Mark Boyle, a year into his no money spent experiment

I came across this article recently and I knew from the get go, I have to share it with all of you. It’s something I could probably see myself doing at a smaller scale, just not as drastic or as dramatic as this guy.

Armed with a caravan, solar laptop and toothpaste made from washed-up cuttlefish bones, Mark Boyle gave up using cash

He finds clothes in the bin and grows his own food: Meet the man who has spent NOTHING for a year

What beautiful flowers.

My grandma used to pick these bright, blue, delicate Telang flowers from her garden and use it to color quite a few things like fabrics and stuff, but she used it to color mainly food. I get mine outside a narrow grassy area at my neighborhood CIMB bank where it’s growing wild.

Back in the old days, women would cook one part sticky rice with plain water, while in another pot, they would have cooked another part sticky rice with bluish colored water. The water was previously soaked with the Telang flower petals and boiled gently for about 15 minutes to extract the colors. Once both the rice are done, they would just combined both the rice, gently stirring it together to create a two tone blue and white sticky rice dessert.

Some people add blueberries in their smoothies, turning it blue. I like to call my blue smoothies “A Very Smurfy Smoothie”. I don’t know why, but my kids think that name is just totally hilarious.

It would really be nice if more people used natural food coloring to color all the things around them, rather than using artificial coloring and food additives like calcium propionate.

============

Read about

• Is food making people around you crazy?
• Is your bread bad for you and your family?
• My homemade bread, no preservatives, no artificial coloring, no eggs
• Malaysian bread statistics you may not know

=============

The last time I checked, Anchor butter was one of the
better brands that used only salt as a preservative.

Some time back, I tried to make soft fluffy whipping cream like the way Jamie Oliver does on tv, and the whole thing coagulated and the end result became butter. I now know what I did wrong, but I got a wonderful end surprise …..  home made butter.

The problem with buying butter at the store is that many of the cheaper butter has chemical stabilizers, coloring and preservatives inside. Rightly,  good butter should have be made of cream, maybe water and salt.

Anyways, one day, I came across this awesome and so simple  homemade butter recipe I saw posted online by a mom on an anti allergy discussion group. I knew then I had to share it with you guys. There’s nothing better than homemade, and nothing better than pure butter.

Homemade Butter

Ingredients:

-> 1 cup no preservatives, no stabilizer, no coloring heavy cream at room temperature
(buy straight from your local farmer so you’ll know it’s pure cream).
If you can get raw cream, more power to you.
-> 1 12-ounce glass jar or larger with a tight-fitting lid
-> 2 little, very clean marbles (bought and used specifically for this recipe)
-> Salt, optional

Directions:

-> Pour cream into the jar with the 2 clean marbles and screw the lid on tightly – the jar should be no more than 1/3 full.

-> Shake the jar for about 1 1/2 minutes until it thickens into a solid. The longer you shake, the more it thickens, but you have to be careful not to thicken it until it becomes waxy in texture. The marbles help the butter “churn” better in the jar.

-> Drain the butter into a colander, catching the buttermilk below in a glass bowl. Buttermilk goes so well with Indian chapati breads and vegetarian curries. A North Indian roommate of my college boyfriend taught me how to enjoy buttermilk at college.

-> Salt to taste or if you wish to follow the recipe, it’s 1/2 teaspoon per pound butter.

-> pour into a container and chill it in the fridge.

Fun for the kids to make this holiday season too!

Finally, Jon is eating something healthy for a change. And reading! …. a kiddy story book.

There’s nothing I like more than seeing people recycling stuff in their homes to create something extraordinary. So, when I saw this creative and oh-so-cute DIY sweater boots created by Jessica at OhSoHappyTogether.blogspot.com, I knew I had to share it with everyone here. Here’s how to DIY the boots.

What you need:
-Old shoes (I used summer ones-flip flops and sandals)
-Sweater
-Hot glue gun and glue
-Scissors
-Possible accessories (buttons, felt leaves, etc)
-Elastic thread (if shirring; read further for this option)

1. First, prepare a template. Place the shoe you are using sideways on a piece of paper and create a boot like outline. I made mine go out at the top, but you could just make it straight up if you like. Also, it doesn’t need to be perfect. Sweaters are stretchy, so there is room for some error.

2. Place the boot pattern on your sweater. The picture here is actually on a t-shirt because I made two layers for my daughters. The sweater was “holey” and I wanted the added layer of protection. So that is an option if your sweater chosen is like that too. Make sure each toe is pointing in a different direction and that the top of the boot lines up with the bottom of the sweater. Cut out. You will have four pieces.

3. If just using the sweater, place right sides together and pin. If using the extra layer like I did for my daughters, place them together like this:

4. Sew around the sides only. Leave the top and bottom open. If you like, you can finish the seams.

5. Turn right side out to make sure everything was sewn together. Also, trim any seam ends that are poking out. If you desire to shirr the top of the boot like the ones I made for me, I would do this now. Put it over your leg to see where you would like to shirr it and then go at it. I recommend this for very light sweater materials that do not stay up on their own.

6. Turn wrong side out and have your glue gun read. You are going to begin gluing the sweater onto the shoe. Start by gluing the back of the sweater boot middle to the back middle of the shoe.

Then glue the front middle of the sweater boot to the front middle of the shoe.

Finish gluing on the sides.

Turn right side out.

***If using flip flops, you can add a little heel with a rectangular piece of felt to help fill out the back. Just glue the felt on the inside.

7. Add on any decorations you like.

Bike Pro Centre’s Dec 30th 2006 party. No bikes were harmed or harassed to accommodate the awesome bands!

If you live within bicycle commuting distance to your work, biking has several advantages to offer. Why not consider commuting by bicycle. Even if you choose a bike as you way of commuting on the nicest days of the year, you can do your part in reducing our dependence of petroleum products and reducing pollution.

Biking to work is a great way to get exercise. Why should you pay to go to the gym and ride a stationary bike when you could get a better workout free by just biking to work? If you fear that the distance is too far, try commuting using the bus and your bike. This works well for persons that live a distance from the bus stop or work away from the closest stop.

If you plan to bike to work, there will need to be some preparation that you make. You will want to have a way to carry your gear that is needed for work and anything you pick up that needs to be brought home. Messenger bags are one great option. If you have a laptop that you need to carry back and forth to work, a laptop messenger bag can offer a waterproof option that also protects your computer from and scrapes or scratches.

You may also want to pick up a few extra messenger bags for the bike. They are nice for spur of the moment purchases such as sale digital cameras or transporting items you will need when you get home such as ATV parts.

As we spend more time on our planet we realize that resources are limited. There is no endless supply of gasoline available. We all need to do our part in conservation of natural resources for the generations that will follow.

Besides conserving resources, biking to work saves money. A commuter that switches two days a week saves 40 percent of his commuting fuel bill. If you bike daily, you can save 100 percent of that fuel bill. If you begin with a used bike, you will have almost no investment in your commute. In addition to saving money, you keep your body in shape.

Thre’s an amazing biking community in Malaysia. And they have a blog for people who bike to work. Check them out at http://cyclingprofessionals.blogspot.com/

Meanwhile, in Singapore, the bicycle community has this blog http://cyclinginsingapore.blogspot.com/

The Australian website you should check out would be http://www.cyclingresourcecentre.org.au/24/Ride_to_Work

The American website would be http://www.bikeleague.org/