Posts tagged DIY

This last weekend we had another bridge weekend (Halloween and All Saints Day). So, how to pass time efficiently and useful without getting bored and doing something good to our environment??? Good question :p 

Space? - given

Nature, dry leaves, branches, seeds? - given

Glue gun? - yes

Toilet paper rolls and plastic bottles? - yes

Rope and wire? - yes

Weather? - not so good but we can work

Health? - Marianne is better after her flu. Me? I was in the middle of flu…

Soooo, we made a plan, we put our heads together, i made a sketch, coordinated a little bit and here is the result of one of our planned weekend projects. 

I think it was a success, birds apparently like them very much and already cleaned out one bottle :) And not to discriminate the squirrels, I also gave them some walnuts, which by the way disappeared by this morning :)

Do you have any other ideas or DiY birdfeed projects we could experiment with?

~Aliz~

Here we are, our garden is on his way! This summer, we want to cook and eat our own homegrown veggies. So we started to sow seeds of several vegetables : tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, paprika, celery, onions, spinach, chives, and also herbs : basil, oregano and coriander. Talking about that makes me salivate!

Now, little plants started to come out from the soil, but we keep them inside, as the weather in Budapest wasn’t so hot until now.

In a few weeks, it will be the good moment to plant them outside in bigger pots. Of course, we made those pots ourselves from unused items.

Our master piece : pots made from old plastic baskets and customized with pieces of old t-shirt. The result looks very good!

You don’t know what to use plastic bags for and you would like to find an easier way to sort your trash for recycling? I have a solution for you!

All  you need is a lot of plastic bags (colored ones are the best), an iron, greaseproof paper, and then a sewing machine.  You have to decide how many pockets you need (one for the paper, one for the plastic and one for the common trash is a good deal).

The first step is to iron the plastic bags together to create a thick material. You can iron 4-5 layers together. So you need 5 pieces to create one pocket : 4 sides of the bag + the bottom. Be careful to respect the same size for each side (and a smaller one for the bottom).

Then repeat the process 3 times for 3 bags. For mine, I made a smaller one for the common trash, it’s easier to carry and it needs to be thrown more often than the others (because of the smell!).

You can also sew handles on the bags to carry them easily!

Now you don’t have any excuse for not sorting your trash ;)

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. 

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 with gloves.

Instead of water you can also use green or chamomile tea or even mixed tomatoes or cucumber. During three hours, participants of  the workshop tried all of this variations and added in it also mint, thyme, lavender or cocoa.

Handmade soap is friendly not only for environment but also for your skin. And it is also fun to make it in the group with other people, because you have a lot of time to speak with them.

For more photos look at Flickr.

2011th May 04, 18:00 - 21:00

The workshop will be held by Ági Repka, who we’ve recommended to you earlier! She is awesome at making healthy, cool, raw food!

We’ll be making: 

• juice from garden greens
• asparagus salad
• quick vegetarian “meatloaf” and roll
• mixed germ
• brown rice
• raw strawberry pie

You will also get

• an introduction to health and nutrition and the environment
• tips for spring and knowledge on the importance of detoxification
• green leafy plants (like spinach, chickweed, nettle, salad and lettuce
• to taste healthy dried chips

You can sign up here!