Homemade Christmas gifts 2012

Ok, here it is, the long awaited list of gifts I made for family and friends this year. I've split it up so it is easier to refer to if you want to use any ideas, and where I used a tutorial or pattern from the net, I've linked to it for you. There are photos of some things, but not all. Wanna know how to make anything not linked? I'd be happy to help, just ask!

For Men

• Personalised photo coasters
• A mobile phone pouch (custom fitted)
• A crocheted beanie
• An iPod running arm band (from a sock)
• Fire lighter crackers (a wrapped toilet roll filled with a combination of coffee grinds, tea leaves and dried rosemary)
• Crocheted pass the piggies game

For women

• Crocheted bookmark with some secondhand books
• Crocheted bracelet/necklace/garland
• Crocheted beanie
• Crocheted slippers
• Homemade soap with a crocheted dish/wash cloth

For couples/families/unisex gifts

• A hamper with homemade coffee stencils and chocolate shaker, various pickles, Florentines, biscuits, vanilla extract and a crocheted ornament
• A homemade timber box filled with a variety of home brews (one with and one without a set if photo coasters), we dressed the brews as reindeer for fun!
• Homemade soap using herbs from the garden
• Crocheted Christmas ornaments
• Mini gingerbread houses
• Homemade PJs for the family (pants from re-purposed bed linen and the tops are made from sustainable bamboo and personalised with bleach paintings)

Kids- babies, girls and boys

• Crocheted hair clips
• Block bag and wooden blocks
• Crocheted baby head band
• Bibs
• Car caddy with street signs
• Angry birds game complete with sling shot and custom bag.
• Water bottle carrier from repurposed cargo pants and belt*
• Personalised calico sandwich wraps*
• Paratrooper softies*
• Crocheted cat and bat softies (bat was my own adaptation of the cat pattern)*
• Latch hooked rugs made from recycled tshirts (warning- this gift took 100s of hours of work. Make only for your nearest and dearest!)

*these gifts were used as stocking stuffers for our kids

So that's it! There were a few gifts on the to-do list that I ended up not doing, but will shuffle them onto next year's list. In the meantime, I've started hunting for new ideas to make in 2013. Did you make gifts? Would love you to share your ideas!

And so this was Christmas

December has a habit of racing past, doesn't it? One minute you are excitedly decorating the tree and opening the first day on the advent calendar, and the next you are looking at a pile of opened presents and leftover festive food.

So Christmas has been and gone again and looking back it was quite different here than other years, and while a few changes felt a bit odd at the time, the resulting feelings after the event are heaps better.

Our Christmas cake/gingerbread sleigh combo

Most of our changes were based on our conscious decision to be more environmentally friendly. Last year we had masses of mass produced, plastic encased gifts, many of which were so poor quality that they broke within a week, and they were all wrapped in masses of wrapping paper.

This year, the gifts we gave each other were all homemade, second hand or vouchers for our time and activities to do together. The gifts we gave others were all homemade, many from recycled/repurposed materials. And the things in the boys stockings were about 50% homemade, and the gifts from Santa were purchased with quality and longevity in mind. There were also a lot less gifts than in previous years, and they were all either not wrapped, or wrapped in reusable fabric gift bags.

Christmas day at home - notice the spunky matching PJs?

In addition to our efforts, we asked our parents to give less to us and the boys, and to wrap less. They, and others, took on the challenge and we received some lovely eco-friendly gifts and a small amount of fun things for the kids.

These were pretty big changes, so how did we go? Well, there were times when making the presents felt stressful, but it was more the deciding what to make, rather than the actual making. I started the making very early and finished a week before Christmas. The gifts were all really personal and very different to each other, so they suited my desire to not make the same thing over and over. However, perhaps next year I will try making a lot if the same gifts so I can do a bit of a production line for the making. I will post a list of the gifts I made, with some photos, in a little while.

The gift wrapping was easy too. I bought fabric last January (on clearance) and then as we needed them, I simply cut and sewed very simple sacks. They looked great under the tree and we got all but 3 bags back, so next year I should only need to make a couple more. And the tidy up was brilliant! Just fold the bags and put in a box and because we used curling ribbon to tie them this year, that was all that went in the bin - so much better!

Second hand presents were fabulous! The children bought at the op shop, and I received a gorgeous summer dress and a cookbook that I will probably never use (it's a casserole book from 1972), but I love to look at it and love the sentiment. Stu received a stack of good quality business shirts for his new job and a card game from the kids and a good quality jumper too. And Stu gave me a set of vintage kitchen scales, that are exactly the same as my mum's - I love them!

Second hand gifts which are much loved already

The only challenging thing about the gifts was that there were less. I know we wanted less 'stuff' and we knew there would be less, but the reality for the kids and us of having much smaller piles of stuff felt a little weird. Don't get me wrong, at the end of the day we were all grateful to have a smaller amount of quality, eco friendly gifts, knowing that all that was missing was the piles of junk that we usually have, but just for a moment, we missed it. It'll be easier next year.

Because Christmas is about so much more than presents, we had plenty of celebration too (with green changes of course!). The Saturday before Christmas, we travelled to Melbourne to catch up with family. This year we took the train which was great - cost less than driving, no one had to drive and we saved all that fuel. In the city, we saw some festive city sights and picnicked at the gardens with our extended family.

Christmas Eve brings our quiet family tradition of a platter of cheese, cold meats, deli treats and fresh fruit while watching carols by candlelight on the tv, surrounded by our own candles. This year there were homemade cheeses and biscuits and homegrown berries with our free range, local ham. And I gave a Christmas Eve family gift of homemade matching pjs - fun and very well received!

(blurry) shot of our delicious Christmas Eve feast!

