Envirosort - What happens to my recycling? Brilliant video

Are you a "Wishcycler" part 2 - Reduce the use

Are you a "WichCycler" Part 2

Is your Kerbside offside????

It is very easy to treat your green waste as a bin, once it's gone it's gone, out of sight out of mind etc. The bigger picture though is the dreaded landfill pictures, or the oceans full of waste even down to seeing third world countries living on mountains of waste sent by the UK governments because we are doing it all wrong. 

Your green waste bin outside your home should be treated as green waste meaning keeping it clean, pitting in the correct waste so that it can be repurposed and reused. 

What can you put in your green bin?

1. Plastic bottles e.g shampoo bottles, drinks bottles etc

2. Plastic pots e.g yogurt pots

3. Plastic Tubs e.g quality streets

4. Plastic trays e.g meat/fruit trays

5. Aerosols e.g deodorants

6. Food Tins e.g Baked Beans, soups, veg, fruit 

7. Drink Cans e.g fizzy drinks cans, beer cans

8. Cartons, e.g tetra pak

9. Carboard flattened not 3d maximum size A2, not stickers or Sellotape attached.

10. Paper - no glitter

11. Glass bottles e.g All colours

12. Glass Jars e.g all colours

DO NOT RECYCLE

1. Food waste

2. Nappies

3. Sanitary items

4. Crisp packets

5. Plastic wrapper 

6. Black plastics e.g gardening bags

7. Wet wipes

8. Tissues, kitchen or toilet rolls

9. Polystyrene

10. Animal litter or Bedding

11. Plastic bags

Where can you take items that cannot be put in to the green bin?

Crisp packets, plastic bags, bread bags, plastic veg wrapping, cleaned food pouches can all be recycled at many supermarkets. On the entrance to the supper market there is a huge recycling basket where you can put your waste. Alternatively you can recycle quite a lot at home independently TerraCycle. Personally try not to buy items that cannot go into your green bin reduce the use is definitely the best idea.

My Litter educational school program with Wychavon has reached over 10000 pupils

I am delighted to have had the opportunity to work with Wychavon district schools and have a council that supports my passion to teach as many pupils as possible on litter and plastic pollution. 

Article reads

More than 10,000 children have now joined the fight against litter thanks to an education programme funded by Wychavon.

Pupils at St Peter’s C of E Academy Droitwich helped the Little Litter Warriors scheme reach the milestone after 450 of them took part in specialist workshops.

Children spent three days picking the streets around the St Peter’s Church Lane school as well as in Lido Park. Pupils filled more than 160 buckets with rubbish plucked from roads, paths and hedges, with the oldest dating back to the 1990s.

Little Litter Warriors was created by Keep Britain Tidy Litter Heroes Ambassador Karen Blanchfield, as a way of raising awareness of the impact of littering and inspiring young people and spread the anti-litter message.

The scheme launched in March 2021 after Wychavon agreed to fund free sessions for all schools as part of its anti-littering campaign. The sessions have proved so popular, Wychavon has now extended the funding for another two years.

As well as taking part in a litter pick, with the extra challenge of seeing who can hunt  out the oldest piece of litter, schools are provided with resources to continue educating children about littering after the session. They are also encouraged to join Wychavon’s Adopt a Street volunteer litter picking programme to support pupils to continue to help clean up their community.

The scheme has achieved major recognition after winning a Gold International Green Apple Environment Award 2023 in the education and training sector.

Karen Blanchfield, founder of Little Litter Warriors, said: “I go out daily litter picking the same areas month on month collecting the same amount of littered waste, showing that there is a need for change in our future behaviours.

“The program was set up in order to inspire our children to grow up respecting the environment and becoming the new generation of adults to care. The children are taught through a fun and engaging workshop ensuring they think about the impact of their litter decision. I have returned to many schools where the pupils have told me of their litter picks with their families, how they have adopted their street and even shaped changes within their school. These children inspire me to keep teaching these sessions year on year and having Wychavon council support my educational litter program ensures we can keep achieving these future goals together.”

Cllr Emma Stokes, Executive Board Member for Resident and Customer Service on Wychavon District Council, said: “I’m delighted our anti-litter message has now reached more than 10,000 young minds and by extending the funding for this scheme we plan to reach many more. If your school has not had a session yet then please get in touch with Karen.

