Teapots are cool!

I saw these recently on the awning (I think that's the right term) of a cafe in Hawthorn


And I've always used teapots as vases for cut flowers. Here's a tutorial of how you can use them to hold plants:




And I love these windchimes made from recycled teapots and cutlery (sold at St Andrew's Markets):

Free energy light bulbs

Just saw this in my local paper, in case anyone's interested. http://livegreen.com.au/about.html
Some details:

What
A great offer to start living green, by receiving FREE modern energy-saving light bulbs and having them installed also for FREE! It’s that simple! This quality product will help you stop wasting energy and money immediately.

How
Book a preferred time for the free service.
Weekdays and weekends available.
Call 1300 855 362, (8am – 5pm, Monday to Friday).

When
Trained installers will be visiting homes for a limited time only.
Don’t miss out – book now!

Who
Live Green With LESS is managed by Low Energy Supplies & Services – an Australian environmental services company. This project is proudly supported by Glen Eira City Council, Stonnington City Council, Kingston City Council and City of Yarra Council.

We Love Milk Crates!

(inspired by the efforts of Chris over the weekend)

Light installation rom Treehugger:



Milkcrate furniture from this site



Crate bookshleves from Flickr : (The description is worth a read as the author is desperate to state their fashionableness hehe)

How cool are these crate briefcases!



And you can find milk crate art here including our very own Milk Crate Man!

Make your own shelves

God bless Pura Crates! God knows what any rental property would be without them...

This is really easy and obvious, but I have seen people take this further and make really glamorous shelves out of old crates, but we'll stay simple here....

Get your Crates, I'm never sure where people actually get these from, they seem to just be in every rental property... Clean them...



Then simply stack them, with the large hole to left of the right so that no items fall through. If your items are too small and fall through the gaps in the crates then you can use wood or card to prevent this happening.



Voila! Who needs Ikea!

green washing again!

ACCC to probe green beer claims
Julian Lee
August 25, 2008

A LEADING brewer's attempts to cash in on demand for green products has landed it in hot water after marketing claims that its beer is better for the environment were challenged.
The competition watchdog has been asked to investigate ads calling Cooper's Australia's greenest beer and encouraging drinkers to walk to the pub to save greenhouse gas emissions.
The company's failure to back the claims with hard evidence has prompted consumer organisation Choice to complain to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission that the ads — which use the line "big beer, tiny footprint" — are false and misleading.


The move comes as advertisers and environmentalists release guidelines to stem a flow of greenwash, the term used to describe marketing that overstates a product's benefits to the environment.

In the past year, Woolworths, Saab, LG, Goodyear tyres and Origin Energy have all been accused of greenwashing.

Last week the environmental organisation Total Environment Centre issued a 10-point checklist for marketers.

Among other things, it asks companies to back claims with proof and to resist overstating environmental claims in order to gain a commercial advantage. This week the advertisers' association will release a draft of its self-regulatory code for public consultation. It is not expected to go as far as the centre's checklist in stripping hyperbole from ads for green products.

Both these join the ACCC's own guidelines as well as those issued by Choice.
Environmentalists acknowledge that the rise in greenwash allegations could stymie demand for green or ethical products.

Coopers did not return calls.
From The Age

You can find out more about efforts to thwart greenwashing by the Total Environment Centre here

Container Gardening Weekly Spotlight!

This week I wanted to dedicate to tyres. Yes, tyres. Now, I don't actually own any besides the ones on my bike. But when I was a kid, tyre planters and decoration were a proud possession of any neighbour who prided their front garden, and were usually handpainted and carefully placed on white pebbles (these rested on a bed of plastic).

If you fancy making your own, you can even find a tute here
by Ron. Here's an example of his work:

Here's some other examples

from here

oh lord, it's an entire flock!

sourced from here

S is for Sweet Potato!

Sweet potatoes are much loved by many people. The thing I find most fascinating about them is that they are as commonly used in sweet dishes as savory recipes. So without further ado...

Image from here


Sweet Potato Oven Fries

Ingredients:

3 sweet potatoes- peeled, cut into narrow wedges
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
A few dashes of cayenne pepper

Heat oven to 450°F.

Gently toss potatoes, oil, salt and pepper in large bowl until potatoes are evenly coated. Divide potatoes between two large cookie sheets or jelly-roll pans. Bake 30 minutes or until lightly browned.

Sweet Potato Pie

Ingredients

• 454 g sweet potato
• 115 g butter, softened
• 200 g white sugar
• 120 ml milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 g ground nutmeg
• 1 g ground cinnamon
• 5 ml vanilla extract
• 1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust

Directions

Boil sweet potato whole in skin for 40 to 50 minutes, or until done. Run cold water over the sweet potato, and remove the skin.

