Freecycle goodness, I am in heaven!!

What does any self respecting simple living greenie do when they move house?? Sign up to their local FreeCycle as soon as possible of course!! :D After off loading our moving boxes and some other bits and pieces we found while unpacking that really shouldn't have wasted space in the truck, I posted a wanted ad for books or magzines on gardening/self sufficiency. I had a response from a lovely lady saying that she had some old mags that I was welcome to.

So off I toddle, hoping that the 25 minute journey wasn't going to be a waste and when I arrive she has 3 green bags FULL of mags and books for me!!

Included was 76 copies of Grass Roots, 32 copies of Earth Garden and 3 books on green living!!! She also included packet of snake beans for me :D I am so thankful to receive this lovely gift and can see myself spending hours ouring over these mags!

The earliest one is a Grass Roots (#27) that was printed in 1981 - before I was even born!

If you haven't already joined your local FreeCycle, give it a go! You never know - somebody's trash might be your treasure!!

I'm baaaaaaaaaack . . .

Okay, I know it has been a while . . . life has a funny knack of getting in the way sometimes! Well we are, for the most part, moved in and settling in nicely. We have been here 3.5 weeks now and today is the first Emily free day I have had, I big change from her going to kindy twice a week!! She is at my MILs today so that I could get the first bit of study done in nearly 6 weeks!! Let me tell you, Anatomy and Physiology is not a good subject to stop for so long . . . I have pretty much had to go back over everything because I had forgotten so much!!

Since it has been so long, I think I'm better off breaking this post up into a couple for ease of reading . . .

We bought a house!!

Woo hoo!! Very excited that we will soon be in our OWN home again!! 18 months renting and having to ask if we want to do anything (resulting in us NOT doing anything lol) and we can now put nails where we want, paint walls, plant gardens - BLISS!!!!

We'll be nice and close to my sister (hi Bec!) and I love the fact that my girls and her girls will grow up together! As well as having long nights of singstar, morgorgage culkin and froggin' it in skippo lol (in human-terms - playing monopoly and skip-bo lol)

Shan will still be travelling to work every day (35 minutes on a good run) and boy doesn't he like to tell me about it *sigh* If you didn't want to move there why did YOU suggest it?? Hmmm??

Trying to figure out what we can do in our backyard. I'm sure someone mentioned that a 13ft trampoline was rediculously large for any backyard besides what we are currently in . . . oh wait . . . that was ME!!!! If we keep the tramp we have, it will take up almost a full third of our backyard!! But it was a present from the jolly man, and of course 8ft is STILL too small . . . hmmm

Also trying to work out in my head how to do the vegie gardens (and there WILL be vegie gardens!!!) The backyard is approx 6m x 12m - so not incredibly big but luckily there are 4 parks within very easy walking distance. I have also been looking at these fruit salad trees as a way to get a good variety of fruit in a small space :) We have a water tank so I will actually be able to water at this place :D

Anyway, my text books are calling to me and since Em is at kindy today I had best make the most of it!!

Take care everybody :D

Bushfires

Like most Aussies, my heart has been breaking watching the news coverage of the bushfires ravaging Victoria as we speak. At last count, 108 people have lost their lives, nearly 1000 houses destroyed, entire towns basically wiped off the map. Everytime I read another news report I get goosebumps.

Changes and a new start in 2009 . . .

What a month or two!! Good things, bad things, surprising things all rolled into a very short period of time!!

DH and I hit a very bad patch and effectively hit rock bottom. It was either sort it out or move on :( After a lot of talking and figuring out where we are in life and where we actually want to be, we have decided to sort it out :) Things have been much better since (although there have been a few blow ups along the way) and I do really hope that things continue along this road. Fingers crossed. We have both made compromises and one of mine is to lay off him a bit about my "greenie shit" . . . oops.

So that aside, Chritsmas was, well, Christmas. As always we spent FAR too much money, got given gifts that we REALLY have no use for or just don't like, and spent the whole time running around and listening to other people whinge . . . sigh. Christmas Eve at my Dad's was by far my favourite time but was punctuated with Emily throwing up all over Nn while we were opening pressies! Nice.

We spent the week between Christmas and New Year at the Tweed Coast in a cabin which was really no bigger than a small caravan. Lets just say that the experience was . . . interesting . . . and I can't see us doing it again in a hurry. Maybe in something bigger but there really was no room to even turn around, which wasn't great with a 2 1/2 yo going through a defiant stage!! This was also just before our 'rebirth' of our relationship too, so being in such close confines while arguing constantly is never a good idea!!

Some exciting news from me is that 1: I have a new sewing machine . . . WOOT!! :D and 2: I am starting to study this year!! I am freaking out a bit because it has been nearly 10 years since I finished school (my reunion is coming up later this year!) but I am SUPER excited to get my teeth into it!! I am going to be studying an Advanced Diploma in Naturopathy, which also gives me an Advanced Diploma in Western Herbal Medicine and Advanced Diploma in Nutrition at the end of it :D I am doing it externally and have up to 6 years to complete it but hope to have it done in about 3. The plan is to get qualified by the time the girls are in school so that I have a 'real' job to go to, as well as using my brain a little more than "How many nappies do I need for today" or "How can I turn this toilet roll into a snake" lol

Now in surprising news, there are 2 new pregnancies in our (well nn's) family. My Step-brother-in-law and his girfriend are expecting baby #5 (following 4 boys!) and my bil is expecting bub #1 with his girlfriend. So come this time next year, there will be at least 3 new nieces/nephews running (well maybe laying) around!!