We've hosted Christmas the last few years, but it was decided that mum would host again this year, so after our family time around the tree on Christmas morning, we headed to their place for a lovely family afternoon.

Overall, a beautiful Christmas that left us with a much better taste in our mouths and feeling in our hearts than last year.

And to top it all off, I get to share it all with you. So thank you for not only reading my ramblings, but to those of you who also write blogs, I would like to thank you for all of your inspiring posts this year, and I look forward to sharing with you into the new year.

Homemade Christmas from the kids

As you know, I've been busy for several months making Christmas presents to give to our family and close friends on behalf if the whole family. I finished the very last gift on Tuesday while watching a Christmas movie (ironically, this gift was the first gift to be started this year and also the idea that started this homemade gift frenzy).  The underneath of our Christmas tree is jam packed with wrapped parcels, and we've already delivered quite a few gifts. So I was already feeling very satisfied before yesterdays advent activity, but it just tipped the scales to thrilled!

The calendar said:

"make Christmas presents for your baby cousin and your pets"

Twelve months ago, I think the boys would've groaned at the idea. It was them afterall who were concerned about homemade gifts when we took on the challenge last year.  Back then, they thought homemade meant dodgy gifts. But after a year of giving homemade, this challenge excited then, and when I explained that I would also be teaching them to use my sewing machine, they were delighted.

I have no photos of them sewing - sewing machines, irons, dressmaking scissors and pins are dangerous enough without me zipping off to photograph the event!  But the boys did cut, pin and sew (with my help) beautiful gifts. They each made a bib for the baby, a fabric gift bag to wrap it in and a toy mouse for their cats which involved both machine and hand sewing.  They wrote gift cards and proudly put their quality, homemade gifts under the tree. Then, being 8 year old boys, they nicked all the fabric scraps and tied them to their bodies as armour before running off to play some complicated wrestling game, leaving me to tidy up!

As well as these gifts, they also made each other a present. They had chosen to buy for each other, and they did, but then they had homemade ideas too! J is the bossiest of the twins, and came up with the idea if making his brother a 'permission pass'.  It looks like a backstage pass, but has a few things that L can choose, like what game they are going to play, or permission to borrow a book from J. It's pretty cute (if a tad dominant).  L made a bookmark for his bat and book loving brother that has an origami bat on the top.

It is lovely to see the whole family embracing the homemade idea. We're all exciting to give and recieve homemade presents this year.   The boys have learnt that a gift made by the hands of someone who loves you is so much more than the sum of its parts. It is a token of time spent thinking about the recipient, love and care poured into a useful and thoughtful item. It is an eco-friendly alternative with less travel miles, no packaging, often made with recycled materials and with only a little bit of child labour ;)  It is a gift to be proud of giving and a gift to cherish recieving.  And (most if the time) the giver gets to have fun making it!

I had wondered if I would continue this challenge next year, afterall, it is a lot of work. But with all the benefits of doing it, I couldn't just stop now.  So next year will be another homemade gift year, and then maybe, many more after.

Ginger (or chocolate) bread houses (or sleighs)

Last year's mini houses.

One of the things I love about Christmas in our home is that we adopt traditions from all over the world and make Christmas all about us and what we like.  One of those adopted traditions is the gingerbread house.  Back when my kids were very little and my younger brother and sister were small too, I would have the four kids during the holidays.  It was at this time that my then neighbour gave me my first gingerbread house kit.  We had a ball!  I stuck the house together and the four kids attached a huge amount of lollies to it (and rather a lot in their mouths).  We left it on display and then after Christmas, I let them all dig in and eat it.  One of the best things about gingerbread houses is how pretty they look even if you let the kids do it all without any adult views to symmetry and clever decorating.

Our first gingerbread house was a kit version with people etc.

We've made a gingerbread house each year since then, and last year, I made my own gingerbread for the project.  Can I just say - the kits are great, but gingerbread is easy to make and you can cut it however you like and it tastes awesome when you make it yourself!  Last year we made a collection of small houses, some to give as gifts and some to keep for the kids.  They make lovely gifts, but the only downside is that I have friends who don't like ginger.  So this year, we have made some changes to the recipe and have ginger and chocolate bread houses to give away and a sleigh with reindeer that we will put together next week. 

I thought I'd share the recipes and template ideas with you.  I made a batch of each this year and had enough dough to make four of the small houses, 2 reindeer, a sleigh and a large pile of tree and gingerbread man shaped biscuits.

Gingerbread

125g butter
1/2 cup tightly packed brown sugar
1 egg
3 tablespoons golden syrup
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons of ginger
3/4 teaspoon of bicarb soda
2 1/2 cups plain flour

"Chocolate bread"

125g butter
1/2 cup tightly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 heaped teaspoons cocoa
3/4 teaspoon of bicarb soda
2 cups plain flour

Directions for both types

With an electric beater, cream the softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the egg and beat well.  Add the other wet ingredient and beat well.  In a separate bowl, sift the dry ingredients and mix well.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir, and then knead with your hands.  The dough will be relatively crumbly.  Form the dough into 3 mounds.  Roll out (with flour/baking paper/your choice of rolling out method) one mound to about 4-5mm thick.  Use your templates to cut out shapes with a knife and then carefully lift the shapes onto a lined baking tray with an egg slice.  Continue rolling out and cutting shapes until all dough is used.  Bake at 180C for 10-15min until just starting to change colour.  Cool on trays for a few minutes and then transfer to cooling racks to cool completely.

Decorating requires tongue sticking out levels of concentration!

Templates

Use cardboard from a cereal box to draw up your templates.  You can then cut them out, lay them on top of the rolled out dough (printed side of the box down) and use a knife to carefully cut around the shapes.  The templates can then be gently wiped clean and put away for next year. 

To make the mini houses you will need:
2 side walls 5cm x 8cm
2 end walls 5cm square with a 3cm tall triangle on top
2 roof pieces 5cm x 9cm

One of this years complete mini houses.

To make the sleigh, you will need:
2 sleigh side shapes
1 big square for the back
1 smaller square for the front
2 (or more) reindeer/horse shapes

Enlarge this image to fit on an A4 sheet and you should be able to use my templates, or feel free to make your own better ones ;)

This image is of my templates.  The bigger square is 8cmx8cm.  Feel free to copy the image and scale in your own program.

To assemble

Make up a batch of royal icing by gently beating an egg white and then beating in about 1 1/2 cups of icing sugar (I use the mixture, not pure) and a teaspoon of lemon juice.  Spoon into a piping bag (or snap lock back with a corner cut off).

Use the chocolate shapes, ginger shapes or a combination of both depending on your (or your gift recipients) tastes.

A chocolate house assembled and ready for decorating.

For the houses, I assemble on a foil covered coaster.  Run a line of the icing along the front of the coaster and down each side where the walls will stand (test the spacing with your pieces first).  On on of the end wall, pipe a line of icing up the back of the wall edges and place the piece onto the line of piping on the coaster.  Quickly glue the two wall pieces into place to hold it up, then attach the back wall.  Use more icing to attach the two roof pieces and fill in the gap in the top with more icing.  Your icing doesn't need to be neat, you won't notice it when you finish the decorating!

I like to give my house a couple of minutes for the 'concrete' to dry, and then go to town with the lollies!  Use whatever you like in terms of lollies, but we particularly like smarties, mini marshmallows and candy canes and tiny teddy biscuits make nice residents :).  Last year we used small chocolate bars cut on an angle to make chimneys and some fruit/musk sticks, and this year we used some licorice allsorts.  Use your imagination and have fun.

Lots of bright lollies make pretty houses.

To make the sleigh, I will join the four pieces and then stand the horse shapes at the front.  They will have pretzel antlers added and I have lots of decorating ideas.  I'll share a picture when its done.


Have fun!

Around our place today

More presents are appearing daily beneath the Christmas tree.  We're all getting very excited!

Christmas baking and lots of it.

My hip scarves have been hung up after completing my fifth year working as a belly dancer/teacher.  I'll take a bit of a break, and then back to it for next year which will be even better and brighter.

My young chickens are getting BIG!  These in the front are about 9 weeks old, and the smaller ones with their mum in the background are about 5 weeks old.

The vegie garden is thriving and we're eating zucchinis.

And I have no pictures, but Stu is starting his new job today which is very exciting, and the kids are finishing up at school this week.

What's happening at your house today?

Loving summer

I love summer. I'm a hot weather girl and have always said that if my family would all head to a warmer area, I'd be there in a flash. But sadly for me, much of my nearest and dearest are not big fans of heat, so I'm left to relish the hot months of the year and endure the cold ones (which probably just makes me love the hot times more when they come).

Today was delicious. Hot and sunny. And to make if better, I found time to enjoy the warm weather. What do I love about hot weather? Here's a few things I can think of:

1. Less clothes - give me a floaty skirt, a singlet top, sandals on my feet or bare feet, and I'm much happier than when I'm rugged up.

2. Summer food. All the lovely fresh Mediterranean veg from the garden - zucchinis, tomatoes, eggplant. Yum! Salads and barbecues, quiche and simple pasta dishes. And ice creams of course :)

3. Eating outside. Ok there is sometimes the bug issue, but I love taking my breakfast or lunch into the garden to eat as well as having family meals al fresco - food tastes better outside.

4. The beach. We are lucky enough to live a short drive from a gorgeous beach. So we are able to visit on days like today. We took the kids after school. Grabbing only a towel each, the kids' boogie boards and some sunscreen, we headed off to enjoy an hour in the water. It was fabulous.

5. Exercising outside. I know you can do it in winter, but its just so much nicer on a balmy evening or morning to head outside and go for a good long walk (or run if you're so inclined), or, as I did tonight, take your yoga mat into the garden for a peaceful yoga session surrounded by nature.

6. Cold drinks. This could be anything, but right now, I'm particularly partial to a stubby of our home brewed apple cider at the end of a day working.

7. This last one isn't do much about hot weather as just associated with it for us, but summer also means Christmas and long school holidays which are two of my favourite things.

What do you love about summer? I'm sure there are heaps more things to add to this list, help me out.

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It is nice to be back!  Back on the internet and all the good things it has to offer after over 2 weeks without it.  You may have heard of the fire in the Warrnambool Telstra Exchange (or maybe not), this fire wiped out all telecommunications in the district and caused some minor chaos.  There was no eftpos, ATMs or online banking; no internet at all which also meant no security cameras in the banks; we couldn't call anyone and the Optus shop sold out of phones (all those who deemed it impossible to live without a mobile phone ran in there to buy one) and there were thousands of teenagers out there without access to facebook ;)

I was fine without it all for a while, but by the end of the first week without a home phone, very sketchy and occasional mobile coverage and no internet, I was beginning to feel a little bit isolated from the world.  We finally got our home phone back after 9 days, and the internet came back after 15 days.  It is quite scary how reliant on telecommunications we are isn't it?

Anyway, I'm back, and life has gone on here and everywhere else.  I have wanted to blog about so many things these last two weeks, and maybe I'll get to some of them, but I'm going to start with a Christmas update.

