• Bewusst Leben,  Sarines Göteborg

    Living the country life

    I am back from another trip. More inspired than ever! I do apologize, though, to certain friends (Lisa, you know who you are) who worried my offline-ness might translate to „something bad happened“.

    Nothing bad happened – I was just hanging around somewhere without internet. You know, out there, in first life.

    Note to self: in the time and age of „There is no offline, there is only away from keyboard“, announce any awol from the virtual life (technically, is it „awl“ then?). At least for as long as there is no way to virtually transmit the bad smell coming from your apartment that might alarm your neighbors – who might not even care since you live in one of those anonymous big city shoe boxes – but not the ones who do care but don’t live close by. Another note to self: keep notes to self short…ish.

    Our friend lives in this house. She spent her childhood summers here – when it was still her grandma’s house. Pretty neat, don’t you think?

    Anyway. Peter and I were visiting a friend who lives the way we hope to do one day – somewhere on the Swedish countryside, growing lots of her own food, with no stupid electro smog. There was no internet. It was beautiful. Not because or despite that fact. It just was. Although we were only there from Thursday through Tuesday, this trip was a real learning and healing experience – most of all, unsurprisingly, about myself; my current state (physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, … in any way) as well as my wishes for my future.

    This cozy little cabin was „our room“ for the time we where there.

    I realized that …

    • … a life closer to nature and more self-sufficient is not only what I imagine I want. It is what I do want.
    • … the difference between life in the city and on the countryside is not to be underestimated. My body had a hard time adjusting to physical labor (which does not always allow for ergonomic execution), my mind had a hard time accepting that I/we took so many breaks. I felt very unproductive, although our host did not express any such complaints – or any complaints at all. Here at home I want to get through with everything I have to do as quickly as possible, there you spread out the (more physically exhausting) work over the entire days, take it slow, take time for conversations, contemplation, simply being.
    • … I am especially unhappy with my job here at home.
    • … the difference between the life I am currently leading, and the life I want is huge. I had an episode of deep depression the second day when I realized that gap. I had no idea how I should get from one to the other, and this uncertainty scared and frustrated me. I still don’t know but I am hopeful now.
    Liverleaf – let’s turn more to the light like they do
    Hm, something’s wrong with this picture. Oh yeah: the chemtrails.
    Nothing wrong with this picture! We copiously drank tea made from calendula and dandelion – both, of course, „locally grown“ as you put it these days.
    Calendula – love the sound of the word, too.
    Before they become sunflowers. Our friend is a raw-foodie – so she, too, grows and eats a lot of sprouts. Her windowsills are a lot less „mono-cultural“ compared to ours. That’s gotta change!
    Buckwheat
    Well these tomato plantss obviously got a head start. (Look at my itty-bitty one further down …)
    Haven’t been able to find out what „tråer“ means (could be Norwegian?), nor do I – despite my general nosiness – know what’s in that bag. Just think it’s pretty.
    This is in the little cabin. I finally know how to start a fire. Yay!

    If you look closely you can maybe pretend to see the birch juice we collected in this bucket. We had no intentions of juicing this tree but when Peter removed what he thought was a dead branch – well, it turned out that it wasn’t dead. Luckily, the branch broke in a way that there was just enough left to hang that bucket. Thank you, dear birch tree, you tasted delicious!
    Despite my vertigo I managed to paint some of the eaves. Apparently this is something you need to do the first few years to make these kinds of log cabins „weatherproof“. We used a mixture of linseed oil and tar, so no poo – and it smells really good, too.
    Our friend covers her flower beds throughout the winter with a thick layer of straw/hay to protect the plants beneath from the nip. We thought it was time to pull away the blanket and get the roots out of bed but the ground was still partly frozen.

    When we came home I was excited to see if any of the seeds I had sown had grown anything during our absence. The score: two tomato plants are sprouting and I can see the beginning of morning glory.

    Like I said: teensy tiny.
    … unlike the mint. Peter says it’s the coffee grounds but I think he just says that because it was him who thought of that, and he wants all the credit for it. My theory: this plant is just amazing!

