the green gal

Spread a little happiness

Right, romantics, brace yourselves, I have something to say.

I don't do Valentine's Day.

Incywincystitches

I'm not the Cupid equivalent of bah humbug and it's not my way of saving face because my hubbie forgets every year. Valentine's Day just gets on my nerves.

I've done the get-no-cards-apart-from-one-from-my-sister thing (thanks, sis), I've done the smug I've-got-a-boyfriend-so-I'll-buy-the-greatest-love-album-of-all-time-on four-CDs thing, and now I'm happy to do the opt-out-of-the-second-most-commercial-event-of-the-year thing. (I'm rating Christmas at number one because December 25th is top dollar in my book! See, I'm not a bah humbug.)

I didn't decide one day that I was boycotting Valentine's Day, it was a gradual thing. Looking through restaurant windows (or worse being inside) and seeing every table was occupied by a couple just looked a bit, well, Stepford Wives. And then what about the mark-up on flowers, or anything red, in the month of February? Buy a bunch of red roses in September and it's one price, go to the flower stall in February and you need to take out a second mortgage. 

Lilfishstudios

Most of all, what irks me is the pressure that on one day of the year, if you're in a relationship you must be romantic and slushy and spend money to show you care. No effort necessary on the other 364 days of the year. And if you're not in a relationship, you're made to feel sidelined and, quite frankly, a bit crap.

Then there's possibly the worst group - those in a relationship whose partner doesn't live up to their loved one's expectations. I once worked in an office full of women where I watched them, one by one, become more disappointed (and then foul-tempered) because none of the bouquets of flowers being delivered to the building were for them. That was one unhappy little office.

Now, I usually keep my Valentine's Day opinion to myself because I appreciate most people don't share my view. And that's fine, I'm a live and let live kinda girl and if celebrating Valentine's makes you happy, by all means, paint the town rose red.

This year I thought I'd just voice it to see if there's anyone else out there that happens to feel the same way. After all, it's the little things in life that make most people smile: a stranger holding open a door or letting your car out, or your partner of many years making you a cup of tea without you having to ask. The husband of a work colleague left a surprise bag of her favourite jelly babies in her car because she was feeling poorly. On a really cold night my hubbie warms my side of the bed and then moves over to his chilly patch when I get in. When a friend of mine was proposed to by her boyfriend (a lovely enough event in itself) he brought along her mobile phone as he knew she'd want to call her mum straight away.

So, whatever you're up to next weekend, I hope you have a happy time doing it. And if you have a story that spread a little happiness in your, or someone else's, life, I'd love to hear it.

Lost-in-the-forest

What have you been doing with your time?

Well, in between working, digging myself out of the snow, crocheting on a train, watching Glee and My Dream Farm, and making my nephew's apron, I've made a few things and found some marvellous bargains:

I embroidered a birthday card for a dear friend…

…found this gorgeous clock hanging in a charity shop, and they sold it to me for a couple of quid…

 

…then I found this gorgeous bowl in my favourite colour in yet another charity shop and it was even more of a bargain. Can't quite decide whether to use it to store things or to plant some spring bulbs in it…

 
…made some more bunting from old shirts and lovely fabric my mum gave me…

 …found a funny website about making your life greener – Do The Green Thing, plus the easiest recipe in the world to make banana ice cream at Love Food Hate Waste, and tried this tasty recipe for Sausages and Mustard (veggie sausages of course) by Nigel Slater straight after watching him cook it on TV…

…used an old map to make a few envelopes and cover a peg (why a peg? no reason, just fancied using my new pot of decopatch glue and thought I'd pretty up a peg)…

…after spotting a few tulip bulbs shoots emerging from the soil in the garden I've been poring over seed catalogues trying to decide what to plant. Trouble is, even though last year I managed to squeeze two raised beds, two towers of tyres for potato growing, a window box for tomatoes, a hanging basket for strawberries and various pots for garlic and herbs into our little garden, I still want to grow more, and rescue a couple of chickens (hah!)…

… and that was how my first month of 2010 ended, wonder what's in store for us all in the next 11 months…!

A mini pinny

This is my nephew, Rory. Isn't he a cutie? Indeed he is. But what is that he's wearing? Is it an apron made by none other than his auntie? Indeed it is! 

My favourite thing to make seems to change every time I make something new. And this is no exception. Sewing mini pinnies for mini people was more fun that I thought pinny sewing could be. (Say that several times fast after a stiff drink.) In case you're interested, I used a fat quarter for the apron and some grosgrain ribbon for the straps.

Watch this space for more mini pinnies…

A-bunting we will go

As you know, I like bunting. I don't know why. I don't have childhood memories of village fetes adorned with bunting to reminisce about but for some reason I can't get enough of it!