We always start our Christmassy things on the 1st of December, and this year I made the boys an advent calender.  Each pocket is made from a spray painted, sewn up toilet roll, and they are hung on our kitchen notice board.  Each day, the boys get a random lolly each and a slip of paper gives them a Christmas activity to do.  The first one was a little treasure hunt for a new Christmas book, and since then they've had things like decorate the tree, visit Santa for a photo, watch a Christmas movie, write cards for their friends etc. 

Our tree is up and looking beautiful.  We bought a new tree this year after a very long family discussion about the various environmental impacts of tree choices.  In the end we decided on a new plastic tree.  We completely understand the implications of plastic trees, but we will use it for another 10 years (or more) like our last one, and it will safely hold all of our precious decorations.  Our tree has no Christmas lights this year though as the power to run even LED lights just seems wasteful in a country where it isn't dark until after 9pm at Christmas time.  Our tree still twinkles though with tinsel and decorations that catch the suns rays through the window.

Our tree decorations are a family tradition.  Each year since I was four, I would choose a special decoration and mum would write my name and the year on it.  When I left home, I took all of my decorations with me, and they all hang on our tree.  Stu and I continued this tradition for the two of us until the boys came along, and then we started it for them.  Each year we all hang our own decorations and remember all of the Christmases past, and the boys will be able to take their decorations for their own tree when they move out.  A beautiful tradition.

And we are starting to get a pile of presents under the tree too!  I've been very busy in my own 'Santa's workshop' and have made all the presents to give this year.  I have about 5 to complete and am so proud of the gifts we're giving.  The four of us will also get a few homemade gifts, including all of the 'stocking stuffers' for the boys which I've made too.  I wish I could tell you all the things I've made, but I don't want to spoil the surprises!  But I can tell you my crochet hooks, sewing machine, hammers, kitchen tools and every other crafty tool I have has been very busy making a wide variety of gifts.  I've taken photos of them all, and promise to share after Christmas. (want some of my ideas for this Christmas? head over to my Pinterest page to see some of my inspirations for this year and next). 

There are a few purchased gifts under the tree, some new ones for the kids, but mostly secondhand items.  I took the kids to the opshop to do their Christmas shopping.  They loved it, and so did the opshop staff who helped them shop!  For a grand total of $12, they each bought a gift for me and one for Stu and they are so proud of their choices - I can't wait to see what they bought!

Our December greening challenge is to not use wrapping paper.  All the gifts we're giving are therefore wrapped in re-usable bags sewn from Christmas fabric.  They are very simple rectangular bags in a range of fabrics and sizes.  We'll gather them back from people after they open the gifts (unless they really want them and have a use for them) and use them again for years to come.  This year we've tied them with curling ribbon, just because we still had heaps from previous years, but once that runs out, I'll buy reusable satin ribbon too.  Gift tags are made from recycled Christmas cards and pieces of plastic cut from milk bottles.

Today, I'm working on another sewn Christmas toy gift and some more Christmas baking.  Today's advent calender task is for the boys to decorate a plate of Christmas biscuits and deliver them to a friend/neighbour, so we'll do that this arvo.  And in the midst all those tasks, I'm going to travel around blogland checking out what all my favourite bloggers have been up to!

I hope you're having a very happy December too
xx

An exciting purchase.

I have just bought something that I'm very excited about.  It was a pretty expensive purchase, and will come by courier, so I don't even get to 'play' with it yet.  I'm going to tell you what it is, and later (after it arrives and is set up), I'll also review it.  But first, I'm going to tell you the background of my purchase and why it is so exciting.

We live in a tiny 'town' in rural Victoria.  We have a regular sized block of land and neighbours, but we have to walk to a shop to pick up mail, drive a fair way to buy things and enjoy watching farm vehicles go by, hearing lots of birds, cows and chooks (ours included) in the mornings.  We have no mains gas, so are totally electric for the running of our home.  We have no mains water or sewage system, but instead rely on our own tank water, bore water and a septic tank.  Townies find this to be a scary sort of setup, but if you've lived in the country at all, you know that this is just a way of life, and, with a bit of luck, your setup is so good that you don't even have to think too much about it.

image

When we bought this place, we were lucky enough that it already had great water tanks that collect ample water from our (surprisingly) large roof.   We also had our garden taps connected to the bore pump of the school next door, so we were able to water our gardens and our animals, and even flush our loo with bore water instead of rainwater, and so we have always had the luxury of ample water to do as we need.  On top of this, we live in the one part of Victoria that was never put on water restrictions because we have been the lucky ones and received a decent annual rainfall each year.  Having said all of that, I'd like to point out that we've never been ridiculous with our water use.  We know that excessive use of bore water isn't ecologically great, and so we've always watered our garden enough, but let the lawns die over summer and only watered parts of the garden when it was essential.

So for the last 7 years, we've been blessed with a water input that meets our needs, but our output has been full our problems!  It turns out we have a very dodgy septic tank.  I dread to think how many dollars we've spent on repairs and maintenance - we've had it pumped out a couple of times, we've had a plumber do some unknown thing to it, and another plumber replaced the pump that no-one even knew should be in there!  It is also a strange setup.  Apparently septic tanks should have a grease trap between the water entry and the main storage tank.  We have a grease trap, but it is not in the right place and is actually an old Telecom pit which isn't at all right to be a grease trap.  I don't really understand septic tanks (sewage treatment plants I do - I used to take guided tours of one!), but what I do understand is that ours has problems that do not seem to be fixed by any amount of repairs. 

We've considered replacing the system with a more environmentally sensible system, but the financial outlay and the major disruption to the property are seriously off-putting.  And since our septic tank seems to work fine when much less water is being put into it, we were leaning towards making changes in our home to reduce the input to the tank, and had started researching how to do that.

