Category: basics

Australia · basics · challenges · knowledge

Recycle, Reuse and Repair

Joanne9 Comments

As a general rule, I’m not much of a one for standing on my proverbial soapbox and trying to convert the world, one way or another, on any given issue, nor do I write today with the intent of converting anyone’s beliefs.

However…once in a while, although only occasionally, an incident will leave me uttering certain statements and questions, such as “What the …”, “Why?” and “I really don’t see the point!”

Such an occasion has just reared its ugly head. Let me set the scene for you….The Man of the House (MOTH), decided the time was right to begin some outdoor house painting. At the back of our house, we have two fairly wide and rather long verandas, which look out over our incredible views of the Tweed Valley. The ceilings of these verandas are his latest target with the paint brush.

We have a total of four ceiling lights along the verandas, each light covered with an enclosed glass light shade (enclosed to keep the bugs out of the inside of the shade). The shade sits into a metal surround, with a rubber seal between the metal and the shade, to hold the shade securely in place.

We removed the light shades for ease of painting around the lights, only to discover that the rubber seals have perished, no doubt due to being subject to the elements for the last four years since we put them up.

Today, the MOTH has taken one of the old perished seals to various local stores to find replacements, as without the seals, the shades won’t hold in place on the metal surrounds, only to be told he will have high hopes in finding them.

Okay, so what are they suggesting? That we go out and buy four new replacement light shades, just because the seals are perished??? And what exactly do we do with the old shades? Oh, of course, throw them away!

A similar incident happened recently, although with a happier ending. The electrical lead on our son’s laptop wasn’t working; we had to buy him a new one. An initial price check revealed that once we had parted company with $80.00 we would become the proud owners of said lead. $80.00?!! The MOTH dismantled the point of the lead (yes, he has electrical expertise!), found the broken “bit” and bought a new one. Twenty five cents worth of parts and ten minutes labour on the MOTH’s part, and it was all fixed!

What is it with our consumer driven society these days? What happened to the good old days of “repairing items, when broken”? That’s if they ever did break down. I owned the same refrigerator for over twenty years. It didn’t miss a beat; however the doors were beginning to show spots of rust, all over, apparently caused by our use of magnets on the metal, when holding up our children’s works of art for all to enjoy.

For years, I waited patiently for that fridge to die, only to be eventually told, by a man in the know, that old fridges never die! Finally, I bit the bullet and bought a beautiful new refrigerator, only to be told I should get five years wear from it, perhaps seven, and ten if I was extremely lucky!

How society has changed over the years. It is sad to say, but I do believe that we are living in a disposable world. No sooner have you left the car yard with a shiny new vehicle than it has lost value and become superseded! The same applies for computers, mobile phones, television sets and CD players.

Advertisers prey on the vulnerability of consumers at large, especially the young, displaying the latest and greatest “got to have it” items. Just bring your credit card along!

Hmmm….the credit card….Australia has a population of over 22 million people. Our national credit card debt is at $40.4 billion dollars. Let me take that one step further ~ Australia’s national debt, including mortgages, credit cards and personal loans is currently at $1.2 trillion, which is up by 71% over the last five years. And, it gets even better…that equates to $56,000 debt for each and every man, woman and child in the country!

Quick, pass me the scissors; I’m cutting up my credit cards!

Just when you’re thinking it can’t get any worse, I have found even more statistics…each Australian produces, on average, a total of one tonne of rubbish each and every year!

Whatever happened to the idea of recycling, reusing or repairing? We are going further and further into debt, all in the name of owning the latest and the greatest, or being forced into buying new, when the old could be repaired. The old is tossed out onto the rubbish dump and we are burying ourselves in the waste!

Help!!! Am I missing something here?

Being a firm believer that every little bit helps, for years now I have encouraged my family to recycle, reuse or repair old items. We have a compost heap down the back yard, we use the recycled items garbage bins for glass, paper, etc. I take old clothing to the charity shops and believe that repairs and a good coat of paint gives renewed life to all walls and furniture.

The World Wide Web is a big place, so how about we all start sharing our own ideas on recycle, reuse and repair? I’m open to ideas on the three R’s; how about you?

Oh, and about those broken seals on our four light shades? The MOTH is working on improvising ~ he’ll come up with an idea! 🙂

~ All statistics information contained on this post was obtained from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. ~

basics · Changes · daughter · son

Skeletons in the Cupboard

Joanne2 Comments

On Thursday night my eldest daughter and I decided to have a good old rummage around in my sewing cupboard. My daughter and I have a mutual interest in all things crafty, and although she knows how to knit, she is just a tad rusty on some of the minor points, (eg ~ keeping all of the stitches on the needle!)

I’m proud of my daughter’s previous achievements in the finer arts. For such a “people person” (she goes stir-crazy from lack of human contact, after approximately ten minutes alone), she has displayed amazing perseverance with craft, especially cross-stitch.

