No more scratches and screeching !!

Just a few weeks ago, Leafmonkey shared a site with ideas on what to do with your old socks.  I love the first suggestion of simply slipping them on your hand and using it as a dust rag!  I raided my son's cabinet and  but found his old socks are too small to be dust rags. Hey, why not put them onto the legs of our dining chairs to protect our dining room floor ?  I was rummaging around for elastic so that I could make the openings tighter around the legs, but I had run out.  So, I put away the socks and used t-shirt scraps instead.  Now I have chairs that won't scratch my floor and make squeaky noises when we sit on them. Hope you find this tip useful!

Get your materials ready!  Trace the foot of your dining chair leg
onto some scrap card to make the template.
 Remember to use scissors for paper when
cutting out your template for the squares.

I used 2 t-shirt squares per leg. I then sewed them together
around the edges and diagonally.

Clean the bottoms of the legs and sand paper them.
Super glue the squares onto the ends.

Trim with scissors and remember to let the glue set before using the
chair :-)

Linking up to these lovely blogs:
http://acreativeprincess.blogspot.sg

Greeny Crafter 28 - Awesome Sauce & Asshattery

Hello! Can you believe it's nearly the end of August? In fact, I just saw a lovely post on Halloween crafts using jars.  OK, so you're thinking "But Halloween is in October!", but you will need time to collect used glass jars for the suggested crafts. My favourites are the mummy jars and the "jack-o-lantern" jars because they're spooky and cute at the same time!!!

This week's Greeny Crafter is  Sheri of Awesome Sauce & Asshattery, and she's so awesome, she's published a book of refashion tutorials "Confessions of a Refashionista: Life on the Zigzag".  Thanks for the fun, Sheri! :-)

Old specs case to clutch

I saw some really cool upcycling of spec cases. They were mostly turned into neat clutches. This one from Honestly WTF is very stylish but you need a drill, and I don't have one. Then I saw this one from Unextraordineary who lined her old specs case and made a beautiful knob to go with it out of clay! 

I asked my FB followers on what to do with mine, and Refashion Co-op suggested adding a chain to make it into a little bag, and Nueyer even said it could be used to contain a kid's knick knacks.  Hmm.... maybe to hold the earphones which we carry in our bags?  Here's my upcycled version of my specs case.

Greeny Crafter 27 - Michele Ng

This week's guest blogger is Michele from Singapore. Michele has a lot of creative ideas up her sleeve. She even shows you how to make things like a ring box or reusable drawstring bag from scratch in 5 minutes. Who says you need to spend hours being crafty? :-)

The World's Most Liveable City is.....

Well according to this year's Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) Global Livability Survey it is Melbourne! In fact the majority of the top ten spots are held by cities in either Australia or Canada. Osaka was tops for Asia followed by....Tokyo and then.....Hong Kong (?).  So, where's Singapore?  From the ranking that CNN had taken from the EIU report, Singapore is not in the top 50!!!  But wait! Don't we do really well in the areas (stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure) that this ranking is based on ? Hmmmm.....

But anyway, do you live in any of these cities? Would you like to take us on a tour of your city and tell us what makes it liveable for you? Erica of Recycled Fashion and KJ of Let's Go Fly a Kite have already hosted for Melbourne and Toronto, respectively. Drop me an email greenissuessg@gmail.com  if you're interested to do one too!  :-D

Global Livability Survey

Top 50 most livable cities:

1. Melbourne, Australia

2. Vienna, Austria

3. Vancouver, Canada

4. Toronto, Canada

5. Calgary, Canada

5. Adelaide, Australia

7. Sydney, Australia

8. Helsinki, Finland

9. Perth, Australia

10. Auckland, New Zealand

11. Zurich, Switzerland

12. Geneva, Switzerland

12. Osaka, Japan

14. Stockholm, Sweden

14. Hamburg, Germany

16. Montreal, Canada

16. Paris, France

18. Tokyo, Japan

18. Frankfurt, Germany

20. Brisbane, Australia

21. Berlin, Germany

22. Copenhagen, Denmark

22. Wellington, New Zealand

24. Oslo, Norway

25. Luxembourg, Luxembourg

26. Amsterdam, Netherlands

26. Honolulu, United States

28. Brussels, Belgium

29. Munich, Germany

30. Pittsburgh, United States

31. Hong Kong, China

32. Dusseldorf, Germany

33. Lyon, France

34. Barcelona, Spain

34. Washington D.C., United States

36. Chicago, United States

36. Atlanta, United States

36. Miami, United States

39. Madrid, Spain

40. Detroit, United States

41. Boston, United States

42. Seattle, United States

43. Minneapolis, United States

43. Los Angeles, United States

45. Cleveland, United States

46. Dublin, Ireland

46. Houston, United States

46. Milan, Italy

49. Rome, Italy

50. Budapest, Hungary

Organic Private Kitchen Appreciation Session

Bamboo House is holding an organic private kitchen appreciation session on 27 Aug (Mon) @ 7.30pm and it's part of the organic living regular meet ups in Singapore. There are only 12 places at SGD39 pax and they're filling up quickly!  The menu looks interesting and I'm keen on the Cucumber Cool and the Water Crest-Pine Nut Rhapsody! 

Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it as it's a school night :-(

~ Welcome Drink ~

Cucumber Cool

* a smoothly blended organic cucumber juice aromatised with tangy organic kumquat; pure and cleansing

~ Pin-Pan (Assorted Cold Start) ~

* sesame coated Organic HuaiShan Stick dressed in Seaweed strips + Organic Baby Bitterguord Slice sauteed in Organic Agave Sauce, served chilled + Marinated Organic Tofu Bitey in Osmanthus sauce

~ Grandma Soup ~

* Good 'O Traditional Chinese Soup, brewing the goodness from Organic Bai Cai with exotic mushrooms and Organic Cashews; rewardingly nostalgic

~ Golden Rice ~

* Bamboo House signature Organic Brown Rice, sophisticatedly flvoured with Organic Sweet Corn, Organic Basil and Organic Olive Oil

~ Water Crest - Pine Nut Rapsody ~

* Organic Water Crest + Long Bean flooded with in Organic Pine Nuts, to yield a unique flavour; salivating!

~ Daikon Mushroom Stew ~

* Organic White Radish, stewed for long hours, along with kombu and shitake for that unforgetable umami experience.

~ Lotus - Cashew Paste ~

* Very traditional chinese dessert paste, re-formulated fashionably with highly nourishing Lotus Seed and Organic Cashew nuts. You get this nowhere else.

~ Free Flow of Organic Rooibos Tea (to neutralise acidity from stress and hard work on Monday!) ~

  

Recycled Cardboard Bike!

Wow,  Izhar Gafni has designed and built a bike out of just recycled cardboard. Yup, you heard right, AND it is fully functional :-)

Originally posted on FastCoExist.

It was fun, fun, fun!

It all happened on a hot Sunday at Bamboo House. In case you're wondering Bamboo House is a vegetarian restaurant tucked away in the quiet neighbourhood of Hougang. They have yummy looking items like sushi roll (vegetarian), quinoa congee and cold noodles.  I didn't get to try them but I did try their homemade lemon tea and it tasted just how lemon tea should be - lemony and not sickly sweet!  Their philosophy is no MSG, less salt and less sugar. 

Thirst quenching lemon tea
@ Bamboo House

Bag Tutorial - the holes have become smaller :-D

So, if you can remember, I really wasn't loving the t-shirt bag I made for the workshop. 

Some lovely bloggers gave some great ideas:

Greeny Crafter 26 - Terriea

On Sunday afternoon, I had a lovely time with a group of ladies and a man (yes, there are men who are keen to learn about green crafts!) making bags from old t-shirts. I must say I was rather nervous but it went well and I was pleased with the bags they made.  I'll be posting more pictures in a later blog post :-)

This week's Green Crafter is Hong Konger, Terriea. She is a talented lady in eco-print and I'm amazed by the things she has created from this technique. I really love the nuno bag (last pic below) she has made. Read on if you want to find out what eco-print is all about.

