Saving our planet: making a pouch for produce bags

I have found it useful to have a small pouch in which to carry the produce bags, to keep them contained and clean.

I cut a piece, 31cm x 17cm, in fabric that matched the casings of the produce bags, and then hemmed both ends of the short sides (folding the fabric over 1 cm twice).

Then I marked the centres of each short end with a pin ....

and placed two sides of a snap separately  on each end (checking to see that it will join together when overlapping on the right side of the fabric). I used a tool that I have not been happy with (it requires a lot of force and too much force tends to distort the hole for the top of the snap to go into, making it impossible to close). I have since ordered another tool and snaps from Snaps Australia, as I believe these will be easier to use, and these can be purchased on line from:

https://www.snapsaustralia.com.au/

Next I closed the snap and turned the pouch inside out, lined up the sides so that the snap was in the middle of the pouch and sewed seams on both sides, over locking them as well for neatness.

Finally, I opened the snap and turned the pouch back to the right side.

I rolled the produce bags up and found that 3 will fit nicely into the pouch.

 Remember: If you don't fear failure, it frees you up. (Anon)

Saving our planet: making produce bags

On my quest to reduce single use plastic, I next designed some produce bags to replace the single use plastic bags in the fruit and vegetable section of the supermarket.

I used a fairly sheer chiffon, which is difficult to cut and sew, so try to seek the stiffest fabric of this type possible.

For a basic bag I cut a piece of chiffon 82 cm long and 35 cm wide.

Fold in half along the long sides and begin to make a french seam by sewing the side seams together.

Then turn the bag inside out and sew the side seams again, this time enclosing the raw edges in the new seams. Turn inside out again so that the french seam is on the inside of the bag.

Measure across the top of the bag (mine was now about 30 cm wide).

From patterned cotton fabric cut 2 pieces 5 cm wide and the length of the top of the bag plus 2 cm (i.e. 32 cm for mine). Fold each end over 1 cm and iron down, then fold the casing in half and iron again (enclosing the folded ends).

Pin the casings to the top of the bag (right sides together), with the ends of each matching up with the side seams.

Sew these right around the top and then neaten with an over-locker or zig-zag stitch.

Fold the casing up (don't iron as it may melt the chiffon -- just finger press).

Cut two pieces of cord that are longer than the entire top of the bag (allowing enough length to tie them together at the edge of the bag). So, for my bag I cut two lengths of cord 80 cm long.

Thread each length of cord through both casings (each one will begin on a different seam edge) and tie each of the ends together with a knot. This makes it easier to pull up the cords, pulling at both sides simultaneously.

Smaller bags can be made from any left-over fabric, and used when only one or two items of food are purchased. And, of course, larger bags can be sewn as well. These are all light-weight and should allow produce to still be scanned at the checkout. I made a small pouch to carry them in and will write a post on this in the future.

Remember: Anxiety and defensiveness closes the mind to new learning and narrows perspective, whereas openness widens perspectives and allows new connections and insights.

Being re-traumatised

Last week I found myself unexpectedly re-traumatised back to childhood issues, by an encounter that triggered reactions. At first I thought I was OK, but then strong feelings, reactions and thoughts told me that the incident had definitely re-traumatised me. I think that quite often re-traumatisation does creep up on people, as we automatically go into protection/ defence and/or detachment mode to get through the trigger.

These are the things that I have found helpful in beginning to recover:

Give yourself time

I find that reminding myself that it often takes 2 weeks for trauma reactions to ease, helps. The most intense reactions will be in the first week, and I know that they will gradually become less dominant in my life as the days pass. It also is a reminder that I am not going crazy.

Externalise the reactions

It is unhelpful to let thoughts and feelings keep swirling in our heads, as we are allowing ourselves to be easily sucked into whirlpool thoughts. I needed to unburden to a supportive person, but could have used offload writing to get them out of my head, so that I could then process them.

An entry on whirlpool thoughts can be found here:
http://reflectionsofaruralsocialworker.blogspot.com/2015/04/whirlpool-thinking.html

And on offload writing here:
http://reflectionsofaruralsocialworker.blogspot.com/2015/08/offload-writing.html

Do something creative and/or reaffirming

I once listened to an episode of "Conversations" with Richard Fidler, where the lady being interviewed was talking about her experiences with depression, and how she cooked her way out of it. She had not engaged in counselling or drug therapy and this gave me pause for thought.

During the last week I have found that continuing to sew Christmas gifts, process produce from the garden (that I have grown) and engage in creative cooking, have all given me moments of believing in myself again and these have begun to take over from the outbursts of reactions. I think that is is very important to re-find our true selves after being re-traumatised, as trauma turns us into people we are really not, behaving in ways that are not usual for us.

Give to others

This is an excellent way of re-focusing our thoughts and re-connecting with living after being re-traumatised. I like the ideas about 24 days of random acts of kindness in the lead up to Christmas and, although this has not been possible for me this year, I have been more conscious of reaching out to others with a supportive card and note, helping with toys for needy children and engaging in projects that give to others. 

Remember: You have the right to be less than perfect. God made us human, so we're allowed to be human. ("Touched by an Angel" TV Series)

Acts of kindness: another way of saving our planet

The Australian Kindness Movement defines an act of kindness as “a spontaneous gesture of goodwill towards someone or something – our fellow humans, the animal kingdom and the kingdom of nature”. It also says that “when we carry out an act of kindness it is a message from one heart to another, an act of love, an unspoken “I care” statement”.

We can be kind to others and help them when the need arises, we can be kind to the planet by looking after it, and we need to remember to be kind to ourselves through acts of self-care.

I have found a number of useful resources to inspire us to engage in acts of kindness, and these are outlined below.

An International Network: Bucket Fillers

Bucket Fillers is based on the idea that “we all carry an invisible bucket in which we keep good thoughts and feelings. When buckets are full, we are happy. When they are empty we are sad.” We can fill our own buckets by doing kind things for others and helping them to feel good. Others can also fill our buckets by doing the same things to us. However buckets can be depleted or “dipped” by doing or saying hurtful things to others, or having others do hurtful things to us.

There are many good resources on this website, including story books and work sheets and, although most are aimed at children, there is a simple universal message for all ages.

The Bucket Fillers Website can be found here:

www.bucketfillers101.com

An Australian Network: Australian Kindness Movement

This website is aimed more at adults and contains an abundance of ideas and stories about acts of kindness. It also organises an Act of Kindness Day on 6^th November each year, and 16 Days of Kindness around this day.

The Australian Kindness Movement Website is:

www.kindness.com.au

A children’s book:  Because Amelia Smiled

I love this book by David Ezra Stein. It has colourful sketchy illustrations and outlines the ripple effect of Amelia smiling as she walks down the street, inspiring her neighbour to bake cookies for her grandson in Mexico, who shared them with his class and taught them a song about cookies ... which then inspired one of the students to make a video … which was then seen by a ballet club in England, who added some new moves to their goodwill recital in Israel, inspiring a 4 yr old to dance for his baby brother, who then slept thought the night … and so it continues.

More information about this book can be found here:

https://www.booktopia.com.au/search.ep?keywords=because+amelia+smiled&productType=917504

Two books full of ideas: Snail Mail and Care Packages

Michelle Mackintosh is the author of both of these beautifully presented books. Snail Mail encourages us to bring back hand written communication and gives many examples of kinds of letters to write, but also instructions on how to make paper, envelopes, and handcrafted stationary. She advocates for a slow communication revolution.

In her follow up book Care Packages, she inspires us with ideas and instructions for making beautiful and thoughtful packages for a variety of situations and occasions.

More information on Snail Mail can be found here:

https://www.amazon.com/Snail-Mail-Rediscovering-Handmade-Correspondence/dp/1742708773

And information on Care Packages here:

https://www.bookdepository.com/Care-Packages-Michelle-Mackintosh/9781743791387

The happiness of life is made up of little charities -- a kiss or smile, a kind look, a heartfelt compliment. Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Remember there's no such thing as a small act of kindness. every act creates a ripple with no logical end. Scott Adams

Saving our planet: making beeswax wraps

I found a great book by Erin Rhoads, called Waste Not and have been inspired by her gentle non-preaching style to implement ways to reduce my use of plastics. One of her suggestions is to make your own beeswax wraps to replace the usage of Cling wrap/ Plastic Wrap. I found that these were quite simple to make, with my major challenge being to find a source of beeswax.