Last autumn I collected fallen leaves, pegged them to a length of string and hey presto, leaf bunting! This was part of an article for Daisy Green Magazine on bringing autumn inside.

For Hallowe'en I made this little length of felt bunting for the The Copy and Paste Project's Trick or Treat blog party.

At Christmas, I made this paper bunting inspired by Kirsty's fabulous tutorial as part of her and Julie's 12 Days of Christmas workshop.

And today I have made more! Yesterday I found swatch books in the remnant pile at my local fabric shop and snapped them up, each swatch is big enough to make one 'bunt'. (I do believe in a previous blog conversation it was decided 'bunt' is the singular for one flag of bunting. I refuse to use the word flag or pennant, they don't do justice to the loveliness of bunting.)

Excuse the ropey photos, it has rained heavily all day so I couldn't shoot them outside.

Do you like my attempt at arty photography? Also known as shooting at an angle to try to do justice to the bunting.

And just to finish off my bunting bonanza, here is a mosaic devoted to the lovely stuff.

1. Dream in progress... part 10, 2. Boo Bunting Banner for Halloween, 3. Handmade Bunting 11.5 feet/ 3.5 meters long Red summer, 4. bunting, 5. bunting, 6. Christmas Tree Bunting, 7. delicate newspaper bunting, 8. Matryoshka cushions & colourful bunting, 9. yeah! bunting-keh!, 10. Bunting.And.Lavender, 11. Christmas bunting, 12. Some bunting made from vintage hand embroidered fabric, 13. there once was..., 14. lichen - Stained Glass Bunting or Garland, 15. Bunting for Risa of ParTea Planner, 16. Utmost Garland

There will be more to come, watch this space!

Scrummy choccie chip cookies

Think they look tasty? They taste even better than they look. Try this Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe and find out for yourselves!

Do you really need to print that?

Following my last post on recycling, What's in a number?, I've unearthed some more stats! I've never been the mathematical type so I'm not sure where these numerical urges are coming from, I think they just make interesting reading.

This time, paper gets the maths makeover… 

24 is the number of trees it takes to make one tonne of newspaper

70 per cent less energy is needed to recycle paper than it is to make new paper from virgin pulp

1 tree provides enough oxygen for three people to breathe

38 is the weight in kg of newspapers that the average Brit gets through in a year

10,000 trees are chopped down in China each year to make holiday cards

324 litres is used to make 1kg of paper

20 million acres of forest would be saved if half the world's paper was recycled

73 per cent less air pollution is produced by recycled paper than that made raw materials

115 billion sheets are printed on by personal computers each year

Right then, who fancies planting a tree?

Blackberry vodka – the result

I made blackberry vodka at the end of last year and completely forgot to tell you how it turned out. For the original post see here, however you might need to wait a few months for the hedgerows to be full of yummy fruit before you can get cracking on your own.

So, I filled a wine bottle and an old Jack Daniels (my fave tipple) bottle with blackberries, sugar and vodka in the autumn of 2009. In December I decanted the two bottles and filled one 70cl wine bottle (and a bit more left over) with the filtered blackberry flavoured vodka. 

And the verdict is – delicious! Quite sweet but definitely blackberry flavoured with a hint of alcohol taste when it's drunk neat. Mix it with lemonade or soda water and the alcohol taste disappears entirely, meaning you could drink it by the pintful, quite dangerous! Apologies for the ropey photo, I'm not a big daytime vodka drinker and I've yet to discover how to take quality photos in artificial light.

I'll be making another, probably bigger, batch this autumn and I heartily suggest you do the same. Cheers!

Free printable thank you cards

Everyone loves a freebie, don't they?

Just to show that the sharing spirit is alive and well in 2010, I have created two types of thank you cards for you to download completely for free.

Christmas is becoming a distant memory so now's the time you're thinking about sending out cards to thank your loved ones for their gifts. Using a wintery aqua colour (anyone noticed it's my favourite colour yet?), I've made a sheet of four folded thank you cards and another sheet of four postcards. I'm quite a fan of postcards as there's no need for envelopes which means fewer sheets of paper are needed and there's less to recycle too. 

Thank you cards: Download the pdf below, print out the file on A4 white card (recycled cardstock if you have it), and cut out along the grey dotty lines. Fold the cards in half and voila!

Thank you postcards: Download the pdf below, print one page on A4 white card (recycled cardstock if you have it), then print the second page on the reverse side of your card. Cut along the grey dotty lines and get writing!

Download Thank you cards pdf

Download Thank you postcards pdf

As this is my first printable, I'd love to know what you think so do please give me comments.

Happy thanking!

Small print: These files are for personal use only. Please do not change or redistribute the file. If you want to share the download please link directly to this post for the file and do not host it on your site.