Greening Easter

What ever our reason for celebrating Easter is, most of us will celebrate it in some way this year.
Like it or not, commercialism and over consumption leaves a dent in not just out wallets but in nature as well. I'm no doubt telling the already convereted here on my blog but I think it's worth a mention all the same!

 

Onion skin dye eggs. Arn't they beautiful?

Photo credit to Just Imaginate.

Our 'God's Eye" Weavings from op-shop wool and bamboo skewers in lieu of real sticks which we didn't have on hand! The kids have made loads of these and they're decorating nearly every part of the house! We chose the God's Eye to representing God always looking over us and the cross. I can see us making these at Christmas too... 

Chestnuts are in season here! This is the first time I've bought, roasted, peeled and pureed chestnuts. It was a bit of work but at least the food miles were low and I got the skins for dye! No doubt there will be chestnuts being added to the Easter crumble this year. I havn't yet dyed anything with my dye but it will end up in my collages before too long I'm sure.

I've been enjoying this co-operative blog which is a community of like minded people living sustainable lives. Visiting blogs isn't something I get to do a lot of but I'm noticing that lately I've been gravitating towards food type blogs and environmental blogs. Nuturing this part of myself helps keep me balanced, I guess it's soul food! Inspired by this and having my Labyrinth book back I've had my fabrics out and I've been  creating these page keepers.

I've put them on ETSY which is my first step in this direction.

Hope you are all well and happy! 

Green/Greener, 2 new birds and a sand sculpture.

It's time for a green/greener post! This time my focus is on natural dying which I'm currently exploring (again!) So far my own personal experience is limited to Marigold, Tea, Coffee, red cabbage, onions skins and Fennel. I've also had 2 attempts at making Kowhai flower dye and a nest dye with poor results....this is definitely a learning process! I'm keen to learn though and as I said it my last post I think I stumbled upon a good way of setting the dye on paper- with an iron!

Moss and Lichen. Mclarens Falls.

The first artist I am going to put the spot light on is India Flint. Am I the last person on the eco-dying planet to discover India Flint's blog? lol. For anyone who hasn't visited her blog yet here it is. If your anything like me you will wish you had gotten there sooner! The first link will take you directly to a Eucalyptus dye recipe and this link will take you to her book and others of interest. My wishlist gets bigger!

Eucalyptus bark and feather. Some of the things that made it home with me after our camping trip!

I found a link to this fabulous article on India Flint's bundling/ printing /dying method on a site called Turkey Red Journal which is a publication dedicated to natural dying. Be prepared to want to run out and gather leaves after reading the article!

For John: Close up of a frond from a NZ Native Tree Fern, the Ponga.

Eco dye captures my attention because its in tune with my way of thinking. It's not perfect but it is 'greener.' The foot print of a fennel plant growing over my fence is a whole lot smaller than that of the coffee that has been shipped (and goodness knows what else!) from a million miles away. Right now I am trying to find a more natural alternative too coffee that will give me the same colour. I found this plant/colour guide on a site called Pioneer Thinking. Handy to have! As you can see there are plenty of alternatives to using coffee...and if you live in my part of the globe it's not long until Autumn...and that means walnuts! I know just the tree to harvest from too. If your interested in making your own walnut dye here's a page you might like.

I haven't tried it myself yet and I would be interested in reading about walnut dye experiences if anyone has a link to share! This link will take you to a site with the most gorgeous photography of this ladies natural dye projects. Some eye candy for the eco dyer's out there!

Last but not least, check out this collaborative project that Jasmine of Nature's Whispers is taking part in. How can you not want to go and see a project called Wrapt Trees?

Meet Dollar and Dime! (Dime is the bigger bird with his beak open.) We adopted these teeeeny, tiny sparrows today. I only took this one photo so I didn't disturb them or let them get cold. They're so very tiny and have hardly any feathers and their eyes arn't open yet. They are using a heat pack and polyprop to keep warm. Being small dosn't change the amount of noise they make when it's feed time, which at this stage is every 30mins...please wish us luck that we have a great result for this little foster babies too!

Speaking of birds, it IS feed time so I quickly post a rare pic of me and my kids at out local beach. It was published in a local newspaper last weekend.

We came third place equal in a local family sand scultpure competition! Ours was a giant "We HEART NZ"

Winning was a nice way to end a great day!

Green/Greener

I love the coloured pencil filter!

It's been a been a while since I did a green/greener post! if you missed it the first one is here and the second is here. This is a little different to my last 2 green/greener posts which have been art focused. In a round-a-bout way it was actually creativitiy that inspired me to write this post though! Last night while I was looking at home made wreaths for imspiration and I came across this blog, The Zero Waste Home. I thouroughly enoyed reading here, not just the recent christmas post but also through the archives. This lady has some great ideas and is refreshingly honest about how hard a goal like this is to achieve! Please go check out the link to her blog and also the link on her blog about the christmas card exchange which not only recycles cards but helps a charity too. Very cool!
Here is a link to another green christmas post which I enjoyed. Nice to read that the White House is using LED lights this christmas- I hope the NZ government is following this example!
By now nearly everyone on the planet should be aware that we each have a carbon footprint but most of us don't have any idea how big that actually is. I decided to work out my own footrpint after reading this article where the author talks about the hidden mess we make in/of the planet. My score result showed that I would need 2.41 planets to sustain my lifestyle which is actually considered to be fairly small by comparrison with the majority of results, but it's obviously not small or alright. The test isn't extremely detailed (I would have liked it to be more specific) but it dosn't take too long to answer so please give it a go. Admittedly, it is a little disheartening to realise that my footprint is 2.41 planets and  to be honest, I don't think I have a hope of getting it down to just one planet, but the test (and the articles mentioned) did atleast get me thinking about ways I can improve on things.  Because the test is generalised and not that specific it may not register as a change when I test it again next year but I will know it's better and hopefully at least a little bit smaller.

So..whose brave enough to share? What's your score?

PS: This score if 2.41 planets is my household's footprint, not my indiviual one. There are 5 of us but as I make most of the purchasing decisions and other evironmental choices, my decisions influence our footprint the greatest. Ultimately the desicions I make also influence those that my children make. I hope that they will hold the things I believe in as their own values when they are older and not just do it 'cos Mum said!'