More information on her book can be found here:

https://www.booktopia.com.au/waste-not-erin-rhoads/prod9781743794623.html

Making beeswax wraps

Find some cotton fabric (as synthetics are damaging the planet). Patchwork supplies are a good place to start, but I actually found the lemon print fabric on special in the dress section of Spotlight. You may cut it to any size that is suitable, but I chose to cut squares 12 inches x 12 inches (30 cm x 30 cm) and 8 inches x 8 inches (20cm x 20cm).

Hem a narrow double fold hem around the edges (or overlock, or trim with pinking shears), and then wash the cloth and dry it so that it is clean for using on food. It may also need to be ironed after washing and drying.

Grate some beeswax. Erin suggests 70g (1/2 cup) for the 30cm x 30 cm cloth, but I found that Morag Gamble’ s suggestion of using 10g and ¼ teaspoon of coconut oil produced softer wraps. I find that it is a good idea to have a separate grater just for grating beeswax, and grating more than I need saves time next time (I keep the surplus in a glass jar).

Erin then describes placing the cloth (sprinkled with the grated beeswax) between sheets of baking paper, lining a tea towel, and then running a hot iron over the top for about 5 mins (until the wax has melted). This produces a nice wrinkle free cloth.

 However I found Morag Gamble's method of wrapping the cloth around the grated beeswax and coconut oil and heating this in a sandwich press for 1 minute, to be much easier (I decided to add a wrapping of baking paper around the cloth parcel to protect the sandwich press). This does, however, leave the finished cloth with fold marks initially.

Morag’s method can be found here:

 https://ourpermaculturelife.com/five-easy-steps-to-make-cheap-beeswax-wraps-reduce-cling-wrap-use-film-10-with-morag-gamble-5-mins/

Let the cloth cool (be careful removing it from the sandwich press, as I found that hot melted beeswax dripped from the ends of the baking paper if I didn't pull the edges up. And you're done! After use wipe over with cool water (hot may melt the wax).

Ways of using the wraps

There are some good examples of ways to use these wraps on this YouTube clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yJAG2UB7NY

Remember: this is one small step to help protect our beautiful oceans, and each small step does make a difference.

Grief and loss in relation to childhood abuse

Any form of childhood abuse results in losses, and there comes a time when these losses need to be acknowledged and grieved for, in order to begin to heal from them. There are some tasks that can help us to do this, but do not hurry any of them. It is wise to take all the time needed on each step before moving on to the next.

Externalise the story

This is an important first step. It is therapeutic to offload the story instead of keeping it internalised, and once it is out there we can begin to process it. Externalising can be done simply by writing out the story or telling it to someone who is supportive and understanding. It can also be done diagrammatically or through works of art.

Identify the losses

Taking time to reflect on the losses and to name them is the next step, and it can be helpful to list these. Losses include feeling abandoned, being unable to express feelings, not having been parented well, feeling that the world is not safe, not being comfortable in relationships, needing to take time to deal with the impacts and thus disengaging from living, loss of respect, loss of trust, not experiencing unconditional love from parents, loss of innocence and of childhood, lost opportunities, loss of pleasure … and many others.

Grieve for the losses

Tap into feelings now, especially any that had to be repressed in childhood, and find a source of comfort. Feelings need to be honoured and externalised, and comfort is an important part of grieving.

There is more to the story: the gains

After having taken these steps, I found it useful to write a list of the losses and then, for each one, try to find a gain. I chose to write these in a journal so that I could refer back to them. Here are some examples:

Losses	Gains
Missing school	Developed good study skills
Lack of being nurtured and cared for	Learnt to self-nurture and to care for others
Lost help	Learnt self-help and to seek it
Time taken up managing anxiety	Developed a whole range of useful management techniques and shared these with others
Loss of dignity and respect	More open to serving others rather than seeking status
Loss of confidence in self	Finding ways to re-build this and to share this with others who are struggling
Loss of play in childhood	Developed a love of reading and creating
Loss of privacy	Learnt to value privacy and confidentiality
Feeling abandoned	Sought friendships with others and learned not to abandon my own children and grandchildren
Time taken struggling to heal	Became stronger and more insightful

Re-telling the story

Having identified the gains, it may be useful to re-write/ re-tell the story and include the gains as part of the story (a bit of a narrative type approach). This makes a more rounded story and allows us to see that strengths can come from adversity.

Remember: Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we’ll ever do (Brene Brown LiveLifeHappy.com)