Then we lost our bore water supply. 

We were cut off by the school by accident, and it seems that since the house is no longer owned by the department of education, we're not to be reconnected.  So now, with a full vegie garden and a yard full of fruit trees and animals that all need water, we had to come up with a plan that would enable us to keep up the water to everything that needs it using only our rainwater supply.  And this new problem, together with our septic tank problem, have led to some watery changes (and my purchase - getting to it!).

First, we started to collect greywater - the old fashioned way.  I have a large water container with a tap on it that I collect my washing machine water in and then deliver the water to each of my fruit trees in turn.  Thus saving about 20L from going into the septic a day, and also giving my fruit trees a boost.  We've also added a bucket to the shower.  This collects more than 10L of water a day which gets watered around the place.  We eventually also hope to add a grey water diversion from the bathroom to water some of my ornamental garden using a hose system.  So all up, we've already started reducing the water needed for the garden and the water going into the septic tank.

And today, I bought a waterless toilet.  I can't believe how excited I am about a toilet!  But a toilet that will not only save an estimated 80-100L of water a day, but will also take the pressure off of our septic tank.  The toilet system we've bought is a urine diverting system that collects solid matter and toilet paper in a bucket in the toilet that is then emptied into a separate composting system where it is left for 12 months (or more) before being able to be used as fertiliser around the garden.  You can collect the urine to use as a nitrogen rich fertiliser too, though we're opting to divert ours straight into the septic tank since we have the system there.  The toilet uses no water, though it does use a small amount of electricity to run a fan to ensure no smells or moisture build up inside. 


I have done countless hours of research into the best system for us, and found that there are quite a few waterless (or very low water use) toilets available in Australia.  Our requirements were quite specific though as we needed a unit that didn't need underfloor access (we have a low ground clearance).  This meant our choices were limited to only a few brands, many of which looked like giant versions of the old chemical portable toilets.  I'm sure these suit some, but we wanted ours to still look nice and not frighten visitors away.  So we made our choice - the Seperett 9000, from "A better way to go" - and I've ordered it and I'm really looking forward to getting it and installing the system.

The toilet we are getting.

Ahhhh.... the things we get excited about!  I promise to report back when we have installed it and used it for a bit with a full review.

Eight....

Our boys turned 8 this week. The years are simply flying by, but I must say I love the boys more and more each year, both because that is the natural thing and also because I love the quirky characters that they are gradually becoming.  Little people that still love to be cuddled, read to and pampered by us like little children, but can also be extremely independent, read to themselves, hold intelligent conversations (that are sometimes a little too smart!) and are simply funny.

For last year's birthday, we invited a hoard of children for a round the world party. It was a huge success and we all enjoyed it, but this year I insisted on a quiet, family party. We held the party on Saturday and while it was a family party, it was far from quiet! We invited the local family, but also family from further afield and some adopted family with children the boys' age. We kept most of the invited guests a secret from the boys who were delightedly surprised as grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and great-grandparents kept arriving. With 22 people all up, it was a great party! We cooked pizzas, ate and drank homemade treats, played pass-the-parcel (adults and kids together) and thoroughly enjoyed being outside in our pretty spring garden in the sunshine. And the boys received a pile of wonderful presents. In fact, their entire birthday wish list was granted by family.

From our 3 month old niece to my Grandad visiting from the UK, everyone had fun with pass-the parcel. 
And my friend, Jayne, was delighted to win the game for the first time in her life.

So when Tuesday came, their actual birthday, I was a bit concerned about how they would receive their homemade gifts from us and each other. I shouldn't have been worried though, they love them.

We set up a treasure hunt ('birthday quest') for them and they scrambled through the clues to find their homemade bow, arrows and quiver with a pillow shield made up to replicate Tom's shield from their favourite book series, Beast Quest. One of the things we, as parents, love about this series is the lack of merchandising. This means less 'I wants', but also opened up the opportunity for some unique, homemade gifts. The boys are really pleased with them, particularly the bow and arrows.

Appliqued tokens on fabric with belt arm loops on the back and stuffed with soft pillow stuffing,
these shields mean the boys can imagine playing Beast Quest, and if they get hit with a sword or arrow, it won't hurt :)

Simple bow made from flexible branches, string and duct tape with a quiver (fabric covered PVC pipe with a strap that velcros around them) of felt tipped arrows.  They really work, but hopefully won't take out any eyes.

And for each other, they made Harry Potter wands with special bags (sewn by me, decorated by them). They think they're pretty special too.

The wands were made using a chopstick, a hot glue gun, beads, paint and imagination.
Glad they don't work though as their favourite spell is Avada Kedavra.......

It can be hard to make for kids in such a materialistic world, where new toys come on the market constantly and advertising (and school friends) make their list of "I wants" extensive. By making gifts that met the boys interests, I was able to tap into their desires, while staying homemade, simple and eco friendly. Happy all round.

Oh, and I made them a birthday cake for the family party too. I'd had always wanted to make a figure 8 racetrack cake for their 8th birthday, and was granted permission. But I made it a bit more modern and special with a surprise Mario Kart theme. It was dubbed 'the best cake ever'!

Now I can't wait to give them their homemade Christmas presents, and hopefully keep this homemade tradition going for many more years.

We built a pizza oven!

One of the things we've been very busy with at our house has been the pizza oven project.  Well it is finished!  Hooray! 

Pouncy thinks he makes a lovely addition to the oven.

It was a great project.  We learnt a lot of new skills and ended up with something that we love to look at and is functional too.  But we're certainly no experts, so I'm not giving a tutorial or anything like that.  But here is our pizza oven story.  Feel free to ask any questions.

Step one was to build the plinth or base for the oven.  We had an existing concrete slab, so we levelled that and built on top.  We used besser blocks for our base.  Can I just say - besser blocks are damn heavy!  And having never laid any bricks before, this was a steep learning curve for us.  But despite our lack of experience and the damn rain, it got done and we were even able to make a fancy arch at the front using recycled bricks and pieces of bluestone that were found on our block (they were from the original school building that used to be here).  It was so exciting when we pulled out the form work and the arch stayed in place.  A thing of true beauty that we just kept gazing at.  Oh, and we tested the safety of it by letting Hurley walk under it ;)

We then had to make a top for the plinth.  We used a piece of cement sheet, held up up with more besser blocks underneath.  We laid a surround of recycled bricks, held them together with some wood and trailer ties (true professionals I tell you!) and then poured a 5cm thick re-inforced concrete slab on top.  Onto this, we smashed a pile of bottles and lay the broken glass and then filled up with sand.  This is supposed to help with insulation.  Onto the sand we added a layer of clay pavers.  Then we tested the safety of this by standing our children on the top hehehe.

 

The next step was so exciting as we were actually building the oven, several weeks after starting!  We made a guide for building the dome, then I built another arch for the door.  The rain kept coming and the tarp was well used.  Finally, Stu built a great big sandcastle, I mean sand dome mold, and the kids played in the sand pile. 

 And then we built the oven.  We used about 60 recycled bricks that had been broken in half.  Just an aside here, the work involved in removing mortar from reclaimed bricks and then breaking them in half is back breaking and really rather unpleasant.  The bricks built up quite quickly, with this step and the next being completed in a day.  We put in our stainless steel flue at this point too, nestling the bricks tightly around it to hold it in place.

To finish off the oven, we used a layer of insulation batts and covered them with a mud mix that we'd put rather a lot of oxide into.  It looked rather too much like chocolate cake mix and I spent the whole time we were doing this bit singing the Crowded House song about chocolate cake (very annoying!).  We ended up using two barrow loads of this mud/concrete mix to get a good coverage.

 Finally, we were done!  We left it for a few days for the mortar to dry and then the only thing left was to pull out the sand.  The kids had a great time doing this and it was lovely to reveal the inside of the oven.  We christened it with a small fire and a curry cooked in it.  It was delicious!

And then, finally, we cooked pizzas in it for the boys birthday party.  Stu is master pizza oven man, and did a great job.  But we discovered we needed to burn a bigger, hotter fire, for longer before we try these again.  Probably also wasn't a great idea to try cooking pizzas for the first time with 22 hungry mouths to feed..... oops!  But it was fun anyway and we plied them with home brewed beer and ginger beer while they waited.

All up, it was a fabulously fun project and for about $500 and many, many hours of hard work, we have something pretty special in our garden.

PS. sorry the pics end up a bit tiny - there were just too many to make them big! :)

I'm still here....

Just stopping for a moment to say......

I haven't written here for so long, I nearly forgot how.  But in case you were wondering, I'm still here and I'm fine :)

We've just been so busy with holidays, building projects, garden things, pet things, kids birthdays (yep, my two babies turned 8 yesterday) and all the parties and so on that go with them.  I'm also busy with dancing - regular classes, parties and performances.  And on top of that, Christmas is now less than 6 weeks away, and I'm determined to make all the pressies that go to people outside our home, and 90% of the ones that will stay in it.  So I'm busy, but I'm loving it.

I promise I'll be back soon with tales of holidays and pizza ovens and more.

Take care!
Tracey
x

12 months of Greening - Organic October + No Heating!

I didn't do a 12 months of Greening post last month, oops!  But I posted a bit about it on my Slow Living post.

This month we've dubbed Organic October.  We're trying to buy (or at least consider buying) organic products where possible, and also trying to use more organic practises in the garden.  The word trying is important here and I'll explain why down lower.

We've spent quite a bit of time removing chemicals from our bathroom and our laundry this year, and have been cooking from scratch a lot more so that we are removing much of the chemicals from what we eat.  This month, we're delving a little deeper and removing those unseen chemicals from the fruits, vegetables and grains we eat by choosing (where feasible) organic options.  I'm no expert on organics, but my take on it is that the chemicals that are added during the growing of non-organic products are used to make them grow faster, remove pests and weeds etc.  These chemicals come through to us, the consumer in small amounts, but they also damage the ecosystem around the land in which the product was grown, and this environment impact is the most important factor for us.

I don't have easy access to an organic green grocer, so I am choosing organic labelled products where I can, and otherwise, using mostly our own food crops, or choosing in season foods.  I figure that many of the chemicals that are used on our foods are to either grow them out of season or to store them for selling out of season.  Buying in season foods is also cheaper and they taste better, a win-win.  The only challenge in buying only foods in season is that they are not always the foods my kids like to eat.  For example, I try to get the kids to eat fruit each day, but they have never been big citrus fans, so winter through to now is a tough time to find in season fruits.  But as they get older and their understanding of this grows, they're more willing to try, and this week we have finally won the "you will try and you will like mandarins" battle - woohoo!

We're also trying some other things such as organic baking products and cereals.  Unfortunately, some of these are more than 4 times the price of the non-organic variety.  I understand why, and truly want to support organic producers so that these prices can come down, but this isn't always easy on the budget, so I do what I can, and sometimes the weekly shop just won't allow the added expense.  Some items however we now only buy organic - like tea and coffee.  This feels like a good change.

