Candle facts.......

I met a couple of very motivated and lovely women yesterday who make their own candles. I was fascinated to know that Soy candles produce 90 % less soot than those normal cheapo candles.

Now being a frequent candle lighter, I do sicken of having a black ceiling. And I had never given thought to what I was burning ( paraffin is essentially a petrol derivative ) or what I was breathing in for hours every night.

So now that I do know what on earth I am burning, I am going to have to make another small change. I just don't want to burn any more paraffin.

The afforementioned ladies run their own business called Pure Candles which are beautiful. I will be lucky enough to be testing one in a couple of weeks and will let you know how they burn. The amount of time and effort that goes into these products is amazing. Its all organic and there are no nasties in them.

I will be testing one when back from our holidays..... will let you know....

knickers...

This on going search for pants is becoming an obsession. Honestly, its so oo ooo difficult to find pretty reasonable knickers that are chemical free and a bit canny to the environment.

After much searching, Marks and Spencer do a nice (limited) range of pants and pretty vest tops made from organic cotton and a material called Modal. This is the crack (from their website)

"This product is made from a blend of organic cotton and modal, a supersoft fabric made from plant fibres. The fabric is renewable, biodegradable and has been carefully processed to have minimal impact on the environment "

At £4 a pair they are are a great price, they are pretty, there are a few colours to choose from and they are even biodegradable.

The question is, if it can be done, why is the choice so limited? I think perhaps a letter to the man in charge may be appropriate......

(PS nice pants do not guarantee a perfectly flat tummy, but do make you feel ever so much better!) x

@fernavenue

Based in Jesmond, @fernavenue is situated in the Antiques Village. This beautiful collection of products is just so inviting you can spend a long time just wandering before really looking.

I was lucky enough to meet the Manager Barbara Oliver and one of her colleagues Catherine Trillo on Saturday. Their enthusiasm for their work shone through and the results are great.

The space is stunning, filled (but not too full) with gorgeous products, all of which are produced and provided by local small businesses many of them with strong ethical links.

Take Trillo. The Lydia's house intiative, provides training and employment for disadvantaged women in Blyth and the resulting products are fantastic.

If the "throw away society" is ever going to be thrown away, it will be because people will choose to buy fabulous quality products that they love so much they couldn't bear to throw them away.

And @fernavenue has many to choose from. Check them out.....

@fernavenue

Beautiful Daisy Green Art

Beautiful art work kindly completed by Lucy Howson

Lucy is a student in Leeds who shares a passion for charity shops, reading, long hot showers and nice things in life. She is "small and loud" and gorgeous.

Take a look at the other work she has done....

Thanks to Lucy - your work is fab and Daisy loves you!! x

BIG Pants....

After the absolute joy I had with my Eat Organic knickers, the experience wasn't quite the same with my new pants. Yes they are organic. Yes the are, actually, very comfy. They haven't for any nasty dyes in them. And at £12 for 3 pairs they are certainly cheaper.

But sexy? Nope. Not at all. No way. Big Bridget Jones types...YUP!!!

The matching vest / cami top that came with it fared better. It's also dead comfy and looks slightly prettier than the matching pants. But warning for all you well endowed ladies, the criss-cross top over your chest will not be any good to you without a bra on underneath it.

If you are looking for something that is comfy, a bit cheaper and very ethical these are for you. . .
But remember Bridget Jones you will become!! Get your big pants at : www.peopletree.co.uk

Knickers to them

When I was little, my dad used to say "knickers to them" whenever someone did something he didn't like. Well, indeed, knickers to them - chemicals that is!!!

My first ever pair of organic knickers arrived from Green Apple today!!! It's hard because as yet, there isn't a great deal of choice out there but I know this will increase.
However, these are proper pants! Lovely and stretchy (fit perfectly), very funky and the 'eat organic' logo is so cute!!!!!

Green Apple send their products in an eco poly bag (biodegradable) and their invoice is - naturally- printed on recycled paper. Brilliant!!!

Only drawback is that the knickers themselves were in a plastic bag of their own but I have written to Green Apple to understand the reason for this. Will let you know.

You know I will be smiling tomorrow............ I will be wearing my super duper new pants!! x

Take a look at www.the-green-apple.co.uk

Bottles, bottles and more bottles.

Bottles in my room - by no means exhaustive!!!!

Girls, don't you just love buying new products. The more the better. A smell, a pretty package, a new wonder cream....all of these things and more (much more) can tempt us to part with our well earned cash.

Have you ever stopped and lined up all your products? No? Have a go its terrifying!!

Sustainability Suzie moved house the other day. She brought all her products with her. Since returning from her travels she has been looking for work and well, lets say is skint!!

On walking into the bathroom, there must be at least, 30 bottles, tubs and lotions. And probably some hidden in the cupboards and drawers. When we started to add up the total... well as you can imagine .... a small fortune is lining the shelves in that bathroom. And the worst of it is - by the time she gets to use it, most of it will have gone off!!

Choosing our products carefully not only means that we save our cash, but it is far less wasteful for the environment.

Until then, I think I will be popping round to Suzie's a couple of times a week.. share and share alike (well she does have some gorgeous bottles that need emptying!)

Grow your own......lettuce........

Crazy lettuce....tastes different completely to the stuff in the supermarket. Stronger, more like... erm lettuce should taste like I assume?!! I almost didn't like it, but now it's fab in a sarnie and even better because it came out of our garden and was sprayed with nothing but fresh air!!

Grow your own......Tomatoes........

Tomatoes remind me of when I was little. All my grandparents had a tomato plant at one time or another.

Never did I image that I (we really) would be able to grow anything as smashing as this. Never before have I even been tempted to try. But 1 enthusiastic husband and garden later, here I am absolutely loving all things to do with the garden. And as you can see they are definitely growing!! The first picture was taken in the middle of April and the other today.

(We have 9 of them.... will be making tomato sauce for the rest of the year!!)

Products products products.......

Have been using this fairly inexpensive, organic shampoo and conditioner from a company called Organic Care since Christmas. Results have been fantastic, really healthy shiny hair. So much so that when a large supermarket decided to stop selling it (and subsequently reduce the price) I bought a load. It has a nice smell, not really of very much but it is really, really lush on the hair (Sustainability Suezi bought some too!)
However, it does come all the way from OZ which is a fairly long way to travel for clean hair. (Looks like they have improved the packaging as well as the original bottles are just yellow.)





Having run out of my conditioner, I spotted the Tisserand range in the local garden centre, fairly close to the fish tanks, and thought I would give it a go.
We have already bought some of the massage oil, which is gorgeous in both smell and oiliness, so I thought I would try the conditioner.


Tea tree, Lemon and Rosemary, cruelty free and organic. Made in the UK. Nice one. And boy does it work. Really well. Hair is soft but also tamed. Hardly any need for excessive straighteners, and haven't stopped stroking my hair all day!!

Drawback: parabens... it's got 4 in there. Boo Hoo.

You may be one of those people who don't mind parabens and if so, then I would thoroughly recommend trying this product. But if like me you are avoiding them ( and simply need to be more careful reading labels) then keep your eyes open for our next product reviews.

Eggs....

Eggs. Always have bought free range. Always. Never ever been able to stand battery farming. (See the happy hens running about the place!)
It was one of the reasons, why at the tender age of 11, I turned veggie. I don't think I made much fuss, just decided not to eat meat or fish. It helped that I didn't actually like it that much anyway.

So there we were out on our walk about at the weekend and we stumbled across a sign for fresh eggs. Brilliant. Round the corner from where we live. Check. Support local businesses. Check. No travelling. Check. Must be better tasting eggs.

Except, there I was, looking at the side of a barn. With 1 small window. Just one. And maybe 10/15 chickens pressing their entire selves against the glass - craving the light. Awful. We had bought the eggs. Even husband could see that these birds were after escaping (Wallace and Grommit stylie) from the metal barn.

So, although it ticked so many ethical boxes, I felt much worse than had I bought the eggs at the local shop. I guess its all about research. Finding a place where free range and good animal husbandry is paramount.

On the same topics, we bought Eco eggs - free range and all the farmers have a wind turbine on site!!! ha ha brilliant.

Dotty shoes.... RIP

So here they are!! Notice the big wet patches where the rain leaked in... whats that song "Hole in my shoe....!!"

I don't think my feet are normally that dirty, its far more to do with the squidy feeling dirty rain water (Honest!!)

Take heed all you ladies who love them too.... save up for some that last that have been made with love and care.

Daisyx

Charity Charity Charity shops....

Oh how I love you!
What a fab couple of hours browsing through other people's cast offs... and oh the bargains ...
1 monsoon skirt. Beautiful and completely me. How chuffed!
1 red summer dress. H&M. Fits where it touches perfect with a tan.
1 funky T shirt. "I have butterflies in my heart." Sweet.
And a couple of other things that don't fit quite right. Best of all some of it was on 2 for 3!!! And I can return things that aren't right. . .but hey they cost about £8 and the money went to the charities. And I can keep them for the swap it parties. Or give them back to be sold again.

Everyone's a winner....

MAKE A CHANGE TODAY....

is the list of small steps that we can each try out....All comments and suggestions will be duly added.
A special sticker will be rewarded for the most ingenious idea.
Now you're excited!

Mens Products...

The husband has his free samples! Joy -he was feeling a bit left out.

Reviews to follow.

The tip

Rubbish dumps are scary but fascinating places to be on a Saturday afternoon. Scary because you get a real feel for the amount of waste heading to a hole in the ground.

Fascinating because it is absolutely incredible the stuff that people throw away. I sat, flabbergasted as I watched perfectly good stuff being tipped into a big blue container. Off it goes to its final resting place when clearly it could have been re-used. Instead of putting into the bin, much of it could have gone into a charity bin. A little step which could have produced a different result.

And as for the q waiting to get into the tip........well of course everyone was sitting with their engines running. For fifteen minutes! ?? environment aside, fuel is bloody expensive we should all be trying to conserve it. Imagine, if you will, coins pouring out of the exhaust into the atmosphere.
We would all be rushing out to catch them. Why are people so adamant to waste their own cash?

Rant over.

Assumptions...

We all make them. Assumptions and judgments. But often they are proven to be incorrect. Take this afternoon.

My very good friend Lisa visited this afternoon, which was lovely as she lives miles away and we don't often get to meet up. Mid conversation (which is ALWAYS at the speed of light !) she mentioned that she'd been reading the blog. Brilliant, I appreciate all my friends' support.

She commented, that she knew, I would assume that she wasn't very environmentally friendly because of her love of cars. Fast cars. Posh cars. Cars. (She is the female version of my husband - gorgeous, geeky and loves fast cars and gadgets!!)

She was spot on right. Awful. I squirmed. Clearly I was about to be proved wrong.

So we explore my misconceptions. She uses organic, natural cosmetics and has favoured Liz Earle for years. She wrote to them a while ago to suggest stopping the excessive packaging (which happily has happened, but Lisa can't take credit for that!)
She buys the products when she is in London to save them being posted to her door.

Her house is fully insulated, she doesn't water her garden, recycles everything, has energy efficient light bulbs and offset her recent flights to the States.
She gave 3 bag loads of clothes to charity (which could have come my way and be sure they will next time!!!).

Pretty impressive huh. And there was me thinking she did relatively nowt. Just because she likes flash cars.

Onto the cars. She has a new car. Its shiny and red. She told me about all her research into the fuel economies of all the cars she tested, about the gadgets she tracks her fuel consumption with and her sheer knowledge of how those 4x4 cars that carbon offset the first 40,000 miles when you buy them.

That was me told.

Clearly, the best thing to do is ditch the car. But at this point its very unrealistic that the whole of society is going to do that. So the next best thing I guess is to really research your cars eco credentials before you buy it and only use it when necessary.

Now Lisa has agreed to write for the blog too. She certainly is more of a green queen than I ever gave her credit for!! And for that I apologise.

If it's all about small steps, you are already well on your way.

Facts...

My husband needs them. Scientifically proven if at all possible. It's no good telling him anything and expecting him just to believe it. Because frankly he doesn't.

Fact 1 : do not have heated eco debate at 11.30 pm (unless you want to end up sleeping in a sleeping bag on the floor downstairs!)

Fact 2 : There are people who have to be convinced that recycling, saving power, taking small steps is worth it. And thats fair enough, as long as they decide to make change once the facts are presented.

Today I took my Hard Rain Project book into work to show 3 people. This, it seems to me, presents the facts in a better way than I could ever hope to. The book proved, once again, to provide thought provoking conversation. What I have found is that people start to reel off all the things that they are already doing. The steps they are already taking.

Which is fabulous because it is so positive. Feeling good about small steps is how it's supposed to be.

And then deciding to take some more of course.

Cheap shoes...

Toes actually came out of the front today. Must post a photo. Very professional at work. Not. Point proven. No more cheap shoes!

Cheap shoes.... holes for free.

Ashamed though I am, I will fully admit that for a number of years I took great pleasure out of buying cheap clothes, wearing them for the required few months and then giving them away to charity.

Great pleasure. I love buying things and if they are a bargain ......... all the better.

Just lately though the edge has definitely gone. I haven't got enough money to waste on products that don't last. I definitely don't like the idea of people sweating their pores out to make my clothes and not receiving enough money to live properly. ... what kind of life is that??
And, nope, it shouldn't just end up in the ground.

So I have vowed, never to buy cheap again. To consider what I buy and to make damn sure that when I do buy .. well anything ....that it is utterly gorgeous and will last.

I am currently wearing my final cheap purchase.

Cute, dotty shoes. At least 4 weeks old.

Inside sole, peeling out and made of cardboard. Hole running right around the top of the shoe where the outside sole has split. Leaking. A lot.

Waste. My money, materials, someone's hard life.

Please let me know what to do with an old pair of shoes that were not worth the money spent on them. Which was very little, believe me.

Oxfam Swap it party....

Thanks to Anouk Ramkissoon and friends for organising the Oxfam Swap it party at Newcastle Uni last night. Got a cool scarf and top and now have enough space in my drawers to start sifting through the charity shops again!
What a fab idea... less waste, donations to a really worthwhile cause and, of course, a new wardrobe all at the same time!!