My girl is a scarf lover and I have knitted her several over the last two or three years in a fluffy yarn called “Flurry”. There is another similar brand also available, “Feathers”, which is the knitting yarn I am using for my latest project, which I wrote about in “Back to Basics”. She has attempted to knit with this beautiful, soft, fluffy yarn herself, without success. She is in need of some practise, using a flatter textured yarn.

Remembering my old stash of wool, collected throughout my many years of knitting, although recently neglected due to my so called “time saving” methods of buying readymade articles from the stores, we began opening bags, checking inside of cane baskets and poking around at the back of the shelves to locate all possible woollen candidates for my daughter to practise her knitting on.

We had no trouble at all in locating just the right coloured and textured yarn for her practise knitting, along with a suitably sized pair of knitting needles….

….along with a number of “old treasures” that I hadn’t bargained on finding!

An almost finished jumper, all red, which, as I recall, was intended for my ten year old son, who is now twenty-five! And a sleeveless cardigan that I began knitting for myself, half of the back completed, which, when finished, would have been quite stunning…back in the 1980’s!

Yet another forgotten find was a large bag full of the most gorgeous, deeply toned balls of wool, each ball a different colour of the rainbow. I felt rather disappointed in myself for not completing this particular project as it was a lovely designed multi-coloured jumper, which had also been intended for my eldest son, when he would have been around five years of age!

Neatly wrapped up in its own separate little bag, with half knitted back and extra pastel coloured shades of wool to complete it with, we found a cute little babies jumper, with various designs of boats and houses tediously knitted into it. We both recalled that I had been knitting this for my younger daughter…(drum roll)…who turns eighteen this year!

Oh dear! But all is not lost; my daughter assures me that if I finish the pastel coloured baby’s jumper, she would love to have it herself, for when she has a baby! (Now, where did I put that knitting pattern?)

Why, oh why, didn’t I ever finish these projects?

From my own point of view, the pièce de résistance has just got to be the pair of glasses I discovered, hiding away in the bottom of a plastic bag, immediately recognisable (to me, anyway, even if to no one else) as the prescription glasses I wore, back in the days when I read so much that I suffered from eye strain ~ when I was a teenager, still living at home with my parents!

My youngest son, Master Twelve, (always centre-front when a clown is required!) offered his modelling services for a photographic session, wearing my pre-loved spectacles! (Note ~ No modelling fee was paid for his services. Yes, I am unashamedly into cheap labour, especially when hideous reading glasses are concerned!)

When writing my post on A Rejuvenated Soul, I must now admit to an absolute oversight on my part ~ I didn’t mention sorting through your sewing cupboard, if you own one. :/

So, now we all know what I’ll be doing next week; when the kids are back at school and I have the house to myself, I’ll empty out the sewing cupboard, pack up all the wool that I haven’t got a hope of ever finding a use for, and the charity shops will love me all over again! 🙂

basics · gratitude · inspiration

Back to Basics

Joanne6 Comments

What with all of the cold weather we have had of late, I decided that I was well overdue for a new jumper. Not just any jumper though, it had to be the soft, cosy variety, one that invites you to wrap yourself up in it, cuddle up on your favourite chair with a steaming hot cup of coffee or chocolate and a good book, whist enjoying this temporary dose of cooler days.

As it has become my habit over the past few years, my initial thought was simply to take myself off on a shopping trip to buy a ready-made jumper. On second thoughts, however, I came up with an even better plan, a plan which the “old me” would have come up with immediately. Like I said, I have developed a few “habits” over recent years, all of which I now recognise as “easy” fixers.

Back in the good old days, I made quite a few of my own, and my children’s clothes. Growing up in a family of crafty minded people, (and I mean that in the nicest way, as in, self-sufficient), it would have been impossible for me not to learn the finer arts of sewing, embroidery and cross-stitch, crochet and knitting.

From the tender age of ten or eleven, it was nothing for me to whip up a new jumper or two for myself each winter, not to mention a few jumpers, cardigans, trousers, beanies, gloves and scarves for my dolls along the way!

My babies always wore little hand knitted jumpers, jackets and booties, made out of the finer three and four ply baby wool and progressing to jumpers knitted in the thicker yarns as they grew older. My neighbour once noted that my daughter’s doll was better dressed than some babies she had seen!

As the years progressed, the quicker and easier way of acquiring new outfits has crept in, that being a quick trip to a crowded shopping centre. Not this time, though. I caught myself before rushing out of the door in pursuit of a mass produced number, taking the alternate route to the local craft store.

The familiar feeling of browsing through pattern books, wool colours and knitting needles was a delight in itself, and made all the more pleasurable when my eldest daughter met me at the store, to help me make my choice.

With pattern, wool and knew new knitting needles chosen, I left the store feeling a sense of achievement, and I hadn’t even knitted a stitch yet! Just the mere fact that I was making a return to the basics, rather than taking the easier and more expensive route, was extremely gratifying.

With my knitted jumper now in progress, each night I sit comfortably in my chair, my older “Queen Cat” cat curled up beside me, younger “Cutie Cat” asleep on the chair next to me and my dog snoring away contentedly at my feet.

Ah yes, that’s what life’s all about. There’s a lot to be said for enjoying the basics. 🙂