Home Made Fabric Baby Wipes And Washers

Well we are in the final countdown to the arrival of our first baby who we are currently calling "Peanut" and I am trying to organise the last few things that I think we will need.
To be honest it is hard to know what we will and won't use as we have quite different ideas and ideals about consumption and waste compared to some of our friends and family and this translates over to babies as well so asking others is not yielding the information we are looking for..

As first time parents we are some what unsure how things are going to go, how we will manage and what areas of our lives we will feel the pressure with everything else we will have going on in terms of our move to New Zealand.

One of the things I was determined to get ready for Peanuts arrival was some baby washers and baby wipes.  
In the parenting info and sample packs you get at midwife appointments and on lots of parenting websites I kept seeing lists of "Must Haves For Baby" Baby only washers and towels. What a load of rubbish.  I do not have to be an expert to know there is no need for a baby to have its own set of hooded towels and washes made from extra soft cotton.  Yes I want to use soft cotton on my baby but I do not need to buy one specifically marketed at babies.

I am also not a great fan of disposable baby wipes for change time.  It is not just the chemicals that might be getting wiped all over my baby (have you seen how well those things clean dirt off things?) but I have also seen that disposable wipes get used for cleaning more than baby bottoms.
For me personally I just do not want to be creating extra rubbish or spending money on single use items.  I am not saying I will never use disposable baby wipes as I have been given some eco wipes and have some samples of commercial brands but these will be in my nappy bag for emergency use not daily use.

So I have just spent a few hours over the weekend making some wash cloths and wipes.
I had half an old single flannelette sheet and an old fitted flannelette sheet that had already been mended a few times and was no longer usable as a sheet.
The half an old single flannelette sheet was folded in half and then cut into squares approximately 20 cm square.  I did a zigzag stitch around the edges to join the two layers and stop the fraying.  I ended up with 12 lovely soft wash cloths that will be used for baby bath time.
The old fitted flannelette sheet had so many holes in the middle and was worn really thin so I just used the outside area.  I removed the elastic edging which surprisingly had not failed, and was able to get 24 squares approximately 30 cm square.  These are going to be used as baby wipes so were best left as a single layer with just a zigzag stitch around the edges to stop fraying.

Single layer wipes and double thickness striped washers.

I am really happy with the result and since the fabric has been washed many times already they are beautifully soft but the proof will be in the using.  The different colours will make it easy to know which is which, meaning that the wipes will never be used as washers and will be washed along with nappies not other washing.  I am now looking at an easy home made solution to wet the baby wipes and have seen a couple of recipes that use coconut oil, essential oil, pure soap, water and vitamin E oil as a preservative.  If anyone has a recipe they have used, made or tried that they were happy with please let me know.

What kind of wipes did/do you use for your kids?

Family History Revamped

Over the weekend Hubby has been doing some restoration work on a 123 year old door knocker and door knob that once graced the door of his grandmothers house.
They were made in England by A Kenrick and Sons, and according to a local restoration company, A Kenrick and Sons had the contract to supply all window and door hardware for the colony (Australia).  Can you imagine?  One company supplying all the door knobs, hinges, window latches and locks for all of Australia.
Sadly that house burnt down in 1994 but Hubby's dad rescued the door knob and knocker and has had them stored away since then.
With our planned move to NZ and our plans to build a new house we have been gifted the door knob and knocker to take with us.

It was in it's raw metal state and thankfully was in amazing condition considering it had been through a house fire and with all the paint burnt off and no rust other than a few little surface spots Hubby had a great place to start his restoration.

The Door Knocker and all its parts - In it's raw metal state

The Door Knob - In it's raw metal state

Each of the parts was given a clean with a wire brush to remove an loose dirt and rust.  The parts were then given a coat of rust converter/primer just to ensure the items were preserved.

The final  coat is a black satin enamel and I think it looks amazing.

Hubby had to be careful not to apply too much paint so as not to loose all the amazing details.

Now we just have to wait for a door to put it on (which hubby is also going to make one we get to NZ) and a house for the door to go in.

Have you restored anything recently?

Plastic Free July Wrap Up

Well Plastic Free July is over for another year and here is almost all of the single use plastic that we accumulated over the month.  In addition to what you see here there were a few pieces that I did not save as they had contained meat.  There were also a few bread bags but in our house these get washed and used at least one more before being put to their final use of picking up the dog poop around the yard.