This is a huge post so I think I might end it there. Thanks to everyone for their well wishes over this trickytime. Things are looking brighter every day so I think I have made the right decision :)

More on my crap gifts . . . and a win!!

The knob on my camera broke on Monday night while putting up the Christmas tree, so please forgive the dodgy photos, I seem to be stuck in 'sports' mode :O

Firstly one more Chritmas vent . . . I specifically hadn't taken Em to go see Santa until nn could come with us because I know that he likes to be there for those sort of things . . . we leave Em with my MIL for a couple of hours while we go to do some Christmas shopping and she has taken it upon herself to take Em down to the shops and get a photo with Santa :( It was the good Santa too, the one we had planned on taking her to . . . Emily didn't smile but MIL bought the photo anyway and we've put it in a frame next to Em's bed and every time Em looks at it she calls it her 'no smile' LOL Oh well, not like I can do anything about that now . . .

Okay, back to my 'crap' homemade presents . . .

Very Hungry Caterpillar - this is for one of my one year old twin nieces birthday which is a week before christmas. I did make a felt board for it too, but I'm not happy with it, so I'm trying to find one now.

A wall hanging for Z. The butterflies were made by my Grampa :) I haven't glued them down yet, so they might be a little off centre.

Felt food for my nearly 2 yo twin nieces :) You can pull all the toppings off the pizza and I will have a sandwich still on the way . . .

Hair clips and ties - a tonne of these still on the way . . . in a family with 8 girls under 8 and then friends too, these will never go astray!


Pencil rolls for some friends kids . . . I have made one for an older child that I no longer need, so I might put it up on buy4baby to try and cover some costs . . .


An upcycled purse for my 15yo SIL I love this pattern!! It was made with this online tutorial. I have a purse made with the same tute in a cherry print :D

And finally some knitted face washers. The rainbow one is bamboo and the purple one is corn fibre!!

I have also made body butter and lip balm for the female in laws with organic coconut oil, fairtrade organic cocoa butter, local beeswax and sweet almond oil, but haven't made a final decision on how to pretty up the jars/tubes yet lol

Now, to my win :D On the Aussies Living Simply site they held a raffle, where everyone who wanted to be included offered up a prize and then the prizes were split up between x people. And I won one of the prizes :D There is still some on the way, but so far I have received handmade goats milk soaps and handcream, books on herbs, bread making and a recipe index, a beautiful handmade bag, giftcards and wrap, a cd full of info on self sufficient living*, radish seeds*, a decorative butterfly* (*these not in the pic because they arrived today!) and another one which was a little . . . odd. A pair of candy panties/g-string . . . with a used by date of Dec 2006 . . . that was interesting to explain to Em who wanted to eat the lollies :O Gave me a giggle though.

Feeling defeated . . .

Probably sounds melodramatic, but plans just aren't falling into place at the moment and it is making me a little depressed. I had visions of having a simple Christmas, with minimal fuss , homemade or simple presesnt for the kids, no presents for the adults (who need nothing anyway) but instead it is fast becoming a consumerist nightmare again - the only difference being that it is even more expensive this year because I have bough materials to make things (or have even completed some things) but my gifts aren't seen as good enough and nn doesn't want to give his family my "shit presents" :(

I have also 'bought' gifts from 3 charity organisations this year, TEAR Australia, World Vision Smiles and Oxfam Unwrapped but apparently they are 'crap gifts' too (well one of them is literally . . . hehe) We are at the stage that we get to every year when nn is sick of going to the shops and so our $20 per person budget gets stretched to $30+ per person because he *knows* that such and such would like something and so lets just get it . . . grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

My family does a Secret Santa that all of us girls had decided that it was unneccessary to buy for adults anymore - but then some of the boys got huffy and so now it is back on. At least that means we buy for 2 people and not the full 7 (not including ourselves).

The girls are another story again. Their budget is between $100 - 150 each (including Santa Pressies) They have each had about $50-60 spent on them from us and the Santa Pressie is meant to be a trampoline. We can get an 8' round tramp for $200 including the nets and padding but nn has decided that 8' isn't big enough for our 2.5y and 8mo . . . they need at least a 10' and it can't be the one available online so it is going to cost a MINIMUM of $360 . . . and hey if we are spending that much why not pay the extra $60 and get a 12' . . . ARGH!!! A 12' would take over most people's backyards . . . Yes we have a big yard now but if/when we move early/mid next year we may not have the same room. Everything has to be bigger and better than everyone else and it is driving me nuts!!!

Why can't Christmas be about enjoying each others' company rather than who can spend the most???