Play Time! The Bubblerator AKA Bubble Snake Maker

We've had such dreary, miserable weather here the past week or so, and I think everyone's been going spare trying to entertain themselves and/or their kids. So today is a blissful change - the sun is shining, it's warm, I'm even wearing a t-shirt!

I actually had to drag Isy outside with promises of bubbles (strange, seeing as she's usually trying to get outside as soon as humanly possible most days) but she warmed up to it soon enough.

We started off with regular bubbles (always a hit) and then I remembered the Bubblerator AKA Bubble Snake Maker.

I read about this little contraption online somewhere last week (can't for the life of me remember where though) and it's really easy and quick to make - about 3 minutes - and bonus: it's repurposing!

You'll need:


an empty plastic water bottle, or similar, lid removed
a strong rubber band or a hair elastic
a bowl of water
a bowl of dishwashing liquid
a small face washer or teatowel scrap (10cm x 10cm-ish)

1. Cut the bottom off the bottle.

2. Place the washer over the cut end of the bottle and secure with the band.

3. Dip the washer end into the water, then the dishwashing liquid. Blow through the other end and... BUBBLE SNAKES AHOY!

Easy, fun and sudsy!

In the Garden: How to Make Leaf Mould

image via Self Sufficient UK

While today is actually the first day of winter (boo!) the majority of deciduous trees around us have still yet to lose all their leaves, which means two things: Mess and the opportunity to make leaf mould.

Sounds Gross. What is it?

It's basically the term used for rotted down autumn leaves. The gardening nerd in me knows that this stuff is beeeyootiful for your garden - it can be used as a soil conditioner (to improve the overall health of your soil) or as a gentle, rich mulch to help retain water and keep weeds at bay, and gardeners often refer to it as "precious gold". It's perfect for ferns and rainforest plants in particular, but will help enrich any soil in your garden by improving the water retention and overall health of the garden.

How do I Make it?

Super simple. Just rake up all your fallen leaves and give them a spray with the garden hose. You want them to be fairly wet, to help speed up the decomposition. Then fill some heavy-duty black plastic bin bags with your leaves, adding a handful of blood and bone every 30cm or so (this appears to be optional, but I trust the word of Gardening Australia!) Close your bags up, poke some holes in it with a garden fork and leave in a sheltered place, preferably on soil/grass, for at least a year.

So, this isn't an activity for those who are after instant gratification, but it is worthwhile. If nothing else, it gets me outside in the chilly winter air for a while, and gives me something for my garden for basically no cost.

How do I Know When it's Ready?

It will be crumbly and sweet-smelling, and resemble the look of regular compost. (Just a side note: you can't add many autumn leaves to your regular compost bin, as they don't easily break down in those conditions. Too many and it will slow your pile down.)

Sounds Good. Any Tips?

If you want the process to go a little quicker, try dumping all your leaves on the lawn and mowing over them. This will break them up, meaning they'll break down quicker. Also, there are special leaf mould compost bins available, which compress the leaves, apparently speeding the process up some more, so perhaps try keeping a weight of some sort on top of your pile. Maybe some timber or corrugated iron would do the trick.

So, if this ridiculous sinus infection goes away some time soon, this is what I plan on doing over the weekend. And, funnily enough, it makes me not dislike winter quite so much!

Play Time! The Useful Box.

Strainers are way fun, but a useful box is better

I'm guessing most people grew up watching Play School. I know I did. And in fact, I remember pulling out my first tooth watching Play School. I was trying to pull my green flanelette nightie over my knees, using my teeth (as you do) when POP! out came my tooth. I freaked out. And somewhere in the back of my mind, I have always associated Big Ted and Jemima with my teeth ever since.

Weird anecdotes aside, I've started to put together a Useful Box for Isla, when we get our craft on. It's a great way to recycle bits and pieces from around the house, and it means we can replicate lots of the crafts they make on Play School. (Almost all the crafts on Play School are made with toilet rolls, masking tape, crepe paper and paddle pop sticks. Totes inventive!) Not all of it is recycled, but some are party leftovers and others are from cheapy shops, like The Reject Shop.

So far I've got:

• egg cartons
• toilet rolls
• glad wrap/foil rolls and boxes
• pasta boxes
• ribbon and fabric scraps
• pegs
• wool
• pipe cleaners
• googley eyes
• mini pom poms
• paddle pop sticks
• plastic cups
• paper plates
• stickers
• newspaper
• tissue paper
• old magazines
• butchers twine
• balloons
• felt
• rubber bands (from our newspapers)
• crepe paper

It's a work in progress, but I love that I can look at our recycling or "rubbish" and find fun, creative uses for a lot of it. Plus I totally love making things out of crepe paper!

