn’t mean no washing (sadly) but I can have fewer things to wash (I recycled and threw out about 25 non-matching, scratchy towels and purchased 4 quality dreamy ones (which is still probably in excess).
2. I waste a lot of time procrastinating and therefore washing and chores occupy so much more time in my thoughts than just doing it!
3. Cups is another thing..well most items in the kitchen actually. There is usually only one to two people in our house at any one time, so why do I have 50 cups to wash, 4 spatulas and 10 frypans that don’t even work on our new induction stove??? Cyaaaa
4. Break the habit. Sitting on the couch after dinner watching tv but actually just scrolling Instagram for hours…now to walk the dog, tend to the garden until dark and I allocate one episode of tv, then read a book.
5. Randomly call your friends and family just to see how they are. My brother called me for an hour recently and it was the best! He does this more regularly these days because a year ago if he called me I would have had a panic attack thinking something was wrong. If your family and friends are one of the most loved things in your life they should take up more time than one text here and there.
This is a constant work in progress for me and I always need a reminder to get back on track (luckily I have Halen to nag me about clutter) but… “great things are done by a series of small things brought together” ✨
I made DIY Citrus Cleaner and it’s AMAZING, so I had to share! It’s really easy! You just collect some citrus peel or slices. You can do this over a week and just add to the jar as you get more. I used a combination of lemon, grapefruit, and orange. Citrus isn’t very good for the garden or compost so this is a great way to reuse the discarded peels. I also added lemongrass because it’s growing wild in my garden and smells amazing.
DIY Citrus Cleaner Recipe
Fill the jar 3/4 up with white vinegar and the rest distilled water (I just boiled the jug/ kettle and used the cooled down water from that). Leave it for two weeks somewhere out of the sun (pantry or cupboard) and then just strain and pour into a spray bottle with some extra water to fill.
I was quite worried it would smell like vinegar because it’s so strong when you first make it and no one wants to spray raw vinegar around their house! But I was pleasantly surprised when I poured it out today it smelt so good! I wish I had made this sooner rather than spraying who knows what nasty chemicals all over my bench 👎
Give it a try! I’m off to make another slightly different batch of DIY Citrus Cleaner because I’m hooked.
Have you made your own cleaner? Let me know your favourite homemade cleaning products below in the comments.
When I first saw the Plastic-Free July movement on Instagram, straight away I decided I wanted to give it a go! I got started on my plastic-free journey a few months ago probably April/May 2018. Luckily I started early, because holy crap it is actually so overwhelming and hard to get started!
Once I started paying more attention to plastic I realised how bad the issue was. I felt like I had been blindly walking through a plastic world and now it was nearly completely infested! I had to remind myself it was ok to start small and build on it, which is exactly what I did. Below is the order in which I progressed.
Reusable bags
I started off with reusable bags. I have a whole cupboard of them that I never use and always forget to take them to the supermarket. So I made a concerted effort to remember them even if I was only getting a “couple things” because realistically that never ends up happening.
A few things I noticed were that I automatically went to grab the plastic bags at the self-checkout even though I didn’t need them. It was just a habit! Also going to clothing stores..you need to take your reusable bags and also remind the check out person that you don’t need a plastic bag. Usually, multiple times because they are in that habit too.
Rubbish bags
We have one of those rubbish bins with two separate sections one for waste and one for recycling. They have an inner plastic bucket with a handle so you can easily lift it out. I did a bit of research on how to replace rubbish bags and quite a few people suggested lining with newspaper. I never have much newspaper so that wasn’t going to work. So I decided to just go commando… it’s pretty easy as most of my fruit and vege goes to the compost, you just have to hide sloppy or wet things inside other rubbish.
So for example, leftover meat I wrap in another piece of rubbish or tuck inside something so it’s not going to touch the sides. Even if there is a bit of spill they are easy enough to hose out.
Fruit and Vege
Next in Plastic-free July, I stopped buying veges with plastic. Which at the supermarket is actually so hard to do! There is only one type of lettuce not wrapped and it’s like a sea of plastic in the produce section. I quickly realised this wasn’t going to work so I started going to my local farmers market on a Sunday.
The produce is in season so it’s cheap and it lasts so much longer! It also tastes much better because it has been allowed to ripen on the plant rather than picked early, sprayed, frozen or whatever else the supermarkets do. So I HIGHLY recommend you check out the farmers market. Again, there were a lot of small produce plastic bags but they had baskets available so I used that and then put in my reusable bag.
Bread
With veges sorted I moved onto bread. My bf is obsessed with bread so it’s very much a staple in our household. Now, I can’t bake…but the whole point of this journey is about learning right! So I thought why not bake my own bread!! I researched and it all looked too hard so I bought a bread kit (plastic included) and attempted my first homemade-ish loaf. It turned out okay but not amazing. It also took up a lot of time and was just not going to be achievable/sustainable right now.
