February 2012
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January 2012
7 posts
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Make bows from maps or magazine pages
On How About Orange you can find nice manual how to make your own bows for original wrapping. For it you can use old magazines or even unnecessary maps.
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Good ideas for gardenning!
This year we want to realize a small garden in our yard balcony! In winter, it’s the perfect time to think about it, and also to think about the pots! As you may know, we want to reuse something useless to plant the seeds in it. Here there are some good, fun and lovely ideas to change old items into new pots for plants!
Here are some examples of what you can reuse :
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Almond Milk (Raw vegan recipe)
Almond milk is a creamy and delicious alternative to normal milk! Almonds contain calcium as well as essential fatty acids that help regulate metabolism. You can find it in the store or try this tasty recipe below.
Ingredients:
1 cup raw almonds 4 1/2 cups filtered water 1 tbsp honey 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Preparation:
1. Soak almonds in water for at least six hours. 2. Drain soaked...
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10 reasons for home cooking
It’s economical – you don’t pay for someone else to do something that you can do it yourselves.
It’s safer – when you cook, you have more control over what goes into your body. By buying organic, sustainable raised or minimally treated meat, dairy and produce, you can dramatically reduce your consumption of food contaminated by chemical fertilizers, hormones, or antibiotics.
It’s healthier - you...
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Recycle your Christmas rubbish
So another holiday season has passed by - gifts given and unwrapped, food eaten and your tree has probably been taken down by now.
Hopefully you’ve had a reasonably green Xmas by crafting, upcycling or regifting your presents and then following our tips on alternative present wrapping. But what to do with your leftover greetings cards, wrapping paper and, if you had a real one, Christmas...
December 2011
5 posts
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Alternative Christmas wrapping
One of the biggest sources of waste each Christmas is wrapping paper. So is it really necessary to buy for it new paper when there are more alternatives?
You can create attractive gift wrap yourself by reusing paper, magazines, old calendars, maps, posters or fabric. You can also reused old wrapping paper. If you prefer buying gift wrap, look for recycled content gift wrap paper.
Here is tip...
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WatchHere is our last video about food consumption. For less waste of food, we give you some ideas to reuse the left overs!
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Move, Eat, Learn
Travel broadens the minds, that’s a fact ! A young traveler realized 3 videos to show us his trips, his discovers and his meetings. I do not know what state you will be after watching these videos (especially the video “Move”), but me, if I had not feel an urge to see them again a second time and a third time, I ‘d already gone away … far away, looking for all these...
November 2011
2 posts
Ever wanted to buy more ethical fashion? Of course... →
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October 2011
3 posts
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How to Make Herbal Cosmetics at Home
Promised recipes for herbal cosmetics:
1) Herbal Oils
Herbal cosmetics usually begin with a base of herbal oil. Herbal oil is prepared by chopping or macerating the herb and putting it in oil to infuse in a sunny location for 2 weeks. Almond oil, apricot kernal oil, and many other oils can be used to prepare herbal infusions, but organic extra virgin olive oil is more economical and works...
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Herbs for skin care
Herbal cosmetics can be made at home using natural ingredients. Herbs are a wonderful base for skin care products because they smell good and are healing to your skin.
There are some tips for choosing the right herbs:
Chickweed is used to treat skin rashes.
Lavender is found in perfumes and lotions for its inviting aroma.
Calendula is a wonderful skin softener.
Eucalyptus is an herb that can...
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September 2011
12 posts
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Something for the weekend...
Looking for something to do this weekend? Here are a few ideas of things to do and make, and a few links for those who like to spend their weekends curled up on the sofa doing not very much…
These recycled pallet vertical gardens are pefect for those without much space. The planter could easily be moved inside for the winter and would be great for growing herbs for your kitchen.
If...
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Preserve.
The concept is based on a simple idea inspired by the manufacturers of printer cartridges: return the used product by mail for recycling. The back of the packaging, which serves pre-paid envelope for returning the product, includes instructions to recycle your toothbrush at the end its life.
The information for recycling are on the back of packaging used prepaid envelope design. This product...
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WatchLook on our new video - this time about local seasonal food.
Here is the english translation:
‘Hey guys, do you have enough air inside that packet?’
‘Quoi?’
‘Are you not Hungarian tomatoes?’
‘Mais qu’est-ce qu’il raconte?’
“Oh, moi je comprends, il parle en hongrois!
’ Aahhh !! ‘
‘Szia paradicsom! I speak...
It's preserving season...
There are so many fruits and vegetables that are in season right now (and therefore they’re also super tasty and cheap), we thought we’d have a go at making our own preserves. On Saturday we made 5 different foods that we can enjoy well into the winter (if they’re not eaten before then…)
First of all we had to sterilise all the jars and lids we had collected in boiling...
