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Chomeuse with a Chou

Unemployed with a cabbage: tales of family life in France

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💕Happy Valentine's Day!!💕 . . #keepsake #valentinescraft #homemade #varmintprint #toddlerart #footprintart

LA VIE EN VERT: Week 5 . . When it rained and the birthday girl was struck with a double whammy of teeth and the lurgy . . 29th Jan: The Big Day. Celebrated with "Sitting room picnic lunch" (at Chou's insistence) with homemade (and virtually plastic-free) goodies, including an attempt at a hedgehog cake (pictured - my siblings, my Chou and I all had a version of this cake on our 1st birthdays). Rather then order in chocolate buttons I searched my cupboards and improvised with almond flakes instead. . . 30th Jan: @lushfrance bubble bar successfully trialled in Chou-fleur's bath. She is now plastic-free at bath time. . . 31st Jan: Impulse-bought a wicker basket from Carrefour to use as a "clean-ish" clothes hamper (for kids' clothes that aren't clean enough to put back in a drawer but are too clean to be washed - ususlly they get strewn across the floor by my son and covered on diy dust, and then inevitably need washing). . . 1st Feb: Panic cleaning for birthday party with in-laws, buy still loving the vinegar cleaning solution. . . 2nd Feb: Party Time!! Instead of having balloons I reused our (homemade) wedding bunting, now in their 7th year of use. . . 3rd Feb: Chou and I made him a "rewards jar" for good behaviour (basically bribery in jar form), by reusing and decorating an old cornichon jar and filling it with conkers. Apparently there'll be a lego-shaped treat when the conkers reach the rim. . . 4th Feb: sowed 3x chilli and pepper seeds, ready for summer. . . #1000hoursoutside total: 35h35/1000 . . #ecofriendly #ecoswaps #lifeinfrance #reduce #reuse #greenliving #wasteless

LA VIE EN VERT: Week 4 . . We have been plagued by the lurgy for the past couple of weeks and I have been shamefully slacking off to be perfectly honest (a poorly, teething baby can do that to an already frazzled mama) but I am beginning to catch up at last, hooray! . . 22nd Jan: Discovered, via the fabulous and informative @raising.gilbert that you can actually bake muffins straight in a greased pan, without using paper or silicone liners. This may seem obvious to everyone else but my mind was completely blown. The lack of sleep may have had something to do with it 😁 I actually can't buy muffin cases where I live so have been catching up on my baking ever since! . 23rd Jan: The oven was already on so I decided to reuse and repurpose several ancient wax crayons (almost certainly in their mid-late 20s) offloaded by my mother several visits ago (she is hoping to downsize eventually) and melt them into pretty hearts with a silicone mould, to add to my baby's stock of birthday presents. . . 24th Jan: Reused old envelopes and scribbled-on scrap paper to create new (larger) envelopes to send off some home-made cards (the last of the Christmas "thank yous"). . . 25th Jan: Not actually an eco swap but my son (pictured with "Vaillante") went horse riding for the very first time. 2 hours of walking, stroking, brushing and outside fun! Now in talks with my husband to sign him up for proper lessons. . . 26th Jan: Shopping locally for baby's birthday. I mistook bow ties for headbands when I was browsing on a previous occasion (who puts bow ties in the baby section???) but bunting came to the rescue in the end, so my Chou was able to find a present for his sister. . . 27th Jan: Nasty shock, discovering fridge had turned itself off (but when??) Thermostat appears to have been on strike for some unknown duration (like the rest of France). Spent an unpleasant morning salvaging all the jars etc (after throwing away the contents) to use again under better circumstances. . . 28th Jan: Wrapped baby girl's birthday presents in fabric squares and reused Christmas paper (she's too young to realise), ready for the big 0-1!! . . #1000hoursoutside total: 32.05/1000

Sibling love 😍😍😍 . . We keep finding bits of mistletoe on the paths near our home (no idea why) and my chou gallantly insists on doing the honours every time we pass some. We are definitely feeling the love!

LA VIE EN VERT: Week 3 . . In which not a huge amount happens, but I manage to waffle on nevertheless... . . 15th Jan: I discovered that you can use pasta water for watering plants. This probably should have registered much much earlier (I mean, I already do this after boiling eggs), and only barely qualifies as an eco "win", but I'm blaming years of sleep-deprivation and am counting it. Go me. . 16th Jan: Remembering to raid the cardboard recycling box more to use with Miss Paintaholic, who averages 2 sessions a day at the moment and would otherwise be getting through reams of paper. Probably not good for washing machine energy consumption but wonderful for decorating our home for free, since I save all "masterpieces" to use as backgrounds (see @varmintprints if you'd like proof 😉) . 17th Jan: Crammed all remaining micro-shards of my last 2 @lushfrance facial oils in a silicon mould and melted them next to the fire to make a new big piece, which should last for another few weeks (swipe to see). Unfortunate side effect is that I now have to wait longer for my next Lush raid ☹ . 18th Jan: Attempt no. 3 at growing a lemon tree from a pip (previous attempts thwarted by neglect due to 1. extreme morning sickness and 2. new baby believing herself to be more important) . 19th Jan: Continuing the gardening theme with a plant splurge at Botanic, which included the acquisition of possibly the world's smallest Aloe Vera. Decades may pass before we can actually put it to work... . 20th Jan: Ventured into the scary world of eBay bidding and won a second hand folio edition of the book responsible for my daughter's first name (to be given to her as a 1st birthday present, next week) with 3 hours to go, hooray! . 21st Jan: Last week's order of @lamazuna shampoo arrived and was trialled on baby girl's hair, which now smells divinely of coconut and is softer than soft. . #1000hoursoutside: 24h05/1000 . . #ecoswaps #eco365 #ecofriendly #lifeinfrance #greenerliving #thereisnoplanetb

Why was nobody else here? It was only -1°c...😉 #1000hoursoutside

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Previous mutterings

March 2019 (1)
February 2019 (4)
January 2019 (7)
December 2018 (1)
June 2018 (1)
May 2018 (6)
April 2018 (7)
March 2018 (13)
February 2018 (8)
January 2018 (5)
July 2016 (3)

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