1. Break apart sweet potato in a bowl. Add butter, and mix well with mixer. Stir in sugar, milk, eggs, nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until mixture is smooth. Pour filling into an unbaked pie crust.

2. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 55 to 60 minutes, or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Pie will puff up like a souffle, and then will sink down as it cools.

Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecan Topping

4 large or 6 medium sweet potatoes, cooked and peeled
2 tablespoons margarine
1/4 cup soy creamer or soymilk
1/4 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Topping:
1/4 cup margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup unbleached white flour
3/4 cups chopped pecans
2 tablespoons maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 350 F and spray a 2 quart casserole dish with non-stick spray (or wipe with canola oil).

Mash the sweet potatoes with the margarine until smooth. Add the soy creamer, orange juice, vanilla, sugar, maple syrup, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Pour into prepared casserole dish.

Mix the topping ingredients together until well-combined. Spread or sprinkle over the casserole and bake for 45 minutes or until hot throughout.

You can't go to school with your period!

Imagine missing about a week of school (or work) a month because you have your period.

In many areas of the world, access to adequate menstrual supplies is difficult to come by. Many women and girls rely on rags, newspaper, camel skin or nothing at all for their menstrual needs. A lack of sanitary pads can be a big barrier to a girl’s education.

I was recently told about Good 4 Girls a non-profit organisation who seek out donors to sew or purchase new, reusable menstrual pads for donations to areas of Africa where these products are needed most, such as schools and refugee camps in Sudan and Kenya.

Providing reusable supplies not only provides a more environmentally friendly alternative for these young women (in areas of adequate water supply for washing), it reduces their dependence on outside aid organizations to continue providing for their monthly needs.

I’m currently organising a sewing-bee to make a stack of reusable pads to be donated. Can’t sew? Maybe you can cut out patterns or iron seams or something. Or perhaps you’d like to donate some fabric (cotton flannelette) and thread?

In case you have no real idea what I am talking about in regard to a cloth pad, this is one example of a cloth pad from Health Home and Happiness.

If you would like to get involved and join the sewing bee (the first one will be at Chez Cate in early September in Melbourne), feel free to send an email to me: ms.cate@gmail.com . At some stage I will design a flyer with all the relevant details.

I realise this is not about renting per se, but making your own re-usable pads would be an excellent environmental initiative.

R is for Rhubarb

I've always been a bit scared of rhubarb. Any plant that contains poisonous bits makes me nervous. But after a rather excellent crumble, I'm planning on planting some seedlings.

Apple and rhubarb crumble

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 1 bunch (425g) rhubarb, cut into 2cm pieces
• 3 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced
• 2 tablespoons caster sugar
• finely grated rind and juice of 1 orange
• 3/4 cup self-raising flour, sifted
• 3/4 cup Healtheries Berry & Apple Bircher Muesli
• 100g butter, chilled, cubed
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup roasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Put rhubarb, apple, sugar, orange rind and juice into a rectangular ovenproof dish (26cm x 16cm). Stir until well-combined.
2. Combine flour and muesli in a large bowl. Add butter. Using your fingertips, rub butter into flour and muesli mixture. Stir in sugar and hazelnuts. Sprinkle over rhubarb and apple mixture.
3. Bake for 45 minutes or until crumble is golden brown. Serve immediately.

Rhubarb Champagne (who can resist alcoholic fruit?)


Wash and finely chop 1kg of rhubarb.

Squeeze juice from 2 lemons, finely shred the rind and place these and the rhubarb into a bucket or ceramic bowl with 1 1/2 tbs of white wine vinegar, 750g sugar and 4.8 litres (1.25 gallons) water.

Cover and stand for 48 hrs. Strain through muslin 3 times, bottle and seal with spring loaded caps (corks will pop). Stand 2 weeks in a cool, dark place.

Rhubarb muffins

from It’s Raining Plums by Xanthe Clay

Makes 12 muffins

You’ll need:

250g soft brown sugar
120ml vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
225ml buttermilk or plain yogurt
170g rhubarb, diced into 1cm pieces
80g walnuts, chopped (optional)
280g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
40g wheatgerm

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 6/200C/400F. Grease or line a twelve-cup muffin tin.

2. In a large bowl, mix the sugar, oil, egg, vanilla extract and buttermilk or yogurt.

3. Stir in the rhubarb and nuts.

4. Sift over the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda, and add the wheatgerm. Fold together until just blended but still rather lumpy and uneven looking. Spoon into the muffin tin and bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

5. Leave for 5 minutes to cool before removing from the tin.

Recyclable storage #2

Book rack
From a coathanger!

Yep if you clicked on the link, it's in Portuguese, but pretty easy to suss out from the pics.

And this would be pretty easy to make. I found the pic on flickr.