Pen Love

I.so.want.this:

(Image courtesy of DBA)

Spice Girl

It's the long National Day weekend here on this sunny isle.

Happy 45th Singapore!

You've come a long way from that that tiny fishing village island in the Straits or as what most people would know from maps - that little red dot.

The long weekend has seen me painting the new side and coffee storage tables we purchased from Ikea;  Cleaning out the spice rack - threw out the old ones and am now starting to build a new one. We only have the basic spices we need for our daily cooking and baking and grilling needs at the moment but I am sure that in time, our precious cupboard real estate will be filled with more jars of spices.

(Nadine's repurposed food jars)

 

Ethical Ethos

I am married to a fiercely opinionated man.

"Tough" - a few of you may say when I (admittedly) share sometimes. Over the years, I have come to love this same man more for the very fact that he has fierce, never failing opinions about his beliefs.

I would say that it is because of M that I am more aware of world topics that I choose not to be bothered with. When before, I would eat anything produced by Cadbury or Nestle or have my (then) favourite cuppa from Starbucks without batting an eyelid, now, I read and educate myself ferociously before settling on anything.

Goodbye, Cadbury Dairy Milk, Maggi. Farewell Caramel Macchiato.

These days, I do tend to spend a bit more on the essentials. Like 100% recycled toilet paper (do we need 100% virgin pulp to clean our arses --> they go down the drains anyway), kinder nappies for the baby (it takes at least 100 years to break down a normal nappy. 100 years, people! My baby would either (a) be a really old, cane-stick assisted walking great-grandmother or (b) dead.)

And yes, whilst I have given up the luxury of Movenpick ice-cream and other equally exorbitantly priced mass-produced chocolates and the likes of Cadbury and Nestle, it wasn't long before I settled on Green & Black's and now Willie Harcourt-Cooze's baby:-

(At under GBP6.00 for 180g of pure cacao at Selfridges, I was hyperventilating in the foodhall aisle when I first laid eyes on this baby.)

It's not just about global warming. It's about ethical consumerism.

Eco Hunting

M and I are anxiously waiting for 14 August to come by. That's when our current apartment will be "officially" sold to the expat Chinese family who has already placed an option on our current apartment.

Having said that, we will then have 45 days to sort out our next permanent home. One that will be our home on this island even when we eventually decide to move where our global nomadic needs call.

We have shortlisted 2 apartments which we have grown to love. It's not love at first sight (like with our current apartment). But more of the fuzzy feeling each time I look at the floor plans and my head runs away, imagining of what our new home will be like.

It's exciting times.

We have our girls' (Nadine and our fur-children) interest: (1) no to the apartment we viewed which is flanked by 2 continuously barking canines (imagine how much more the dogs will bark with our fur-children around being the curious furballs that they are); (2) close to my sister's so that she can help out with Nadine and the fur-balls when we need; (3) walking distance to the playground so that Nadine can have room to play with the other kids in the neighbourhood to interract and grow socially.

We are also at the same time on the hunt for a tried and tested general contractor. (Recommendations anyone?) One who understands our whims and crazy ideas. One who will not think we've lost our heads when we say, we may want to go with (1) concrete slabs or (2) linoleum as our flooring option.

That's our craziest idea so far.

The flooring option.

I can already picture my mom shaking her head when I tell her that we've gone for linoleum (if we have). Her first reaction would probably be of whether we have run out of cash to get a better and proper tile flooring seeing how linoleum carries with it a reputation of being a dingy home mainstay in the 70s. I'd probably shrug to her (and everyone else's) misconception.

Fact is, linoleum is biodegradable and does not emit toxic fumes. It's stain and fade resistant as well as being easy to clean (all plus points when you have 2 cats and a soon to be toddler running about the home!). Of course, it all depends on whether our feet likes the feel of walking on linoleum and whether our eyes are pleased with the array of design and colour palette available in the market now.

But hey, our dream of building an eco-friendly home is slowly taking shape.

The Sun & The Moon

(Top image courtesy of Perpetual Kid; Bottom image courtesy of Inhabitat)

These solar powered moon jar and sun jar are amazing!

And because this island is almost right on the equator, we are blessed with sunlight almost all year round.

They can be used for everything (think patios and romantic dinners on the verandah; night lights for the kids or adults the same) - indoors and outdoors.

And . . . they are eco-friendly.

Hello! Need I convince you further?

Now, I'm off to bed - yawn - I want my moon jar . . .

Eco-Living

In between pumping (breast milk), making formula milk, changing diapers, giving the fur-children a rub down, feeding and talking to our fur/children, I have been thinking a lot about our future new home.

I don't know how I manage to have insane thoughts of viewing apartment after apartment and then, going through a (potentially deadly) renovation, but we're so ready to move out (from our current home) and give our fur/children a bigger area to roam about (sorry girls - you'd have to wait till when we move to the great outdoors down under before you can roll about the grass and have a good taste of dirt in your mouths. And that includes you, Nadine.).

And strangely, it's not so much of how I want to (interior) decorate the new home, but rather what we can do and/or incorporate into our new home to function as a more eco-friendly living space. That without having to break the bank (or rob it) and/or sell my soul to the devil. Not too much to ask for, I hope.

To start, we're bringing with us, our furniture (even our pre-loved sofa which obviously will need fresh upholstery made). Why chuck perfectly good furniture when they only need a fresh outlook? I am even loving the old-new cupboards in the nursery-guest room (see here) to not want them chucked out for our new home.

And the rest of our current practices will spill over to our new home: eco-friendly/energy saving light bulbs, recycling etc.

I know there's a lot more I can do and at this point. Though I would love to trawl the silicon highway for more eco-friendly renovation/interior processes/methods, time however, is not my friend. But, please, send comments and ideas and links on eco-living etc my way.

Re(living)

Exp and I are currently discussing living an eco-friendly way of life.

Married to a fiercely eco guy and almost 27 weeks pregnant, I have been thinking alot about doing more towards improving my way of life. Doing my bit towards improving this planet's "health" for Cookie's future, if not for ours.

And trust me, living in a high-rise building on this island is not really the most ideal of places to start but everyone has to start somewhere. And I would like to think we have. Every little action counts.

For starters, we go grocery-shopping with our own bags. I actually use my bag with no regrets.

We dump our empty plastic and glass bottles into our own recycling bin (and do our weekly clean out into the recycling bins our town council provides in our estate - the "garment" is starting to sit up and do something!).

We use eco-friendly/biodegradable floor cleaner and 2-ply-recycled paper toilet paper that don't cost an arm and a leg to purchase from neighbourhood-friendly supermarket near our home.

My Japanese bambo plants are almost dying. I think. That or they've got some kind of bug. There's an old malay wives' saying to water plants with water used to wash rice to keep them healthy. Why not? I'm recyling. And my plants are now getting a bit better. Maybe there's a truth in the old malay wives' saying.

Of course, our old statements and bills are now meeting our non-confidential printing needs at home.

Best of all, today, I get to recycle our week old bread --> I finally got round to baking bread and butter pudding. And it turned out delicious, if I do say so myself. :-)

Every little bit counts.

envirosax - yay green!

this is not new, but i've yet seen anybody toting this around in singapore ( while fake anya hindmarch's "i'm not a plastic bag"(s) infest this part of the world.) i saw them yesterday at OG - People's Park. they are roomy, roll up into a small bundle and the best part: they are waterproof/washable - think umbrella fabric.

S$9.90 each (a 10% discount if you are a member) and S$35 (10% discount applies too) for a pack of 5. check out delight.com if you live elsewhere. ~exp~



my personal favorite is the (david) hicksian black and white chain-link bag: