The trials and tribulations of Avocado growing

It has been a tense few weeks here as we watched our two avocado plants that I've been growing for the past year slowly loose all their leaves.

I sprayed them with some non-toxic bug killer to no avail.

Then I decided to do some online searching to find out what might be killing our beautiful friends. I finally discovered that they had fungus bugs eating their roots. Many of the sites said too bad the plants will die or to use lots of chemicals but one gave some helpful advice: stop watering the plants and let the soil dry out. Apparently the fungus bugs need moisture to survive and with no water the bugs will die but the plants will be fine. Once the soil is completely and utterly dry, you can start to water again, watching carefully for bug-action.

Today our second avocado lost its last large leaf. So both plants have are now stick-like and at first glance leaf-less!

However, both have started to sprout new leaves this week! Hurrah! 

I like to think that the little pep-talk I have with them every morning about them being such lovely plants and how much we want them to thrive has also helped. So yes, you should talk to your plants and tell them that they are great! (but also do some research on bugs!)

In the strange twilight of midday

The Haze has a strange quality.

Its in some ways terrifying and some ways beautiful. 

Is this the sublime?

The smoke was so thick the landscape turned into a painting of itself.

The sun turned into a glowing orb of pink through the thick air.

Avoiding products with Palm Oil in them might help.

Why sew?

I made a commitment this year to not buy any clothes. So far I have more or less stuck to my plan. All I have brought are things I can't make like tights or shoes or jeans. However I weakened recently at the price of a $5 viscose cardigan on sale at Cotton On. Fast-fashion is just so cheap that its hard for a girl to resist. I am mortal after all!  I can't make things for as cheap as the big chains can. But I can make things of better quality and with nicer materials. I can use linen and cotton and cool polka-dots and sew careful seams and lining. I can choose exactly what style, colour and fabric I use to suit myself. Even though I occasionally crave the thrill of purchase and the quick and ready-made, I'm glad I have tried to make my own clothes. I get so much more satisfaction from wearing things I made myself. My sewing is also getting better. Now my clothes don't look home-made in a bad way. It makes me very happy when people ask when I got my dress and I can say I made it and they are genuinely shocked!

 This dress pattern is from BurdaStyle. I sewed the dress in a linen/cotton blend so it falls nicely. I modified the sleeves a bit and gave them a little pleat so they sat nicer across my shoulders. I'm so happy with this dress. I love the indigo colour too.

 Rather than buy pajama pants I decided to make my own. I used fabric that I like but is a bit too shocking for my quiet personality to wear out! One pair is in linen/cotton (same print as the dress) and the other is cotton. I gave both a simple elastic waistband. 

The pattern is my own adaptation of a pair of pj shorts. I used the instructions in Cal Patch's book to lengthen the pants.

As a child I always wanted to wear a Tutu but I never go to. So I decided to make myself a Tutu skirt. This project I've dreamt about for about 2 years, but only got to making it this past week. The skirt is made up of 3 layers: 2 of Bridal Tulle and one of acetate lining. I sewed both to the elastic waistband. 

When I wear this skirt out, people are nicer to me. Random strangers smile at me in the street. I guess big swooshey tutu skirts make people happy. It sure makes me happy!

Because I lost a lot of weight I can't wear any of my trousers so I decided to make some. These pants are from a book called 'Simple Modern Sewing' and were quite easy to make...However after I had sewed up the blue linen I realised it was more translucent than I thought so I had to line them. After rummaging around in my fabric stash I found enough white cotton fabric to line the pants.

The pants are really comfy. There is a lot to be said for an elastic waist!

This dress is my adapation from  'Simple Modern Sewing'. The book designed this dress for linen but I wanted to use this pleated polyester. I also decided to modify the hemline to slope from front to back. The change of fabric meant I had to stabilise the top to prevent it stretching out and I added a half-lining of black cotton drill fabric to keep it nice-shaped.

This is the sloped hemline. It looks like a 1920s dress when worn.

The pattern had these nice fold-over shoulder details that I liked.

I had about 0.5m of grey jersey left from my Drape Drape dress and I wanted to make a shawl. I had seen a scarf at the Purl Bee with Pompom edging and thought it looked cool so I decided to make one. Mine is a circle scarf as I only had about 1.0m of length for the scarf - too short to wear as a regular scarf.

The pompom scarf has the same effect as the tutu skirt - it makes people smile. This is a good thing to happen when you walk about!

This dress is from a BurdaStyle pattern. I made this in light grey polka-dot polyester chiffon. This was the first time I had ever sewed chiffon and it was a little bit tricky. I had to zigzag stitch all the pieces before I sewed them as they were unraveling fast! Fortunately the zigzagging also helped to stabilise the seams and keep things from sliding away while sewing as I couldn't pin the pieces as pinning left holes. I definitely learnt a lot from this dress!