In the garden, I'm also trying to go organic.  I have always used chemicals sparingly, but this year they are only used as a last resort.  Sadly, I've had to cave on this already with the use of some snail bait.  As I've mentioned, I am trying to grow as many of my veg from seed as possible.  I have started transplanting out into the garden, and despite all of my organic efforts (beer traps + egg shells + coffee spray + coffee grinds + morning snail and slug massacres), I have still heartbreakingly found whole seedlings chomped through overnight.  I decided that it was expecting too much to tackle both fronts (seeds and completely organics), so have used a small amount of snail and slug pellets (the kind that say they won't hurt other animals) just to protect the seedlings.  All other chemicals have been banned from the garden though.

BONUS CHALLENGE

In addition to our regular monthly challenges, we decided earlier in the year to make our mid-autumn and mid-spring months no heating and cooling months.  October is therefore one of them.  So in addition to our organic challenges, this month we have turned off our heater at the meter box and banned all other heaters and fans.  This would be fine if the weather was always Spring like, but the last few days have given us f-f-f-freeeeezing evenings!  We've toughed it out though, snuggling up in blankets, slippers and enjoying our hot water bottles and warm drinks.  Why would we do this?  partly because we like the challenge, partly to save power and therefore greenhouse emissions (and a few dollars) and partly to remind us that heating and cooling are a luxury that we can (at times) live without.  Living in southern Victoria means we get quite cold Winters, and I think it would be unhealthy to live without heating all the time, and there are a couple of days a year when the air-conditioner being used for just a little while means we can continue to function.  But a lot of the time, it is possible to be heater and cooler free.

Perhaps you'd like to join us on one or more of our challenges this month?  Let me know if you do and how you go.

Tuesday garden journal

First of all, I want to say thank you for the replies on the blog and by email to my post yesterday.  It is lovely to hear peoples words of support and stories of others in the same situation.  I think it is wonderful to be able to choose live our lives this way, and hope that others understand that their choices are theirs and ours are ours.

~~

Onto today's post.  Linking up again with Squiggly Rainbow for a garden journal!

I've decided not to tell you about all of the work happening in the vegie gardens or on the pizza oven this week, and instead to share with you some little things that make me smile out in the garden at the moment.

I love the borage that is growing wild in my herb garden area. Stu hates its wildness. I love its wildness, its pretty blue flowers and the bees that it attracts. When its wildness gets too much, I rip it out and add it to the compost where it helps to speed up composting.

We have two Virgilia trees in our front garden that we planted there about 6 years ago.  They grew rapidly and now give our home its beautiful leafy look and our front garden lots of privacy from the road.  Each Spring they change from leafy green to delicate pink as they flower profusely, though strangely, one at a time.  The first is pretty pink now.

Our beautiful hen Specks hatched her adopted eggs this week!  We have 6 adorable fluffy black and speckled chickens.  They are safely enclosed in a pen near the vegie gardens and we are all loving watching their antics.

Hoping your Spring garden is making you smile too.
xo

I already have a job, thankyou.

The boys went back to school this morning to begin their final term of their second school year.  They are getting so grown up. 

Stu didn't go to work though.  His company made him redundant on Friday and while they've given 10 weeks notice, they were told to take today off anyway.  His redundancy wasn't a surprise, we've been waiting most of this year for the company to set a date.  You see they made some new grand plans that involve cebtralised call centres and jobs in the city and no more rural and regional branches.  Stu has been with them for over 7 years and the only other remaining lady in his office has been with them for 36 years.  The office will close just before Christmas.


So how will this affect our family? We are fairly confident that Stu will get another job in the next couple of months.  If he does, things will go on as normal.  If he doesn't, then I will look for some sort of "stop gap" job to help out until he does.  But despite what some people seem to think I should do, I won't be looking for permanent employment.

Since the boys started school (and occasionally before that) I have frequently been asked if I've 'found a job yet' or when I'll be going back to work.  Thanks for your concern folks, but I already have a job, in fact I have several!

In terms of the employment that I put on my annual tax return, I teach belly dance and perform regularly.  This earns enough each week to cover basic weekly expenses such as fuel and food.  But more importantly, I love it, it keeps me fit, and it doesn't put out my family.  I am here each day when my boys go to, and return from school.  I am able to spend time with them and my husband, and cook dinner for and eat with them every night.  My paid work fits our family life.  If I returned to secondary school teaching (or office or lab work, all of which I've done in the past), I would need someone to care for my kids before and after school, I would need to do preparation and marking in the evenings and I wouldn't have the time or energy to be the homemaker, mother and wife that I want to be.

People wonder what I do all day.  Well it isn't lunching at cafes and shopping with friends.  If I'm lucky, I might have a cuppa (at home) or a long phone call with a friend once a week. I will either have lunch with Stu or browse the opshops with a friend about once a month.  The rest if the time I spend working.  Today I have made more household cleaning products and my herbal hair rinse.  I have washed and hung on the line all of the bed linen (and will soon be bringing it in to remake the beds), I worked in the garden, planting, weeding etc to make sure we are growing enough vegies for summer and I also checked on the laying chooks and our newly hatched chickens which will, in a few months either join the laying flock, or become meat for us to eat.

I've also been working on the pizza oven project with Stu (because he is home), and found time to begin making another homemade gift for the Christmas pile - of which, along with the birthday presents, will be nearly all made by me.  This week, I need to do lesson plans for my term of classes, sew some (recycled fabric) shorts for the boys and do some of the less regular chores, like window washing.  I will do the grocery shopping tomorrow, but also bake bread, make our butter spread and cook pasta from scratch.  I also hope to buy a cheesemaking kit this week so I can add to our list of homemades (which already includes most of what we eat).  I don't have time to socialize, watch tv or read all day, but I do find time to think while I work about new hairbrained schemes brilliant ideas to save us money and make us more sustainable as a family.  I have a job.  This job(s?) may not earn a paycheque, but what it saves us financially, and give us in terms of quality of life is priceless.

