Recently, we’ve been spending a lot of time in the kitchen, baking all kind of goods. Our latest addiction is bread! From baguettes to country bread, we’ve tried different recipes until we made one of our own: breadettes! 
The recipe is based on a traditional french baguette recipe and various other bread recipes we found across the Internet.
Here you go:
Well, I suppose I’m exaggerating a little bit, but I’ve wanted to makeover my bike for quite a while and I’m really excited about it! The makeover is far from extreme right now, but I’ve got some other projects in mind, such as some DIY roll up paniers (I deeply envy these!) and maybe a polka dotted helmet like that one from ohjoy.
I’ll let you know if I ever find the time to do these… I’ve got a huge list of craft projects that I rarely get the chance to even start. Oh well, at least I’ve got the ideas!
Since Alex told me about his family following the german tradition of Advent calendars, I wanted to make one for him as a surprise; and that’s what I did!
An Advent calendar is a calendar that begins on 1st December and ends on Christmas; it consists of 24 little doors or boxes numbered from 1 to 24. Beginning on the first day of December, one door is opened each day, counting down the days remaining until Christmas Eve; behind each door is a treat, a piece of chocolate or a toy.
Remember that post about vertical gardens?
I tried to gather information on how to make one, in case you’re one of those with green fingers and not enough space to exercise them, or just want your own green wall.
Green walls can be simple or more complex, depending on your needs. The cost of making a vertical garden mainly consists of the price of the structure materials, which is pretty standard, and the cost of the plants, which can vary greatly depending on your choice of flora.
Here’s a very nice project I stumbled upon, called Creating a Greener House. It’s about the restoration of a 1928 house where great attention was given to energy efficiency. The site contains details about insulation, energy efficient heating and cooling and ventilation. A heat reclamation device is also installed in the form of a shower heat recovery mechanism. Measurements of the actual energy savings have also been made.
Energy efficient heating is, in many countries, not as highly emphasized as it should be. The energy losses due to poor insulation and wrong heating choices can be huge. According to David MacKay’s excellent Sustainable Energy – without the hot air book, heating and cooling accounts for almost 20% of every developed country citizen’s energy consumption (37 kilowatt hours per day out of an estimated total of 195 kilowatt hours per day per person). Admittedly, this percentage is a mean number for the UK and in other areas more air conditioning would be needed, but in this areas less heating is also needed thus keeping things slightly balanced. As 20% is a rather big percentage and 37 kilowatt hours is a lot of energy, it is very reasonable to try to increase the efficiency of heating solutions (and air conditioning for warmer countries like the one I live in). This can be achieved by using more energy efficient heating devices, as well as improve insulation and using heating a bit more wisely.
Remember the post about window gardens? Well, we followed our advice and started our own window garden, our precious. Here are some preliminary results:
A glimpse of our tiny window garden; starring thyme and basil.
House in harmony with nature.
We can almost see you sitting in your house, wondering how to make it more environmentally friendly. Going green will be good both for you and the environment, since you’ll get a healthier life style and long term savings while taking a little step in helping our planet. Supposing you’re not building your house from the ground up, you probably want to improve a house that’s already done: what you need is green interior design methods. Since green products are getting more mainstream attention lately, they have also become a lot cheaper. It is fairly easy and not very expensive to do some green remodeling to your home’s interior to improve its greenness. We will talk a little bit about little changes here, along with some major changes which require a bit more effort and money but they are really worth your while.
Water your plants like your grandmother did.
Speaking of gardens and the perfect amount of water your herb pots require, here’s an 1950′s vintage metal watering can I ran into on etsy.
Vintage items (as well as old houses) always give me a certain feeling of mystery, they make me want to know their story. So, there you go, a unique grandma-like watering can with rather old chrome yellow and black paint with flower decal on one side.
You can buy it at keeelystreetvintage’s shop for $19.50 USD.
A bit of green at your window.
Spring time! The sunlight and the fresh breezes make this time of the year perfect for gardening activities. So there’s your chance to start your own garden! If, like us, you’re living in an apartment, you might think there isn’t much you can do to get your green finger in action.
Well, you might have a small (or, if you’re lucky, medium-sized) patio or balcony; but you definitely have at least one window: you can use every available space to grow your little Eden. The truth is, if you grow a garden at your window sill, the best description would be tiny Eden, but that won’t stop your garden from giving your home a touch of nature and beauty – and maybe handfuls of edible plants, depending on what you choose to grow.