“Through Little Litter Warriors we are not only helping to inspire good behaviours in our young people we hope they will take with them into adult life, but we also hope they will take what they learn back to the adults in their lives and have a positive impact on their behaviour as well.”

 

Are you a "Wishcycler"?

 

A WishCycler

I love this expression as it indicates that we would all love to do the right thing but practicality and life just gets in the way. People always tell me that life on the eco friendly runway is expensive but I can promise you that if you invest in a little time it really does payoff.

My journey started in 2019 when I decided to take part in the #plasticfreejuly challenge hoping to see that changing my shopping habits could reduce my household waste that the council would need to take away and dispose of in god know where these days. What I found on this journey was a huge saving in my pocket, waste reduction from food waste, recycling waste and black bin waste. When I talk to people about this I usually get brushed off because people want to do more but the wasteless life style has a reputation of being difficult and expensive.

On the difficult side of reducing your waste I found that just changing one thing at a time helped my household change many over time. We are still not 100% plastic free at times because some products are not available unwrapped but reducing waste is 100% happening in our home. Check the labels on your purchases see if they can be put into your green bin.

My council Wychavon District Council are a very proactive council in deed and over the next few posts I would like to highlight what can be recycled and what should not be put in your green bins in our district.

 Why would you need to know this ?

It is everyone's planet and we all need to work together as a team to help it become a healthy planet for our children. One person cannot change or influence much but there are 335000 homes in the Wychavon district alone that could prevent millions of tons of waste reaching landfill due to not being educated on what contaminates a green bin waste

Every home in our district was delivered a magazine that may have reached their recycling bin before being read. So I thought i would do a few posts to help circulate their Wishcycler message again.

Lets start with Glass recycling!

What's What????

Mixed Glass, Bottles & Jars are the only items that can be recycled in the green bin as they have the correct melting points to be able to repurpose it glass type use.

Many glass items cannot be put in your green bin therefore they must be put into your black bin waste.

These are drinking glasses, glass vases, pyrex cookware, glass cookware, light bulbs, nail varnish bottles and window glass or mirror glass. If you have access to a household recycling centre these items may be able to be recycled there. 

If you still have your copy of the magazine please take a read, it is very informative and highlight a lot we are all doing incorrectly as a househole.

Over the next few posts I will bring in more do's and don'ts with your recycled waste.

More information can be found EnviroSort | Severn Waste Services

Waste reduction - Wychavon District Council - Wychavon District Council

November 5th damage to the enviroment

It's that time of year where the firework waste is littered across our communtiy parks and nature reserves. Today's litter pick seen me clear up to areas of firework litter on Hartlebury commons nature reserve. If left unpick the wild life could have been injured especially the cows that graze there. I will never understand why people thi k it's ok just to leave the litter lying around and not take it to a bin?? So frustrating at times. 

Not only firework waste but also Macdonald's waste too. Why do these fast food outlets use so much packaging? 

Visit my website to see how I'm getting on educating kids about litter. www.littlelitterwarriors.co.uk 

 

October 2023 "Just Change One Thing" towards waste free lifestyle

OCTOBER 2023

This weeks "just Change One Thing" towards waste free lifestyle 

I'm so excited by this one as it really is a waste free change in my kitchen.

When my son turned 16 years old last year he wanted the a coffee machine that his uncle has because according to him - "It's the Best Coffee Ever".

We purchased the Nespresso coffee machine as a present but like most you need to buy the single use coffee pods for the machine. (P.S not a happy momma)

Here is the machine, it's very practical and makes lovely coffee                                            

                

But here is the waste from one month on, a pod pack full of pods that I need to drive to a drop off point. As you can imagine I was not happy with the impractical and inconvenient way this company offers a waste free option as you can recycle. Not waste free then??

Role on one year and I can now officially say that I am coffee pod waste free thanks to the reusable coffee pod lids. I have emptied out the coffee cleaned the original coffee pod and purchased a coffee pod lid. These are superb as you can fill your pod with coffee, place on the lid and clean it all after use ensuring the coffee goes in to your compost too. These cost me £19.99 and I can cancel my subscription of £39.99 per month for the coffee pods delivery. I can just by the coffee in a pack and add to my pods. Money & waste saved. RECAFIMIL 4 PCS Reusable Cap Compatible with Nespresso Vertuo and VertuoLine Capsules, Refillable Coffee Pod Caps with Spoon and Brush : Amazon.co.uk: Grocery

There is also this £24.99 metal pod but you will still need to save your original pod bottoms as these are barcoded to ensure the amount of coffee made. They also work great but personally the first one is more practical. RECAFIMIL Reusable Coffee Pods Compatible with Nespresso Vertuo Next Machines Stainless Steel Refillable Coffee Capsule Filter, Use with 230ml Original Capsules(NOT Including Original Capsules) : Amazon.co.uk: Grocery

just make one change and see how you get on

Day one
1st July 2019

So I was really chuffed last night preparing for Plastic free July.

So this morning I woke up to one simple change Milk bottles, I have changed to glass bottles now for about a year so that was simple. PG tips pyramid are compostable tea bags and I was ready to guide my family forward. Then boom, one problem on day one breakfast I find that my goats milk has a plastic lid. I’m cow dairy intolerant and suffer from Ezcema so I can’t have cows products, I’m in trouble now as this is a plastic item. I can recycle the carton and cut off the lid to be recycled by a local company who make items from plastic lids.

Stuck what to do as I can’t buy another this month due to being plastic free, so I’ve decided to email St Helen’s farm to see if they offer a carton without plastic lids.

Wish me luck, first day, first meal then boom gutted but one hurdle to conquer on my plastic free quest.

Interceptor Explained by the Team | Cleaning Rivers | The Ocean Cleanup

Why our behaviours around our purchases have to change #planetfirst #plasticfree life

How System 002 Works | The Ocean Cleanup

Our Village Green shout out

Let's shout it out to the wonderful Nicki who has made sustainable shopping convivence to her local communities. One of the most common comments I receive when talking to people about waste reduction in their homes is that it is too expensive, that they cannot reach local refillable shops or that life is just too busy. My work in the litter picking community allows me to meet and stumble across many who are just trying to do the right thing for the sake of the planet. Waste reduction is one of the most important ways we can help repair our planet by reducing what goes out in our house hold bins.  This bins are picked up by the council and taken to either the incinerators, landfill sites and recycling business Envirosort. For those of you that have never been to Envirosort in Norton I recommend a visit, the waste that 335000 homes produce will really shock you and that's just the green bins. 

I was invited to attend Hagley Village green event this month that is a green living fair offering community members options to reduce their waste. Katherine invited me to take the children litter picking around the Hagley park area where the children found a drinks can dated back to 2012 among buckets filled with food on the go packaging litter.

I would like to introduce "The Village Green" initiative to my local like minded busy community as this service really puts sustainable shopping at the forefront of our busy lives making convivence shine on your doorstep, If we all used this service in our communities around Wyre Forest district, Hagley, Ombersley the service can operate a free delivery too.  Villages could have an arranged date that they would deliver refillable shopping to our door steps. Who's in? There are a lot of supplies we all use on a daily basis and to be able to have these wasteless is a winner for me. #sustainable #wasteless #ownyourwaste

Her website Our Village Green Homepage (sumupstore.com)

A welcomed wasteless business find

My husband and I decided to go for a breakfast in Worcester today as we needed to buy my niece an 18th Birthday gift. We parked the car and walked toward the high street and found a lovely little café that offered coffee and breakfast. As we ordered we could hear children playing upstairs and my husband asked if they ran a playgroup. The lady behind the counter said it was a stay and play area and I remembered reading in the Worcester news about them. As an environmentalist you can see so many day to day businesses wasting unnecessary waste/packaging due to convivence and lack of sustainable knowledge. My coffee was delivered and I noticed a cup that I had never seen before that came with a saucer, nosey as I am I turned it over to find it was made by a company called Huskee, they sell reusable coffee cubs, lids, plates, bowls etc made from recycled coffee husk organic material that is produced at the milling stage of coffee production. Talk about a wow factor, this made me look around to see exactly what this business is doing and what a welcomed surprise.

Let me introduce you to The Wildling collective play cafe based in Worcester. They are leading the way for business and working to provide sustainability to the community and their customers visiting. I have to say working with many schools and businesses as a consultant to reduce waste and improve waste management working practices I find that everyday you can still learn more. This little gem of a café is definitely leading the way and flying the sustainable flag for us all to follow. 

Their children's play area is made from wood with not a plastic materials to be seen, decorated elegantly with the warmth of natural materials everywhere. The children are served their meals and drinks in Liewood pla bioplastic dinner sets that are so cute. Their cafe areas has a small shop offering sustainable items for children to a baby wall full of baby/toddlers pre loved clothes for sale with reasonable affordable prices. Mom's can donate baby clothes and receive a toddler play session in exchange. The Wildling Wood consists of equipment such as a magic sensory tree, stepping stones, a reading corner, a slide, a rope bridge, a log climber and a variety of other obstacles.

The café has made sure they only use reusable items that are made from recycled sustainable materials. It really has the wow factor and shines a light on what our city businesses should be doing to reduce their trade waste. I would like to salute The wildling collective business owners for creating such a wonderful sustainable business to Worcester. 

 

read more here New children's play café, The Wildling Collective, opens | Worcester News 

Their links are 

(1) Facebook

The wildling collective 🌱modern play cafe (@the_wildlingcollective) • Instagram photos and videos

The Wildling Collective

Where do you start your plastic free lifestyle?

 Where do you start your plastic free lifestyle?

I think most people find it scary to "Go For Green" as the stigma around eco friendly lifestyle is that it's expensive. The hardest is definatley coming out of your routine and changing habbits is difficult for anyone's busy convenient lifestyle. We all live a busy life, I should know I have three children, with working, school runs & sports clubs time was aways against me. The supermarket had the easiest and convenient all in one place shop in 10 minutes and Job done. 

When I started litter picking and mixing with other like minded people in 2018 who put the planet first by living a wasteless lifestyle, I said exactly what I hear now 5 years on from other families. "It's too expensive and I can't access the refillable/farm shop option" and "where do I start"!!

In 2019 I challenged my family to the Plastic free July campaign where we were not allowed to buy anything if it had plastic packaging. As a family we did our last shop on 29th June where the kids panic brought snacks thinking "Mom is going to starve us, as there will be no food for us to eat" When we returned from that shop I asked them to place the shopping on to the table where we unwrapped 2 bin bags full of plastic packaging, some of which was recyclable but others unfortunatley went in to the black bin bags.

Whilst this was a fun challenge it was also very difficult as I was trying to change the way we lived over night in a kind of rush to help reduce the families waste to landfil or puting waste in to the circular movement. So my advice to anyone is to just start by changing one thing and see how you feel. For me the joy came when I had reduced my family to two black bin bags a fortnight and half a green bin of recycling instead off two full black and green bins each fortnight for the council to take. 

The supermarkets for me now are just expensive especially if you are trying the quickest time consuming shop option. I can have all the lists I need but a supermarket has the power to sell you things you don't need and I always buy more than I need or want. As a family we plan meals, house chore rota and dog walk responsibility. We do one shop a month for the meal plan and only purchase fresh products like bread, eggs, milk. I find keeping the cupboards orgaised I can see what I need to use up first so I don't double buy and planning meals to what is in the cupbaord saves me a fortune. 

If you are reading this blog as you too would like to join the "Go For Green" lifestyle I would like to challenge you to sorting out your food cupboards first. Lableing and stock rotating your food to ensure you use what you already have. Plan you first week's menu then organise to shop for what you need not what you would like, as it makes life easier. I bet you save money and time this week with a plan.

Here is my families week planner and my 16 year olds excel spreadsheet organiser that helped me with the shopping list and save on shop costs too. 

I would like to thank you for reading my blog, there are many tips throughout the blog to help you start to make your lifestyle alot easier and cheaper. Have fun it really is a rewarding challenge.

From Karen

Where have I been since June 2021 well I'm back!

My last post was in June of 2021, life has thrown some curve balls my way in family life however my ethos has always continued to live sustainbly. 

So what have I been up to?

Well in March 2021 I was lucky to have my litter educational program commissioned by my local district council and have been flat out in schools since. This taking me back to work after being a stay at home mom for many years. The program has currently seen 4522 kids from the district take part in the litter workshops in a hope to shape our future adults to be more litter aware than the current adults we have out in the community who litter. The program is growing and the feedback has been incredible. I am very lucky to be a litter heroes ambassador for Keep Britain Tidy too and recieve fantasic support from their team. Since 2018 I have volunteered in schools and community groups educating over 14,000 kids taken on a litter workshop. 

www.littlelitterwarriors.co.uk

During lockdown I started making soaps from natural oils that were environmentally friendly too. This has also kept me busy and my soaps are now in 12 local community outlets. 

www.7soaps.co.uk

So now your up to date 

I have to say that I am always surprised at the lack of speed for sustainablity changes within society, whenever I talk someone new i'm always suprised at their lack of education when it comes to the state of the planet and the local community they live in. I always find myself stepping back 5 years and going back to basics to explain what is fact right now. This i can read two ways, yes it can be fustrating however i read this as everyone has to start somewhere. If I can get them to change one household item to a more sustainable solution then thats their first step to changing ten items. 

