Lets Do Organic

For those of you who don’t know what organic means, organic gardening means not using any synthetic products, including pesticides and fertilizers. Ideally, organic gardening replenishes the resources as it makes use of them. Like feeding depleted soil with composted plants, or planting legumes to add nitrogen to an area that had been planted with heavy feeder. The bigger picture involves working in cooperation with nature, viewing your garden as a small part of all the natural system.

Lots of friends that I talk to on various forums are becoming more environment-conscious starting to recycle in their homes and seeking more organic food products. Not only that, people are saying that organic tastes much better and is better for our immune systems.

This got me looking for organic fruit and veg suppliers around the country…

If you live in the Cape Ganics will deliver superb certified organic food products to your doorstep. On top of all that, they offer a free recycling service. All you have to do is keep your veggie box and fill it with your old newspapers and when they deliver your next order of veggies they collect your paper for recycling.

So not only are you getting your weekly delicious fruit and veggies, you’re doing your bit for the environment too!

They offer various sizes of organic fruit and/or veggie boxes and you can literally choose what you want, instead of wasting items that your family does not eat – swap it for something else. They offer various other organic products including organic baby food, juices, dried fruit, even cleaning materials!

Check their website every Friday for weekly special offers and visit their recipes section for scrummy ideas for your newly purchased organic fruit and veggies.

Jo’burgers will be pleased to find out there are similar services here in Johannesburg visit Wensleydale or call them on 012-650-0064. The Organic Emporium also offers online shopping and delivery.

Durbanites can shop at Earth Mother or phone them for details on 031 202 1527.

Now you have no excuse for not getting your family eating their healthy dose of 2 fruit and 2 veggies a day!

Go Green and taste the difference for yourself!

The girls

The girlsMe at my desk

(I think Linda might be responsible for taking this shot on the sly)

DIY Tip of the Week

I love this cheap and cheerful idea. I think it would make a great make-over idea for a study or home office.

How to define your room with wallpaper composed of dictionary pages.

Tools and Materials :

- Wallpaper liner and wallpaper adhesive

- The Good Ol’ Faithful OXFORD Dictionary or download pages from the internet (the cheaper version)

- Decoupage medium (Glue, polyurethane, spray acrylic or other lacquers used as a sealer to protect the decorative items being added to an object).

- Paint tray

- Paintbrush

- Wallpaper smoother

How to:

1. Begin by applying a wallpaper liner to the wall. (A smooth surface, heavy weight paper like product that is a real time saver. It can be applied over wood paneling and textured walls to hide the grooves or texture. It also comes as embossed paper with a number of patterns from stucco-like to the old tin ceiling look which can be painted to provide a faux finish). Let this dry overnight. This makes it easier to remove the treatment when you're ready for a change.

2. Cut pages from your OXFORD Dictionary.

3. Pour decoupage medium into a small dish. Working one page at a time, place the page into a plastic tray and use a narrow paintbrush to coat the back with the medium. Tip: If you want to leave a book undamaged, consider photocopying or printing favourite passages—but test the print to make sure decoupage medium doesn't smear the ink.

4. Position the page on the wall, and press flat with a plastic-edge wallpaper smoother. This process removes wrinkles and extra medium. Work from top to bottom on the wall, overlapping the pages if desired.

5. Once you've pasted all the pages, brush or roll on a thin coat of decoupage medium to seal your project.

Voila! An interesting and educational wall paper.

Grandparents Day at School was a Wash Out!

Megan and Kaylin's school (Castillian) perform an annual mini-concert for Grand Parents and today was the day!

The school invite all the granny's and grandpa's to watch each class do a poem and song and afterwards they get to go their classroom, meet the teacher and the children present them with a special gift that the children have made. This year it was brightly coloured hand-painted shopping bags. The Grand parents loved them!

Afterward we invited them to enjoy some tea and cake and can take their grand children home for the afternoon. The first two classes got to say their poems and sing their songs with a sprinkling of rain thrown in. The the heavens opened and everyone got soaked to the bone. It was a freakish sudden thundershow that chilled everyone and put a damper on the entire day. I felt so sorry for all the old granny's and grandpas running around in the rain looking for cover.

All the eats and goodies got soaked wet and it was such a disaster! Its usually such a fun, relaxed and special day for the grand parents and the children getting to show off their school, their class, their school books, what they do on a day-to-day basis. This year it was chaos. What a disappointment. Pity we can't order the weather.

Potty Class was up first

Two to Three's Class

Some of the potties

Megan with her Ouma and Oupa

KK with her Ouma and Oupa

Teacher Natasha

Ouma and Oupa watching the show before the rain came down.

Lizzie

Ennie and KK in her class

KK and Ennie

The eats that got soaked!

Megan performing her H-A-P-P-Y song

Teacher Jessica's class