Let's go to Vienna!

Our liveable city tour has taken us to Toronto, Melbourne, and Berlin.  Today, Katja of Of Dreams and Seams, will be doing the honours for Vienna - 2nd in EIU's Global Liveability Survey.  Thank you, Katja!!

DIY Vampire Spongebob

This was a mummy and son project - after lots of colouring, gluing and tearing, we finally got his Vampire Spongebob ready.  Remember to check out my spooky umbrella which I'll be carrying :-)

DIY Spooky Umbrella for Halloween

So, I've been making something for our first proper Halloween trick or treating in our neighbourhood.  Not sure what to expect but I hope we don't overdose on sugar and chocolates! :-D

 

I decided to use this kiddy umbrella that was a hand-me-down from our next-door neighbour. It has Tigger, Piglet and Pooh Bear on it, but my son won't have anything to do with it now - "That's for girls, mummy!", plus one of the spokes has gone bust.



This is going to be our spooky umbrella!

Silence in the refashioning zone.....

Hi everyone, I haven't been refashioning so much these days. I've been caught up with making my son's Halloween costume (Sponge Bob) and I'm upcycling something (it's a secret!) for myself so that I can go trick or treating too....  will update everyone soon :-)

Agy

Save Food Cut Waste Campaign in Singapore

One of my friends shared how disappointed she was when someone posted a picture of their unfinished food and announced that it was because she over-ordered.  It reminds me of how we have become a throw-away society.   My grandma told me that her generation would mend clothes, make do with what they had, make meals out of left-overs or even out of food scraps.  Stepping into her small flat was like stepping back in time because she never threw out things that were still working. She even made her own heat reflectors from the insides of UHT Tetrapaks to beat the heat - that's how innovative she was!  I wonder what happened to our generation? Does having more money give us the right to take things for granted?

I thought it was very appropriate that there is going to be a Save Food Cut Waste campaign. It is an awareness campaign to get Singaporeans to think about the environmental and social impacts of food waste, and to encourage them to take action in reducing food waste. It will be out in November, and that's very thoughtful as Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year are just around the corner!  Do support them!

So what are some of the things that you do to reduce food waste? How do you use your leftovers? Here's what we do in my family, and most, if not all, are tips from my mum:

Vegetarianism - here are the answers!

So did you try and answer the questions from my last post on nutritional facts?  Here are the answers courtesy of my friend at The Veg School. He also blogs at Learning Holistic Wellness and will be conducting a course on this tomorrow! Details at The Veg School link. 

Vegetarianism - nutritional facts

I've spent this entire week spending quality time with my son. His school is marking the primary school leaving exam papers, so the principal decided to give Monday - Thursday off for all of the kids!  Why not until Friday! LOL!  So, I haven't been able to do any refashioning, but we have started on making a Halloween costume for my son and I'm thinking of making something for myself as well. I want to get involved with the trick or treating - I haven't done it before but I'm not sure whether I'll get any treats!

The beginnings of my son's costume.

Buckwheat with rice

About 2 years back, I blogged about adding quinoa into our boiled rice (which we have every dinnertime) as a way of boosting fiber intake and also because my husband couldn't stomach too much unpolished rice.  I also tried to sneak in oatmeal for breakfast as I read that it is a good source of soluble fiber and is good at removing blood cholesterol.  Then there was more grumbling from the boys - ugh, I think I have a pack of picky eaters. But, honestly, I don't think anyone can sit through oatmeal breakfast every morning.  

Is there a Gangnam Style for the Environment?

 

 

I think most of us, if not all, know what Gangnam Style is.  For those who have not been affected by the craze (you'll probably be glad), it's a Korean teen-bopping song sung by a not so teen-looking Korean man called Psy.  And, while he's rapping, he's dancing as though he's on a horse - craziness, right?  If you want to see him in action, just google Gangnam Style by Psy.

But why am I talking about Gangnam Style?  Well, I was really amazed how a really cheesy, if not ridiculous-looking dance move, can become extremely popular in under 6 months - he's hit 473,505,570 views as of today (that's too big a number to translate into words!!).  Not to mention that the majority of us do not have any idea what Psy is rapping about unless someone translates it for us.  Suddenly, people across the globe are making Gangnam Style parodies, the famous (e.g. Britney Spears, Ellen) want to learn the new moves, and even the schools are teaching the kids how to dance it (well, at least in my son's school!).  Someone press the STOP button, please!  Why can't we get the same kind of response when it's about environmental issues that need to be tackled immediately?  Are we saying that we'd rather be associated with a horsey move (no offence to Psy) than a green movement?  We need a gangnam style response for the environment!!

 

 

Ecostore Giveaway Winner is....

Sharon of The Naturally Better Company contacted me yesterday evening to say 21 people had signed up to join in the giveaway.  But there can only be 3 winners!