Some of the things that were in the dilemma bag that I am not so worried about were the packages for the home brew ingredients which make 25 litres of beer, the coffee pack with locally made coffee and I am not sure what I could have done about avoiding the band-aids since I decided to try and slice the top of my finger off.

There was also this little pesky thing that came around the top of a jar.  I am not sure what the manufacturers put it on for because it does not actually do anything functional from what I can see. Does anyone know what they are supposed to do?

Then there were the packages that the pet medication comes in and the lid from the home brew mix.

Finally there was the empty bag of dog food which we replaced during the month.  The old ones get used for bin liners so they do get a second use but they are a really good example of a form of plastic that we just could not avoid unless we made our own dog food.  making it is something I have considered, but of all the things that I want to do for myself it is a long way down the list.  Sometimes when you strive for a simple life you have to look at where you will get the most benefit in terms of making things yourself.  For me the 1 bag of dog food we buy every few months saves me what I imagine would be a number of hours which I could put to better use so in this case I am happy to buy it.

Overall I am happy with how the month went and now that I have found some where to take all my soft plastic for recycling  it makes me feel much better about the small amount we do end up with.  I will still work at reducing what comes into our house where I can and I really hope that everyone who reads this will at least start to consider how much plastic enters their home and what they do with it.
Yes it takes a bit more effort to save it up and take it to a location where they accept it for recycling but I would rather do that the send it to land fill.

How did you go during the month?

Slow Living July 2014

Linking up with Linda who has taken over from Christine in hosting the Slow Living Nine.  I am so glad this is continuing as it is great to hear what everyone is up to.

Nourish -Make and bake as much as possible from scratch. Ditch over packaged, over processed convenience foods and opt for 'real' food instead.
There has been heaps of cooking and baking in the house over the past month and since we were also participating in Plastic free July it was all home made food for us.

Prepare - Stockpile and preserve. Freeze extra meals or excess garden/market produce. Bottle/can, dehydrate or pickle foods to enjoy when they are not in season.
Mostly we are making use of our stockpile rather than adding to it but I have been but I have been adding lemons and limes to the bag of them I have in the freezer.   I just throw them in whole and when citrus season is over I have them on hand.

Reduce - Cut down on household waste by re-using, re-purposing and repairing.
This month we participated in Plastic Free July and this again made us focus on the waste we create.

Since I found out that soft plastics can be recycled  out rubbish volume has dramatically. We now have only 1 supermarket bag sized bag of rubbish in out bin most weeks.  We are dropping all our plastic off once a month and it is shocking to see how much there is even when you try not to bring plastic into the house.  I think that in generally we will have about 1/2 bag of plastic and 1 bag of actual rubbish each week.

Green - Start (or continue!) using homemade cleaners, body products and basic herbal remedies. The options are endless, the savings huge and the health benefits enormous.
Just the usual happening on this front.  As it is citrus season I have a catch of citrus cleaner on the go but since there is just the two of us we do not go through that much of our cleaning products.

Grow - plant/harvest. What's growing this month? What's being eaten from the garden?

The garden is producing lots of Silverbeet, cherry tomatoes and herbs, we also have plenty of citrus.  I am having another go at broccoli and mini cabbages but I may have gotten them in too late and I am growing spring onions, beetroot, fennel and celeriac. I also have some peas in but they do not seem that keen on growing so we will see if they amount to anything.

Create - To fill a need or feed the soul. Create for ourselves or for others.

Creations have been on hold this month and reading has taken over.

Discover - Feed the mind by reading texts relevant to current interests.
I have been reading lots over the last month.  Liz lent me some great books and I am working my way through them.
This month I read about 10 different books including A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of the Night and The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness which I really enjoyed.  I will talk about some of the other ones in another post.

Enhance - Community
It is all systems go in organising the car show that I am involved in and things are just getting busier and busier in this area.

Enjoy - Life! Embrace moments with friends and family. Marking the seasons, celebrations and new arrivals are all cause for enjoyment.

Both Hubby and I celebrated our birthdays in July so we had a nice meal out with his family but other than that it was pretty quiet.

This is the goats milk and date panacotta I had for my birthday breakfast when we went out.
It was as good as it looks.