I then found a great reusable bread bag by a local Fremantle company called Onyalife. It arrived and I went down to the local Bakers Delight and bought a freshly baked loaf! You can choose to have it cut in either thick or thin slices and they put it in my reusable bread bag. SUCCESS! I also get bread at the farmers markets and bread rolls.
Beeswax Wraps
I use gladwrap a lot…way too much and I know it. I went around to a friends place as she was also keen on making beeswax wraps. She sourced some local wax and we made some wraps in different sizes. I do think we were a bit light on the wax so I will make some more and be a little more generous next time.
You basically grate beeswax on to some cotton fabric, cover with baking paper and melt it with an iron. A great tip is to put aluminium foil over your iron to stop it from getting covered in wax and ruining your clothes in the future. You can use them to cover containers, wrap half cut fruit or anything you would normally use gladwrap for.
Beeswax is naturally antibacterial so to clean them you just rinse in cold water and dry. A few things I’ve noticed were that I forgot what was in them because they are not see-through like gladwrap and also the cheese dried out and went crusty.
Extra Items
Try not to get too caught up in buying too many “Plastic-free items” try and use what you have. I got super excited and bought a few things online including Bamboo toothbrushes. Apparently, the bristles need to be cut off and thrown in the bin though.. but better than full plastic I guess. They are actually amazing toothbrushes through by far the best I’ve ever used.
Metal drink bottles are which is amazing for keeping water cool!
Ceramic coffee cup. Ok, so this is definitely my favourite purchase and mainly because it looks so good! I got it from Pottery for the planet and it’s amazing! It took a while for me to get used to asking people for coffee in my cup but most are so receptive and you even get 50cents off at heaps of places.
Bulk store
I stopped into my local Bulk store in Kalamunda after the farmers market one Sunday. I had a good look around and they had super helpful signs telling you exactly what to do. I really had no idea what I needed and ended up just purchasing some chocolate coffee beans.
The next time I went with a few things in mind and some jars! You weigh them at the scale station and write on some masking tape how heavy the jar is (lid on). Then I got some rice and local honey. I tried to stick with Australian products and they all have the origin on the description. You can get all your pantry goods there including tea, coffee, oils, dressings and cleaning products. You can also make your own nut butter in store!
Meat
Ok, so I definitely left this until last. It totally felt like it was in the too-hard basket but I knew I needed to sort it out. I took a reusable bag with a couple of containers and went down to the local butcher. He was so nice and was happy to tare off my containers and so I got some free-range chicken. SO PROUD! I was actually so stoked I had accomplished that as it was one of the last things on my list for Plastic-Free July!
HELLO PLASTIC-FREE JULY
It’s only the first week of Plastic-free July but I feel very prepared and I am so glad I started early to master all these things. I am still using all the plastic items in my house as I’m not throwing away things just because they are plastic. I’m just making a real effort not to buy any more plastic!
There are some things like dog food, beauty, and health products I still haven’t mastered but its a journey and I am constantly improving. Also not buying plants, this is a hard one. But I have plenty of seeds to get planting.
Plastic-Free July Tips and Tricks
Master the habit of using Reusable bags. Keep them in your car, handbag, everywhere incase you forget! If you do forget do your best and even load your shopping into your car (securely, maybe the back seat) and grab your reusable bags when you get home and transfer them. If you carried it easily through the supermarket chances are you will manage to the car…you don’t need a bag for your 3 items.
Visit your local farmers market. You will have so many more options for plastic-free food and fewer distractions of chips and packaged goods. It just feels so good for the soul too. And did i mention there are puppies? So many dogs…even the odd cat on a leash.
Cook from scratch! Baking and homemade foods are so much better for you as you know exactly what’s in them and they don’t have all the hidden preservatives.
Invest in a really nice BYO cup or bottle. This will mean you will be more inclined to actually use it!
Start with one thing at a time and master that. It’s so easy to get overwhelmed and feel like there’s no point. You can do it!
Share the Love. By sharing your journey or experience you never know you might just inspire one other person to get involved!
If you got this far in my post, well done! Let me know if you have any great Plastic-free July tips or bread recipes. Leave a comment below.
Holly 🙂
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can”.
I love growing Chillies! They are so easy to grow and consistently produce in abundance. So learning how to preserve them has been important to me. These homemade Chilli Flakes are a great way to get more out of my Chilli harvests. I am currently growing Jalapeno and Cayenne types. Both plants are in their second season as they are in pots they seem to survive the winters alright. I think this might be their last though.
I usually pick and freeze the chillis then just grab one and use in my cooking but the freezer is looking a bit full so this time I tried dried homemade chilli flakes.
Homemade Chilli Flakes
Place on baking paper in your Dehydrator. If you don’t have a dehydrator you could just set the oven to 60 degrees Celcius.
I then chopped them up as fine as I could and put in a recycled spice jar.
The next crop I want to try pickled Jalapeno. I also have a few different varieties to grow this spring including Carolina Reapers which are apparently one of the hottest in the world….no idea what I will do with those!
How do you preserve your chilli? Let me know in the comments.
