Jars of Goodness

I like jars. Pretty ones, which can be jam jars or jars that bath salts came in or plain old Mason jars.

I like to keep pretty things in them like buttons and beads.

oooh i wish these were mine! 

My sister in law, Mrs Lowther, makes recipe jars with ingredients for cookies or soup or brownies layered up beautifully.

Of course I do make jams and chutneys in the summer when I've gone exploring my wonderful foraging spot, but for now I'm going to make up jars of beads and buttons and jewellery bits for sale at Becnicks!
I'll have to see what I can part with! It'll be like pulling teeth, but I promise to fill some recycled jars with treasures. Really! I will! If you'd like one let me know I'm happy to make one up to your budget & fancy :)

Toodaloo x

Pretty Printable Recipe Card Roundup!

I love keeping good recipes. I don't like just printing them off, I prefer to hand write them. I have this great little binder from Paperchase.

That's not my exact one, but you get the idea. Cute huh?! It has refills for all the pages, I love it and am ready for my second set of refills! I hope to keep collecting recipes for years to come and one day pass it down to someone else who loves to cook. I don't know if they still do it, but Anthropolgie used to do a recipe book too.

Tipnut has put together a collection of sweet recipe cards you can print out & keep or give. I went to a bridal shower once where everyone was asked to bring their favorite recipe. I thought that was a great idea! Here are a few of my favorites from Tipnut's list of 30!

Elegant recipe cards from the Tie That Binds 

Retro Recipe Cards for Bakers by My Girl Thursday

Mamie at Avie Designs has made a lovely recipe card that will fit the Anthropologie book!

Cute report card a la Paper Crave!!! 

Brown Paper Bag Recipe Card by Jackie Hernandez 

I have such a soft spot for brown paper *sigh*. Great job Jackie!

Which one will you use?

The British Homefront

As you know, the women of the 1940s are a true inspiration to me. I am fascinated by the way British women ran their homes during the war, under extreme rationing and hardship.
I'm in awe of the incredible ingenuity and creativity from the WWII homefront.

First please allow me to share this from the home sweet homefront website.

With the scarcity of so many everyday items during World War Two, Britons were encouraged to become much more self-sufficient and make greater use of the materials they had.

The phrase most associated with this British wartime drive for self-sufficiency was 'MAKE DO and MEND'.

Some of the ingenious ways of how people got by included;

i.   making wartime JEWELLERY from old beer bottle tops, cup hooks and corks
ii.  supplementing a shortage of CLEANING MATERIALS by crushing egg shells for use as a scouring compound and cutting squares out of old stockings for use as dishcloths

iii. using the dregs of cold tea to clean WOODWORK

iv. varnishing the soles of CHILDREN'S SHOES to prolong the foot-wears life and

v.  cutting up old Mackintoshes to make BIBS for babies.

 Just look at this brooch! It was made from a button and electrical wire! Isn't it brilliant!?! 

Nothing wasted.

Kitchen scraps were all saved and recycled to feed pigs, goats and chickens which could be used for milk, meat and eggs. People created Pig Clubs to keep pigs which would later become meat and be shared by the members of the club.

Keeping rabbits was popular during the war...but not as pets! Eek!

Phil Bryne writes:

Households were asked to wash their recyclables before putting them out in tied bundles. Waste was segregated for the following uses:

- Tins and metal were collected for use in aircraft, tanks and weapons
- Boiled bones were used to make glue for aircraft, ground up to make fertiliser or made into glycerine for explosives.
- Kitchen waste provided feed for pigs, chickens and goats and people would bring their scraps to communal bins.
- Paper for munitions - newspapers were printed on low quality paper
- Rubber was collected to make tires

Man oh man, we've got it good. So good.
We're recycling for different reasons now, but I would love to be as committed to making do and reusing as people of the WWII homefront. I have a loooong way to go to change the way I view waste and what's still "good".

I'd love to hear some of your recycling and making do tricks. Or what you like or don't like about the home front during any of the wars.

Bye for now!

I've got a lot of jewellery to finish for this week!

Close the Loop!

Recycle Reduce Reuse and close the Loop!

I'm all about closin that loop y'all.

In our house if it's got the logo, it's gonna be recycled.
Unless it can be reused that is. Old sauce jars become new jam jars, old clothes that have no more wear become new fabric. I don't buy new packaging for my etsy shop either, it's all recycled. We recycle food too. Stale bread becomes bread crumbs. Bananas that go brown become banana bread {unlike the queen, I can not eat a brown banana - seriously gross}. I even ask the butcher downstairs to save little bits of chicken for Poppy.
I am learning about and loving the Make do and Mend ethos.
If we had any garden at all I would compost everything.
Waste Not, Want Not. I can not stand waste!
Much to Mr Woo's dismay I pick things up off of the ground all of the time. If it can be reused I'm not gonna leave it there to ruin! No way Mr!

What's a fun way you recycle that you maybe came up with yourself? You clever clogs you!


Here's a easy recycling/upcycling project idea I thought I'd share.

How to make cute RRR ribbons from Mayari ReCreation: