Filed under: making things, sewing, simple living, simple pleasures | Tags: making things, sewing, simple pleasures
I have not sewn for many years, except for some drapes for the lounge room just before Christmas.
One of the things about simplifying my life is to make time to do the things that I want to do. And one of these things is making things. I don’t want to be ‘crafty” in the traditional quilting, macrame, scrapbooking kind of way.
I just like to make things, and have a sense of achieving something. I am looking forward to making clothes for my daughter, costumes and similar things.
Today I made a chair bag for Barbie Girl to have at school to hang on the back of her chair to put her pencil case, ruler, crayons and other school stationery items. All of the children in the class are required to have a “chair bag”. They can be purchased at the school for about $10 for a calico one or $12 for a denim one, or you can make your own. In the past, I have just purchased a calico one from school, but this year I was inspired by Barbie Girl’s current fascination with Japanese things and Kokeshi dolls. Her new teacher has a Kokeshi doll in the classroom.
So I had a look on the internet to see what Kokeshi dolls looked like. They are traditional wooden dolls that developed after World War 2 . They are painted, usually just head and body ( no arms or legs). They look something like this.
So using this photo as my inspiration, I purchased some Japanese fabric, some black and cream felt and got to work today.
Here is the result.
First I purchased this fabric at my local fabric store for about $7
The hair was made with felt, and I embroidered the hair on the bag with blanket stitch. The eyes and mouth are also embroidered with black and red embroidery thread.
Back view of chair bag. The top fold slides over top of the chair.
Barbie Girl with her new Kokeshi Doll Chair Bag
It was very satisfying making something from scratch and working out how to put it together and finishing it in one afternoon.
Hi.
I have had mixed success with my Bokashi Bucket indoor composting so far.
The Bad.
My tap has been leaking. This means that some of the liquid compost has LEAKED on my kitchen cupboard. And it smells. Not absolutely disgusting, but not a nice smell either.
I have fashioned a container to catch the leak from a soft drink container ( aka soda).
When the bucket is full, I will empty and remedy the leaking tap issue.
Plus, I didn’t realise that I will still need to put the compost in the garden somewhere so that it can break down further. So Mr Techno will need to climb up on our retaining wall and dig a large shallow hole to put the treated compost in. ( sorry hun!). At the rate we are filling our Bucket, this may be once per week. The alternative is to purchase a compost bin for about $40 and put it on top of our garden on top of the retaining wall. The problem is that the retaining wall is more that head height, so we will need to climb up a ladder once a week to put the treated compost in!
So much for simplifying our lives!
The Good.
This Bokashi bucket makes AMAZING liquid fertiliser. I have used it on my new tomato seedlings, new basil and lettuce seedlings and my kaffir lime tree and it has had amazing results!
I hope it is worth the effort.
Filed under: composting, simplifying my life | Tags: Bokashi, Bokashi bucket, composting, indoor composting
I have been doing some research on indoor composting as I live in a townhouse.
I have a tiny courtyard and a front balcony. I like to use the back courtyard for line drying clothing and growing tomatoes* and my kaffir lime tree.
In the front balcony, I like to keep more decorative, and it has a teak outdoor table and chairs for dining, and some potted herbs* (this will be a later post). As I have a spectacular treetop and sky view looking out of my lounge room over my balcony.
So, I don’t want to clutter up my precious outdoor space with a compost bin.
This pricks my conscious and doesn’t sit well with me.
Enter the Bokashi Bucket.
Late last week, I was shopping in my local hardware/garden store for herbs and tomato plants (*see above).
I spotted the Bokashi Bucket. I had seen it online for about $100, but it was selling at my hardware store for $65 including the mix.
A Bokashi bucket is an indoor compost bin that is approx 50cm tall. It sits in your kitchen or laundry on a bench or on a cupboard. It is a small dark plastic bucket with an airtight lid, and has a tap at the bottom. You can put all of your food scraps, like any compost bin, and in addition, you can put meat, bones, cheese etc.
How it works is that there is a special mix that you need to sprinkle a couple of tablespoons over the compost once a day. It is made from a treated bran which is fermented and has enzymes which work to break down the food scraps.
Step 1- Decide to eat some watermelon
Step 2 Prepare the delicious watermelon for eating.
Step 3 collect the watermelon scraps and put in the Bokashi bucket for composting
Step 4 Sprinkle with Fermented Bran Mix
The Bokashi Bucket does its thing
The Bokashi Bucket integrated into our kitchen
Every day or so, you just open the tap at the bottom and collect the liquid which runs off. This can then be mixed into the soil, to enrich it and provide nutrients to your plants.
I have started my Bokashi composting and am eagerly awaiting my liquid fertilizer/compost to put on my new herb garden and tomatoes I have recently planted.
I will be blogging on my progress with my Bokashi Bucket…
Filed under: clutter, declutter, decluttering, downsizing, organisation | Tags: clutter, declutter, downsizing, organisation
Today the Charity Van is coming by to collect the items I decluttered from my home in January.
I’m so excited! Hooray……
I am enjoying my new decluttered spaces in my home, and it is much easier to keep tidy and organised and to find things.
Next decluttering projectss -photographs, and then the Study!
Filed under: children, simple living, simplifying my life | Tags: after school activities, children activities, extra curricular activites, simplifying my life, simplifying with children
Barbie Girl is 6 and a half years old.
My values are that I want her to be healthy and happy. I want her to have exercise and enjoy learning new things. I also want to balance with her having some “down time” to discover things on her own, to “hang” with her friends and family and just “Be” ….
Barbie Girl needs her sleep too!
( if you look closely, on the left side ( her right shoulder) you can see a model of Homer Simpson. Hmm. A sign of the times….)
This week, I need to make a decision about her extra curricular activities for this term and the year.
Last year, she did recorder lessons at school, before school for 30 mins for the whole year. In this, she learnt how to read music and performed at some low-key soirees, which she really enjoyed.
I would like her to continue with this, as she really enjoyed it, and she is learning an instrument at the same time. If she continues this year, the following year she will be able to join the “Beginner Band” at school and will move on to another wind instrument.
Last year, she did “Jazz Dance” after school, in the school hall. Most of her girlfriends at school from her class and her previous years class also were in the class, and she mostly enjoyed it.
I would like her to attend swimming lessons for a couple of terms at least, as she is a confident self taught swimmer in our pool at home, and is more than ready to learn the correct stroke techniques.
There is also ballet, netball, soccer, T-ball, karate, keyboard lessons, art lessons, gymnastics etc, that interest her and her friends do.
She has especially asked that she do Ballet this year. I have made enquiries of 2 ballet schools that come recommended. They are both “serious” ballet schools, and Barbie Girl would be expected to attend 2 classes every week in order to undertake the RAD examinations in October. Having come from a ballet background myself, I’m not too sure whether I want her to be under such singular pressure and focus at such a young age. Should I just enrol her for the term and see if she likes it?
My aim is that these extra curricular activities are fun and enriching for her. They also need to be easy for me to get there so we do not have a lot of travelling time.
So far, my tentative plan is:
Enrol her locally at the ballet school. ( 5 mins walk) Despite their policy of 2 classes per week, I will request that she only attends 1 class per week for the first term to see if she likes it. They can only say no.
Swimming classes locally for Term 1.
Recorder lessons for Semester 1 ( Term 1 and Term 2) on site at school, before the school day commences.
I think that I will then reassess after Term 1.
What do you think??
Please leave your wisdom, comments and experiences below in the Comments section.
Filed under: clutter, declutter, decluttering, downsizing, getting organised, organisation, simplifying my life | Tags: clutter, declutter, downsizing, simple life, simplifying my life, simply living
Part 2 Items to sell , giveaway and trash.
CDs and books to sell
Firstly there were a whole boxful of CDs and DVDs that we had enjoyed in the past but no longer used them.
Barbie Girls table and chairs
Next was this lovely table and chair set, with extra stool that Barbie Girl has adored having in her bedroom and used constantly, but sadly she has outgrown it now. I will try to sell this, and it is in great condition. It takes up a lot of storage space in the garage now, so I will prioritise it for selling.
CD and DVD racks
This is a large box of CD and DVD racks. Mr Techno has implemented a very space savvy storage system for our extensive DVD and CD library. So we no longer need these more space hungry storage racks.
There are also 2 large rugs that we no longer have space for since we moved from a large house to our townhome.
There was also a large bag of Barbie Girls favourite CDS, toys and designer clothing that she had recently grown out of to give to one of my friend’s daughters.
As far as trash is concerned, I was very surprised that the only things that we had were a broken curtain rail and plastic plant pots that we no longer had space for. I put both out on the curbside for the local hard refuse collection that I had booked, and within an hour, someone had appropriated the plastic plant pots! I am happy that someone could use them, rather than they go to landfill.
It feels very good to have “let go” of so much stuff that was weighing me down…..
Filed under: clutter, declutter, decluttering, downsizing, getting organised, organisation, simple living, simplifying my life | Tags: clutter, declutter, downshifting, downsizing, organisation, simple living, simplifying my life
Last weekend, I had a huge weekend decluttering my home!
I tried to remember to take breaks, drink lots of water and go for a walk during the 2 days.
In this post, I am showing the items that I decluttered that will be donated to charity. I will do another post on my blog re the other items that I have decluttered I will be selling.
As promised, here are some photos. They are a little belated as the digital camera went on the weekend away with Mr Techno and Barbie Girl.
I had 3 boxes of books which I have either read or no longer want to read. These are being donated to charity. Now my bookcases are no longer crammed and I can easily find the books I love or use regularly.
These are full sized garbage bags of women’s, men’s and girls clothing, shoes, towels and sheets.
I had far too many clothes, many not fitting me anymore, and my daughter had outgrown last season’s clothing. I also decided to cut down on the amount of bedlinen and towels.
So I have set the following limits:
2 sets of winter sheets, pillowcases for each of our beds
2 sets of summer sheets, pillowcases for each of our beds
3 sets of towels each
1 set of guest sheets, pillowcases, quilt and 2 guest pillows
2 guest towels
All of the other sheets and towels have been bagged up ( laundered of course!) and are in the bags for donation to charity.
This is a bag of miscellaneous items, a leather briefcase that I bought when I first graduated from University and started my career, an extra teapot, some excess kitchen tools etc.
There was another bag containing a canvas shelving unit , and picture frame that is surplus to our requirements ( no photograph).
This is a set of 4 wire shelving baskets that we no longer need and have been taking up a lot of space. I’m sure that they would be very useful to somebody. These are heading off to the charity donation.
The 2 pictures above are the total items for donation to charity from 2 different angles. I have booked the Charity van to come for a pickup collection this coming week. In the meantime, I have covered the items and am storing the items in the garage. This should to avoid the issue of “somebody” having a look through and rescuing items. Yes, I mean Mr Techno and Barbie Girl.
to be continued…….
Part 2-Decluttered Items to be sold will be posted shortly!
