Biome drink bottle winner

I'm sorry I'm late in drawing this giveaway.  The children and I went to an amazing camp and I confused my dates. Hopefully I'll get a chance to tell you all about our fabulous holiday from home learning some time later in the week.

Without further ado, the winner of the drink bottle from Biome is..... Laura!

Perhaps the best way to contact me Laura would be to click onto my facebook page and private message me with your address.  I look forward to posting you your new reusable bottle!

REUSE and a great giveaway

We've all heard it.  The three 'R's.  Reduce, reuse, recycle.  Thank goodness this message is being touted by schools, community groups, governments and NGOs.  I won't bore you with the same message.  It can be found countless places if you want to know more.

It's a great message and I love the philosophy.  However I don't believe it is enough.  I have a favourite 'R' and believe we should reuse, reuse, reuse.  By reusing, we automatically reduce our rubbish and conserve energy.  Recycling is great in theory, and certainly better than throwing our rubbish away willy nilly, but items can't be one hundred percent recycled and they use a lot of energy in the process.

Let me give you a couple of examples of the reuse that happens in this house.  Last week I dealt with a pure wool top.  I received it second hand from a friend.  It was so badly moth eaten as to be unwearable.  Rather than throw it in the bin, I cut it into cloths to use for cleaning.  Today I cooked pumpkin soup and all my scraps were placed into the chook bucket for the chooks to pick over. Anything not eaten by them can decompose in situ rather than become land fill.  My chook bucket itself was gifted to me by a friend when she saw the jealous longing in my eyes as I gazed at her chook, compost and worm buckets on her bench.  Old yoghurt buckets of a good size with nifty little handles!

Beware!  Can you see what happens when you start taking reusing seriously.  You start to see everything in a new light and begin coveting the neighbour's rubbish!

I also needed to buy milk in containers last week.  Due to a test I needed I wasn't allowed to drink full cream milk.  Ouch!  This goat milker who hasn't needed throwaway milk containers for a couple of years!  The upside is, I will use these cartons for soap moulds.  Perfect!

Whenever I need to make a purchase there is much thought.  Often I do it well.  We buy secondhand as often as we can.  Always there is thought about whether the item is really needed.  If it needs to be bought new, thought goes into whether it's possible to buy it locally; can it be of varying quality and therefore should I buy better quality so will it last longer. Sometimes I do it badly.  Occasionally I'll be disorganised and suddenly realise one of the kids has no socks, pants or shoes.  If the op shop don't have anything to fit the bill I end up in a department store in desperation, carting around my heavy and guilty heart as I shop.  At least I can take the offending item home in a proper, reusable shopping bag I've brought with me.

Recently I've had cause to think about my shopping choices.  A win really.  Years ago I bought the children drink bottles.  The dilemma!  I was sick of throwing away plastic drink bottles which harboured so much bacteria that they were no longer usable.  This was back in the dark ages (pre homeschooling) when the kids were at school and the rule was, they were to have sipper bottles to avoid spillage.  Fair enough really because the rule allowed children to have their water on their desks.

After much searching, I decided on stainless steel bottles for them.  I was apprehensive about my decision because the production of stainless steel products has a greater negative effect on the environment so is only beneficial if you get years of use from them.

The lovely new bottle for the giveaway

I'm happy to report that three years later after many bottles of water we are still using two of them.   I'm not quite *ahem* sure where the third one is.  These were pretty clever drink bottles.  They have a silicon insert for the sipper part and a straw, and you can buy replacement parts.  After being shoved under car seats, being lost behind the couch for a week or two, being left in the bottom of a bag for days after a day trip, they were getting pretty manky!  At first they washed up well but over time they just weren't coming clean enough.  It was wonderful to be able to hop online and buy the parts that I needed from Biome.  The sipper part and the straw can both be purchased separately which is perfect.  

I bought parts for three bottles although one is missing because I am confident Buddy's bottle will resurface one day soon from in the cubby or under a bed.

I would love more people to find ways to reduce the rubbish they create and, guess what?!  Biome kindly agreed to supply a bottle for a giveaway.  The Funtainer drink bottle is 335ml and the replacement parts can be purchased online from them as well.  The winner will be randomly chosen.  I thought I'd number the comments and get the kids to pull one out of a hat rather than an online selector.

