Home made paper

Ta da! How's this for an eco-friendly Christmas: home made paper, made with scraps of coloured paper saved all year long (Nerd alert! Nerd alert!), then mixed with old print outs from Galumph's dad's work. I like to recycle where I can, and according to The Guardian, "One of the biggest sources of waste in the UK each Christmas is wrapping paper, with more than 8,000 tonnes being used each year - the equivalent of approximately 50,000 trees." Well, make that 8,000 tonnes minus about 3 metres from us. Except that we're not in the UK. Now I'm confusing myself.

Anway, that's my Christmas gift wrapping all, er, wrapped up, bwahahahahah bad pun intended. Although, since I let Grumbles help me there may have been a bit of a story invented about how we are making Santa's life easier by providing him with the paper, so he doesn't have to wrap the pressies, being so busy and all. Now, when he gets to our place, he grabs the gifts from his sleigh and then does a bit of Santa-style magic and hey presto, gifts wrapped in paper we made for him.

So, the paper is pretty nifty, hey?And this was only one batch, done on those crazy hot days last week. Tell you what, don't make paper on a 37 C day. Not a smart idea, being out in all that heat, squatting down and lying the sheets of wet paper pulp just so. (Don't worry, Grumbles was inside having her nap at this point - she more helped with the ripping of paper) At one stage I got up and was soooo dizzy I thought I might pass out. At least I was out the front, where hopefully a neighbour would have spotted me sooner rather than later, preferably before I was pecked to death by crazy maternal nesting magpies. Because death by 'pies would be a sad way to go indeed. Plus the Galumph would never get his bond back if he couldn't remove the blood stains from the front steps.

Ewwww! Enough of that. Back to the heat. You should have felt the effect it had on my heart! It was going ker-whallop, ker-whallop, ker-doing. Actually, it's been doing that for a while now. So yesterday I trotted off to the doctor, who 'hmmmmmmed' in a most disconcerting manner before ordering blood tests and an ECG. Oh, the fun!

Test results on Monday. I'll keep you posted.

It's a privilege - don't take it lightly

Oh Australians, I'm not one to tell you whom to vote for, but please please please don't vote with your wallet or with your own superficial interests. Vote for the good of all others. Think about those who will come after you. Think of them and our future. Think of your children and their children and of all the children who will ever be, growing up in this world of ours, which maybe never to be repeated in regards to good environmental fortune and sheer simple luck. We have so much to treasure - and so much to (rapidly) lose.

Think of them all. And for God's sake cast your vote accordingly. As the Guardian says, this is the first environmental election.

A dress for Election day!

Do you remember a while ago I was blathering away about my summer wardrobe, and how spiffy it was going to be, what with the hand knitted matchy matchy cardigans and all? I'd forgive you if you had forgotten, as the silence around these parts concerning aforementioned wardrobe has been somewhat on the deafening side, ja?

Well, let us be silent no more! This week has seen me put aside projects for Grumbles (and when I say projects I mean two more spotty tops, plus another top with a fitted bodice and flared bottom, AND a dress for the daugher of a friend and yes, hopefully I'll blog about them all when I take a decent pic) and finally claim the machine as my own.


I've been using Vogue 8184, which is a terrific pattern, as the basis for the dress. I've pretty much kept the bodice intact (because who wants to make their own bodice pattern? Pwah, too much hard work!), taking the side seams in 1 cm at the top, tapering down towards the waist in order to make the dress fit my not-so-ample bosoms, but I have gone all freelance like on the strap and skirt.

The skirt has been quite easy to do. I slashed and spread the front and back skirt to create extra fullness (take a peek here for how to do it, although I didn't utilise the dart points), then did random gathering to make the flouncey look. Fingers crossed I get it finished tonight, because I think it's just the thing to cast my vote in this Saturday! Elections only occur once every three years - you've gotta dress up for them, right?!

Playing with dust motes swirling in the afternoon sun

The Walk

Wow - what a day! The Jorth fambly joined 50,000 (!) others on the Walk Against Warming, and what a walk it was. We'd organised to meet Nichola, but unfortunately we completely failed to find each other in the crowd. Darn!

Hopefully all these people walking will get the message across to the pollies that we want something done about climate change, and we want it done NOW!

Speaking of all things environmental, if you fancy figuring out your carbon footprint, the Galumph found a most excellent site last night: ZeroFootPrint. It's the most thorough one either of us has found to date, and it offers great, well thought-out suggestions for lowering your impact, based on the answers you give. Well worth a couple of minutes of your time.