The difficulty right now falls under afordabiliy, accessabilty and convience in day to day lifestyles. The only way to move forward is to educate where possible in a hope that households find their way. Some of these changes cost no money at all and if you search on the internet you can see what can be achieved. One great site is Let's Waste Less | Worcestershire County Council there are some great tips on reusing, reducing and recycling. You also have my blog of how i have changed my household over the years since my plastic free July 2019 household challenge.

Take a look

 

This Pandemic is making it very difficult to be sustainable

 Lockdown and the pandemic 2021

We have now been in this pandemic since March 2020 and throughout our lockdowns our family like most took on homeschooling, getting whatever shopping was available, helping our local heroes and like many loss of household income. My morning inspiration today is Fathers day and without my incredible husbands support this pandemic would have been a lot harder. 

Our family has experienced lots of challenges from the children having no social engagements with their friends, homeschooling and generally trying to understand at the ages of 10, 12 & 14 a pandemic. My children at first enjoyed not going to school and whilst I was enjoying less clothing to be washed chore after a few weeks I could see their frustrations starting to show. I will say that I am incredibly proud of them and their ability to adjust has been something I will always remember.

When March 2020 lockdown hit our NHS resources to keep our doctors and nurses safe was at it's rock bottom and seamstresses were called on to make PPE. The community was calling on anyone with  a sewing machine to get on board. So out came my machines and off I went sewing for the NHS heroes. This is where my children seen me working hours on end to help and they took on the household chores and cooked meals daily. The kitchen became the hub of the home once more and food was freshly cooked or baked with the resources we had on a daily basic as supermarket ques were not for me.

The homeschooling work became routine and we even added on a project to weed the pond area and create a bee friendly flower patch. Our local garden centre was delivering so we set about in the great outdoor building and creating a garden lockdown haven. Nearly two years on and the bee friendly area is blooming and bee activity has returned.

Two months before the first lockdown I set up a natural soap company with a dear friend and whilst the garden was blooming I started to dry the bee friendly flowers and roses from around the garden so that our soap making workshops had some dried flowers that our clients could use to decorate their
soaps. So many flowers were dried out during this time that I could now sell these as wedding confetti which once again helps our wonderful environment. The soaps were another keep busy in lockdown project as we started to branch out into local farm shops. Being environmentally friendly the soaps are naturally made with products you would find around your kitchen such as Olive oil & coconut oil. We worked on our 7soaps packaging to ensure 100% sustainability and have beautiful compostable packaging that also has a duel purpose of becoming the soap dish too for the duration of the soap bar. check out www.7soaps.co.uk to read more about our 7soaps lockdown journey.

 

7soap has many stockists around the wonderful communities in Worcestershire

So lets fast forward and confess

Lockdown shopping

Lockdown seen many families shop where it was convenient and safe to do so and unfortunately my household seen single use plastic return.  I like to call single use plastic pointless plastic as this grab a snack lifestyle is just so easy to do. My bins were filling up with shop packaging waste and I hated returning to convenience shopping. Two weeks ago I emptied the kitchen cupboards to try and bring my plastic free lifestyle back in to my daily life. I was absolutely devastated at the results however I'm more determined to stop supporting these pointless plastic unsustainable companies making millions and my money will be spent supporting local eco friendly companies.

Retuning to planet friendly living has to be a priority for every household and as a community litter picker I see first hand just how wasteful this generation is. I for one will be teaching my kids living this way is going to be a must for their generations future.

My Plastic free family is back 

A simpler lifestyle is less stressful, leaves me with a healthy bank balance and shopping locally means supporting my community.

Sustainability in your shopping lifestyle

When you start a plastic-free lifestyle journey you can panic and want your habits to change overnight. I found this approached incredibly stressful at the times and it also costs me more money through the determination to achieve plastic-free living in one month.  

