Featured Artist: Andrew's Reclaimed Wood

Andrew uses reclaimed wood and reworks it beautifully in simple and practical designs of items for your garden or home.

I especially love the succulent planter boxes made from old-growth reclaimed lumber which Andrew tells us has tight grain, nice patterns and colour finely sanded with a beeswax finish.  The holes are just the right size for easy transplant from a standard small pot. Looking at the products of his labour you can really tell he loves his work.

Andrew and his wife Melissa run the business from Seattle in the USA and they have an Etsy store where you can check out all the designs from beehives to pencil cups, soap containers, shelve and woodpecker feeders. "We build almost everything here using woods we source by dismantling and re-milling ages-old piers, fences, barns, and other structures slated for demolition."
See their blog for latest specials and more about this enterprising team.

At one with mother earth

"The Great Spirit is our Father, but the Earth is our Mother. She nourishes us.....That which we put into the ground she returns to us." Bedage

The native American Indians respected the earth, the sky, the sea and all living things. Their footprint on the earth was barely noticable. They lived in such a close relationship with nature and defined themselves by this relationship being in tune with the seasons and the rhythms of where they lived.  They saw a deep unity in the natural and the spiritual world. Their traditions, stories and beliefs connected them with the earth, the sky and the sea - even their names show this connection - Red Cloud, Sitting Bull, Fish Hawk, Princess Raven, Big Thunder, Ten Bears.. the list goes on.

Their "spiritual stories are deeply based in Nature and are rich with the symbolism of seasons, weather, plants, animals, earth, water, sky & fire." Read more about these stories.

Coyote attempts to get persimmons from Opossum in a traditional native American story

"We must protect the forests for our children, grandchildren and children yet to be born. We must protect the forests for those who can't speak for themselves such as the birds, animals, fish and trees."  Qwatsinas  - Chief Edward Moody, Nuxalk Nation.

SUGGESTED BOOKS TO READ TO CHILDREN:

• Pushing up the Sky: Seven Native American Plays for Children
• Keepers of the Animals: Native American Stories and Wildlife Activities for Children (Keepers of the Earth)
• Native American Tales and Legends

See more original photographs and quotes and learn about the history of  the Native American Indians at Native American Images.

Unique art idea - no paint or canvas

Living mosaic art from Succulents Galore

Maybe you can design your own succulent wall or table planter like the one pictured or maybe you would like to buy a kit.

There are long lasting cedar kits that come complete with 25 cuttings for planting, moss and soil.
The planter measures 10 1/2" x 10 1/2" and is 2 " deep. It has been designed to be planted and hung on a wall or fence. It also can be placed on a table as it makes a terrific focal and conversation piece. The kit come fully assembled. Instructions are included for planting the succulent cuttings. See more details...

Left over soup is eco friendly

Once a week I try to use up the left overs in the fridge and the best winter way to do this is a hearty, filling soup. This is great because it not only uses up the food that would otherwise end up in land fill but also because the left overs have been previously cooked the soup is ready and tasty in less than half an hour.
Obviously this recipe depends on your left overs but a few handy hints:
Meaty meals like spag. bol. give the soup extra depth and go great in tomato based soups,
Think of minestrone and add beans to left over veges or pasta.
Decide if you are going to blend your soup or not and if not make sure your food is in small pieces.
Potato, pumpkin and sweet potato help make a thick soup.
Don't be afraid of adding frozen foods.
Different stocks: chicken stock, vege stock, beef stock, tomato paste will suit different left overs.
Think of flavour blends and add a few herbs:

• Italian add basil and oregano
• Asian add lemon grass
• Moroccan add cumin
• Indian add curry

How I make the soup:
I like to start with fresh ingredients and usually fry up some garlic and onion first in olive oil for 2 to 3 minutes in the bottom of a large pot.
Then add some other fresh uncooked  finely chopped veges like celery and carrots and cook a further 2 minutes.
Add the liquid: today I used a can of diced tomatoes and some pasta sauce and then filled the rest of the post with water.
Add salt and pepper and stir.
Bring to boil.
Reduce heat and simmer while adding left overs.
I added green beans, sausages, noodles, 1 potato, and a piece of frozen roast beef straight into the pot.
After the beef had defrosted it was removed and chopped into small pieces and re added to soup.
Simmer for 15 minutes and serve with toast or crusty bread. It was delicious.

Observing nature

Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift. Albert Einstein.

WILDLIFE GARDENING

Your local green space or own back garden can provide a wonderful opportunity to connect with nature on a regular basis. Wildlife can be found in almost any patch of ground and there are plenty of things you can do to give nature (biodiversity) a helping hand and do your bit – e.g.

• Find out what plants and animals are already in your green space;
• Plant nectar rich flowers, native trees and shrubs to support wildlife (especially bees and butterflies);
• Create habitats for wildlife (e.g. wildflower meadows, wetland areas, bat and bird boxes, nooks and crannies for insects to shelter and breed);
• Create a feeding and drinking station for birds
• Start your own compost heap;
• Cut out harmful chemicals and manage pests by encouraging natural predators;
• Explore environmental issues such as growing your own food and supporting local produce

Resource Guide:Wildlife Gardening PDF

Original wall art that you could create

Repurposed vintage maps are used to create a beautiful one of a kind unique decor piece from ElizabethSt

The looping waves of paper create a flower-like piece of wall art. Perfect for the quirky collector, the travel enthusiast, the lover of unique art. Don't you just love the colour and the design? I also adore how it has upcycled the old maps.

I have seen something similar made by children out of cardboard rolls and thought this was a great idea for children to experiment with.

Keep your love of nature

 Keep your love of nature, for that is the true way to understand art more and more.     
Vincent Willem van Gogh (1853 - 1890)

 

PAINTING: Cornfield with Cypress. 1888.

Ultimate guide to greening your home

Click Here!

Making handmade paper

Set of 10 handmade paper sheets created from a combination of recycled paper, coffee and green tea at Todo Papel.
These were created using the ancient oriental technique for paper making traced back to China in about 105 CE when a sheet of paper using mulberry, fishnets, old rags and hemp was created.

Have you ever made paper? Paper can be created from any old paper: computer paper, newspaper, magazines, egg cartons, old cards, paper bags, tissue paper, wrapping paper, paper napkins.

Want to make your own paper?:

• Go Make Something » Easy Papermaking
• How to Make Paper - An Illustrated Step-by-Step Guide
• Making Handmade Paper in 10 Easy Steps
• You can also make tree free paper, which is even more eco friendly, out of fibre crops and wild plants, such as bamboo, hemp, jute, plant husks, straw and flax.
• Purchase Paper Making Kits at Paper-Go-Round – manufacturers of seeded paper also known as seed embedded paper, seed paper, plantable paper, handmade paper.

If you don't want to make your own you can purchase from Todo Papel or Euraba Paper Company aboriginal handmade papers made from fibres from the river and land.

Wordless Wednesday

Linked up with wordless wednesday at Angry Julie Monday,  Project Alicia, Better in Bulk, Crazy About My Baybah,

Good for baby, good for environment

When its time to start introducing solids to your baby, what is good for your baby is also good for the environment.  Most fruit and vegetables are easy for baby to digest.

Researchers at 3 universities in England discovered that babies who were given home-cooked fruit and vegetables were eating higher amounts of fruit and vegetables at the age of seven than those given home-cooked meals less often.

• Use fresh local in season fruit and vegetables.
• Store food you prepare in reusable containers.
• Reduce the use of packaging as much as possible: some fruits come in their own packaging like bananas, which are a great first food and full of potassium.
• If you buy prepared food, look for organic baby food that is sold in glass jars that you can re-use.
• Use wet face washers to clean baby's face and hands, instead of baby wipes.
• When out take a wet washer in a container to use for cleaning up baby.

Suggestions for first foods:
pumpkin, sweet potato, avocado, carrots, banana, pear.

Recycle my heart

A society is defined not only by what it creates,

but by what it refuses to destroy.

John Sawhill

Yesterday my grandson and I took advantage of the beautiful summer Sydney day and walked the calm waters of Kurnell beach. We found lots of white sun bleached shells and a small amount of sea glass. My grandson had not seen this before and at first thought it was dangerous but I showed him how the sea water and sand had swirled it smooth. We found clear glass and brown and my personal favourite - bright green - which seems rarer. I am hoping to create something with this glass soon.
Glass can take up to 1000 years to breakdown which is why it is wonderful to reuse it.
The simple yet elegant Transparent Heart in the photo has been cut from the side of a Newcastle Brown Ale bottle.
We loved wandering on the sand and feeling the breeze blowing on our skin and finding small treasures and will return again soon.

Earth provides enough

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed.  Mahatma Gandhi

According to the United Nations it would cost about $30 billion per year to fund the necessary agricultural programs to end world hunger.
I have heard that if we all stopped buying the luxury item perfume and spent the same money on agricultural programs there would be no world hunger! 
Global Industry Analysts, Inc. released a report on the Perfumes market stating the global market for fragrances and perfumes is forecast to reach over US$33 billion by the year 2015. 

Get more interesting quotes at Good Quotes for free

where the earth meets the sky and the sea

Wishing you a peaceful holiday time.

We will be relaxing with family and friends but also enjoying:
continuing to remove bracken fern from the blue gum area on our farm and any other noxious weeds, watering our herbs and veges and fruit trees in the evenings, and relishing summer salads and fruits. We may even try preserving the peaches again if we get a bumper crop. (This will depend on the birds and the success of our new bird nets.)  

What's the use of a fine house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on? 

Henry David Thoreau, Familiar Letters

Beautiful Beetle Bugs

 

 

Beetles, Coleoptera, are winged insects that come in many colours and sizes. There are more than 350,000 known species in the world. They include the Stag Beetle, Tiger Beetle, Click Beetle, Scareb Beetle and Ladybug or Lady Beetle as some people call them. I wonder how many you have in your garden or local park?

I found a little beetle, so that beetle was his name,
And I called him Alexander and he answered just the same.
I put him in a matchbox, and I kept him all the day...

And Nanny let my beetle out
Yes, Nanny let my beetle out
She went and let my beetle out-
And beetle ran away.

She said she didn't mean it, and I never said she did,
She said she wanted matches, and she just took off the lid
She said that she was sorry, but it's difficult to catch
An excited sort of beetle you've mistaken for a match.

She said that she was sorry, and I really mustn't mind
As there's lots and lots of beetles which she's certain we could find
If we looked about the garden for the holes where beetles hid-
And we'd get another matchbox, and write BEETLE on the lid.

We went to all the places which a beetle might be near,
And we made the sort of noises which a beetle likes to hear,
And I saw a kind of something, and I gave a sort of shout:
"A beetle-house and Alexander Beetle coming out!"

It was Alexander Beetle I'm as certain as can be
And he had a sort of look as if he thought it might be ME,
And he had a kind of look as if he thought he ought to say:
"I'm very, very sorry that I tried to run away."
By A.A.Milne and turned into a song by Melanie

BOOKS ABOUT BEETLES FOR CHILDREN:
The Beetle Book
Beetles (Welcome Books: Animals of the World)
The Very Clumsy Click Beetle (Eric Carle's Very Series)
Beetle Bop
Beetles (Bugs Bugs Bugs)

Waste free lunches

Suggestions for a small carbon footprint at work or at school for lunches.

Quite a few years ago now, I helped my children's school have a “green” lunch day at school to celebrate earth day. A note was sent home with ideas for ditching pre packaged foods and plastic wrap but the most important thing we did was get the children involved. They went around the week before, after lunch, to see how the bins were overflowing with tetra drink boxes, straws and wrappers and this really made an impression on everyone.

So it is important at home to get the kid's involved, in both what they will be eating and what a waste free lunch achieves. After all sending healthy food that just gets thrown away does not improve your carbon footprint.

• Use your left over food in lunches: Some suggestions are savoury muffins, quiche, rice salad, pasta salads and potato salads and wraps.
• Apples, oranges, bananas and grapes are healthy and waste free as they come in their own compostable containers.
• If your children love dried fruit, for example buy larger boxes with less packaging or consider buying in bulk or buying at the farmer's market.
• Water, of course, is the best drink.
• The 3-compartment Bento Lunch Boxes are BPA-Free. Pictured above, they are great for putting a variety of foods as long as they are dry as all bento boxes are not leakproof.
• A Thermos is leakproof and insulates both hot and cold food or beverages and can be used for pasta or rice dishes or warm potatoes. 
• Sustainable lunch container options help you save money and natural resources, while keeping throw away bags and food containers out of our landfills:              

          - Tie up a cloth napkin to hold snacks like grapes.                                                  

          - Use reusable containers with attached lids making loss of lids impossible.     

          - Lunch boxes with different compartments are a good way to reduce wrapping.

          - Reusable drink containers reduce waste but need to be when labelled with

            child's name.

          - Sew a Reusable Snack Bag

          - Sew Lunchbox Cloth Napkins for Waste-Free Packed Lunches

Eco friendly control of mosquitoes around your home

Empty the water from containers that are around your home.

