sharing and caring

A day trip to the ACT to visit 2 exhibitions:

Vanity Fair Portraits 1913- 2008 and Soft Sculpture  + an installation piece by Knitta Please!

Each exhibition, very exciting on their own... but I really liked the Knitta Please project. My friend Emma who attended the talk with Magda Sayeg (knitta please founder and yarn bomber!), said that there wasn't any in-depth concept behind covering and knitting around objects...more an interest in engaging the public...creating warm, happy thoughts!

It is like a community art work. Everyone sending their scraps of knitting to be used in the installation...not to bring it back to the co-op...but similarly, I like that sense of community, where people work together towards a project.

It almost takes away possession of an art piece and allows everyone to be part of exhibited art. 

Each scrap of  knitting was tagged with where it came from and the knitter's name...as I was looking at a few pieces a lady approached me and we got chatting! She asked me if I remembered Bronwen Sandland's House Cosy, 2002...where 100 volunteer knitters helped Sandland cover a house in Canberra.  '...the feeling and light inside the house was the most amazing feeling I had ever experienced' (sorry I could only find this tiny image?!)

go co-op!(just in case you're not convinced!)

Look what $54.65 can buy you at a co-op... here we have fruits, vegetables, nuts, tea, soup mix, popping corn, apricot delight, yoghurt, laundry powder...

All organic, all natural...plastic and packaging free!

yay for Bundanoon!

Bundanoon (Southern Highlands, NSW) has become the first town in Australia...(possibly the world?!) to ban commercially bottle water! 

See it here VIDEO: Bottle banned

and read it here!

Thanks bundanoon!

how to have the flu and be plastic free too!

I have been sick the past few days, with a headache, blocked ear and a cough that keeps me up during the night.

I usually say "no" to drugs...even mild ones for headaches!

...so this is what I did:

I start and end the day with a steam inhaler- pour steaming hot water into a bowl with a few drops of eucalyptus oil, cover your head with a towel and inhale(about 10mins)

Then a ginger and orange juice- I do not have a juicer, so I squeeze some oranges and grate fresh ginger into it!

For some tea I made ginger, lemon and honey tea- this recipe is from my friend emma(over at souzou!) slice some ginger and lemon into a tea pot. Infuse with boiled water and then stir in a spoonful of honey. I use Manuka or Buckwheat honey when I am feeling a little sick(they have extra active medicinal qualities!)

(visuals are a bit repetitive, slideshow images?! but the info is good to listen to)

Lots of fresh fruit, vegies and rest!

It has made me think of how we need to listen to our bodies. This headache, blocked ear and cough, was meant for me to feel, in order to slow down rather than to drug it up so I can keep going...(I am speaking of the minor pains in life...the bearable pains, don't quote me for the huge mind blowing pains!)

I feel much better now, I am on the home run and survived plastic free! 

p.s. two days ago, (when I thought I was better?!) I went for a run and saw some sad things in my neighbourhood....if this is 1 street in Sydney, I would hate to think of the rest of the world??

just to get you started!

Tide, 2004

List of co-op's in Sydney:

Manly Food Co-operative www.manlyfoodcoop.org
21B Whistler St
Manly NSW 2095

Alfalfa House Co-operative www.alfalfahouse.org
113 Enmore Road
Enmore NSW 2042

Blue Mountains Food Co-op www.bluemtnsfood.asn.au
Shop 1&2 Ha’Penny Lane
Katoomba NSW 2780

Green Tucker Store Co-op www.greentucker.org.au
Shop 4, 51 Arthur St
Forestville NSW 2087


Thoughtful Foods Co-op www.thoughtfulfoods.org.au
Roundhouse
University of New South Wales


The USYD Food Co-op www.usydfoodcoop.org.au
Level 4 Wentworth Building
University of Sydney

UTS Food Co-op www.sa.uts.edu.au/services.foodcoop
Level 3, UTS Tower Building 1 Broadway
Broadway NSW 2008

...and if you want more info on co-op's, you can go here!

Tide, 2004(detail)

p.s. the three images are works by Stuart Haygarth, who works on design projects that revolve around collecting discarded and recycled plastics.

Make-up art cosmetics (MAC), 2006

opt for the co-op!

I have hit the jackpot...true "dear plastic" gold!
I have discovered a food co-operative near my work. You may have heard of a co- op or be already shopping at one, but they are amazing havens for people going off disposable packaging.
They're '...a not for profit community owned shop' and their goals are to:

- offer the best health option food possible, that is, organic or biodynamic; and if that is not available, offer the next best thing e.g. chemical-free
- offer food that has been produced with environmental sensitivity
- purchase in bulk, thus offering customers the best price available on goods
- avoid waste created by over-packaging by encouraging customers to re-use jars, bags and containers

When you walk in, you wash your hands. (as you are handling all the foods out of the containers.) They even have little towels above the sink for you to dry your hands with!

You then choose your foods... they have everything from chocolate, grains, pasta, rice, spices, tea, coffee, miso, snacks, cleaning products, shampoo!

You scoop the food into your container(plastic kit to the rescue!), and then pay for it at the register!
I can't believe that I was even able to buy fresh tofu and umeboshi(japanese pickled plum)...I thought I was going to have to give it up or start making it myself!

I have become a member($22.6Aus) which entitles me to 10% discount every time I shop..woohooo!

an embarrassing truth

After realising that there are somethings with packaging that I need to keep buying:
1.eye contacts,
2.female hygiene products,

I have decided that my embarrassingly huge consumption of magazines must go.

So there you have it!

Not that it makes it sound any better but these were my regular reads:

And these were my sometimes reads(!):

Out of all those magazines, I have found that Dumbo Feather is the only magazine made from 100% Australian recycled paper(no plastic coating, which means..."dear plastic" friendly!) and printed using vegetable inks.

Thank you Dumbo Feather!