i posted this list in May & i thought i would revisit it to see if anything has changed
i think that i have always been a little bit Green, have always been a country girl, even when the country was far away.
i have felt my life changing over the last year or so.i feel i am turning into the woman i new that one day i would become.
My Better Life List
1. living a better life is at the top of my list. :o)2. saving water- with my front load washer {only washing 2 days a week}, a bucket in the shower to water my plants, only washing up once a day, rain water barrel.i have also added a bucket to the kitchen sink to catch all the rinse water from my fruit & veggies
3. buying eco cleaning products-washing up liquid, washing powder.4. cloth shopping bags- always.also added cloth fruit & veggie bags
5. recycling everything possible.
or finding a new use for it, like juice bottles i cut them up to make garden veggie tags.
6. Saving electricity- changing to energy saving light bulbs, turning off the lights when we leave the room, turning off appliances at the power point.spending less time on the computer.
7. Only buying Australian fruit & veggies, this also goes for dried fruit & nuts, bread, dairy products & meat.it is getting harder to find Australian grown dried fruits & nuts, the market is flooded with inferior imports.
8. Australian food stuffs- i have spent quite a lot of time in the supermarkets reading labels, now i pretty much only buy products made in Australia.if the label says Local & imported the item goes back on the shelf
9. Changed from an electric kettle with a stand by light to a gas kettle.
lov my kettle
10. Bucket as our garbage bin- have never purchased garbage bags, i use to use the plastic shopping bags but i cut those out in 1998 when i sewed my first calico cloth bags.
11. Baking from scratch- have always done this- cakes, biscuits, pies sweet/savory, slices, bars, chocolates, pizza, yogurt, pasta- plus 100 other from scratch meals.
i have add ice cream/frozen yogurt & condensed milk
12. i will be trying out cloth pads instead of disposable ones, as well as cloth wipes.
the cloth wipes are great i wont be going back, also going to try out a Mooncup.
13. we are building a hen house & i will keep 6 to 8 hens for their beautiful eggs & meat & in return they will eat up all our kitchen scraps.
well the house is finished :o) just waiting for the next hatch, for some Silver Laced Wyandottes. not much success on the other breeds i am after.
14. Line drying our washing- i have always liked hanging out the washing & love the smell of fresh clean clothes straight off the line.
the weather is warming up so ill be going back to hanging the wash out at night.
15. Freecycling items we no longer need.
it is also a place to find treasures
16. Fruit Trees- these are something i have wanted for a very long time & now i have a few in really big pots, i cant wait till my lemon tree gets its first crop.
no fruit yet but my list is:
1 Lemon
2 Oranges {full of blossom}
1 passionfruit
1 raspberry
1 blueberry {tiny fruit forming as i type}
17. pots of herbs- nothing like fresh herbs to cook with.
18. Growing flowers from seed- i never new how rewarding it would be, seeing their sunny faces smiling at me.
19. Planing my first Veggie Garden- i have grown veggies in pots before but making a garden is much more exciting.
4 veggie gardens harvested:
Peas
Silverbeet
Lettuce
\quite a few seeds growing too many to list :o)
20. Composting- having a go at a compost heap.
still cooking, with lots of lovely worms
21. Sewing- i have always sown things but i have stepped it up giving new uses to old towels, clothing & sheets.
making a rug from old t-shirts, skirts, nighties, Pj's, aprons, bath mats & quilts just to name a few.
22. thinking about what i spend money on- do i really need it, can i do with out it, do i have something else that can do the same job.this is stuck in my head :o)
23. i have pretty much stopped buying processed foods.
24. added knitted dish cloths to my kitchen.
i am very passionate about all these things & i find my self thinking about other things i can do. Changing your life for the better takes time, but it all starts with the first step.
Saturday morning was wasted as we had to catch the train up to Lawson to vote, they really need to make it so you can vote on the internet. we lived in Lawson for eight years & it has really gone down hill, i am soo glad that when we moved back to the mountains we didn't move to Lawson. its looking like a dump & if the drug deals are anything to go buy i am soo glad we got out.
we had a 1 1/2 cubic metres of dirt delivered {that is a lot of dirt} sitting on a tarp in our back yard.
i finished off the new garden bed & the boys barrowed in the dirt. finished off the last of the wood chip path that runs along side the garden beds.
& spent a good part of the afternoon digging up bindi's. you think there are only a few but when you get down there for a closer look, its never ending. it was also a hot sunny day, so we had a BBQ for tea with salad.
Sunday i repotted a few plants with the new mix.
Planted Bush Beans, Beetroot, Cauliflower, Endive, Lettuce & Carrots
also put in grow pots Tomato's, Break-o-day, Hardy Tom & Yellow Pear
i was excited to see the first snow peas & oh are they soo sweet, also the first of the sugar snap peas are just getting their pods.
this veggie business is very exciting.
Picked the first lot of snow peas, silverbeet & Nastrum Flowers for our salad to go with our tea.
Sunday baking- ANZACS, Snicker Doodles & the new recipes are Lemon Slice, Carrot & Poppy Seed slab with orange icing & Almond Fingers (wheat free recipe).
also made a pavlova base for Mondays dessert.
for tea- steak with diane sauce, coleslaw, mixed green salad & potato cakes {from leftover mashed potato} with a rice pudding for dessert {made from leftover rice}.
in between planing, picking & baking we had a lot of big storms, very windy & pouring rain.
Working on List/To Do List
Floor Rug* 14 colours down
Knitted Dish Cloths*5
Patchwork Quilt* still about the 1/2 way mark on the top stitching
Cross Stitch* still on the list
Hen House* the end is in sight {finger Xed for this weekend}
Pj Bottoms*mmm Red flannel with White spots
Apron*
Small 70's blanket* sewing together
the rain disappeared after 3 days & now we are back to the warm spring weather again. Ive been sick since Wednesday with the flu, today I'm starting to feel like myself again except for the runny nose & the hacking cough I'm just peachy.
yesterday afternoon i decided to do a bit of spring cleaning. i dragged down all the bowls, jugs, canisters & other kitchen items from up on top of the cabinets. don't ya just hate the sticky dust that forms in kitchens. I'm pretty bad i usually only clean them every 6 months or so, or if i need to use something. everything was washed dried & rearranged back on the top by about 6.30pm just in time to sit down to tea {chicken legs, baked potatoes, peas & gravy}.
i also took down the autumn/winter wreath from the front door & made a spring bush one. don't know how long it will last, just giving it a mist spray every
morning.
some bush flowers for the kitchenon the dish cloth front i have finished 5, i am a lot quicker at knitting them now & i don't even need to look at the pattern any more. i found this waffle weave pattern at homespun living blog http://homespunliving.blogspot.com
i lov how they have turned out. i have purchased a few other colours so i will continue on until i am sick of making them or the weather gets too hot.
On Saturday i went into spotlight to get some flannelet & a pattern for some Pjs, they had a buy 1 pattern get 1 free, so i also got an apron pattern {3 half aprons & 2 full aprons}.
Pj pants are on my to do list this week all my old ones are on their last legs LOL.
Baking Sunday* White Choc chunk biscuits * ANZAC * left over cake * & a new old item was Short bread haven't made this in maybe 10 years so it on the new item list.
the Radish & Cabbage that i planted on the 25th Aug, emerged from the soil on the weekend, i think it had something to do with all that rain we had. Praise to the rain gods :o)
Radish Shoots
Pea Flowers
Silverbeet
i was asked to see a pic of the 70s quilt on the bed so here it is.
Working on List/To Do List
Floor Rug* 14 colours down
Knitted Dish Cloths*5 Patchwork Quilt* still about the 1/2 way mark on the top stitching Cross Stitch* still on the list
Hen House* the end is in sight
Pj Bottoms*mmm Red flannel with White spots
Apron*
at long last the marine ply found its way to our house on Thursday night, all pre cut & ready to go. it has taken so long because the boys had a lot of work on & could not get it cut.
on Saturday A, S & i pre drilled & screwed all the pieces on to the frame, A cut out the heart shapes on the 2 side walls & on the door. i sanded it all & then unscrewed all the pieces ready for a coat of paint. S & i put up the chicken wire on 2 sides & the star pickets on the other side.
today saw me painting in the beautiful sunshine, hopefully tomorrow i will finish off all the Green work & make a start on the Red work {floor, door & iron for the roof}.
this week also saw the delivery of my organic seeds from Green Patch & Eden Organic.
Saturday i planted out a few seed potato's in black pots / recycle bin.
Sunday i dug up the grass for a new garden bed, i am in need a some bricks as i don't have enough left to make the border, so have been on the look out for a few weeks, just no luck yet.
also made a mini green house/cold frame with the left over 1/2 & 1/4 bricks laying around & topped it off with a piece of the alsanite that came off the veranda roof. don't know how it will go but we will just have to wait & see.
today i also spied the first flower heads on the peas Wooo Hooo
after painting i sowed the first of the new seeds, Onions, Radish & Cabbage into the spaces in the garden bed & in starter pots into the new green house of Capsicum- Californian Wonder & Golden Wonder, these will be grown in big pots as my garden space is limited.
no time for cooking on Sunday so i spent some time in the kitchen this afternoon
new recipe is Chocolate short bread {turned out more like cake} got the thumbs up
an old recipe from the Woman's Weekly cook book Lunch Box Cookies
second new recipe is Amish Sugar Cookies { uses a lot of butter & sugar} may not make these again.
Pictures tomorrow
Working on List
70s Blanket {only 4 more rows to sew on}
Patchwork Quilt {1/4 of the way through the top stitching}
Floor Rug {8 colours in & many more to go}
Advance Australia Cross-Stitch {just the wording to stitch}
