the green gal

Sharing the love

My guest blogger cherry has been popped.

On Friday the lovely Mrs Green at myzerowaste.com is letting me loose on her fab site and giving me five minutes of fame to post about whatever I like. Log on to her site to read my ideas on how to prevent any of your clothing going to landfill.

And in Mrs G’s spirit of sharing I thought I’d take a moment to tell you about a few of my fave blogs and sites out there in interweb land. As you can see by the list to the right of this there are quite a few peeps I recommend but I’m just going to highlight a handful.

My Zero Waste – Mrs Green and family are striving to send little or even no waste to landfill, some weeks the most she puts in her bin is a crisp packet! It’s an inspirational and informative read if you’re trying to reduce your waste.
http://myzerowaste.com/

The Frugal Life – Piper Terrett is a woman who likes a challenge! I’m amazed by her willingness to push herself to think more creatively about life and in the process spend less. If you’re looking after your pennies as well as the planet you must take a look at this blog.
http://frugal-life.spaces.live.com/

Daisy Green Magazine – if you want to know how to be green and glamorous, this is the website for you. There’s tonnes packed in here from make-its to news to interviews to eco travel tips to ethical fashion ideas – they even let me write for them sometimes, bless their hearts! Green doesn’t mean sackcloth and ashes, this site is the proof.
http://www.daisygreenmagazine.co.uk/

Make It and Mend It – want to know how to make jam? Need to makeover a tired piece of furniture? Have some useful knowledge you want to share with others? All that and more is at Make It and Mend It’s website. It’s run by smart, inspirational women who seem to have expert knowledge in any area you can think of, but always want to learn more.
http://www.makeitandmendit.com/

Ginger and George – Kirsty Neale is a dear old friend of mine but that doesn’t take away from the undeniable fact that she is the most creative person I know! The tutorials she generously posts on her blog are so inspirational they’ll have you rushing to find old buttons, scraps of fabric, stamps and spare card. Plus, Kirsty explains each make step by step so even clueless me has a fighting chance, and she tells you where to find all the bits you need! Marvellous.
http://kirstyneale.typepad.com/gingerandgeorge/

Right, that is a handful, literally, of my fave interweb folks. However, I could ramble on for reams about all the blogs and sites I love. So, instead of reading my waffle, check out the ‘Blogs and websites I like’ list (yes, very imaginatively labelled) at your leisure.

Let me know your fave websites and bloggers, I’d love to add more to my collection!

Blackberry vodka

Nope, I've not opened a speakeasy, I'm making homemade blackberry vodka!

I found the recipe in October's Country Living magazine and it just seemed too simple to not try. Plus I had a surplus of blackberries and am partial to the odd vodka cocktail. We made sloe gin a couple of years ago so fancied having a go at another tipple.

The simple recipe:

• Fill a old clean wine bottle one third full with equal parts blackberries and sugar.
• Top up with cheap vodka (no need to splash out on expensive stuff when you're flavouring it).
• Give it a good shake to mix up the berries, sugar and vodka.
• For the next two months give it a shake every day or two.
• Then, sieve the mixture through a muslin cloth, pour into a clean bottle and enjoy!

I'll let you know how it tastes!

BTW, my post about how I made the cushion cover from old clothes is on daisygreenmagazine.co.uk now, check it out http://good.ly/du2yk and let me know what you think!

The joy of craft

I spent this afternoon making things. Not a very exciting way to spend your time for some people but for me it was bliss.

There's something about facing several bits and pieces, odds and ends, sometimes items that already have a purpose, and a period of time later you're gazing at a finished item that was created by your own fair hands.

In the space of Sunday afternoon I made a cushion from old PJ bottoms and a charity shop shirt (look out for the make-it instructions on daisygreenmagazine.co.uk in a few days' time), two pairs of earrings, a bracelet, two lavender bags and a toiletry bag. They're not all perfect but that's not the point. At the moment it seems every time I sit down at my desk or sewing machine, I make something I've never made before. And, quite often, I make mistakes but I learn from them and hopefully next time, I make it better.

To see other stuff I've made take a look at the Things I've Made photo album (on the left under the piccie of me). Let me know what you think of them and I've love to hear what you've enjoyed creating recently. 

Happy crafting!

Foreign holidays – guilty or pleasure?

I am the green gal and I have flown on an airplane.

Sounds wrong, I know, so let me explain myself. Although, first of all, does being green mean never flying? Ever? How about offsetting flights? What about only flying short-haul? Or only long-haul?

My husband and I decided after our honeymoon in Italy that we would only fly every other year. It was actually four years until we flew again, last week, to Italy as it happens. After holidaying in a tipi, a fancy tent on a farm and in various cottages in the UK, mostly in disappointing weather, we decided it was time we took ourselves off to sunnier climes and felt a bit of warmth on our skins.

Our Italian week saw us give money to The Man (BA flights, Europcar rental, Esselunga supermarket) but also support independent and local businesses. BTW, yes we did rent a car to compound our CO2 evil – we were in rural Tuscany, wheels are essential!

We rented our apartment from a couple who renovate ruined old villas, we ate in restaurants owned and run by the same family for who knows how many generations, and (after the initial panic stock-up in a supermarket) bought local produce in independent stores. Much hilarious bad Italian pronunciation on my behalf and confused gesticulation on the locals’ behalf ensued.

Originally we thought we’d spend several days visiting different towns seeing the historical sights but then decided to only take two day trips. I would say this was to save on emissions but actually it was because we were just too darned tired and wanted to lie around absorbing Vitamin D! But pumping fewer pollutants into the atmosphere was a happy bonus.

I read three books, all borrowed so no trees were freshly hurt for my reading pleasure. And I knitted. A lot. A scarf I’m hoping the recipient in a few weeks will like.

So, as foreign holidays go, I’d say that’s low impact-ish. Si or non? I’ve thought about offsetting our emissions but that’s such a fuzzy area I find it quite confusing. One school of thought is that it’s better than doing nothing, you plant trees or support eco projects in developing countries. Others disagree saying it’s a sticking plaster for people to feel better about their indulgences, that the planted trees could be chopped down long before they’ve had time to offset your emissions.

Having got the need for a foreign holiday out of systems for the time being, I don’t think either of us have a huge urge to sit on a plane again any time soon. Yes the weather is unreliable but the UK has so many beautiful and interesting places to visit that we’ll be happy staying in the Isles for the next few years.

And if we do get twitchy tongues for foreign lingo, there’s always the Eurostar!