What It’s Like to Live Plastic-Free (and How You Can Do It Too!)

In case you have been living in a dark cave for a looong time, you have surely noticed the ever-increasing amount of news surrounding climate change, food production and wastage, plastics polluting the oceans and much, much more.

Now I don’t know about you, but a lot of this news scares me. And to be honest, it’s intimidating. What are we humans doing to the planet? To the environment? Why is it that so many goods are needed for our ever-increasing consumption, while at the same time landfill is stuffed with ever more food and plastic waste? And what can I, what can any of us, do about it?

Have you ever heard terms like “plastic-free” and “zero-waste” before? I am certainly aware of these concepts. Ask my whether I actually live plastic-free though, and I would probably um and ah and say how desperately I wish I did, but that I haven’t started. Yet.

I’m all for upcycling (such as in these sewing projects) and recycling (like giving new life to old toothbrushes). But still…

I needed to find some more information, something which I could latch onto and quickly implement to kick-start a plastic-free way of living. What does it even mean to live plastic-free? Would it be hard?

I decided to speak with my friend, Birgitta, as she is one of the only people I know who really does live plastic-free. And has done for a while. She would surely have some ideas for me!

Lucky for all of us, she was happy for me to share her story and some of her top tips with you! Plus, she shares one of her favourite recipes with us 😉. Read on to find out how Birgitta got started and how she successfully maintains a plastic-free household.

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Sewing + Upcycling = Win

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Yo, hello! I hope you have all been having a Famtastic week! Here it was the last full week of summer school holidays. Just a couple of days left and then we are thrown back into the (so very, very early, every morning) school schedule.

I truly imagined having some time to pursue my own hobbies these holidays. Yes, snigger at me, if you wish. But I really had fantasised about getting some sewing done. Leggings for the girls, a shirt for me, perhaps a shirt for Master 5. Let us take a moment to contemplate whether I did any of those things…

**3 milliseconds later**

Alas, NO. I did not. Is this how it is for you during school holidays too? Imagine squeezing in some Mama time and end up with perhaps a microscopic amount of Mama time?!?

Anyway, I did, however, repair a stack of holes in children’s clothes. “Wow!” I hear you say. Yes, I find that neither fun nor satisfying. What I DO enjoy is creating handmade clothes and other goodies. Like shirts and leggings and skirts.

What I have been experimenting with more recently though is UPCYCLING in my sewing projects.

So what is upcycling anyway? And why would anyone want to do it? Hint: Upcycling does not mean riding a bike up a steep hill 😉.

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Cool Weather, Hot Look- How to Sew a Loop Scarf

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You can learn all about how to make an Infinity Loop Scarf here!

Get Outdoors and Savour the Summertime

Hey! Just like I promised last week. Here I am, back again! For a multitude of reasons I really needed that week’s break. But it was good for me. Now I can share with you all the good stuff that has been keeping me so busy these past weeks!

The sun has been shining here, with a few gorgeously puffy clouds gently sweeping across the blue skies. And we have been having lovely summery temperatures which I have been hankering for for months now (well, except for the 5 week break in Australia over Christmas 😉). But not counting that…

Now, I don’t know about you, but all this amazing weather makes me want to skip and twirl and grin wildly in the sunshine. Of course there are always the complainers who bemoan that at 25 degrees is it already “too hot”. Me? I’m just getting started!

I thought that it could be fun to share a few of the things that we have been doing around here these past couple of weeks. Perhaps you will find a couple of ideas that you and your family could try out now that the warmer weather and longer daylight hours are here (in the northern hemisphere at least). Or maybe it will inspire you to get outside and discover your own adventures!

So, summer days, here we go…

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The Sweetest Season of All- Strawberry Season

Hooray! This week’s Everything’s Famtastic post is brought to you from a germ-free household! This is very exciting news, let me tell you. If you have no idea what I am talking about, you ought to go back and read my post from last week talking about how our family was knocked over one after the other like a set of bowling pins with a stomach virus. But healthy we are and here I am!

We are still finding and ridding our garden of strips of glittery streamers and pieces of confetti leftover from the confetti bomb my daughter and her friends gleefully enjoyed at her party last Saturday (see also, last week’s post here).

It’s wonderful that we are all healthy, because that means we can get doing things outdoors. Like soaking up the Vitamin D-filled sunshine… Like having spontaneous waterbomb fights over the hedge with the neighbours… Like taking advantage of the season and picking strawberries!!!

I might still have some adjustment issues with being an Australian expat living in Germany. Sure, a few months back I even posted about some of my personal difficulties of living an expat life here. But I’ll tell you what, I have totally found my groove when it comes to Erbeerzeit in this country.

You seriously have NO IDEA how much I love strawberries.

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How to Sew the Perfect Hulk Costume

Do you know what is generating excitement around here? The upcoming Karneval celebration! Here in Germany it’s spelled Karneval, other places around the world Carnival. While big cities in Germany like Cologne have massive parades to celebrate Karneval, our town here does a pretty decent job of it too.

Karneval tends to mean two things: costumes and sweets! In today’s post I wanted to focus on the costume side of things. Specifically: how to sew a child’s Hulk Costume. Hubby and I were sick of forking out money every single year for Karneval as well as months later for a new Halloween costume. Do that for each of the 3 kids and it can quickly get expensive, you know? So, solution identified: Sew them myself!

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Read on below to find out how you can sew a Hulk costume too. 😊 The sweets you’ll just have to organise for yourself! 😉

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Easy DIY Fabric Ornaments to Sew this Christmas

Hear ye, hear ye! Christmas is coming! Christmas is coming! Yep, it’s just a few short weeks away!

How are you going with your preparations? All ready to celebrate? Or are you like me and tend to wait until the start of December to start shopping/ baking/ sewing/ crafting/panicking?

It’s definitely time to stop panicking and start your Christmas decorating with these super cute and super simple fabric Christmas ornaments to sew!

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How to Make Classic Calendars from Your Fantastic Photos

So, it’s already November, which means the clock is ticking towards December. Not ticking. Racing toward December. This of course means Christmas is coming, ready or not!

I am generally not prepared weeks in advance for the so-called silly season. But I AM determined to do things differently this year. That means getting organised with gifts. Or at least gift ideas

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