Tuesday Tidbit – Switch It Off

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budget, eco-friendly, energy saving, environmental, money saving, saving, Tuesday tidbit, upcycling, upcycling challenge

This one is pretty straight forward and though it’s not recycling it ties in with the ideas behind my 2 week upcycling challenge – saving resources, environmentally friendly and money saving. In the USA 20% of total energy consumption is residential. In the UK nearly 1/3 of the total energy consumption is from the home. In Australia it accounts for 77% of greenhouse gas emissions – that’s more than 3/4!

Even when your TV screen is off if it’s still on at the power point it is consuming electricity, same for your electric kettle, washing machine and dryer, computers and laptops and phone chargers, stereo and radio and of course lights and heaters. If you’re not using them turn them off at the wall. It only takes a second to turn them back on again and in the meantime your planet and your wallet will breathe a little easier.

Upcycling Challenge Project 2: Scrap Paper Envelopes

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cheap, crafts, DIY, easy, envelopes, gift, homemade, letters, money saving, paper, paper crafts, personal, personalised, project, quick, reusing, reycling, upcycling

I love snail mail. I love receiving it and I love sending it. There’s something about getting a handwritten letter that just makes me all fuzzy inside – the time, effort and thought that goes into them (especially in this age of email, texts and facebook) that is instantly felt. These easy, personalised, handmade envelopes are

Upcycling Project 1: Tin Cans

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cans, cheap, crafts, DIY, easy, economic, environmental, fun, home, money saving, project, quick, recycle, tin cans, upcycle

I’m really, really into upcycling and recycling at the moment. Trying to use up things around the house I would normally throw away instead of buying more things. This is partly an economic thing (according to the budget I’ve been keeping the last few months I spend a lot more on craft and household items than I thought) but mostly just an extra awareness of how easy it is to create unnecessary waste. Maybe because it was Earth Day last week or that we missed a bin collection and I saw how quickly our recycling bin fills up or just realising that I’m constantly upset how much everything at the supermarket is packaged I resolved to have a good couple of weeks creating and reusing – or ‘upcycling’ – projects only. No trips to the craft or hardware stores for anything. If I don’t already have it I won’t use it. Two weeks like this is my goal. Hopefully by the end of this challenge I will have gotten into a more eco-friendly mindset about my crafts, what is rubbish and what isn’t and what is truly necessary.

Tuesday Tidbit – Easily remove stains from your plastic chopping board

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chopping board, cleaning, cutting board, DIY, easy, eco-friendly, kitchen, plastic, quick, stain removal, Tuesday tidbit

Does your plastic cutting board have stains on it and in its deep grooves from all your cooking? The cure for this, and a sparkling clean chopping board is half a lemon.

Cut a lemon in half, squeeze one half’s onto the board and rub it in and then let sit for 20mins before rinsing it off and letting it drip dry.

Before the lemon

After the lemon

Voila! Shiny and new.

How to take and grow rosemary cuttings

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cheap, DIY, easy, food, fresh, garden, healthy, herbs, home, propagate, rosemary, rosemary bush, solution, Spring, useful, windowsill

Spring is finally here (yay!) I love the change of season, the freshness in the air, the little green buds everywhere, the daylight lasting just that bit longer each day. Walking to work this week I saw the previously bare grass along the footpath strewn with tight buds of snowdrops and daffodils getting ready to bloom. I also love having fresh herbs – on a different but not wholly unrelated topic. I cook a lot and fresh herbs make such a difference, but can be expensive to constantly buy. So, with the oncoming Spring why not start a little windowsill herb garden? Then I can welcome the change in weather from my very own kitchen AND have delicious foods at my fingertips. One of the easiest and cheapest ways to get your own herbs is from cuttings.* You can of course buy seedlings or already developed plants from nurseries and/or the supermarket but they can cost a bit more and I find growing your own much more satisfying. Rosemary is a common and versatile herb in cooking and is also a great beginner plant for new gardeners as it’s low maintenance, hardy and long-living. It also smells great

Leah May Makes an Emergency Fund

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debt free, emergency, Emergency Fund, important, investment, life projects, money, personal finance, savings, security, you

Do you have an Emergency Fund? If you do super high-five! If you don’t it is something you absolutely should get building asap because sooner or later an emergency will happen and the last thing you want to worry about is the money required to get through it.

Tuesday Tidbit – Break in new shoes in 2 minutes

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break in shoes, DIY, easy, hairdryer, new shoes, quick, socks, solution, tuesday tidbits

I love shoes. I really, really do. However new shoes often need to be broken in, especially if they are made of leather or have features that can rub until they’re softened up. Rather than going through days, even weeks, of pain and blisters and not being able to enjoy my new footwear straight away I use this nifty trick (thanks to Anna for teaching me this all those years back) to break them in straight away.

Materials:

• Hairdryer
• Socks
• New Shoes

method:

• Put on socks and slip into your shoes.
• Aim the hairdryer on the tight section for a few seconds (wiggle and stretch your feet inside the shoe for maximum benefit).
• Keep the shoes on while they cool.
• Remove the socks and test out shoes.

They should be stretched out and comfortable, but if you need more room, then repeat the process. And there you have it – new shoes ready to wear straight away!

Tuscan Sausage and Cannellini Bean Soup

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beans, cooking, easy, healthy, homemade, recipes, sausage, soup, tasty, tuscan sausage soup

This is one of my favourite soups. It’s tasty, hearty and healthy – everything that makes a soup great. It’s an easy one-pot affair and quick to cook and the recipe is easy to vary as you desire (or your pantry demands). This makes a decent amount, approx. 10 serves (depending on bowl size) so make sure to use a big pot and any left overs are easy to store in the fridge/freezer and reheat without losing flavour or texture. I sometimes add a few chopped celery stalks if I have some to use up and along with the basil some herbs de provance or a few crushed fresh basil leaves as well.

Growing your own avocado tree from a pit

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avocado, DIY, easy, fun, garden, grow an avocado tree, how to, pit, plant, tree

I love avocados. So yummy, so very very yummy.So what better way to combine my love of avocados, their left over pits and my need for greenery than to grow an avocado tree or two?

This is an easy project but I should make it clear from the outset that avocado plants grown from pits rarely produce their own fruit unless grafted and if they do it won’t be for at least 5 or 6 years. That said they are lovely little trees and look lovely in the garden or as an indoor plant.

Teeny-weeny pom-poms!

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crafts, cute, DIY, easy, fun, miniture, pom poms, quick, tiny, wool

As a kid I loved making pom poms – it was fun and easy and quick and you got cool fluffy balls at the end – who wouldn’t love that? Well I recently discovered something that made pom poms even better – TINY pom poms! All that fluff in miniature – yay! And they’re even easier to make than regular pom poms.