It's a DIY Backpack Cover!

When I was making my way to the Handmade Movement Fair two weeks back it was pouring dogs and cats from morning til night. I remember carrying a backpack, a small umbrella and holding onto my son as we made our way up to Fort Canning from the train station.  Fortunately, we didn't get wet but my backpack did.  I'm sure many of us have been in these sorts of situations. So I came up with the idea of upcycling the umbrella fabric from the old Pooh Bear umbrella into a backpack cover!!  

Hydroponics - Last Chance Gardener

Why last chance? If you've been following my gardening efforts, you will know that my plants (tomatoes, chillies and spring onions) die on me each time I try!  Well, a friend  notified me of a hydroponics workshop at NParks and I knew it would be my last chance at growing vegetables at home.  Hydroponics means growing plants in water rather than soil.  Advocates of this method say that it uses less water than conventional plant growing.

Can you guess what I have made?

Do you remember the spooky umbrella I made for halloween last year? Many readers asked what I would do with the umbrella material. I didn't get round to coming up with anything until yesterday! There are so many things you can make out of umbrella material :-) 

Can you guess what I have made? 

School food

We are now into the new school year and things are different. 

No more Fruit Day. Last year, the kids were asked to bring fruit to school to eat before snack time. This year, we haven't heard anything about it, but a group of parents have vowed to keep it going. When and where else would the kids get their serving of fruit during school hours?  I do want to complain about the quality of food that is served at the school canteen too - why are they selling instant noodles (aka maggi mee) to primary school children? Instant noodles have low nutritional value and high sodium content. If we want our kids to concentrate in class, surely we should serve them better food!  

I was really happy to come across the Singapore Food Revolution (part of the Jamie Oliver Foundation) on Facebook. A food ambassador of the initiative has started going to the schools to encourage and educate kids (and maybe the teachers!) on making better food choices.  I hope the ambassadors go to my son's school because they really need this!!!

Liebster Award

It feels a bit weird now that the fair is over - am I suffering from a post-fair hangover?  Anyway, I'm definitely have more time to concentrate on refashioning - I haven't been doing any since my skirt upcycle to slouchy shorts. I have two things in mind! Firstly, to get myself a "new" outfit to wear for Chinese New Year and secondly, I have tons of cleaning to do (eeks!).  

I was honoured to be given the Liebster Award by Lisa @ OneRedShoeBlog  .  Thank you, Lisa! She has some amazing refashions, and the one I like the best so far is the swingy skirt refashion. 

So what is the Liebster Award?  Read on!

Featured on MEWR Eco-Hero Saturday!

I was very honoured to have the Ministry of the Environment & Water Resources (MEWR) approach me for a feature on their "Eco-Hero Saturday" series.  A nod of recognition from the authorities is really nice. It felt like they were saying "we really appreciate what you're doing for the environment"  For those of you who may have missed it, hop over to MEWR's facebook page to take a look, and like them so that you get updated on their initiatives!

Handmade Movement - the rain didn't stop us!

First of all, I would like to give thank and give a warm hearty hug to the organisers - Michelle and Aisah - of Singapore's inaugural Handmade Movement fair.  They did an amazing job of putting it all together.  We had over 40 70 artists at the fair, great music, amazing and affordable food (fresh, and not processed, mind you!), and a lovely Milo van with free Milo, which the kids adored.  It was raining the WHOLE day but it didn't stop us from having fun. I did get wrinkly and muddy feet though :-)

I had many of my blog followers pop over and say "hello" - it was so encouraging!  Many asked about the sales, but to be honest, I was going more for the experience and mainly to promote the 3Rs.  A lot of people were curious, interested in why I was doing what I was doing, what got me started and how they could upcycle things in their home. One lady was very excited about upcycling her lanyards - she said she had so many in her office she didn't know what to do with them!  A couple of folks said they would donate their jeans to me! 

Booth preparations finished!

After preparing and making for the Handmade Movement Singapore fair (19 Jan) over the past 2 months, I've finally finished!!! Yay!  If you're in Singapore, pop over and say "hello". There will be other eco-designers too - Greenie Genie and theKang !

I tried to do a pre-fair layout just to see how everything would look - hope I can replicate it on the day!

Made a few bags (just in case customers forgot their reusable shopping bags) - they're made from magazines and I sewed them up on my sewing machine. I also had some business cards printed at Green Prints. They used sustainable eucalyptus paper and digital printing :-)

 Hope to see all of you there - have a lovely weekend! :-)

Time for Spring Cleaning

Image: chokingxl

It's time for Spring cleaning as Chinese New Year is less than a month away - 10 Feb will be the first day of the year of the Snake!

Since my hubby's skin rash breakout, I have tried to shy away from as many commercial cleaning agents as possible.  My main green cleaning products are:

Let's go Finland!

Last year I featured cities from around the world and asked fellow bloggers to share what they felt made their city liveable. We've been to Melbourne, Vienna, Berlin, Toronto, Singapore and now Lea from kiertoidea is sharing her Tuusula (50km from Helsinki) with us. Do pop over to Lea's blog as she has lots of great ideas on how to upcycle objects from around the house!

The Story of Plastic

Gloop from michael woodruff on Vimeo.

This is the story of plastic, and unfortunately, the ending is sad. But no one likes sad endings so why don't we make a difference and minimise our use of plastic? 

Jean Yarn to Coasters!

In my last post I made lots of jean yarn. I basically used up three pairs of large jeans and decided to make coasters for the fair next Saturday. 

My cuppa with hot buckwheat tea!

Here's a quick DIY tutorial on how to make them.

DIY Jean Yarn

So after making the jean aprons and cutlery holders, I still had the legs of the jeans I purchased from the MIND thrift store.  I spent part of the Christmas holiday making jean yarn. 

To cut your jean yarn you will need to cut on the bias ie, against the grain of the threads in the fabric.   The material will not unravel as much.

I cut 1cm strips and cut round the leg so that I got a continuous length of jean yarn.

Going to start crocheting and weaving now!  

Hello 2013!!

Happy new year!!!  I've been away from the blog for quite a while - took some rest and spent time with my family.  This year, I'm looking forward to the Handmade Movement  where I'll be selling items upcycled from preloved jeans and lanyards; don't forget to mark the 19 Jan on your calendars!  I'll also be collaborating with Singapore Environment Council.  Thank you for supporting Green Issues and I hope my posts will inspire you to refashion and upcycle! :-)

Image - rlewin