I recently made a doorstop for the bifold doors which lead out onto our back deck. The pattern comes from The Liberty Book of Home Sewing. The fabric is a laminated cotton purchased from Oil Cloth Addict on Etsy. I hadn’t previously sewn with laminated cotton — I found it easiest to use when the [...]
Archive for February, 2012
Making a doorstop
Posted in Sewing, tagged Liberty, sewing on February 26, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Contructing a reverse brick veneer wall
Posted in Renovating the house, tagged bricks, insulation, insulation batts, reverse brick veneer wall, weatherboards on February 25, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
A key part of the design for our house extension was increasing thermal mass, which helps to keep the house cool in summer, and warmer in winter. Two major elements contributed to this: the rammed earth wall and a reverse brick veneer wall. Of these, we were expecting that the rammed earth wall was going [...]
Kina sea-urchin light
Posted in Renovating the house, tagged house renovation, lighting, renovation on February 12, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
We recently purchased a Kina light for our newly-renovated dining room, ”Kina” being the Maori name for the local sea-urchin. It was designed by David Trubridge in New Zealand. The light came as a flat-packed kit which reduces freighting, and only took an evening to assemble. It is made from plywood from sustainably managed plantations, and [...]
Hand-sized “Mortgage Lifter” tomatoes
Posted in Growing our own food, tagged summer, tomatoes on February 6, 2012 | 1 Comment »
This hasn’t been a great summer season for the garden. The lack of sun and constant rain has meant that many seeds haven’t germinated properly, plants have grown up stunted, and yields are way down on last year. Still, you can’t go past these two beauties! I can see why they’re they’re the “Mortgage Lifter” [...]
Lindsay Soutar advocating for renewable energy
Posted in Saving the environment on February 5, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
I actually don’t consider myself an environmentalist. I come to this work from a social justice background. I was pleased to see my friend and local activist Lindsay Soutar in yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald. I love her quote above because I feel the same way — I never think of myself as a “greenie” or [...]
