Paintless & non-toxic paint

A nice round red/purple cabbage...

Chop it up!

Boil in water (with lid on; lid off here for photo!)

Strain cabbage; you can eat the cabbage or boil separately for borscht soup or a veg stew! We had ours with noodles  in miso soup :-), and then a 2nd batch with toasted sesame seeds. 

Find a nice tray & pour the cabbage juice into it. Using tongs, dip your paper into the purple juice.

Swirl it around! Remember to wear your apron!

It can really stain (see above)

Hang your piece of paper to dry!

Remember to place an old rug underneath

When they're dry, you're ready to paint with non-toxic paint:

a) diluted vinegar & water - turns the paper pink

b) baking soda & water - turns the paper  green

It's also a good time to explain to older kids the chemistry behind it all!

My son went crazy and soaked the whole sheet !

This is the result. We'll be using this for our next home project!

Anyone heard of Melalueca

Has anyone heard of this line of products? They market themselves as being green and environmentally friendly.  I went to their talk but it seemed all hype. I didn't get to see the full list of ingredients on the products. There was on laundry detergent with a really strong chemical smell but the lady said it was "lavendar".  I'm skeptical, but would love to hear your comments.

Hong Kong getting hotter

I have to agree with this article. Quote: "As Hong Kong steams into summer, millions of air conditioners kick in to cool the sweltering city -- ensuring, scientists say, that the future will be even hotter."  If I'm in HK during the summer, I need a small cardi for the air-con. They're on at full blast!!! And when you step off the bus, you're glasses fog up, and that's how cold it gets!  But HK's not alone. In Singapore, we get the same thing. I have colleagues who have a coat in the office ( I kid you not), and I have seen someone wear a turtle neck :-)

Heavy rain again, not to mention floods!!!

Well, yesterday I was late for work by an hour all because it was literally pelting with rain. The path I had to take from the main junction to the train station was flooded (well, ankle depth) and no matter where I put my umbrella I got soaked !  I then found out my umbrella was leaking.  By the time I reached Bishan, the Bishan Canal was overflowing!!!!  Then this was what I saw near my office!!!!   This is the 2nd time in Jun that major flooding has happened in Singapore.  I would have to say it's climate change!!!

I wonder

With the BP oil spill, or rather leak, still not resolved, I wonder whether this will push leaders to recognise the huge risks our huge appetite for oil, and begin to move to renewables. Or maybe it should be the individual. A lot of us (us being Earthlings and of no particular country) may curse BP, but we still drive our cars and use our air conditioning / heaters.  Time to put words into action!!

Stressful times

Work has been stressful this week. Have been using my Badger Balm stress reliever and it has a great lemony smell. Only thing I don't like about it is I need to dig my fingers in there to get it out so you can't really share it with anyone (although my colleague did get his fingers in there, which rather annoyed me!!!)

Here comes the bride!

You have to love this wedding dress, and all you need are XL V-necked T-shirts. And when you've finished, you can make it into a normal day dress!! This will def make your wedding green :-)

Recycled Scrabble Tile

I think this cute!  Check out Jubilantwares etsy shop for this recycled scrabble tile :-)

Photo:  Jubilantwares

Mint

My neighbour has been growing mint for the past year, and they are HUGE (see below) !!! They are not like the ones you see in the supermarket or in a restaurant.  She uses them to freshen up her house and she doesn't need to use any chemical fresheners.  I haven't tried it yet, but my neighbour says that all you have to do is take the whole stalk (leaves and all) and plunge them into water. Anyway, she will be popping by to show me!  I shared with her my mint & ginger tea remedy for cold & flu :-)

Friend of Water

Apparently the place where my hubby goes for football every Sunday is a "Friend of Water". If you are an FoW, then it means that you will have contributed to increasing the public's awareness in conserving water. Hmmm..... I'm not sure how St. Wilfred's contributed. It would sure help if the certificate had some sort of description. Maybe it's for letting PUB put up their posters on their premises, but I hope it's more than that!

Cats & Orangutans

It's the school hols for my little one and we went to see a cat photo exhibition downtown at the Arts House, Raffles Place. It's the Cats of the World Photo Exhibition. My son, T, and I had a good time but he was disappointed as he was expecting 100s of photos! He even said that he would like to raise a cat at home. Not sure whether that's possible if he's 4 year old. The raising might be left to me in the end!! The exhibition is organised by the Cat Welfare Society and they sell the photos (S$30 for this year's photos, and half price for previous exhibitions) to raise money for their work. We bought 7 postcards of the photos for S$12 and we plan to frame them in our home.

Next stop was the Asian Civilisations Museum. We popped by to have a look at the "The Testament Of Tebaran: Borneo's Moment Of Truth" exhibition. Photos by National Geographic photographer Mattias Klum of Borneo's tropical rainforest, it's people, the destruction caused by logging are on display. T had a lot of questions especially with the pics of one Orangutan who was traumatised having just witnessed his mother being killed by loggers, and the palm oil plantations. I think kids understand environmental destruction better when you ask them how they would feel if they were the "baby animal that had just lost its parents and had no home to go back to". I was a bit stuck when I told him what palm oil is used for, and of course, when I told him "biscuits, cookies, ice cream...." he seemed to have forgotten about what I had told him earlier. So I had to repeat everything and then told him about sustainable plantations, and eating things that don't have palm oil. Not sure if he understood what "sustainable" meant but I think he understands that we shouldn't buy things that we don't really need, and we should recycle. I think....

Floods in Singapore!!

Didn't think that I would see this at my workplace!!!

More organic purchases

Ok, I only bought one item since my last organic skincare purchase. My friend, J, suggested I visit Cremeparlour when I told her that I wanted to buy the 100% pure lavender body scrub again. They are having a 30% sale on all 100% pure items!!! Woo hoo!!! Unfortunately, they don't have the large pots of scrub in lavender, but I settled on an eye cream with caffeine in it. It is a 29ml (1oz) bottle with organic green tea, organic calendula, organic rosehip oil, organic green coffee, vit E, Vit C, extracts of coffee cherry, organic rosemary, organic oregano, organic thyme
, organic grapefruit seed and organic goldenseal, organic vanilla absolute and candelilia wax (that was a mouthful!!). Haven't tried it yet, but with all those ingredients, it must smell nice ... yum! According to 100% pure's website, the cream has anti-inflammatory properties, will depuff and reduce swelling :-)

Another view on organic, slow and local food movement

I read this article posted on the Foreign Policy. It gives a thought provoking argument on how the current flavour of organic, slow and local food does nothing to help the millions of hungry in developing countries. Sometimes I think we tend to get obssessed with certain issues that we forget about the less fortunate.

Tea towels

A lot of people who go on holiday (okay, rather the people I know, and happen to be British!) would buy tea towels as souvenirs or gifts. I'm sure they or the recipient would have a lot of them sitting around their homes, or hung up on their walls. Wouldn't it be nice to do some DIY and make it unique!

Go to this website for ideas! Andy Murray Design has great ideas. I love the watch and bag idea :-)

Don't toss your litter on the floor

They belong in the bin! Litterbugs, be warned: NEA is increasing its patrols and its fines!

Another reconstruction in progress

Inspiration from Craftzine.com

I have 2 pink worn out tops which I'm thinking of combining together. I was going to do a one-shoulder ruffle shirt but considering that I have never worn such a style in my life, I thought I'd do something else. Here are shots of the in project in progress:

I've cut the bottom off to use as the ruffles in the v part of the stripey shirt. I'm also thinking of doing cap sleeves and make a thin belt to go with it. Stay posted!!!!

DIY Rose Headband & Bow

Check out the tutes at the Guardian!

Photos courtesy of Guardian.

The Pleated Poppy

I came across another refashioner, Lindsey, at The Pleated Poppy, via Just Better Together

Lindsey's flower embellishments on a T-shirt look great, and the crayon roll is excellent for keeping the crayons together and not broken!! I'm definitely putting these on my to do list.

Great idea from London

How do we raise awareness of the endangered Asian elephants? Form an Elephant Parade!!! My friend in the UK was there to take a look and the event definitely created a stir, especially with the kids!

Sign their petition >> http://www.elephantparadelondon.org/petition/

It calls on governments around the world to recognise the plight of the Asian elephants and to get programmes going to secure their future.

Bear parts being sold in Singapore

I can't believe it!!! How can this happen here? Bear gall bladders were being sold at last weekend's Singapore Food Expo, which was organised by the Singapore Food & Manufacturers' Association. Surely SFMA should have spotted something wrong, no? Kudos to the member of the public who reported it to ACRES. Acres officers were at the scene in 30 minutes, went undercover and found out from the vendor, Jilin Senke Trading, that bear gall bladders were being sold at the expo for S$700 each. Apparently the vendor had sold all except one gall bladder, and was planning to order more! This means there is a demand for it here!! That is a real shame.

Photo: ACRES via Straits Times

Party costume again - DIY apron for kids

I wonder how many party costumes I have to come up with while my son is at school. His school is having a UN party again, you may recall the panda I made him last year (he was CHina). He's been learning about the different countries and has been coming back home with "Sawadeecap" and "Konnichiwa". This year he wants to represent Italy, probably because he loves pizza and pasta.
I took 2 old T shirts (one white and one green) and cut out the shape for a kiddy-sized cooking apron (ie. Italian chef).

Hubby's old T-shirt

Son helping to trace out the map of Italy from my apron

Cut out the pattern for the apron!
Getting the bits together!

Red bits of scrap material sewn on the apron

Tadah!