I am quite happy with my neat seams around the neck and sleeves. The asymmetrical neckline turned out nice too. It has a simple press-stud to fasten.

More sewing adventures await!

Updates from the little garden

Our Chinese Greens are growing well. Since this was taken they have grown twice as big and need re-potting so they each have enough space to breathe. I'm already plotting how to eat them.

My colleague gave me this Water Moss and its a great little plant. It enjoys a little sunlight every now and then to photosynthesize  You can actually see it making oxygen as little bubbles appear on the surface of the moss then float to the top! 

We have harvested our first Chillies! They are very hot so we can't eat so many at once so I'm drying them to keep for later when the plant is not fruiting. 

I am so happy that my bean is now growing beans of its own. It has two beans now and they are getting quite big. Interestingly they are not the same colour as the beans I brought from the supermarket and sprouted. The ones from the supermarket were pale and striped with pink! Oh well, I'm just glad Bean is growing nicely!

A little garden

 I brought some beans at the supermarket. I thought I'd have a go at sprouting them. I placed 6 on damp paper towel and waited. First one sprouted, then another. Then nothing! The other four didn't spout at all after 2 weeks. Then the second one stopped growing and the first one took off like a rocket. I think it must have been watching the Olympics!

After a few short days of growing roots, it started to spout up. In one day alone it grew about 2 inches!

It grew so fast I had to rush out and buy some potting mix for it. It now has a nice view out the window and is stretching towards the sunshine. Today it grew about an inch and in the last 2 days it has sprouted three new leaves. I don't know if it will ever grow beans but its so fun to watch that I don't mind. Its so satisfying to see things grow. Its also kinda magical that things grow at all, all I did was add water! By the way, his name is Bean.

One of my colleagues was slowly killing this nice Staghorn Fern so I took it home. Since I took it home and nursed it back to health its grown 7 new leaves and is looking decidedly perky. I've named him Planty in honour of My Milk Toof's pet plant. Sadly, some little bugs are eating the dry bits of Planty, so I have to spray him with some organic pest-killer (hope it doesn't hurt him!).

While I was at the nursery getting soil for Bean, we brought 3 other plants: A basil, a rosemary and a chilli padi. So now we have a little garden. So far we are calling them Bas, Rose and Paddy, not very original, but I think they should have names.

 So far they look happy. I'm planning on putting some of them in a pie soon! (But don't tell them, they might get scared!). They smell soooo good!

Inspired by Hermine's avocado growing adventures I decided to try my own. Out of 5 that I had in water, so far one has leaves. Three didn't make it after 3 months so I was left with two. The first one sprouted but has been growing very very slowly. The second one has grown roots and is now busy making leaves. I've got another pot ready for him once he grows a little taller. His name is Avi (short for Avicenna, after the philosopher). The other one is called Ave (short for Averroes).

A little more Christmas

I was about to throw away all these sticky notes. Then I realised that they were all the same size and colour (except two of them) and they were still sticky. They were all written on and not reusable for general reminders. Then I remembered last Christmas' Sticky-Note Christmas Tree. I thought to myself - who says you can't have an office Christmas tree? What would be more appropriate than a sticky-note tree for the office? So I got sticking...

I found a little spot on the column above my calendar next to my desk. The pink and yellow notes became the trunk and star. Of course Christmas Trees have pink trunks and purple leaves!

I even made a star by folding a long sticky-note flag into a 3D diamond shape. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

Hopefully its not all fallen on the floor on Monday!

Its starting to look a little like Christmas...

I put my Christmas tree up recently. 

She is a modest little fellow. 

Her name is Clementine, the Cypress Pine. 

She is just 45cm tall and I decorated her in gold and red. She has a little garland that I made from thin gold thread and white plastic snowflakes that I cut out of a Starbucks Christmas cup (a little recycling is always good!).

How did the year go by so fast? I'll never know...

It is just under 3 weeks until I go home for the first time in 2 years...can't wait!

How to Freak Out.

I don't use a lot of beauty products or wear much makeup. In fact, on a daily basis I don't wear makeup and use just a couple of things. Ever since I read 'Slow Death by Rubber Duck' a year ago, I've been trying to reduce my chemical load. So no microwaving things in plastic, less takeaways, no polystyrene and when I have to buy a drink out I choose one in glass which I then recycle. Obviously this is not fool proof and I still consume large amounts of plastic encased products. The supermarkets wrap half their fresh produce in plastic too, so its hard to avoid. Tinned fish has a layer of plastic inside the tin. But I try.

Recently a friend was searching for more environmentally and health friendly shampoos. I suggested the shampoo I've been using for years, only to find that the nasty things in that shampoo (marketed as both organic and natural) made it one of the most dangerous things I own! In fact, I would have been better off washing my hair with dish detergent as that would have been safer! This started me thinking. If I've been buying 'natural' and 'organic' products for years (and at higher prices) but they are far from that then I've been cheated and its possibly been bad for my health. If you want to check out your own products you can type the name into this data base here and it will give your product a rating from 0 (safe) to 9 (run away!). My shampoo was rated 8 and my body wash was rated 9! And both had the (I now know meaningless) words 'natural' and 'organic' on the label.

I eventually came across this book in an effort to better inform myself as to what I'm sticking on my head, skin and lips:

This book is well written and understandable. It has lots of links and suggestions for safer alternatives. So I decided to try some new safer (hopefully) products.

Left to Right:

Olivia's Oasis Olive oil soap - this brand's other products don't look so safe, but the soap is a simple mix of salts, olive oil and water. It works too and isn't drying like liquid body wash can be. Smells a bit like old olive oil though the smell doesn't stay too long on your skin.

Tom's of Maine Deodorant - Not too bad. I still sweat (apparently sweating is normal!) and by 8-12 hours later I'm a little stinky. If I were to be going out in the evening, I'd re-apply it. In tropical Singapore, I'd reapply at lunch-time. I'm not majorly stinky, but we shall see, as it may change over time. I've been using this for 2 weeks only. I've tried natural rock crystal deodorants before but those really don't work for me. So I hope this works. I don't want to put aluminium under my arms anymore.

*EDIT* - tested the deodorant on a very hot day (30+ C) walking outdoors and was not stinky. This is good stuff.

Jason Aloe Vera Gel: So my previous aloe vera gel (labelled '100% pure aloe vera') contained formaldehyde in two different forms. Formaldehyde is used in laminate (yellow) glue and preserving laboritory specimens. I don't think it should go on your face. This aloe vera gel is a nice texture (not too sticky) and absorbs well. Good body moisturiser.

Green Beaver Green Tea and Aloe Face Moisturiser - My previous facial mositurisers are okay in terms of chemicals, but are not great for my skin, as they makes my face alternately oily and dry. This moisturiser is light and absorbs really easily. I've very sensitive skin and to have a moisturiser not burn my face is amazing. Plus this makes my skin soft and smooth. I'll be buying a few tubes of this to take back to Singapore.

Jason Sea Fresh Toothpaste - I love the taste of this toothpaste. I actually feel more motivated to brush my teeth because of it! It has a slightly bitter taste like chinese herbs that little kids may not like (the company makes apple flavour and mandarin or something for kids). My previous really famous brand toothpaste contains Triclosan which is a nasty anti-bacterial that has been linked to cancer and endocrine disruption. It is also bad for the environment. When you stick something in your mouth, you want to be sure its safe.

And shampoo you ask? I'm trying the bicarb soda and apple cider vinegar method. I'm slowly weaning my hair off shampoo entirely by alternating shampoo (don't worry, I switched brands to a less toxic one!) with the soda and vinegar. My hair seems to be responding okay, but by the second day of soda and vinegar washing it's looking a little greasy. My scalp though is loving the less severe conditions and is slowly regaining its moisture balance. The vinegar smells pretty strong though so I've been adding a few drops of lavender oil to mask the smell. If you want to try the soda and vinegar method there is lots of info here. I hope one day to be poo-free!

Things that Birdy has been up to and other stories

There won't be any more pictures of Rambutan-eating Birds for a while because me and the Mr. just moved to Canada for a year. This has been an involved procedure taking many months and right up until the last week, it was not certain that we were actually going. But we got here in the end. This relocation of course means a whole new lot of birdy adventures are to be had both in actual bird paparazzi-ing and in making and finding new things.

On the bird front so far we have seen only pigeons, sparrows and seagulls. The seagulls are very much larger than I have seen before and in the evenings seem fond of circling over the city in large numbers. We saw some ducks too (probably the Mallard Duck) swimming around the pond in our local park and some North American Starlings which unlike the Singaporean versions, don't seem to have red eyes. We've also been enjoying the abundant squirrels and even saw a beautiful creamy coloured albino squirrel at our local park. Seems like our local park may be our new creature-spotting area of choice.

On the making of things front, I was making a chunky wool coat to bring with me to Canada. Because I hear it gets cold here! I got the back done and halfway up one sleeve before I left only to discover that the chunky wool is really very chunky, and I couldn't fit it in my suitcase! Sigh...

The pattern has pockets - pockets! I love this! The wool is a Lion Brand chunky weight in a charcoal grey.

The pattern is by Wenlan Chia of Twinkle. See here for a hilarious review of this and other patterns in the same issue of Vogue Knitting. I personally think the chunky jacket look is nice, you just accept that you will look like you are being eaten by a jacket and you wear it like you don't care. It would have been warm, cozy and would double as a blanket, all pluses in my book! I wish I could have squeezed it into my suitcase. Sigh again...

I did manage to complete and fit into my suitcase two recently finished sewn items: a skirt and a t-shirt.

