Homemade Christmas decorations

While we love seeing those homes who really go for it in terms of Christmas lights and decorations, our own approach to Christmas is pretty low key. A branch from a pine tree at our block serves as a little Christmas tree, and one of our few decorations was found on a local hard waste pile. 

This year though I decided to up the ante a little....while keeping spending to a minimum.

First off I decided to get a little fancy for our Christmas lunch and make some Christmas napery. In the week before Christmas I noticed that Lincraft had reduced the price of their Christmas fabric by over 50%.  For $30 I was able to buy enough 100% cotton fabric to make a tablecloth for a table that seats up to 8 as well as 12 napkins.

Christmas fabric - why go for subtle when you can be bold?

It was quick easy sewing, made even more fun as I made them in the company of my good friend and sewing  buddy, who was  busy sewing Christmas things of her own.  I was pretty pleased with the results. It will certainly add a festive touch to our lunch and it's something we'll be able to use year after year.

completed napkins and tablecloth

While I was buying the fabric I also spied some coloured felt. For a couple of bucks I got enough felt to make some garlands of little Christmas trees:

Christmas tree garland production line

 
Finally, as I've mentioned in earlier posts, I like knitting socks.  I often have bits of yarn leftover after making a pair, so rather than chuck it out, I used it up to make a garland of little socks.  Strung up over the fireplace, they look sort of Christmas-y. Okay, well maybe you'll have to use your imagination here folks, but they remind me of Christmas stockings 😊

And here's the wooden Christmas pyramid we scored for free from the hard waste:

Not bad, eh?

So don't get sucked into spending heaps to decorate your home for Christmas.  With a bit of imagination, some time and some basic sewing skills you can add a touch of Christmas to your home without spending much at all.

Hope you all have a happy Christmas!

It all adds up

Being interested in sustainability, simple living and permaculture, we read a lot of blogs on those subjects. It's both inspiring and instructive to read about the different things that people do to in order to live more sustainably. There is so much helpful information out there.

We've made many sustainable changes to our home - including adding solar hot water, PVs for electricity generation, water tanks, switching to efficient wood heating (using waste wood) and creating an organic fruit and veggie garden. Alongside all of this, we've also been making continual small changes to how we live, and learning new skills along the way.  

When you're working towards living more sustainably I think that sometimes the smaller steps you've made towards that goal can be forgotten.  Probably because doing these things just becomes part of normal life.  However the other day I had a little reminder.  I was putting together a few homemade things as a gift for a friend. When I stopped and looked at what I'd gathered I realised that these items were the result of some of the smaller steps we have taken to live a more sustainable life.  

Here's what it contained:

• Honey from our backyard hive. You can read about how we extract our honey here, here and here.

• 100% cotton reusable knitted dishcloths (or face washers). I've been having fun making these using cotton yarn from my stash.

• Preserved olives collected from our backyard trees. See the recipe here.

• Homemade Tamatar Kasaundi (Tomato oil pickle). From "The Complete Asian Cookbook" by Charmaine Solomon. This is absolutely fabulous stuff - very spicy!  I'll post the recipe soon.

• Homemade laundry liquid.  From the book "Down to Earth" by Rhonda Hertzel.

That little lineup of home produce made me stop and think. Those little things do make a difference - we are a more sustainable, resilient and healthy household as a result of being able to produce more of what we eat and use at home.  

It would be great to have more free time to tackle lots more sustainable projects. There are lots of things we'd like to do.  Right now though, life is busy with full-time work, after-work activities, volunteering, and time spent planting trees on our country block.   Given the time that we have, continuing to make small changes in order to live more sustainably is something that works for us.

I think little things do add up and small changes can make a difference.

What do you think?

Recent crafty activities

Recent crafty activities at Prag Sust HQ....

These socks:

A moss-stitch cushion cover - for a cushion that was missing a cover

 
And some knitted dishcloths

I'd heard about knitted dishcloths but always wondered if they actually worked.  After reading Down To Earth and learning of Rhonda's love of knitted dishcloths, I decided to knit us up a batch to try. I had some 100% cotton yarn in my stash which was just right for the job. 

We'd been using something akin to 'Chux' cloths bought at the supermarket for wiping up in the kitchen. They got washed in the machine along with the regular washing and re-used until they fell apart. They actually lasted for quite a long time. But definitely not the 5 years that Rhonda's knitted dishcloths last her.  I decided it was definitely worth giving them a go. I used Deb's waffle weave pattern which is a quick and easy project. If made in a nice quality cotton, this pattern can also double as a face washer.  Just make sure you colour-code your dishcloths from your face washers so you can tell them apart when they come out of the wash :)  

I'm looking forward to trying out my knitted dishcloths in the kitchen and seeing how they work out. I love the idea of making something so sustainable and long-lasting that does the job and looks nice too. And they'd make a lovely gift with some homemade soap ....

Winter evenings.....

Winter has arrived in our neck of the woods, and for me, that means it's time to dig out the needles and enjoy evenings sitting by the fire doing some knitting.

Here's what's come off the needles lately ....

You can read more about why I like knitting socks here.