What I have learnt since starting this challenge in July is that it cannot be done without local knowledge of your resources to achieve a reduced waste bin every fortnight. When people say Eco-Friendly or plastic-free they automatically think that it's going to cost more money and more time. The main focus should be to reduce the household black bin landfill waste and gain knowledge on the recycling system the council have in place. (www.letswasteless.com)

 For Example: As a family, multi-packet buys of crisps is a necessity on my weekly list however I have learnt that I can recycle them locally. Therefore, my crisp packets go into a reusable shopping bag on top of my fridge and when it's full I drop them off at the nearest drop off point. Most schools are now taking on the crisp packet recycling scheme becoming the communities drop off point and raising money for their school at the same time. Here is a link to drop off points.

https://www.terracycle.com/en-GB/brigades/crisppacket

 Knowing where to go shopping for your weekly needs to achieve less wastefulness is also key to winning in this fight. It's so very easy to just pop to the big branded supermarkets and get everything under one roof however I have found this costly as I buy other products that are not on my list or multi-buy offers and I'm left with food going out of date through bulk buying and overstocking unnecessary, lots of packaging causing more waste in my bins and produce is low in quality to the alternative I have now changed to.

Changing your shopping habits is the key to less waste success and its that simple.

Here are some ways in which I have changed my weekly shopping habits.

1. Say no to plastic bags food wrapping, buy fresh and singular items to reduce less food waste.
2. Carry reusable shopping bags in your car I have a box right outside my front door to remind me to take the bags with me.
3. Give up single-use plastic bottled water for a reusable bottle, tap water has been tested healthier than bottled waters.
4. Shop your local farm shops, butchers and fishmongers taking you reusable tubs with you to reduce unnecessary waste. Supermarkets accept your own reusable containers at the deli counters. 
   
   

   

   Containers used at the butchers 

   

   Own containers no household waste 

   
   

   

   Local fruit and veg shop
    no waste and locally grown

   

   Supporting locally-made products
   that's better quality and healthier.

   

   1. Choose a glass-bottled milk delivery option to your door where bottles can be returned for reuse. This saved me tons of space in the green recycling bin and stopped those panic shops buy visits when the milk has run out. https://www.findmeamilkman.net/

   
   
   

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   I cooked with the sundried tomatoes this week and
    was left with infused flavoured olive oil in the jar.
    So I bottled it up to use in future cooking.
   Washed out the Jar reusing it later in the spring. 

   
   

   I left out the single apple here in the picture, so you can see the size difference you are being persuaded to buy. The single apples were brought for my children's snack after school. I brought 3 larger apples for £1.07 or I could have brought 6 apples in plastic wrapping. So yes once again cheaper apples were available but I chose a better quality of apple that had travelled fewer miles to the supermarket shelf and  I only had the apple cork to compost at home after.

I even left the label at the till however, they can be
 weighed at the till meaning no label needed in the first place.

This was my Tesco shop this week for a family of 5. Toothpaste products can be recycled locally, the plastic wrappers here can also be recycled or reused.  Thinking about where this waste ends up is my overall goal.

The result of the above has made a huge difference to my bin waste, black bin bags this week were two and the recycling green bin was half full. before this journey, I was filling two black and two green bin a fortnight. Composting at home, reusing, recycling and buying only what I need is the reason for the less waste success. 

Christmas greener living fayre post 2

Christmas community greener living fayre 

The most amazing people live right next to you in your communities, the greener living fayre for me personally was inspirational on so many levels. 

A few stalls were run by selfless volunteers who had turned their passion and crafts into items they sold for the charity they were supporting.

Save the Children volunteers use their candle craft making skills to up-cycle used church candle wax to make brand new candles. I was delighted to buy these candles for my Christmas table but also proud to know my donation was going towards a good cause.

Animal Asia table items made great practical gifts for my homemade Christmas crackers and whoever cracks them open will know that the donation for these items has gone to a good cause.

These Bee saver kits are brilliant to for the children Christmas stocking they are packed with information and challenges to help save the Bees at home in your garden. Brilliant idea with this one and the donation I made has gone to Friends of the earth Charity. 

These Christmas earrings were purchased on the Dogs charity table and these will also go into my homemade Christmas Crackers for the girls.

incredibly inspired at the simple but effective crafts advertised at the fayre, crochet is a passion of mine and somewhere in my loft I have my crocheted baubles. My tree will stand out this year and also hold memories from when  I made them when my children were very small.

Feeling excited to decorated these wreaths for gifts

My handmade crocheted soap bags

I have three tins of buttons that my nanny collected over her many years that I could not throw away  so I have been wondering what to do with them. My family Christmas crackers will include these making them personal and heartfelt gifts to hand down to Nanny other generations.