Coping with the strain. The over the shoulder boulder holder!

Now my bras bless 'em do have to take a lot of strain. I am not a skinny minny that is for certain.

The other day I heard and felt an almighty SNAAAAAAAP!!! There goes one of the wires in me bra again. This happens alot which is a real shame as the rest of the bra is in really good condition like new really and it seems such a shame to throw it away because that is all it is good for, landfill. It's not as if you can give it to the charity collection.

Well that is what I thought anyway until I put a post on a forum asking for advice on what to do with used bras. One of the ladies suggested that I repair it. I didn't think you could buy new underwires but oh yes indeedy you can.

Here: http://www.sewing4u.co.uk/47-bra-underwires this is just the underwire for approx £2
But here: http://www.thebraangel.com/#/the-bra-repair/4541283568 is a kit for £2.99 which for the not so good at sewing as me is the perfect solution.

Brilliant.

Not only a few pennies saved but also an environmentally friendly answer to a throw away culture.

Over Packaged!

Over packaged! What to do with all the packaging!

I ordered some items online; I know there are eco issues concerned with this in terms of the mileage and delivery. I find it a bit of a hard call between buying something unique and shopping from an independent person versus the eco concerns of the petrol etc in shipping it to me. I think as long as I am looking at other areas that we live in a more eco way, I can justify this. I did quite a big shop as I knew I would need some items further down the line so I did a bulk buy to cut out the need to order again so I think in my head that I did the right think. I hope so anyway.

When it arrived it was a different story though. I opened the door and the courier was carrying quite a big box. To start with I was not actually sure that the parcel was for me. The box he was holding looked far far too big for the items I had ordered. I was not wrong though it was for me. When I opened the box I was confronted by polystyrene chips. Lots of polystyrene chips.  Then even more polystyrene chips. 

I finally managed to did my items out and I would say without exaggerating that a good two thirds of the box was full of chips still. 

Two things

1. What on Earth am I supposed to do with them? Can they be recycled?
2. Do I let it go I do I contact the supplier with my concerns? I don’t know if that makes me a bit of a whinge bag or not. The items I ordered were perfect and the delivery was immaculate. Do I say anything?

I started to get my thinking cap on and realised that I could do the following with the polystyrene:

1. Put them in the bottom of a plant pot to aid drainage
2.  Keep them for moving house and packing
3.  Give them away for people selling things
4. Get really creative and make random craft projects with them / junk modelling

I would really like to know if there are any other ideas out there. I am going with the keeping them option at the moment. Don’t know what else to do really. All I can say is, just as well we have a car port we can store them in!

Easter

I had a really restful Easter and it was lovely. We saw family and we had time to ourselves to chill out too. I guess we are like most people in that it is all to easy to forget what Easter is all about and "the reason for the season". I think we just get caught up in such busy lives we forget to slow down from time to time. I know when I had a full time job I did just that. I was a right stress head most of the time. I used to get stressed that I was tired and didn't feel like cooking so we got a take away which I had to go to work to pay for - the cycle goes on!

These days now I work for myself and came juggle my time I do make sure I take a rest. The only trouble working for yourself is the pressure to feel like you should be doing something. I have to admit I didn't switch off completely but I didn't feel compelled to turn on the laptop and start working either.

It was good and it was needed. Batteries are sufficiently charged now.

For us it was a shame that it was wet over the bank holiday but the garden is looking all the more better for it.

My main reason for this blog post is eggs. Both real eggs and chocolate ones!

Most weekends we sit down together and eat a nice breakfast, have a pot of tea and talk. Make the most of not having to rush around. Easter Sunday was no exception and a yummy bolied egg (or two) was in order. I just wanted to show you this little picture that I took with my camera. The two eggs were in identical egg cups and were lined up next to each other. The smaller one on the left is from a shop. Can't remember which one. The one on the right is from the farm shop Jon goes to near Woburn. Now you can't tell me that is not value for money!!! Free range, local (ish) and independent but above all, big and tasty!

 

We were both very lucky to receive chocolate Easter eggs. I have to confess that I probably ate more than I should have but at the time I enjoyed it. I felt sluggish this morning though and had to work some of it off at Step class. I am so going to pay for that tomorrow!

Anyway, looking at the eggs, it got us thinking just how much packaging is used in Easter eggs. Now as a child, some of the excitement was seeing this big beautiful packaging with gold foil sparkling away inside. As an adult I can't help thinking what a waste and also a bit of a disappointment. The egg looks huge in the packaging but take it out and you haven't actually got that much chocolate. 

We tried to be mindful when purchasing eggs this year of the packaging but very few manufacturers seem to have cut down on the amount they use. Why is this? It seems that it hasn't gone un noticed. Do a google search and many articles will come up. One from the Telegraph caught my eye:

The 2012 Easter Egg Packaging report concluded that the percentage of Easter egg boxes taken up by chocolate had not reduced from last year's amount of 38 per cent. 

That is a lot huh? I guess we are partly guilty for buying but we can't help what we are brought. All we can do is recycle the waste and be good in other ways!