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Ever been a bit confused about carbon offsetting?... →
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10 ways to become a "locavore"
1) Visit a farmers’ market. Farmers’ markets keep small farms in business through direct sales. Rather than going through a middleman, the farmer takes home nearly all of the money that you hand him or her for a delectable apple or a wonderful bunch of grapes.
2) Lobby your supermarket. Ask your supermarket manager where your meat, produce and dairy is coming from. Let the market...
August 2011
12 posts
Creative Ways to Give Old Beer Cans New Life
Before sending all of your beer or soda cans to the recycling center, you may want to see some ways they could be useful. From art to clothing to housing, nothing seems impossible after the last drop of beer has been consumed. The isnpiration you can find on the web page of WebEcoist .
We also tried to make something from cans on SZIN festival in Szeged and here you can see the result:
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No impact man!
Is it possible to live in 2011 with a near zero carbon footprint? And in the heart of New York over the market? Yes, it is, as surprising as it sounds!
Everything started in 2006, when a New-Yorker journalist decided to have a crazy experience in order to answer the question : “Is it possible for an “ordinary” family to live without producing trashes, with a minimum impact for the...
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French evening !
A nice event took place in Messzelato on last Monday ! A French evening was organized by our French volunteer. On the menu : presentations, game and cheese degustation!
Artie opened the night with a presentation about his EVS project in Coutances, a small city in Normandy, France. We could have an insight of the life in the countryside of France.
Then, Diana, who will leave to New...
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WatchEver looked at your bursting wardrobe and thought to yourself “I have nothing to wear!”?
Well, I’d be really surprised if you genuinely had less than this year-long capsule wardrobe of just 10 pieces. Designed and produced by Malaysian art and fashion collective Ultra, and made out of organic cotton and recycled materials, the collection includes many pieces that are multi-use,...
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WatchDutch bike couriers Sven and Jorrit are planning a documentary, Genre de Vie, that looks at the social effects and challenges of the bicycle revival, and the role that sustainability plays as a motivator for an increase in bicycle use.
They want to visit at least 5 cities in the world and explore how urban spaces are evolving (or not…) to incorporate bicycles as a major form of transport,...
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WatchCheck out this great idea for creating electricity-free light bulbs.
They provide light equivalent to a 55-60 Watt bulb, 10 months a year, for up to 5 years - not bad for materials that cost practically nothing.
Sometimes the simplest ideas really are the best.
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Calculate your ecological footprint
The ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth’s ecosystems. An ecological footprint is a standard measurement of a unit’s influence on its habitat based on consumption and pollution. If you are interested in knowing how big is your ecological footprint, you can make the test on this webside
http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/
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Oriental wax recipe
The rule is easy, it consists in making caramel to pull your hair out! A cool, economic and ecofriendly way to do it, with a good smell of caramel.
You need :
- A little pan
- 2 cups of sugar
- ½ cup of water
- Juice from half a lemon
Put the sugar and the water in a pan. Cook over low heat and until amber colored and add the lemon juice. Then, let cool and...
WatchCheck out the video we made about reusing paper!
New volunteer in Messzelátó Asociation : Lauren!
Hi! I’m Lauren and I’m an EVS volunteer here at Messzelátó with Magda and Fafa. I’m from the south-east of the UK originally, but I’ve spent the last 7 years travelling and studying in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and abroad. I’ve just graduated from Northumbria University and now I’m looking forward to learning a lot about the environmental field and getting some...
July 2011
3 posts
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Here are some ideas about how to reuse a plastic bottle.
Of course, the first idea that comes to my mind is to recycle it. It’s the least you can do! A plastic bottle takes several centuries to deteriorate and if the dark, this time perhaps even longer. So think about recycling!
Indeed, plastic from these bottles is widely used in the textile industry (t-shirts, fleece sweaters …) and can...
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Make your own soap. From tomatoes or cucumber!
Another workshop was held in Messzelátó last week. You could learn there how to prepare nice smelling handmade soap from natural ingredients. To make a soap you need different kind of oil, water, aromatic extracts and various types of spice and dried flowers. We used only one chemical additive : the sodium hydroxide. This is reason why you have to be careful during making soap and work ...
Workshop in Visegrad
I have to confess that leaving on a Saturday morning at 7am is not my cup of tea ! We started a long bus trip through Visegrad, a little city along the Danube, 30km at the North of Budapest. Half an hour later, we finally arrived there. The Danube is beautiful and we wanted to come back to Budapest by the boat. Unfortunately, this kind of transport is too expansive for our little volunteer...
June 2011
4 posts
Bee Keeping
We would like to share with you our pleasant experience that we had after the bio fesztival : we visited a bee keeper in Kápolnásnyék. You can find this honey under the label Bucka Méhészet. We spent a very nice afternoon with him in his garden. There, we could see bees so closely because we stand quite nearby beehives (with protective mask of course!). We also tried very good Hungarian food...