If you're looking for a humongous list of creative play time activities for your little ones, nieces, nephews or neighbours' kids, or if you're just keen on making puppets out of toilet rolls, check out the Play School activities listed here. Many a winters day will be had...

3 Quick Things To Do This Weekend

Recycle aluminium foil, or, you know, make an elephant out of your scraps.

As you know, I'm all about the "do what you can do, when you can do it" mentality. So here's 3 quick tips you can try this weekend, that actually do make a big difference over time:

1. If you take money out at the ATM, say no to a receipt. Over a year, this really adds up. (Just look at the contents of my purse for proof!)

2. Clean your dryer's lint filter. Apparently a clean filter means it takes 30% less power for your dryer to run (and if you've had damp and humid weather like us recently, that is very good news.)

3. Use al-foil instead of cling wrap. You can recycle al-foil in your council pick-up (just make sure it's relatively clean of food scraps and squish it into a ball so the sorters can find it.) If you want to know what else you can recycle in your council area, check this site out.

Easy-peasy!

Chamberpot Madness

So Saturday we made our way in the rain (seriously, crazy amounts of rain here. crazy) back to Dave's Furniture Bargains in Windsor, and my beautiful chamber pot was still there! Score 1 for the Brooke.

Unfortunately, it was $25. Score 1 for the Dave.

We bought it anyway. Score 2 for the Dave.

The Dave wins.

We have since decided that garage sales need to be part of our life. No-one is going to charge you $25 for a chamberpot at a garage sale.

And here endeth the lesson.

Rescuing Old Furniture

The furniture hunt over the weekend has really sparked my interest in rescuing and renovating old furniture for our house. Often older furniture is better made which is a plus, and I love the idea of giving something old a new lease on life, and potentially rescuing it from landfill.

I've seen a lot of repurposed and renovated furniture featured on design*sponge and other sites, and am super keen to try my hand at it. I've got a few pieces already that could do with a makeover - a chest of drawers for Isy's room, a tragic desk we bought at Reverse Garbage, a hall stand and our timber outdoor setting.

It's just a matter of finding time to do any/all of these, considering we still need to finish painting the house first. But in the meantime, I'm keeping a little inspiration file:

source unknown

via design*sponge

via Martha Stewart

via design*sponge

via Smile and Wave

via design*sponge

The Before and After Basics column on design*sponge has given me a heap of really good info, and when I finally get around to working on some of these projects I'll be sure to put together a little how-to myself, because I know the product info will likely be different than those available in the States.

Project Compost: Do's and Don'ts

Because a photo of compost is boring. Huge earthworm found here.

In follow-up to last week's post on restarting the compost bins, I've put together a list of compost do's and don'ts that may make the whole process a little easier.

Again, I am no composting expert and much of what I say is probably quite unscientific, but it is a record of things that have/have not worked for us.

DO:

• compost most vegie scraps, egg shells, tea bags and coffee grounds
• take a sniff of your bins occasionally - there should not be a rotten smell at all. if there is, the heap may be too wet or you may need to add some dry hay/garden waste to the bin
• look out for insects in your pile - a good pile is squirming with worms and other helpers
• ensure you keep the lid on tight - not only to keep possums, cats, dogs etc out of the bin but also to keep the heat generated in the bin, in the bin. this helps speed up the composting process

DON'T:

• compost corn, breads, rice or pasta - these can attract rodents
• compost meat or fish - these types of bins don't reach sufficiently high temperatures to kill any potentially harmful bacteria
• compost human waste or dog/cat poo. for basically the same reason as above.
• add water to the heap unless it's totally dry - the scraps and garden waste should provide enough moisture

If I think of anything else that's similarly important, I'll be sure to add it to the site. And if you've got any questions let me know - I may not know the answer but I could likely find out.

Project Compost: Restart

Our sad compost bins.

 So the garden has been roundly neglected of late (more on this and what I'm doing to rectify the situation in a later post) and the poor old compost heap has seen many better days too. It was really flourishing pre-renovation, as I'd been working on it for about six months and had two big bins worth of garden gold almost ready to go. The little fairy wrens in the yard loved all the bugs that scattered every time I opened the lid and the willy wagtails were well pleased when I'd share some of the insects with them.

Then the builders came in and knocked both bins down, spreading my compost all over the backyard, on day one of the reno.

I get a really awful, wasteful feeling in the pit of my tummy every time I throw away food scraps (similar to the feeling I get using disposable nappies, truth be told) and I think about restarting the ol' compost bins - stat. Then life gets in the way, as usual, and the next time I think about it is when I'm tossing tonight's salad scraps in the bin.