Many children and adults are adversely affected by mosquito bites. The immune system is actually working well and realising that the body is under attack producing histamine to fight back.  Histamine is what causes the red bump and the itching is caused by nerves in the area being irritated by the swelling.

Controlling mosquitoes can be done by chemical and non-chemical methods. Here we will focus on enviromentally friendly non-chemical methods.

Remove the mosquito habitat:

• Empty water out of containers where mosquitoes can breed such as rain gutters, old tyres, buckets, tarpaulins, toys, or any containers outside near your home.
• Change the water in bird baths, fountains and wading pools once a week to destroy mosquito breeding areas.  
• Keep swimming pool and spa water treated.

Prevent your exposure to mosquitoes:

• Use an Organic Mosquito Fogger that lasts many hours, if having friends over.
• Rub a drop of lavender oil on your wrists and ankles. On a child rub it on their back (to avoid eye contact).
• Plant herbs that deter mosquitoes such as basil, citronella, lavender, pennyroyal and tansy.
• Replace your outdoor lights with yellow lights which attract less mosquitoes than ordinary lights.
• Wipe over outdoor furniture with lavender oil.
• Install fly screen on doors and windows that are often opened and don't forget the chimney if you have one.

If you are bitten here are some natural home remedies:

• a paste of bicarb soda and plain vinegar applied to the bite can stop the itch, as can the following:
• Apple cider vinegar neutralizes the histamine in the skin and stops itching instantly.
• Tea Tree Oil
• Rubbing salt and a little water into bite
• Peppermint toothpaste
• Lavender oil
• Aloe Vera Gel
• Rooibos Tea used as a compress
• Calamine Lotion which can be purchased at the chemist

Do you have any other natural remedies for mossie bite?

This article contributed by Lesley Sharpe.

BPA and baby bottles

WHAT IS BPA? Bisphenol A is an industrial chemical used to make polycarbonate polymers and epoxy resin. It has been used since the 1950's to harden polycarbonate plastics and make epoxy resin, which is in the lining of food and beverage containers.

BPA is used because it is strong, lightweight, and long-lasting, keeping food and drink cans from rusting.

In the 1930's it was an estrogen replacement for women. In 2010 Canada's department of the environment stated that BPA was a "toxic substance".

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM WITH BPA?

It can leach out of plastic when it is heated. This can cause health problems as BPA mimics the female hormone estrogen and may affect fertility and promote cancer. This has been shown in numerous animal studies.
In the European Union and Canada, BPA use is banned in baby bottles. In 2006, the US Government sponsored an assessment of the scientific literature on BPA. The Chapel Hill Consensus Statement was issued, which stated "BPA at concentrations found in the human body is associated with organizational changes in the prostate, breast, testis, mammary glands, body size, brain structure and chemistry, and behaviour of laboratory animals."   American Journal of Public Health

WHERE IS BPA USED?
Baby toys, baby bottles, pacifiers
Compact Discs
Epoxy resins used to coat some cans
Glasses
Microwave ovenware
Plastic bottles

SUGGESTED BABY BOTTLE PRODUCTS with no BPA:

Avent Via Feeding System, Tempo Liners.

BornFree.

Coddletime Glass.

Dr. Brown's BPA Free Polypropylene Bottles .

Evenflo BPA Free - Tint

Polypropylene, Purely Comfit.

First Year’s BreastFlow.

Green to Grow.

Gerber Clear View, Fashion Tints, Gerber GentleFlow.

Innobaby Nursin’ Silicone , Natural Nurser, Training.

Lansinoh.

Safe-T Borosilicate Glass.

Safety Plus PES.

Sassy MAM bottles.

Siliskin Silikids with Evenflow Glass.

ThinkBaby.

Tommee Tippee.

Momo Glass.

Medela.

Milk Bank . 

Nuby.

NUK: Nuk Orthodontic.

Nuture Pure Glass.

organicKidz Stainless Steel.

Parent’s Choice.

Do you know any others?
Where can I purchase BPA free baby bottles?

OTHER SUGGESTIONS REGARDING BPA:

Look at recycle codes on the bottom of plastic containers.
There are seven classes of plastics used in packaging.
Some, but not all, plastics that are marked with recycle codes 3 or 7 may be made with BPA.
So, in general, plastics that are marked with recycle codes 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 are very unlikely to contain BPA.



PROTECTING YOUR BABY FROM BPA:
Avoid BPA while you are pregnant
Avoid BPA while you are breastfeeding
Don't heat plastic bottles
Use BPA free baby bottles

We would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions on BPA and your baby.