Okay, that's enough blathering on for today. Hope you all enjoy this sunny Monday (or whatever the weather is in your part of the world).

Thank you!

Well, there's a whole heap of good feelings going on around chez Jorth in regard to the response to the whole Etsy shop thing. Cheers, maties! You'll all be mucho pleased to know that I've decided to take the plunge, and open up me own wee little shop.

Check it out right here! I've put the earrings from the last post up, so if you really did fancy a pair then you'd best get cracking and snaffle yourself a pair, as they are all very extremely limited edition, few-of-a-kind wonders! And as a happy, make-you-feel-good bonus, $2 from each sale will be donated to Greenpeace. Hooray!

Rightio, that's enough blathering from me. Hope you all are having a tremendous weekend. Don't forget about the Walk Against Warming tomorrow, Aussies!

Should I or shouldn't I?

I've been having a little think lately about crafting and blogging, and Things In General, and, well, I'm wondering if maybe, just maybe, I should open up a little Etsy shop.

I could have spotty tops, and clothes for big people and small, and maybe even a few of these:

Whaddya all think?

Walk Against Warming

What are you guys doing on Sunday, 11th November at 1 o'clock? You're doing the Walk Against Warming? Excellent - so am I!

The more people we can get, the more notice the politicians will take. This is a fantastic way to let them know that we are serious about what is at stake, and committed to preventing any further climate change. It's especially important that we get the message across in these crucial weeks before the Federal election.

So get your friends together, pack a picnic basket, and meet up to do the walk. If this plea of mine doesn't move you, then just think of the penguins. Oh, the poor global-warming-affected penguins!

Walk for meeeeeeeee!

7.5 weeks - yikes!

I glanced at the calender the other day, and was most surprised to discover it was a mere 8 weeks until Christmas. And now that 8 has turned into 7 and a half - yikes! Where has the year gone? Sometimes I wish that I lived in a very cold part of the Northern Hemisphere, where it was be so darned freezing outside that you'd be happy to stay in, pottering away, plenty of time to get all those hand made gifts created.

But oh no. I had to be born here, in hot hot hot Australia, where Christmas season means being out and about as much as possible. No time for craft, nosireee. There's parties to attend, and end of school years, and beaches to lay upon, and horse races and "Let's catch up before Christmas!" drinks and work dos that you really can't not go to so the husband doesn't look bad and simply no end to things to take you outside and away from your craft table (not that I'm really complaining, it isn't too bad a life, you know).

But if you like to be a handmadey gifty person like me, it means you had better be organised. Which I'm not. In my brain I am, but alas that somehow doesn't translate to aways.getting.things.done. Thus today I am rushing around like a headless chicken, making lists and checking them twice, panicking about how little time I have to do everything, and instead of being sensible about it all, and actually working my way down my list in an organised manner, I'm doing a trial run of gingerbread biscuits, even though I made them only a couple of months ago and know perfectly well that the recipes works.


Still, it fills in the time that might otherwise be spent doing a bit of planning so I don't end up frazzled and barking at everyone and bugger-off-with-your-ho-ho-hos-can't-you-see-I've-got-a-deadline-here attitude. Cos who wants to miss out on that?

Spotty Top

First cab off the rank: One spotty top for Grumbles, using the pattern I always use. I can't help it - it's the perfect top! Easy to make, easy to wear, washes well, and is cute without being too girly. And she can play in it. That's the most important bit. Nothing worse than feeling constrained by your clothing, no matter how trendeeeee it may be.

I can't fully take credit for this top, though - Grumbles helped. After every seam was sewn, I'd clip my thread, and hand them carefully to Grumbles, who would dutifully race around the table to plonk them in the bin. Occaisonally, when she could see I was sewing a tricky bit, she'd rub my back and say "Good work, Mum!" What can I say - I LOVE this kid!

Once done, we trooped outside for our photoshoot. It began to gently rain as we did it, for the day was muggy, dark and dense, so we packed up the camera and then remained outside to suckle our homemade strawberry yoghurt icypoles. Suddenly the rain really began to pelt down, but instead of being sensible and heading inside, we stayed out, squealing with delight, and attracting a few odd looks from people scurrying by. Grumbles was a tad concerned about the birds getting wet, so kept squarking out "Bird! Get.Out.Of.The.RAIN!", waving about her icypole as she bellowed. I was beside myself with laughter - she looked so funny, wearing her stern, bossy face, ordering the minor birds around as the rain came down.

Man, it was a good afternoon!