"Snowflake" Dress

Here it is!!  I embellished my old jean dress with the material from my orangey red maternity top. I gave it a Christmas feel with snowflake patterns, well, sort of!

Can you guess?

It's been raining over the weekend again!!!  We made some Christmas cookies....But can you guess what I have been making out of an old jean dress and a orangey red maternity top? I love the colour of the top and couldn't part with it, and I really like the shape of the dress.... will reveal all before Christmas! ;-)

Public Survey on Smoking Ban

Are you irritated by the cigarette smoke that wafts along the common areas of your housing estate? Are you keen on getting certain areas in Singapore included in the smoking prohibition?  You can have your views heard.  Go to the survey at REACH.

How to use your egg crates....

Apart from using egg crates in your kid's DIY samuri costume, try out this great idea that was posted in the NY Times yesterday!  The only issue I have is where can I get so many of the egg crates? I'll probably have to fight it out with my "karanguni" (that's rag & bone man in English) neighbour!!!

Reduce, Reuse, UPcycle!

I found a lovely blog Reduce, Reuse, UPcycle! which posts great ideas on how to do the 3Rs with all the stuff in your home. Go and take a look and you just might create a lovely Christmas wreath out of socks or sweaters or even a paper Christmas tree! :-)

Innovation without being high-tech

We're always being told that innovation is always about being high-tech (think big, think lots of money, think sophisticated) but it doesn't always have to be this way.


I read about three things about how simple ideas can get things done with less and probably at a fraction of the cost. It's time we dealt with environmental and social issues in developing countries this way - what works in our country might not work in others ....

Photo: Fabio Medda

a) Sheep Lawn Mowers - I L-O-V-E this idea. Not only is Eddie Miller of Ohio helping himself get through the economic downturn, but he's helping the environment. It puts a smile to my face :-)

Photo: Vasantdave

 b) Use of a sari to filter cholera contaminated water - According to the article, Bangladeshi village women would use their saris to filter sweetened drinks to get rid of leaves, insects and other visible debris. Researchers found that water filtered through a clean sari cloth folded four times could filter out the cholera. 


c) Attaching a tiny microscope to a mobile phone (look @ the bkgrd story when you access the link)  to take photos of mosquito larvae instead of taking live samples and sending them back to the lab! I like this idea from Singapore!!! 

Nappies & Pads

Ever since I blogged about not having an addition to the family, I can't believe that it took me this long to take out all my son's old cloth nappies and make them into something else!  I decided that they would become:


a) hand towels for the bathroom (I folded them in half and went crazy with the sewing machine. See pic above)
b) cleaning cloths for the kitchen
c) rags (the really yellow looking ones!)

I also "discovered" my bra pads from breast feeding days. I couldn't find any takers for them, but I then realised that they make really good makeup removers!!! They're soft, made out of cotton, durable and all you have to do is pop them in the wash after each use, or like me, just hand wash them with Dr. Bronner's!! No more cotton pads for me :-)

Happenings

Hee.... forgot to post these pics until today. We had fun cycling to Admiralty Park last Saturday, and I spotted some recycling activities at City Square Mall at Farrer Park on Sunday. Unfortunately it was too early in the morning (7.30am!) for me to be part of the action at the mall but I did find out there is a new SLS-free product on the market by IDOCARE. I am a bit hesitant to try out any new laundry detergent  now  though (except for maybe soapnuts) as my hubby might break out in rashes again.  If anyone with eczema has tried their products, pls email me!! Would love to find out from you :-)

DIY Snowflakes

The weather here has been terrible these past few days. One minute it's raining cats and dogs, and the next it's bright and sunny. Not sure whether I should remain indoor or out! We decided to stay indoors yesterday and I raided my hubby's CD-ROM stack. He had lots of CD-ROMS that had not been used for over 10 years. In the end, my little boy and I made snowflakes which we hung just outside the hallway. It's a great addition to our Christmas decorations!

Community action against litter

Photo: www.sxc.hu

I came across the Ugly Indian website and was amazed at how total strangers come together and get into action to clean their local neighborhood of for example litter, open dumps etc, for free. I'm not sure why they called their group the Ugly Indian but judging from their website, they put the blame of dirty streets mainly on the lack of civic standards.  It reminds me of how we call ourselves the "ugly Singaporeans" when we have really bad etiquette. Perhaps we should stop blaming others for the litter problem in Singapore, stop relying on others to pick up our mess (I do see youngsters in my estate chucking their empty cans non-nonchalantly and let the migrant worker sweep it up!!!!) and act together to solve it. This way we set an example to those who come here to stay.

DIY Blue Angel for Christmas

When I made my 3D Christmas angel earlier on, I thought that it would be better to crochet the wings on rather than have them attached to another hanger.  So I made another angel, this time out of an old blue t-shirt, one clothes hanger and wires.  You still need the wires to stiffen the wings.  Apart from the gold glitter glue, everything else was recycled from something.