Blog Action Day Is Here

Its Blog Action Day so to do my bit im going to share with you two things i do to try to help mother nature out.

1. Breastfeeding
You might think that its odd that ive listed breastfeeding as good for the environment, but it is! Breastmilk is naturally produced by the mother, it does not require any paper, plastic or tin packaging, it doesn't need to be fed in bottles with teats & lids that need to be sterilised. It doesn't require our forests to be cleared to provide cattle feed or trees to be felled to produce labels & advertising material or mountains to be mined to produce the tin cans & definitely doesn't require the burning of fossil fuels to support the complex cycle of producing, transporting & storing it. (taken from the article Breastmilk environment friendly too)

Breastmilk is the most ecological food available to humans!!!

2. Cloth Nappies
* Every disposable nappy ever dumped still exists today as they take centuries to break down.
* 1.375 Billion disposable nappies used annually in Australia and New Zealand.
* 3.75 Million disposable nappies dumped every single day in these 2 nations alone.
* 3 Million trees felled every year to make disposable nappies for Australia / New Zealand.
* 100 intestinal viruses leach from untreated human waste at rubbish dumps, contaminating ground water at land fill and creating risks to sanitation workers.
* 50% of total household waste will be disposable nappies, in a household with 1 baby using disposable nappies full time.
* 2 Tonnes of landfill created by each baby in disposable nappies full time.
* 3.5 Litres of water needed to make each disposable nappy.
* 1 Litre of water required to wash a cloth nappy (depending on machine, and how many nappies are washed in one load).
* 1 cup of crude oil used to make the plastic components of each disposable nappy.
(these figures were taken from the Australian nappy network website)

These are just some of the facts & figures on disposable nappies. Modern Cloth Nappies are easy to use, shaped just like a disposable so there are no nasty pins to struggle with or funky folds to get your head around. You simply toss them in a bucket when they are dirty (with no water in it - no need to soak) then chuck them in the washing machine once you have a full load of them. You only use 1/2 the regular strength of detergent & no fabric softener. You can even just stick them in with your regular washing - thats what i do, i just do a rinse first then stick all my clothes in too. Then stick them on the line to dry. Much better for the environment all round! Yes it does take water to wash them, but the production of disposables uses water as well.

Even if you just had a couple of cloth nappies that you used during the day at home it would benefit your hip pocket & the environment immensely! So i say give cloth a go!!!

Heres a couple of great websites:
153 Ways To Go Green
Be Climate Clever
Tree Hugger
Australian Nappy Network
Green Family Values (on breastfeeding & the environment)

Kanga I Am

I saw this quiz over at the organising junkie blog so i thought id give it a shot. Glad i didnt come back as eeyore!

Take the 100 Acre Personality Quiz!

so who are you?

New .com Address

Update your links - ive got a .com URL now!

My new URL is www.melinanutshell.com although the old one will still redirect here. If you want to link to me on your blog/site or you are currently linking to me this is the new code:

<br/><a href=" http://www.melinanutshell.com/"><img src="http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a170/DreaWd/TouchedPhotography/melbutton.jpg" /></a><br/><br/>

Ribbed Soaker Finished At Last

Ok, ive finally finished that ribbed soaker i was knitting. My last attempt was a total disaster so i frogged it back about 3/4, stuck about 4 short rows in (1 every 6 rows) & knitted an extra 3 inches. I made the leg holes bigger aswell & picked up more stitches. The result looks ok. I kindof used the 1932 soaker pattern but i modified it a bit.

The pic to the right is the soaker on jet before i put the legs on it or did the draw string. The pics below are of the finished soaker. ill get action shots tommorow.

Blog Action Day - Get Involved

What would happen if every blog published posts discussing the same issue, on the same day?

One issue. One day. Thousands of voices.

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future. Blog Action Day is about MASS participation. That means everyone is needed!

Here are 3 ways to participate:
Post on your blog relating to the environment on Blog Action Day
Donate your day’s earnings to an environmental charity
Promote Blog Action Day around the web

First Ever Longies Finally Complete

I finally got around to finishing the longies pattern i started ages ago. I actually finished the knitting side of it when we were on our trip to byron a couple of months ago but i lost my yarn needle (lame excuse i know) & couldn't sew up all the little bits & pieces. So i finally got around to buying another yarn needle & here they are! I was going to do a little picture thingy on the legs (embellishment or something are they called?) but that would have probably taken me another couple of months & as it is i think they are only going to fit jet for about 5 minutes anyway.

Originally i was going to attempt the picky pants pattern from little turtle knits but somehow i got the longies one. I now have the picky pants one too though so i might give that one a go next. I think one of the legs is slightly shorter than the other but apart from that they look pretty good for a first attempt.

i just looked over at jet while I'm typing this & saw him pull the needle out of the latest project - oh joy! how do they get to be so quick!!! Anyway, here's some action shots: They still need to be lanolised but apart from that they are good to go. If anyone has any suggestions for little projects that are still interesting but don't take to long to do id love to hear them. I need a couple of quick projects to motivate me!

More on Breastfeeding

I found this site ages ago & bookmarked it then forgot all about it, i was doing one of my "got to sort out all the crap in my links folder because i cant find anything" clean ups & came across it again so thought id share:

A Natural Deodorant That Actually Works!