What have you been up to?

The Most Disturbing Thing On TV I Have Seen In A Long Time

In conjunction with Plastic Free July I would like to recommend that everyone makes time to watch this documentary.
I aired on Australian TV last week and at the time I did not see it so tonight I watched it online.  Within 10 minutes I felt ill, angry, revolted and ashamed to be part of a so called evolved and intelligent species.

The documentary which you can watch here (until the end of the month) is called 'The Men Who Made Us Spend'.

It is an eye opening account of how products are designed to fail so that we need to replace them and how we are encouraged to spend.
Sadly there is some graphic evidence of what happens to all the electronic waste as our society constantly upgrades, including all of the brand new un-opened boxes of computing equipment, that is thrown out as it becomes 'outdated'.

I know how different the life we live is compared to many people and that we are quite a long way removed form what is the norm (although far from what I call normal).  But one of the facts I found staggering was that over the 1990's to 2000's people in America went from buying approximately 34 pieces of clothing a year to 67 pieces which equates to a new piece of clothing every 5.4 days.
I don't think I have purchased that many new pieces of clothing in the last 5 years.

In the next episode they will explore how our emotions are manipulated and our anxieties exploited so they can sell to us which I think will be very interesting.

If you have already seen it what did you think?

Putting My New Old Boots To Work

For a while now I have needed to get myself a pair of work boots and I was about to start shopping around for some when my mother in law tells me there are two old pairs of doc martins in their spare room.
The boots used to belong to either Hubby or his brother and have been in that cupboard since they both moved out of home about 20 years ago.
So I tried both pairs on and one of the pairs fit perfectly.  They are actually a size bigger than I would normally take but I wear an orthotic so that accounted for the larger size.
The boots were in great condition and the only thing was that the leather was a bit dry.  I gave them a good polish and they were set to go.

Today my new boots were put to work today dealing with a neglected garden bed.  We have two veggie beds near the house and two out near the chicken pens.  This one has been out of use for the last 8 months and was full of weeds, self seeded cheery tomatoes and the kikuyu grass was starting to invade.

You can see how overgrown it was but thankfully it was mainly milk thistles and chick weed which we fed to the chickens and they were in chicken heaven/

Number one helper was on site to make sure we were working hard and that there we no forgotten bones hiding among the weeds.

When the bed was cleared of weeds we added 4 wheel barrows of mushroom compost that we have had breaking down since January.  We started digging it through and then I decided that the chickens would do a much better job plus get the benefit of all the bugs.
So we caught a few chickens and added them and some temporary shade to the pen for the rest of the day.

Well so we thought.  I turned out that after a few hours they had had enough and were ready to go back to their pen.  It's hard to find good workers these days.
So it looks like I will be back out there on the weekend digging in the compost by hand.

Recycling Soft Plastic

The other day I watched this documentary which is very American but it got me thinking about what happens to our plastic bags here.

I have been looking at our rubbish bin lately and thinking about how we can reduce what we throw out each week.  Not that we throw out a lot.  We usually have only 2 bags of rubbish in our bin each week but I think that we could be doing more.

One of the things that I have noticed often appears in our bin are different types of soft plastic.  Until just recently I was under the impression that these could not be recycled.
I was wrong!!

The following types of plastic can be recycled:
Plastic Shopping Bags
Pasta and Rice Bags
Lolly and Biscuit Packets
Fresh Fruit and Vegie Bags
Frozen Food Bags
Magazine and Newspaper Wrapping
Clean Plastic Wrap/Film
Old Green Bags
Bread Bags
Cereal Bags (personally I save these as they protect food from freezer burn and are great for keeping lettuce fresh)

Many Coles stores have a special bin where you can take all these types of plastics to be recycled.  To fine your nearest Coles store that offers this service click here.

And check out what they do with it:

Image from here where you can learn more about the company
 who make new products from our waste plastic.

I feel like I must have been living under a rock to have not know about this but I am so glad I do now.  We are about 45 km from our nearest drop off point but I will be making a point of taking our plastic when ever I go there.

Did you know this service existed?
Do you drop off your bags?

Below are some other links that relate to the subject that you might like to check out.

Recycling Near You
SITA's Recycling Tips
Clean Up Australia
Coles - Dealing with Waste
Planet Ark