Congratulations, Stephanie, Teresa and Win!  We will be contacting you to collect your prizes :-)

Last chance to join the giveaway!!!

Tomorrow's your last chance to join the ecostore giveaway! You stand a chance to win either an ecostore Hand Cream Light Moisturising, an ecostore Hand Cream Extra Moisturising, or an ecostore Body Lotion Light Moisturising. :-)  The deadline is 5pm :-)

Rules:
a) Sorry this is only

 open to people living in Singapore
b) Go to and like The Naturally Better Company FB page and then send them a personal message on FB with the code "GreenIssues" in Message Subject Header.
c) I would love it if you could like my FB page too, but this is not compulsory :-)

Thank you to The Naturally Better Company for sponsoring this giveaway. 

Using scraps & plastic bottles

Scrap fabric pendant with plastic bottle backing.

I was trying to tidy up my craft area, which was originally my little boy's room.  Since he doesn't sleep, or rather NEVER slept,  in there anymore (he sleeps in our room on a spare mattress), his room has slowly transformed into my craft area. My hubby always jokes that our son will never be able to reclaim his room ever again. 


So, I was tidying it up and I ended up with a lot of scraps. I decided to transform them into pieces of jewelry that I would like to wear.  I also used the plastic from plastic soya sauce bottles as backing for the jewelry.  Here are some of my creations. 

Drop earrings from soya sauce plastic bottles

Fabric rosette wire-wrapped ring

Here's another close up of the pendant :-)

Linking up to these great blogs!

http://acreativeprincess.blogspot.sg

http://www.theartsygirlconnection.com
http://thetrendytreehouse.blogspot.sg/

Char Siew Recipe - minus the dye!

Homemade Char Siew - no colouring!

If you ever happen to visit Asia, you'll be amazed by the range of food that we have.  But I think you'll also be surprised by the "brightness"  that some of the dishes exude.  For example, there's the bright red char siew (roast pork) that the Chinese are famous for, and the bright green pandan cakes and multi-coloured layered kueh cakes you can find in South East Asia.  They are very yummy, but most of the chefs use artificial food colouring.  I'm not going to go into the health effects in this post, there's a lot of debate over this, and I think the majority of mummies prefer not to feed our family synthetic products, right?  You can read more here.

Kueh cakes

Lemon Water

Lemons are acidic but surprisingly drinking lemon water has an alkalizing effect on the body. According to Jethro Kloss (pioneer in natural herb remedies) in his book "Back to Eden":

"• It helps prevent the growth of pathogenic bacteria and the decomposition of tissue

• It assists in “cleansing the system of impurities” and will help prevent disease

• It is effective at dissolving uric acid (often the cause of pain and inflammation in joints) and other poisons in the body

• It can help reduce symptoms of malaria, rheumatism, gout, rickets and tuberculosis.

• Lemon water liquefies the bile and helps control excess bile flow. For liver complaints, Kloss recommends drinking warm lemon juice one hour before breakfast."

Ecostore Giveaway - Closed

After popping over to the The Naturally Better Company store at Millenia Walk and trying out the Ecostore's body lotion (which I won in their giveaway) and laundry soak (which I bought), I am now hosting a giveaway. Woo hoo!   This giveaway is sponsored by The Naturally Better Company.

Three Ecostore products are up for grabs.  One winner will take away one product, which means there will be THREE winners!!! Winners will be drawn via Random.org and notified to collect the product from the store :-)

- ecostore Hand Cream Light Moisturising

- ecostore Hand Cream Extra Moisturising

- ecostore Body Lotion Light Moisturising

  

Here are the rules:
a) Sorry this is only open to people living in Singapore
b) Go to and like The Naturally Better Company FB page and  then send them a personal message on FB with the code "GreenIssues" in Message Subject Header.
c) I would love it if you could like my FB page too, but this is not compulsory :-)
d) This giveaway closes on 12 Oct, 5pm.

Good luck, everyone! 

Loving your bicycle

I shared this on my facebook page, but had to share it here as well! Someone knitted their very own bicycle seat cover to protect their ahem! :-)    So creative!  I was thinking that maybe you could do it with t-shirt yarn from old t-shirts. Don't you love it? :-)

Diaper shortage?

Did you read about the potential diaper shortage? Apparently, the Japanese chemical plant that produces and is a major global supplier of a chemical used in making the disposable diapers, exploded over the weekend.  So what's this chemical? It's acrylate (derived from petroleum) and it makes the diapers super adsorbent, keeping all the yukkies inside. 

Parents, instead of panicking over this potential shortage, why not switch to reusable diapers?  They're a greener and better alternative!  What are your tips on using reusables?  I've used prefolds and soaked them in a pail containing baking soda. Big problems were hosed down into the toilet with a shower head before heading for the pail.  I washed them every morning in the washing machine and strangely enough, I used to get a lot of satisfaction from folding them too :-)