The t-shirt is an altered Uniquo t-shirt which I wrote about here. I finally got to stitching it in place by machine and taking out the tacking stitches. Its comfortable and fits well except for the neckline as I made it a little too wide and it tends to slide off the shoulders. This would be fine, except it wasn't the look I was going for (plus I'm shy of sharing my shoulders with the world). But with a scarf, singlet or the sleeves pushed up it stays in place, so it works out.

Back in October last year when I went to Malacca I got this cute cotton floral fabric amongst other treasures. I finally figured out what I was going to do with it. Following on from my Gingham skirt experiment with the rectangles and t-shirt fabric waistband, I broke out my precious fabric. Shown here unhemmed (I've since stitched up the hem!) the skirt is comfortable and sits nicely. Its got a kind-of bubble-skirt feel to the waist. Like the Gingham skirt, its reversible and the inside is plain calico. I haven't yet printed anything on the inside yet or decided what to print. I've found a shop here though that sells fabric paints, so I'm set once the inspiration arrives!

The t-shirt for the waistband comes leftovers from this t-shirt dress I sewed previously. I love having no waste when sewing!

Having to move countries with only two suitcases means making supplies and things have to be culled back to bare essentials. I did however squeeze in 4 balls of purple alpaca wool and 4 balls of light soft mohair blend. The soft mohair will come in very handy as on my way to Canada I picked up the latest issue of Rebecca knitting magazine while in Germany. I've been wanting to get my hands on this magazine for ages, but couldn't find it locally. In it there are a host of cute patterns that use mohair. My favourite is the long sleeved tunic dress seen here on their website. You can also look at the other patterns they have in the issue (Issue 43). Its all good stuff, but unless you read German, anything other than simple stocking stitch knitting would be difficult. It think I can manage the dress from the schematic diagram & measurements as its is stocking stitch, but the cabled military style coat might be impossible unless I were very very determined!

But there will be no winter woollens out just yet, because for the last few days and for the rest of this week the weather is expected to stay above 30 degrees C. Though this means the cotton skirt has come in very handy!

Straws

I have been collecting drinking straws for a while now (I wash and dry them first so they aren't icky!) with the view to making things with them and also to document my own consumption. Collecting, rather than throwing away made me aware of exactly how much I use and throw away. I was inspired by the necklaces Lauren Manoogian makes with their geometry and colours and decided to try necklace made of straws.

The Mr. likes his Yakult but never uses the straws, so I had 5 packets of 5 straws to use for this necklace. Its not recycling in the strictest sense (eg: these are not used straws) but up-cycling something that would just be thrown out unused or languish in a drawer somewhere until being thrown out in 5 years time.

After a few experiments, I found the light grey crochet thread to be the best for thickness as well as colour. Threads of other colours made the straws look dirty, as the plastic is quite thin!

Its a really light necklace and comfortable to wear unlike a ceramic or glass bead necklace would be of a similar size.

little triangles

After I made some journals I had some scraps of fabric left-over so I decided to sew them together to try making a necklace. The result is quietly beautiful. Two shades of grey, light grey corduroy and dark grey wool flannel on a white knit cotton base. I love triangles, so many possibilities.

the very very long necklace... continued

After the last post, I made the leather clasp to cover the join. The leather piece is recycled from some product sample which I reclaimed from my big bag of fabric samples that were fished out of the bin. The clasp is simply wrapped around and has studs to join it so it can be taken off and the necklace changed about. I wanted to allow the possibility of the necklace being changeable to other forms later on if I get tired of the loop style I can plait it or crochet it or something. I'm happy with how the clasp turned out and the red looks great with the grey. If I get time, I'll make another one. I've got some green leather and blue grey too. And I've plenty of wool lying about of course!

Of Creating and Such

Though I haven't updated in a while, I've been busy making things...

Knitting in chunky wool with 10mm needles is so fast! I love it!

This is the pattern from Vogue Knitting last year or the year before that's been in my to-do list for ages. My scarf is a bit narrower than the picture (25cm instead of 45cm) and mine is a little shorter and less overwhelming mass of scarf!

The pattern wasn't too hard despite saying 'Advanced'! (I usually never look at that sort of thing as an obstacle!)

A crocheted & knitted gold bow - so cute!

Finally strung my hand-felted scrap wool beads together and they look great!

Green glass & black wool beads on plaited crochet/lace thread strings.

Brass & wood beads on plaited crochet/lace thread strings.

Necklaces are inspired by this post by Wiksten. She has a tutorial on how to make them here. Easy and fun! I haven't plaited thread together since primary school, and it was so much fun I might make some more!

More recycling: a folded polyester fabric necklace.

Detail of the folds & fabric. I'm putting my new pinking shears to good use!

Progress update on the knitted jacket: 10cm left to go on the back section.