But how do we go financially? My husband's job earns a decent income (we think) though it is still below the Australian average.  We don't recieve any benefits from the government, though we do get some family tax benefit, and my bellydance pay too.  We own both of our cars, have no credit cards, are paying off more on our mortgage than we have to, and we are doing fine.  No-one in our family misses out on anything they need or really want.  We holiday each year and sometimes go out for tea or do other things like the pool or a movie.  We're doing just fine.

So to the people that ask about my job status, I just want to say, thanks for your concern, but I already have several jobs and a comfortable, happy and full life.  We don't need to change.

Slow living month - September

I know I'm 5 days late with this journal - its been hard to find the time and motivation to get here to blog this week.  We're on school holidays and the boys and I have been having a ball, and the weather has been great, so I've been in the garden a lot.  But I do love these journal type of entries, so here it is, Slow Living Month September.  Do pop over to Slow Living Essentials and see what others have been up to.... that's what I plan to do as soon as I'm done typing this :)

~Nourish~

We celebrated early spring one night by taking our dinner outside.  We cooked our tortillas on the BBQ plate and ate by candlelight.  We realised that early spring is really the only time you can eat outside by candlelight with kids - in summer it is too late by the time it is dark and in winter it is too cold.  It was a lovely, impromptu, weeknight dinner.  I love making our own tortillas, it is one of the few things that Stu and I cook cooperatively and I love it.  We are also now getting plenty of eggs, so there has been a resurgence of egg based meals and pancakes on weekends.

~Grow~

September in the garden has been all about preparing for summer crops.  I continued to plant and nurture seedlings in the cold frame and started planting out.  Unfortunately, snails and slugs are a huge problem here, so I've been fighting them at every step along the way.  I've continued to harvest greens from the garden and the snow peas are finally producing a few crisp pods that never seem to make it to the dinner table.  My son has decided that they are a snacking vegetable, not a dinner vegetable - I tend to agree.  I've loved joining in on the garden journal with Squiggly Rainbow too (and will be back on that when the holidays are over!).

~Prepare~

The coriander that has filled our curries with its colour and flavour through winter has sensed the spring and is bolting to seed, so I have picked huge amounts of it to make frozen coriander ice blocks using this recipe.  They're lovely and will hopefully keep the deliciousness going for us a bit longer.
We also continued to bottle beer and our first batch of alcoholic ginger beer.  The alcohol level is relatively low, but the taste is gooooooood!

 

~Reduce~

Lots of lovely op shop finds this month - clothes and books for the kids, crafty things, clothes and a couple of homewares for me and something special for Stu.  An espresso machine! It's not a super fancy one, but it works really well and Stu is enjoying his morning coffee from it.  He is not enjoying so much the regular requests for 'cinos (strawberry, vanilla, caramel and chai) from the rest of us ;) 
I've also continued to reuse and repurpose a lot of 'junk' through the garden for various jobs.

~Green~

Our challenge for last month was to do 'random acts of greening'.  We built (from recycled materials) a new compost bin; switched to bamboo compostable toothbrushes and discovered new ways to be just a little bit greener.  The kids also took it upon themselves to pick up litter when they go for their walks to check the mail or exercise the dogs - proud of my little greenies.  Our bamboo toothbrushes needed a bit of decoration.  They are all exactly the same, so we decorated the handles of them with nailpolish so we know whose is whose.

~Create~

I'm still working on my jumper that I had hoped to have finished by spring, but keep getting interrupted in its creation to make costumes for dancing, birthday presents etc.  And I have had to write a plan for the next few months of Christmas present making as the sheer quantity on the to do list was overwhelming me.  

Here are a couple of little birthday presents I made this month and was able to gift to the little girls they were for yesterday. They loved them!

A Tangled Happy Wand for a 5 year old friend

A little "spare pocket" handbag with crocheted decals.

We also started on the pizza oven, and are discovering creative masonry :) We built the arch to the base - so proud!  (photos soon)


~Discover~

The library loads have been huge this month and I was also given some vintage pattern books which are gorgeous.  On the reading pile are: Living the Good Life, A Katie Fforde novel, numerous books on building woodfired ovens, a couple of copies of G magazine and a book called A slice of Organic. 

~Enhance~

We had our Spring Hafla at Belly Dance.  I love gathering with the community that we've built with our little belly dance group.  We always have a great atmosphere and fabulous fun.  I was so proud of my own kids and all of the other Belly Kids and adult students who graced the stage with the crazy collection of dances I've been teaching them this year.  It is always such a pleasure to watch a student take to the stage for the first time and to watch the buzz they get from such an achievement.  I had numerous people congratulate me on the diversity and family friendliness of the group, I work hard to make sure that all women and kids, regardless of their abilities or body shape, size age etc are not only welcome, but truly included.  I'm really glad this shows.  I also love that I get to share this with my hubby and kids - special!

Some crazy Shaabi style fun with my intermediate students.  This style is representative of modern 'nightclub' style dancing, hence the casual jeans costume.  All just for fun really :)

~Enjoy~

I've enjoyed the first rays of Spring sunshine.  The first week of holidays with my kids.  Hanging out on screen free Saturday nights with Stu.  Having my stepmum visiting and taking her to meet Clover (and in doing so getting to spend time with my awesome bro and sis-in-law again).  A photoshoot with my little spunky guys before their school disco.  A family day at my mum's place where I felt closer to her and my little brother and sister than I have in a long time.  Dinner and dancing fun with my dancing sisters, including some time where we banned belly dance talk and just connected as friends.  And much more. A good month.