  • Bewusst Leben,  Sarines Göteborg

    My creative mom

    Using my free day to do laundry and upload pictures. These are from when I was at my mom’s, proof that creativity runs in the family.

    My mom made this!

    She took one of those decking pieces, used one of the boards to make a shelf, painted it, and added those little star-shaped knobs.

    Pretty cool, huh?

  • Bewusst Leben,  Sarines Göteborg

    Jewelry | Sternenkind Creations

    I did it! Just sent in an application to à la London – Gothenburg Design market. Now I better get busy making more jewelry. I’ll post pix and all things related on the Sternenkind Creations page rather than as a blog post. Feedback – yes please!!! Wish me luck!

    Related posts:

    Going with the flow

    Pearls + neon yellow nylon thread = true

  • Bewusst Leben,  Sarines Göteborg

    DIY – Three tier servers

    Like I said: I have been obsessed with (making) these three tier servers.

    You need:

    • 3 plates in different sizes
    • 2 candle holders or other appropriate items to stack the plates
    • Two-component adhesive
    • a pencil to mark where to glue what

    The first time I made these I went through a complicated process of figuring out the exact center of each plate and the candle holders. It was time-consuming, and I realized that it was no guarantee for getting everything perfectly centered anyway. So now I am just going with my visual judgment, which works fine, so I recommend you do the same.

    To glue the pieces together, follow the instructions of the specific glue you’re using. With the one I used, that meant applying glue on both objects you want to glue together, not just on the one of them. That’s all, now you just need to wait for the glue to do its thing.

    Yes, La, you guessed it …
    … this one is for you.

    This one’s a little more funky:

    I use candle holders to stack the plates.
    As always …
    … everything’s thrifted.
    Well, except for the lemons. And the super-glue I use to keep everything from falling apart.

    Which do you like better – romantic or „funky“?

  • Bewusst Leben,  Sarines Göteborg

    DIY – Scented tea cup candles

    Do you have a hard time throwing away stuff that’s practically useless? Do you stuff it in a drawer, telling yourself you’ll come up with something it’ll still be good for? Here’s a suggestion for what to do with leftover wax from candles that are technically burnt down:

    Tea cups: my latest thrift-store hunt. Wick: some linen cord.
    For the wick it’s important that you use a cord from a natural fiber, since, you know, you’re going to light it. I used linen since it happened to be around. Cotton works, too.
    To make the wick not drown in the wax, I wrapped a rubber band around the cup …
    … and hung the linen cord over it. One mustn’t be stupid, as the Swedes say.

    Now this step I forgot to document in pix: melting the wax. I just put the chunks into a tin can, which in turn I placed in a pot filled with water. Heat until the wax is melted. I put the linen cord in there, too, so that it would soak up some wax (which I imagined would keep it from burning too fast). Also, I added some tea tree oil. I am sure any essence works, but I probably wouldn’t use anything that’s not organic.

    And this is the result. You like?
    I do!

    These are going into the bathroom. I don’t like having the fluorescent light blinding me when I brush my teeth at night, so I’ve been decking out the place with tea lights. To state the obvious: this is prettier.

  • Bewusst Leben,  Sarines Göteborg

    Pearls + neon yellow nylon thread = true

    The sun has been out again today, giving me perfect light for pix of the necklace I made Sunday night. Even used a soldering iron in the process – for the first time!? Just like with the first two pieces, I am very happy with the result, although this time I am not sure I would wear it myself. Neon yellow isn’t really my color but for some reason this is what the necklace just had to look like.

    I used scrapbooking pages as background for these.
    And my boyfriend’s camera for better pix.
    The materials for the jewelery I have been making is – besides some hooks and the nylon thread – mostly dissected pieces of jewelery I have found on my thrift store raids.
  • Bewusst Leben,  Sarines Göteborg

    No poo for everything!

    I promised recipes and diys – so here we go. This morning, a chain of events (trying out another Ayurveda recommendation, massaging my skin with oil – taking a shower – greasy bathtub) led to me seeing the necessity to clean the bathtub right away. After having read and thought about the whole no poo concept only so recently, the thought of grabbing the bottle with the suspiciously blue (kinda like the blue Gatorade) and strong smelling cleaning product that we have used so far didn’t seem so appealing. There must be something else, I thought, and checked online. Disco! To no surprise, even a very quick research delivered a bunch of helpful sites, and I ended up cleaning the bathtub with a lemon. Yes, with a lemon – and it worked, too.

    Among the results of my quick search, I particularly liked a (Swedish) blog post by The Green Eco Journal. The instructions were short and easy, while covering many things you might want to clean in a house/apartment. Also, all that you need according to post is vinegar, baking soda, lemon, and olive oil.

    Here is my translation of the post, so please note that the source for the following (unless otherwise marked) including the picture is The Green Eco Journal, anything lost or messed up in translation is completely my fault:

    „Green“ and clean!

    (White wine) vinegar

    • For cleaning in general, pour equal amounts of water and vinegar into a spray bottle. Comes in handy when you want to clean up something.
    • To freshen up the toilet bowl (it literally says „seat“ but from the rest I gather that it must be the bowl – Solveig), pour two to three deciliters (ca. 1 cup – Solveig) white wine vinegar into it. Wait a few hours, then scrub and flush.
    • To clean windows, use the vinegar/water mixture for general cleaning. Spray onto the window. Instead of wiping off the mixture with a towel, use pages from a newspaper (from what I know it works – which it does! – because there are silver particles in the black ink – Solveig). (Paper towels get stuck easily.) You can still recycle the nepspaer after this.
    • To clean the floors, pour vinegar into the bucket instead of your regular cleaning product.
    • To clean the laundry machine, pour 1/2 deciliter of vinegar (ca. 1/5 cup – Solveig) into it. Start the machine without laundry. This helps to take away old laundry detergent that might have gotten stuck.

    Baking soda

    • This is a good cleanser for stains and to take away bad smells. It’s also excellent to clean pots.
      You can pour half a deciliter (ca. 1/5 cup – Solveig) into the laundry machine to clean it. So next time you’re going to wash something, your clothes will get extra-soft without you needing to add strong fabric softeners.
    • Mix a little bit of baking soda and castile soap (my link – Solveig) or regular dishwashing detergent to clean sinks and surfaces that are hard to reach. It’s also a good cleanser for drains. To make it smell nice add a few drops of essence.
    • If you have rugs that smell because of pets, sprinkle some baking soda onto the rug before vacuum cleaning them.
    • For cleaning the oven, mix 3 ts baking soda, 1 ts salt and 1 ts water. Spread the mixture inside the oven and let it sit for 8 hours. Scrape away and wash off afterward.
    • For when your drains get clogged: pour in 1/2 deciliter (ca. 1/5 cup – Solveig) and 1/2 deciliter of white wine vinegar. Let it sit for a while, then rinse with warm water.
      Another way to clean the toilet bowl is to pour in 1 ts baking soda and 4 ts vinegar. Let it sit for 15 to 30 minutes, then scrub and flush.

    Lemon

    • Lemon juice is good against grease stains. So it’s perfect for kitchen cleaning.
    • To get a natural and fresh scent in a room, make your own room spray from warm water, 1 ts baking soda and 1 ts lemon juice, and put the mixture into a spray bottle.
    • To „bleach“ white laundry, add lemon juice to your laundry detergent.
    • To give your dishes that extra shine, add lemon juice to your dish washing detergent (not on anything silver, though).
    • A spray bottle filled with half water and half lemon juice comes in handy when taking away stains from windows and mirrors.

    Olive oil

    • Mix 2 tbs olive oil and 1 tbs lemon juice to create a natural furniture polish.
    • When cleaning brass and steel material, use a cleaning rag with some olive oil on it.
    • When cleaning shoes, use some olive oil and a few drops of lemon juice to make them nice and shiny.

    Now all we need to do is find the appropriate dumping site for the poo we’ve been using …