I think it's too "holey"

I made a bag from a t-shirt over National Day but why did I make it with holes!?!.  I was actually thinking of making it like a crochet grocery bag but the holes ended up really big, and for some reason the edges did not curl - ugh, bad planning.  It's still functional but I can't put small items into it.  Any suggestions on how to rectify it? :-)

The before! Thanks to Moo for the old tee!

The after :-(  too holey.....

Being Green - what does it mean?

I was really honoured to be asked by two friends on separate occasions to be interviewed by the media on being green. In the end, due to other commitments, I had to decline but it got me thinking - what does green really mean?

Does it mean buying....

Happy National Day!

Today is Singapore's 47th birthday. A lot has changed since we first arrived on this small island. Many people ask us what attracted us to this city and why we're staying here for good.  Here are a few things that make me love this place and why I think it is liveable.

Bank scandals - where's the CSR?

This is definitely not a good year for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).  Just when you thought the banks had learnt their lessons, a few more of the big names have been caught up in the scandal storm.  These are Barclays (rates fixing scandal), HSBC (allowing drug cartels to launder money) and just a few days ago, Standard Chartered (accused of illegally scheming with Iran to launder money).  Mind you, these companies do publish CSR reports (Barclay's is signed off by Ernest & Young!!) and if you have a look at HSBC's latest CSR report it reads on page 10  "We also have a duty to ensure our business does not launder the proceeds of crime, or help fund criminal activity." 

I personally feel that rather than being sincere these are just glossy packages to engage the customer and potential investors.  Time we had ethical banks.

I'm on Facebook!

Finally decided to venture into the unknown (well, that's the non-personal FB page). It took me ages to get it set up, but now you can connect to Green Issues by Agy in four different ways!!!

greenissuessg@gmail.com

 

DIY namecards

I thought I had finished preparing for my workshop until my hubby asked me whether I should have name cards handy just in case if anyone wants my contacts.  That reminded me of a brilliant idea Erica of Recycled Fashion had for making your own name cards. 

So, I took tissue boxes and a soya bean drink box and have made a couple.  I think I'll have to get a stamp made as I had a lot of trouble making do with the DIY stamp set we've got at home.   Even thought the process was a long one, it actually felt good making them :-)

Greeny Crafter 25 - Everything Emme

Have you been watching all the Olympic excitement ?  My family were rooting for Lee Chong Wei to win the gold medal for badminton and we were all sitting at the edge of our seats throughout the match. In the end, he lost to Lin Dan, but not without a fight! 


This week's Greeny Crafter is Emme of Everything Emme.  Take it away, Emme!

Tip for a Craft Workshop - Lesson Plan

I've been preparing for my workshop which will be on 12 Aug (Sunday). If you're interested and haven't reserved a slot, pop over to Bamboo House's FB page and register on their wall.

My friend, who also happens to be a teacher, gave me a useful tip for planning a workshop.  He said that once you have an idea of what to teach, draw out a lesson plan so that you can always go back to it when you want to conduct the class again.  This way, you don't have to try and remember what you did the last time round. It's also very good for reminding you what you need to do and prepare in advance of each class! Useful when we're really busy!

The lesson plan include:

a) a list of things you and the participants need to bring to the workshop

b) phases of the workshop and estimated times e.g. introducing yourself, cutting fabric, measuring, sewing the different parts 

You don't need to follow it strictly by the book as you'll find that it will change when you get feedback from your audience. 

Hope you find it useful. :-)

New beginnings... new shoes!

Erm, not exactly new shoes, but revamped enough to make me ecstatic!  I will now have more time to think about creative environmental things other than work, but my hubby asked whether I can help him instead....think, think, think.