Finally!

I decided to make a flower brooch out of black lace and add it to my newly completed waistcoat.
I've also added some lace at the shoulders, they're sort of peeping :-) Do you like it?

Close up....

The brooch is made of black lace. I used about 2m of it. Basically, I took the lace and went round in circles until I got a rose like shape. It was then sewn onto a piece of scrap material (preferably T-shirt material of the same colour)

With the remaining lace I did a running stich and bunched it up together. This formed the "leafy" bits of the rose.

The leafy bit is at the top left handside of the pic. I added a white button in the middle and glued a pin at the back so that I can wear it with my other clothes.

Another great idea!

I love this hair piece idea from the Guardian. They're doing Making Time series and they have lots of good ideas. Who needs to buy stuff when you can make them at home.

Lots of other hair accessory ideas at Thread Banger too.

Photograph: Alicia Canter/Observer

Miss Earth

Miss who? Yeah, that's what I was thinking when I heard about it. I've had enough with beauty pageants. Who remembers the beauty queen who actually enjoyed her visit to Guantanamo Bay and blogged that everyone was having such fun there? I can't remember who she is :-p

Anyway, I just can't believe that someone came up with this pageant, and ...... they even have a contestant from Singapore....Miss Earth Singapore 2008 said "I was a competitive sibling to my brother and I excelled in school and played the trombone. My father was strict and I felt the pressure all along, but I learnt to be responsible and independent. Now I am promoting pro-environmental practices" Huh?

I dont' know what good the pageant can do to the environment, but apparently the winner is supposed to devote her time as Miss Earth to protect the environment... what were they thinking!?!?!

Rainbow Brown Rice & Baked Tofu

My cousin became a vegetarian a few years back. Intially, it was a struggle for her to come up with nice dishes for her family. I recently went to her house for dinner and it was yums for me (although the 2 toddlers raided the pizza!).

I didn't have my camera with me but she gave me the recipe (top) for the Rainbow Brown Rice & Baked Tofu. The tofu is really easy to make, just put the tofu in an oven proof tray, top with a few dashes of light soya sauce, enoki mushrooms (aka Japanese needle mushrooms), seaweed and pumpkin seeds and sesame. Bake for 5 mins and voila!

The brown rice needs a bit more skill in the stir fry department but here are a few tips:

a) use stale brown rice leftover from the previous night's dinner. Rice that's just cooked makes it a soggy fried rice :-(

b) make sure the oil is hot before stirfrying, esp when u add the rice.

c) stir fry means everything has to move quickly in your wok or frying pan

d) frozen mixed vegy are a no no. My cousin added strips of beet root, which gave it colour and sweetness.

e) u can use firm tofu cubes (as opposed to silken tofu) in the recipe too! I find cashew nuts, sesame or even pine nuts add flavour to it ;-)

Panda

Before
After

Started and finished the panda costume for my son's school party. He was very happy with it. He even helped me out and advised that his costume should be full length. He had to settle for a bib-like contraption when he realised he didn't have enough fabric to get round his body. Oh, forgot to take photos of the bamboo we made from cardboard and felt.

Here he is with the buttons he picked out for the eyes.

Helping out with the reconstruction..... tracing the eyes onto my old shorts

Sticking the buttons onto the eyes....

Linking up to http://threadingmyway.blogspot.com.au

Environmental Fugitives

At first I thought it was a joke when I saw this in the newspaper, but when I went to the USEPA website, I realised it is serious stuff! The US does take it seriously. It reminds me of Singapore's Corrective Work Order for repeat litter offences. Basically, if you're a repeat offender, you will be sentenced to CWO and your photo will be published by the local paper. It will be the only time that you will ever get to grace the front cover!

Here are some of the crimes that the fugitives did. Some actually fled the US!
a) selling ozone depleting substances illegally smuggled into the US
b) possessing ozone depleting substances
c) Illegal discharge of hazardous substance into navigable waters of the United States
d) ordered the crew of a ship to lie to the U. S. Coast Guard concerning the waste oil management system.
e) Illegal transportation, storage and disposal of mercury contaminated soil
f) Illegal discharge of pollutants
g) illegally imported automobiles that did not meet the United States emissions standards.

They must be pretty tough on penalties for these guys to flee the country.

And, looking at the lastest cases in the US, some of the cases involve MNCs. These are the big names who have operations in our part of the world. If they can't clean up their act in the West, I wonder how they can manage to stay clean in Asia. Oh dear.....

Aluminium in food

(courtesy of CFS)

First it was melamine, now aluminium? The Centre for Food Safety in HK have published a risk assessment for aluminium in foods. Aluminium-containing food additives are widely used in HK in the production of steamed bread/bun/cake, some bakery products such as muffin, pancake/waffle (my fav!), coconut tart and cake, and jellyfish. Considering how much HKers love their dim sum, "the potential health risk of aluminium to high consumers cannot be ruled out".

(courtesy: MingPao)

The WHO standard for this, the Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake (PTWI) was lowered by seven folds to 1 mg/kg body weight in 2006, which was probably what instigated Hk to do the study.

What about in other countries? What about their average weekly dietary exposure to Al (mg/ person /week) ?
France 11
Australia 16.8 (male), 13.3 (female)
Netherlands 21.7
Switzerland 30.8
Japan 31.5
Hong Kong 36
UK 37.8
Finland 46.9
US 56 - 63 (male), about 49 (female)
Germany 77 (males), 56 (female)
Sweden 91 (female)
Mainland China 238

Burt's Bees Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), Honey Bees Dying

Sentosa Resorts World backing down (for the mo)

Sentosa Resorts World says "it is considering alternatives to its plan to exhibit whale sharks". The oneline campaign to get them to stop importing whale sharks to include in it's casino park aquarium. If you read their letter, it says that "While we go about our work, we also want to highlight that the whale shark exhibit at the Marine Life Park was submitted as part of the winning bid in an international competition for the Integrated Resort on Sentosa in late 2006. As such, the organization is bound to deliver the integrity of the bid, and any proposed replacement for the whale sharks must be defensible in that it must be viable and be as broad, if not compelling, in its appeal to bring in visitors to Singapore - the reason Singapore decided to have the integrated resorts." .... and ....."We do not take these undertakings lightly and as such, we need time to investigate all available options to provide Singapore with a world-class Marine Life Park. The process of replacing promised attractions in a winning bid is neither simple nor unilateral. Papers, presentations, permits and many rounds of fine-tuning and debate are required. We welcome ideas at csr@rwsentosa.com"

I hope that it is not all part of the PR that companies usually do to appear environmentally friendly and all so caring. I find it "clever" how they put the "Resorts World at Sentosa adheres to CITES standards" right next to the "Letter from Marine Life Park" . I'm not fooled :-)

Photo: CSR Asia

Going vegy once a week

An entire city in Belgium goes vegetarian and all in the name of the environment!

Every restaurant in Ghent (popn of 233,000) is to guarantee a vegetarian dish on the menu, with some going fully vegetarian every Thursday. From September, the city's schools are to make a meat-free meal the "default" option every Thursday, although parents can insist on meat for their children. Apparently, Ghent, which is in NE Belgium, boasts a string of outstanding restaurants and is well-known for gourmet vegetarian cuisine. They reckon they have the most veggie eateries per capita compared with London, Paris or Berlin.

We go vegy at least once a week in my family. That means no fish, meat or other seafood. Tomorrow we will be having barley ragout. Yum. Vegy dishes are more kid-friendly if they have a tomato base and lot of cheese. :-)

I'll try and remember to take a pic tomorrow....

Craft ideas

I couldn't agree more with Elen Lewis about toys for kids. We're always buying plastic stuff that get played with for a bit and then they'll sit in storage or breakup. Why not make the toys from felt or fabric stashed in your box for refashion dos?

And what about brightening up an old lamp?

(photos from Guardian)

You could try out this one from Christine Sews

Aaargh

Still going strong with my 4-month Wardrobe Refashion pledge, but I'm having difficulty finishing off my waistcoat. I can't get the sleeves to sit neatly after I tucked them in. Oh no!


I also need to make a costume for my son's United Nations Party at school. He has decided to represent China, and go as a panda. I've decided to revamp the halloween costume I made him 2 yrs back.... will take pics to show all!

Green Buildings

Did you know that the Taipei 101, the world's tallest building" is powered by solar panels located on its roof top? With the growing number of buildings sprouting up in Asia, it's time to think about energy efficiency. In China, 80% of the nearly one billion square metres of new buildings constructed every year are buildings that consume two to three times more energy per unit of floor space than buildings in developed countries, according to a report by the Asia Business Council.


By 2019, new buildings in Europe are supposed to produce the same amount of energy as they consume. It seems like we have a lot to catch up on in Asia.


In HK some buildings are following BEAM certification. In Singapore, we have the Energy Smart Label and Green Mark. In 2001, Science and Technology Development Promoting Center, Ministry of Construction in China, introduced the Green Housing Evaluation Manual (GHEM) for addressing environmental issues in residential developments. China has 166 projects registered by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). By contrast, India has LEED certificates for 56 building projects and South Korea 49. Japan has their own CASBEE.


For more info on the Chinese and Green Buildings, I found this very informative blog

Plans to be the greenest city in the world

Yes, that's what Vancouver wants to be. Mayor Gregor Robertson has outlined the city's plans in a 44 page report "Greenest City Quick Start Recommendations".

Things like public bicycle-sharing, creating green jobs with green technology investments, curbside pickup of kitchen waste for composting.

We might take a leaf from them.... did you read Singapore's Sustainability Blueprint? It looks like I've seen some of it somewhere before ... hmmmmm

Green Ladies

Like Oxfam in the UK, St. James Settlement in Hong Kong has gone hip with recycled or second-hand clothing. The store is called "Green Ladies" :-)

The store gives job opportunities to the less fortunate women. 100% of the proceeds are used to develop the store and pay salaries!

It's located at G/F, 85 Stone Nullah Lane, Wan Chai, Hong Kong. It's not open on Sun and Public Holidays.

Stealing from recycling bins

Do we call the police if you see someone steal from the Town Council recycling bins? I saw an old lady last week take out a whole stack (must have been about 5kg) of newspaper from the one located downstairs from my block.

Zenxin Organic Park

Did you read MyPaper on 6 May? They did a full spread on, Zenxin Organic Park, an organic vegy farm in Malaysia. Apparently they supply some of Singapore's organic vegys. They are sold at Cold Storage and Shop N Save.

The farm is managed by Zenxin Agri-organic Food Sdn. Bhd and it's open to the public. I think the other 3 organic farms they manage are closed to the public. According to the article, the Zenxin farms is the largest organic farm business in Malaysia, and it is accredited by the National Association for Sustainable Agriculture, Australia. It's been around for 8 years and is run by a guy whose family runs a chicken farm (I hope that's sustainable too!)

They use methods like natural pesticides such as lady birds and spiders, and crop rotation.

How to get there: Unfortunately, they only gave directions for pple who drive. Anyway, from Singapore's Tuas Link drive up to Malaysia and exit at the Ayer Hitam NS Expressway toll. Then drive towards Kluang Town for about 5km and you'll see it on your left!

(All pics from Zenxin)

Almost finished my waist coat

Hi all, I have just got back from a meeting at work and I am REALLY exhausted, well, from work anyway :-) To cheer myself up, I put on my almost finished waist coat and took a pic.... what do you think?

Well, it's definitely different from that dress I had :-) After sewing on my rick rack onto the edges, I've finally managed to get it to look like something!!! I need to tuck in the sleeves cos it is a bit tight (remember it was originally the top of a dress). Contemplating on putting on some black lace onto it but do you think it will make it look better, or drab? Opinions, please! :-)

Being misled

I read this article on South African consumers being led to believe that they are purchasing green goods by companies eager to profit from the current trend towards environmentally-conscious consumerism.

According to the report, there is no legislation on green labelling and so consumers are not getting what they are promised by the producer. Oxo-biodegradable plastic has been authorised for use to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill. The only problem is that it turns into toxic chemical dust, polluting the environment and harming human health.

Oxo-biodegradable plastics do not meet the internationally-accepted standards for compostable and biodegradable packaging which ensures that a product breaks down completely in a landfill or an industrial compost heap. To be certified as biodegradable, a product must be fully tested and approved by internationally-recognised bodies, such as the Institute for Standards Research (ISR) and the International Standards Organisation (ISO).

So, are the biodegradable plastics and plastic bags really environmentally friendly? I haven't seen any certification in place in Singapore or in Hong Kong.

4 - Month Challenge on Wardrobe Refashion

I've signed up for the 4 month challenge on Wardrobe Refashion. This means I won't be buying clothes within this period. New clothes must come from old :-)