But no more. This week fortnight-ish I will buy some manures, chop some garden waste and start the bins again.

I thought I could offer a very very basic rundown of how I build our compost bins, in case this is something you're interested in. Once it's set up, it really is a super simple way to cut down on your rubbish dramatically, and as a bonus you get the most beautiful plant food imaginable - for free!

*NB There is a huge amount of information out there on composting. There are books and blogs and websites all dedicated to the science of it. I'm not offering any scientific advice here, just a basic overview of what I do at home. This is likely not best practice. Probably not even close.

You need to get yourself two or three bins. Bunnings sell simple compost bins for around $30 each. These have a flip-top lid and an open bottom (the bottom needs to be open to allow worms and insects in, as well as allowing you to turn your heap easily). Place the bins somewhere they will stay pretty dry, and somewhere that makes depositing your scraps easy.

To start, I buy a couple of bags of manure from a farm nearby. Any type will do really, but chook poo is good. I add a layer of this to the bottom of the bin, followed by some grass clippings, some garden cuttings (if these are in large pieces, try breaking them up or running the mower over them first), some hay and a bucket of kitchen scraps. I generally keep these layers to around 10cm deep each, with the exception of the dense grass clippings, 3-5cm will do there. I also make sure not to compact the layers down as composting requires lots of air.

The compost bin has officially begun! I now add our kitchen scraps over the week, occasionally covering them with a handful of hay or leaves. Once the layer of scraps reaches around 10cm I start the layering all over again.

After around a month or so I lift the whole bin off the pile and move it to one side, leaving the entire pile exposed. I then use my shovel and garden fork to work through the pile, separating any big chunks and aerating the whole lot. Then I shovel it all back into the bin. I keep adding, layering, moving and aerating until the bin is pretty much full, then I leave it alone for a while. Depending on the weather it may be three months, it may be more. Occasionally, if I remember, I may turn the pile to help speed things along and get an idea of how the compost is cooking.

Once bin #1 is cooking, I start bin #2 using the same method. The theory being that once the compost in bin #1 is ready to use in the garden, bin #2 will be ready to cook. Then bin #3 is used for depositing scraps etc, while bin #1 stores the usable compost and bin #2 cooks away. In reality, the length of each stage varies and there will be times where you have two bins cooking and no usable compost.

At this early stage in my gardening career I can't worry about that so much, only take pleasure in the knowledge that my scraps will be fertilising my garden sometime in the near future. Hopefully yours will too!!

To stop this post from becoming any lengthier, I'll put together another post for later in the week that outlines the things you should and shouldn't compost in this type of pile.

Things I Have Done

When I started thinking about living life more lavender (twee alert!), I was overwhelmed with how much I could do. In fact, I was so overwhelmed that I did nothing instead. Information overload and all that.

It wasn't until I re-read A Slice of Organic Life that I started to think in small chunks. And those chunks were things I could actually manage.

True to form, I still ended up getting way over-excited and decided I would become the permaculture-organic-make-or-grow-everything-myself Queen. But I have since settled back down and decided that any improvements we make are still improvements, and besides, I can't sew to save my life so there is no way I could possibly make everything.

The best way for me to tackle information-overload-induced procrastination is by doing one thing at a time. So weekly, or more regualrly perhaps, I'll provide a post with a you-can-do-it-now tip. Sometimes they'll be big, sometimes they'll be small, but you can almost always do it now and improve your LQ (Lavender Quotient).

So if you're looking for one thing you can do right now to improve your LQ, make it this:

Check out what you can and can't recycle 
in your local council area. 

Recycling Near You is such a cool, simple concept (Sorry, this one is Australia only at this stage). Just pop your postcode in and it tells you straight away info like what you can/can't recycle in your council bins, what your hard rubbish nights are, links to council documents, etc.

Mobius Symbol. From Bless Designs.

Again, I'm in danger of exposing what an enormous dork I am, but I was so excited to get a definitive answer to the question of what exactly I can recycle. I was so stoked to find out that any plastics from the laundry, kitchen and bathroom can be recycled by my council (sans lids and not including clingwrap) as well as the fact that the envelopes I receive on a daily basis with the plastic windows can also be chucked in with the recyclables. We can recycle al-foil here so I now use that and baking paper rather than clingwrap, and not that we order take-away very often but when we do, the plastic boxes can all go too. Score one for the nerds!

So that is one thing you can do this week that will actually make a difference. And I started paying so much more attention to what was going into our rubbish bin as a result, which has meant we now only fill our regular rubbish bin to about 1/4 of its capacity. Our recycling bin is always full though. Happy days.