Don't believe it? well neither did i!!! While we were on our honeymoon in November 05 we went to a local market up in cairns somewhere. There was a stand there that sold crystal deodorant rocks. I had tried a crystal deodorant stick once before but it didn't work for me at all so i was very sceptical but they were pretty cheap so i thought id give one a go & I've never used anything else since. They don't stop you sweating but they do stop the sweat having any smell. The biggest problem i use to have with regular deodorant was that whatever brand i used seemed to leave this smell & residue embedded in my clothes - yuk! not to mention all the bad stuff in there like aluminium.

Anyway, I've just recently ordered another stick as the original one i got has pretty much been all used up. I found that it stopped being as effective a month or so ago but gave it a good scrub & it seemed to work ok again, not bad getting a year & a half out of it anyway! The one i just received works perfectly again though - i can work up a real sweat & no smell at all!!!!

I'm just putting this info up here because i looked for a natural deodorant that actually worked for years & all the ones i tried failed miserably. I always reorder them from the same place just because i know they work. they come as an actual rock with a string through it so you can hang it up. Apparently they work because they leave invisible residue of minerals on your skin which prevent the formation of bacteria (which causes the unpleasant smell). All you have to do is wet the rock & gently rub it on your underarms & that's it.

The place i get mine from are called Kato Crystals - PO Box 444, Herberton QLD 4487, Australia. Their contact phone number is 07 4096 2548 & email: saltrock55@hotmail.com

Photos & Saturday Stuff

Its been way to long since ive put any new pics up so here are just a couple. First off, i thought this was a funny pic of jet, not quite sure what he is doing with his face & he is wearing a shirt rocky made for him which says "i love boobies"
These are some pics of Rocky's dream property. The little shack on it is so cute, even has its own tank, its only about 4m x 2m though, very small:
Saturday was quite a day for me. I love ikea but i never get to go there because its so far away & rocky hates it, so since we were staying in Sydney & i had the day to myself i just had to go. I had jet in the ergo sling & i bought way to much stuff so on my way out i was carrying a huge heavy bag full of ikea goodies. i thought id stop for a smoothie because i didnt eat breakfast, Jet grabbed the straw out of my cup as i was walking away from boost juice though & while trying to ressle it back from him i stuck my finger through the foam cup & managed to spill smoothie all over both of us. Then i completely lost the car, i just couldn't find the entry i came in, i tried two & they looked totally different but i walked around looking for the car anyway, eventually i stuck the heavy ikea stuff in a trolley & stopped to calm my nerves, then realised that i came up the escalator - doh! I was so happy to get all the stuff in the car, i almost drove off with what was left of my smoothie on the roof though, just one of those times where everything totally overwhelms you!

Anyway, after that i went to the parenting Australia expo. I had a bit of a fight with the GPS on the way, she (my parents named her Evon) gets confused sometimes & tries to send you down one way streets etc. The expo was ok, nothing special & there weren't any cloth nappies there! All in all i had a great day, its always nice spending a day in the city - just one though, im always happy to get back home!

Property Hunting

Today we went & checked out two beautiful acreage's. One 25 acres that is zoned as conservation land, It was really just 25acres down hill full of aussie bush & i doubt you could get a building permit through on it, pitty because it was beautiful. The other was 40acres & you need a boat to get there, its right on the river front, a little more cleared land than the other one although it is still hilly. Plenty of water around & solar power probably wouldn't be a problem there, its facing north. Rocky is totally in love with the second property, its only about 300k out of our price range! better go & buy a lotto ticket!!!

I think we really need to be clear about what we want. If we are looking at an acreage we would need to build a house on it (definitely cant afford one with a house already there!). Or we could get just a block with a beat up house on it & renovate (both our dads are builders - lucky them!). lots to think about! ill upload pics of the second property in a couple of days, we are staying down in Sydney tonight at a friends house so i haven't hooked the camera up.

I'm off to the Parenting Australia expo tomorrow, hope there's some cloth nappies there!!!

We're Up!

Jet has just started pulling to stand as of yesterday, hes only done it a couple of times so far, he has to be in the right position to get up there, he still isn't crawling yet although he does do a commando type crawl & a bit of a but shuffle.

Heres a little vid of jet pulling up for the second time ever on his own. Its pretty crappy footage because it was filmed from my mobile & just as a warning turn the sound down because i get a bit excited when he stands up & it gets very loud very quickly.

Do you like my new look?

My blog has recently had a makeover thanks to Drea. Ive still been fiddling with the template here & there so if anyone has any comments or suggestions on how you think i could improve it please let me know. Im soooooo happy to have a functional nav bar that doesnt look totally out of place!

Im pretty new to all this HTML stuff but im getting there, if anyone wants help with a blogger template or anything let me know & ill see what i can do :)

If you want to show me some love you can copy the code from the box below onto the side bar of your blog. You will get this cute little button that links back to me.

<br/><a href=" http://www.rockmel.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a170/DreaWd/TouchedPhotography/melbutton.jpg" /></a><br/><br/>

Thanks for visiting!

Mel :)