Crochet rocks!!!

John’s got two super cute new hats. I found this fantastic lady on trade me who makes crochet hats to order. She made John a bear and a raccoon hat. They are so super cute. I’ve even asked her to make me one too. I want to learn to knit this year and  now I think I want to add crochet to my things to learn list. You can crochet the coolest toys, hats and clothes. So now to find someone close who can teach me.  

Veggies - not even a month on

 

Our veggie garden less than a month on! Lots of things are ready to eat. Can't wait till I make something with my homegrown goodies. I have too many yummy things to eat will have to share the love around.

2 days of truth 6 and 7

On our honeymoon - lake Tarawera

Day 6: Something you hope you never have to do.

I don’t want to talk about this as am afraid it might happen. So no discussion.

Day 7: Someone who has made your life worth living for.

If I could pick two it would be my little John and my amazing husband. Since I can only mention one this would be my wonderful husband, Andy. He is the most amazing man; he makes me laugh, he holds me when I cry, he helps me when I can’t deal with things, he teaches me new things everyday, he makes my days brighter; he’s super super smart, he can fix anything, he makies beautiful babies and most of all he loves me unconditionally. It’s the most amazing feeling having someone love you unconditionally; people like to think that they do this or want to do this but Andy most definably does; no matter what I seem to do I’m so lucky that Andy continues to love me. I count my blessing everyday. I love you.  

Quick changes for the environment

I love the daily green website. It has loads of great tips that get sent to your inbox regularly. I had 9 tips sent today so I thought I would share them:

- Reduce plastic bags – take reusable bags to the store. Though most of the bags I have still seem to be made out of some plastic so they will stay with us forever. I found some on rubbish free that are made out of Jute fabric; I’d like to get some of these at some stage. I’ve also bought some cute small cotton bags to put fruit and veggie in so I don’t have to bring home  more plastic.

- Don’t buy bottled water. Though I don’t trust tap water so we have a purifier on our tap.

- Get rid of catalogues/ or junk mail all together. I understand lots of people still like to read junk mail so you can go to sale finer and you get the latest catalogues sent to your inbox. Most companies can email catalogues instead of mailing them. Saving money and trees.  

- Detergents – use plant, concentrated and biodegradable one. I prefer ones that haven’t been tested on animals too.

- Reduce your dryer use – I was dead set against getting a dryer but now that we have one it has definitely been really useful in the middle of winter with cloth nappies.

- Change toilet paper – switching from normal to recycled will save around 1 million trees. Or even better still reduce your toilet paper use (will post about this later).

- Stop using paper towels and use cloths instead. Or if you can’t get rid of your paper towel switch to recycled ones.

- Turn down the heater – grab an extra blanket or jersey and have the heater on low. I’m not saying be cold (I hate being cold) just think about how high the heater is.

- Give up dry cleaning – to avoid the need for dry cleaning choose clothes that don’t need it.

Veggies!!!

We’re on our road to semi self sufficiency! Woohoo. Well it’s three small beginnings. We’ve wanted to make a veggie garden for about the last year and just hadn’t got around it. So a few weeks ago we started. Being married to an engineer means that you can’t just make a simple raised veggie bed. No it has to be super strong with 24 huge and I mean huge steel bolts. The wood will rot before these puppies break. We had fun collecting the macrocarpa sleepers; though ended up going to three different stores to get  what we needed. Finally we got all we needed and we were able to start our beds. There’s nothing quite like watching a sexy man with a saw in hand making something for his family.

So once all assembled we had our new garden. Got a truck to deliver some dirt and then bought some organic compost (ours isn’t ready yet and won’t be for some time, so we had to buy some) and voilà we have our very own garden. So off to the shops to buy some seedlings. Seedlings in hand I was ready to plant. So I’ve planted spinach, pak choi, silverbeet, carrots, celery (for the bunny as I hate celery), mesclun salad, boerenkool (farmer's kale) and two tomatoes that I already had in pots.

To tell you the truth I don’t know anything about plants or gardening. My mum is an amazing gardener and has the most beautiful garden but as my father once said I have black thumbs! So I got a little (well a lot) of help from the NZ Gardener 2011 diary. This magazine is great as it has a week by week guide of what to do in your veggie garden. So I think together we might be able to make it.  

Emergency survival kits

The country is still reeling after last weeks shocking earthquake in Christchurch. A week later and it’s all just as sad and upsetting. It’s amazed me how much New Zealanders have come together and get behind Christchurch and its citizens. My heart goes out to everyone who is living there and to everyone who has some connection to the place.  

After the last earthquake I started putting together an emergency kit for us as we didn’t have one and now I’ve been much more serious in making us a kit but I still have a way to go. I think we have enough to survive but I still have some items to buy/ gather. I’m not going to go into detail of what’s in our kit as I feel Leanne from Hazeltree farm does an amazing overview of what to put in a kit. I know what things I still need to buy and so will get busy this week gathering. Let’s pray we never need these kits but I feel it very important to be prepared just in case.

Day 4 and 5: Forgive and things to do

Day 4: Something you have to forgive someone for.

Over the years I’ve been able to let things go and I don’t think I have anyone I need to forgive.

Day 5: Something you hope to do in your life

There are loads of things I still hope to do in my lifetime having only lived a few short decades. 

So here’s my kind of bucket list;

Would love to have another beautiful child with my wonderful husband.   

I'd like to be semi-self sufficient; including chickens, solar power (or some other kind of renewable energy source).

Would like to have a water collection system so that we can reuse our household water.

Free range chickens from hard working hippy's garden

Would love to go to carnival in Brazil. Actually I’d like to go anywhere in South America.

Would love to go to Egypt; to see the pyramids, the statues of Ramesses, the Valley of the Kings and of course the Sphinx.

Have an outside shower/ bath (in the bush preferably or on the beach).

Spacious sunny rooms and a happy home.

Would love a house with a pool - though this is totally UN-environmentally friendly so living near the beach or near a natural pool would be a much better idea.

Would love to see polar bears in the Arctic and penguins in Antarctica.

Would love to work on a spay clinic in Peru and help baby turtles grow up.

Would like to go on a health retreat/ spa weekend.

Would like to own a Gretchen Albrecht painting.

So I’m only human and so some are not as environmental as I’d like to be. Though I have to say I never claimed to be completely noble or guilt free.