Belle's well used and perfectly functional drink bottle with a lovely clean sipper straw

The giveaway is open to those in Australia only, due to postage costs.  As the winner will be randomly drawn all you need to do is to leave a comment (but I would love it if you could share some ideas on how you reuse).  Let's draw it on Thursday the ninth to allow time for all our Easter busyness.

Good luck.  Happy reusing.

*I'm not receiving any kick back for this post.  I just think it's a great product and was delighted that Biome were happy to support a giveaway.  I am considering becoming an affiliate with them in the future.*

Slow Living in March

I can't believe another month has flown by!  It's time for the monthly link-up with Christine at Slow Living Essentials.  But before I give you a run down on what I achieved in each of the categories I have some important business.

Today it was time to draw the winner of the PIP Australian Permaculture Magazine.  And the winner is.........  Louise from Winks to Remember!!  Congratulations Louise.  Could you please send me an email with your address?  My email is on the right of my blog but it doesn't link through (it was too complicated for me).  Soon you'll be reading a copy of the first edition of an inspiring new magazine!

So back to the month of March and the lovely link-up with other slow living bloggers;


Nourish - Belle turned eleven in March so we had some party food.  I decorated the cakes with violas from the garden.  Actually Christine, I used your recipe for the cup cakes but coloured the batter to make rainbow cup cakes (a birthday request).  Love that recipe.  It's so quick!

I picked up the most amazing basket of summer goodies at our swap market.  I also had a go at making apple cider vinegar this month.  It was incredibly easy.  The recipe was from the last edition of Grass Roots Magazine if you want to give it a try.

 Prepare - Ha!  This is the category I've been looking forward to!  I finally have some serious preparing to report.  Guess what I did this month?  I went to a preserving workshop!  I kinda knew most of it but I gained a lot of confidence by working with others and under the tuition of someone much more experienced than me. Now I'm madly bottling more tomatoes at home.  I'll have heaps for the winter.


I've also been making a lot of salads-in-a-jars for Hubby's lunches.  A friend reminded me of their existence and I'm loving the convenience of making several lunches at once.  Google it.  You'll love them.

Reduce - At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I'm still trying to reduce the STUFF in this house.  I've done well downstairs.  I have one cupboard to go in the kids room.  Then I'll start upstairs.  That's our bedroom.  I'm actually scared of it!!  It's the room that no-one enters so if I have something and I don't know where to put it, that's where it goes!!!  Argghhh!  Now is the time.  No more procrastinating.  And you will never, never, never see a photo of my bedroom as it stands!

Green - Can't think of anything new except the beautiful shoots of grass that are coming up after months of dirt and dust.  A little bit of rain causes magic to happen!!

Grow - I have failed dismally in this category.  I have harvested some stuff this month but I can't even plant the seedlings because we have no garden water.  The dam is too low to pump from so I'm waiting for big rains.  The photo below will give you an idea of how desperate I am.  The poor children would love a bath but it's showers only for us!!

Create - I made some pads this month and I reckon they look pretty good.  I still need to buy the press stud-y bit to do them up.  I've returned to knitting a jumper for Buddy Boy now the weather is getting cool again.

Discover - I was lucky enough to hear about a crowd funded magazine about permaculture.  I wasn't able to go to their launch but I did help fund the magazine.  The first issue is out and it sounds like it is about to sell out.  It has been received very well.  You can subscribe to PIP Australian Permaculture Magazine online.  I have really enjoyed playing my very small role by donating.  There is a certain feeling of life being 'right' when people achieve amazing things without relying on govt. or big business.

Enhance - The preserving workshop was fantastic!  To get together with a bunch of people and work together was amazing.  It was wonderful to have experienced people sharing their skills with others.  What goes around comes around I hope.  And as I always say..... that community, connected feeling just can't be beat!

Enjoy - I found this month quite hard.  I had a mini-melt down which felt quite horrible.  I like doing these posts and remembering all that is good in life.  I enjoyed lots this month.  I particularly enjoyed catching up with family and seeing my granddaughters that I really don't see often enough!  Especially one little new person that I live far too far away from.  I loved having special cuddles.

And it was nice to see my big special people too.

I hope your March was wonderful and your April is even better!

PIP for you, PIP for me - a giveaway

Have you discovered PIP Australian Permaculture Magazine yet?  It's brand new.  It was only launched on Saturday down at Ceres.  I truly do believe that this is a magazine for you and for me.  Once you've discovered permaculture, it's stuck in your head.  You can't help but want more knowledge and you want to connect with other people who practice permaculture.  For some of us this is possible but others haven't formed those real life connections.

Either way this magazine is great.  Better still, this magazine is crowd funded!  Yet again we see the 'power of the people' in action!  Nothing makes me feel better.  I was childishly proud to have donated the fifty bucks that got the magazine over the line.  Many more have added to the funds since then.  Nothing speaks louder than words (or in this case money).  I love to make my money talk!

People are keen to read a magazine that relates to their lifestyle and this one is it for me.  Robyn has done an amazing job to see her vision through to becoming a reality.  Congratulations Robyn.  Great idea!

The first issue has a story on what permaculture is all about, stories about individuals involved in the permy lifestyle, an article about starting a food forest, recipes (including herbal remedies) and heaps more.  At this point it will be published every six months.

I have to be honest, I have not read the magazine from cover to cover yet but I wanted to get it out to you while it was still hot off the press!  Geez, it takes me the full two months to read my Organic Gardener magazines.  However, I have read enough to know it's great.  The content is great, it's a nice looking mag and it's printed on 100% recycled paper.

Robyn has kindly agreed to give a copy of the first issue of PIP Australian Permaculture Magazine to one of my readers.  So if followers leave a comment below we will randomly choose a winner next Thursday.  I'm not very tech savvy so, if it's okay with you guys, the kids and I will put the names in a hat and pull one out.  To make it fun why not tell me what you would like to read about in a magazine.  Who knows?  You may help Robyn come up with ideas for the next issue.

If you're not the lucky winner you can buy your copy here.  I would also encourage all of you to donate whatever you feel is reasonable to your personal situation to see this magazine continue to publish great articles!

I'd like to make it clear that I am not receiving anything for writing this post.  I'm just really excited about this new magazine!!

So come on followers!  Get commenting.  I'm delighted to be doing this giveaway!

One Year!

Well........  I have been blogging for one year today.  Is this a good or bad thing?  Sometimes I spend far too much time on the computer posting, and checking out other people's blogs!

Having said that, I have been so motivated by other people in this blogging world that I have learnt bucket loads of new skills this year.  I love reading about what everyone is up to, and look forward to the comments I receive here at my blog.

Thank you all for your wonderful support and enthusiasm!

Pumpkin drew the give-away name out of a (homemade raffia) hat!  Farmer Liz, I hope you enjoy knitting your socks and don't end up cursing me for giving you a difficult project.  Can't wait till you post a photo of the finished articles!  Please send me your postal details at greenhaven@skymesh.com.au.

I'll leave you with a photo of no relevance, coz it's cute!

Belle brushing Pumkin's hair at the start of a school day.  Buddy Boy has taken it upon himself to take the role of comforter to whomever is having their hair done.  He figures it must be torturous judging by the fuss made!

Have a wonderful day!

Anniversary Give-away

I was browsing through my blog the other day and realised it will soon be one year since I began blogging.  I have decided to celebrate by offering my followers a give-away.  Remember the socks?  Well because I have a couple of balls left and I had bought so many sets of double pointed needles, I thought somebody else might enjoy one ball of wool and four double pointed needles.  The band has a pattern on the back of it.  A word of warning to beginner knitters, socks are not for the faint hearted but they are possible!

I'm sorry about the photos but I haven't been home in the daylight today.   These were taken early this morning.  The true colour is closer to the top photo.  I added the photo below (taken with the flash) in case you couldn't see the colours well enough.  The colours are much more muted than in the bottom photo.

I'm giving away in Australia only, due to postage.  To join in the give-away you need to either be an existing follower or join as a new follower, and leave a comment.  I will draw randomly from the comments on 30th May which is one year from the date I began this blog.  My goodness!  How quickly that time went, but how connected I feel with some of you in that time!

Good luck and thank you for your interest in what's happening at our place!