Zero Waste is impossible. But it's worth striving for, anyway.

We've been living waste free for over eight months now and although it's brought challenges, we're really happy with it as our way of life. The natural changes that have come to our life by focussing on this one permaculture principle, "Produce No Waste", are astounding. Aiming for zero waste is a shift towards a simpler, more minimal life. It's a shift towards working with the seasons and deepening our understanding of food and how it grows.  It's a shift towards building connections with the community, through engaging in conversations and being resourceful through bartering, sharing and swapping. It's a shift towards actually making a difference to the planet we inhabit and creating a new normal for our children. 

The term "zero" is, of course, a misnomer. Through the manufacture and production of most things in our waste-free home, there is inevitably waste. We visit the bulk food shop where products have been transported in large plastic bags which go on to be repurposed or recycled. There's less packaging and only purchasing exactly what we need. But there's still waste. When household items break beyond repair and have outlived their usefulness, if they're not compostable they are recycled, or worse. There's still waste. There's inevitably some degree of waste in the connection between us and our food and the things we need. But does that mean we shouldn't strive for zero? 



With zero as the goal, there's a quantifiable amount of waste we can keep in mind when shopping or disposing of things. Zero can be quite unforgiving, but it makes sure the most important of R's, Refuse and Reduce, are at the forefront. It avoids complacency. It makes us think about each and every item we bring into our home and question how essential or truly wanted it is. Is it worth the waste? 

Zero-waste living is a mindfulness practice. One of Huz's favourite analogies is that buddhists practice meditation even though they may never reach enlightenment. Another is that we might never be Beyonce, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't sing or dance. There's value in the process. Zero keeps us honest and accountable and even though we probably can't meet that absolute target of zero, it's a wonderful optimistic goal to strive for. And what the world surely needs now is some optimism. 

What are you feeling optimistic about right now? 
Have you ever aimed for something you knew you'd never absolutely reach, but went for it anyway?

Have you seen our latest e-course offering? Zero Waste Families begins on June 1st and we're taking enrolments now. It's filling fast! 

~ Lauren. xx

The pretty way...

When I was small, my Dad would often ask us kids in the back seat of the car, which way we wanted to go. "The pretty way!!" we'd shout out with enthusiasm. He always knew the windy, beautiful, wandering ways to get to most places in our city. And if he didn't know, he'd find his way… All the roads join up somewhere…




This has pretty much been how I've rolled ever since. Just slowing down, following the road ahead, keeping an open mind and seeing what life has to offer. When I've attempted to get from A-B in the most direct way, I've often felt like I took a wrong turn somewhere. I suppose it's a bit like taking the road less travelled. It's why I live in Tasmania. It's why our owlets are unschooled… Sometimes it's a little like hurtling along downhill without brakes. But usually it's slow and colourful and infinitely more interesting and satisfying.




It's the kind of thinking behind this app, which totally appeals to me. Shouldn't we all be trying to find the most beautiful way?

Hope you're having a beautiful week!

So much love. xo

lately...

Well this winter has gone by faster than I could blog it, so I've been meaning to have a catch up. Pip and Kate and a bunch of other lovely peeps thought this list was a great idea and I do too. Here's what's been happening:

Making : The most amazing chook fortress from found bits. We sewed it together and used bricks. Crafty.
Cooking : Kimchi. Best.
Drinking : My old fave - dandelion root coffee with raw milk and a drop of maple syrup.
Reading: Quiet. Learning so much about me and Little Owlet and how we move through this world. Amazing.
Wanting: More mulch than I can get my hands on.
Looking: Out the window at the big green patch where the mulch should be.
Playing: At darkmofo - Hobart got awesome for a while there.
Wasting: Not much. It's surprising what you can reuse if you think craftily about it.
Sewing: Nothing. There's been no time. Plus when I sit down I become food. Not happening anytime soon. Sad.
Wishing: There were more hours in the day and I didn't need sleep. Or that Tiny would sleep more. Not fussy.
Enjoying: Sunny days at our homeschool co-op and weekends with Huz.
Waiting: For Tiny's rotten teeth to fall out in their own time. So far so good. Just.
Liking: That the chooks are laying and Tiny's excitement over it.
Wondering: When Big Owlet will be my height. And if Little Owlet will ever sleep in her room (she says no).
Loving: How our owlets look out for each other and love each other. They really are besties. And decent sorts.
Hoping: I can get more fruit trees in the ground before it's too late.
Marvelling: At Huz and his new found love for running. Awesome and inspiring.
Needing: Just a little bit more time out in my week. Still chasing that perfect balance.
Smelling: Something in the fridge. It smells fermented. I think it might be kimchi.
Wearing: Keshet. Our unschooling mums uniform at co-op. Hilarious! We're thinking of asking for sponsorship.
Following: Tiny's little paths of destruction. She's quick. And cheeky. And stronger than me.
Noticing: The days are getting longer. Yay!
Knowing: I'll always have more that I'd like to do than I'm able to achieve. I'm like that.
Thinking: I really need to plan my time better so I can get to at least half of it. And I need to go to bed earlier.
Feeling: Tired. And a little overwhelmed. And like I've been saying that for a long while.
Bookmarking: Everything. My computer died. I'm starting again.
Opening: Parcels full of gorgeous stuff for Spiral Garden. The novelty still hasn't worn off.
Giggling: At cheesy jokes with Huz. We've been together for so long now we pretty much communicate that way.
Feeling: Excited by new ideas... but first sleep. 

Photos by Huz @berondi and me @owletmama on instagram.

Frozen...

So I've been a bit absent lately... We've been hunkering into the depths of winter here. It's been a hard slog. It always is for some reason. One of the benefits of keeping a blog is taking a peek back through the years and noticing the patterns.

Every year we promise ourselves a holiday in Winter. It seems to be the key to sanity for most who live on this island. Beautiful as it is, the days are short but yet seem soooo long...
But here we are, another Winter...

And it feels so beautiful and quiet and snuggly and hard.

I'm so tired. It seems that a decade of sleepless nights have caught up.
I miss my family on the big island up north and the ease and promise of imagined sunny days with cousins growing up together...

Some days being responsible for three small people all day... Who love you and take you for granted in equal measures (and you wouldn't have it any other way)... It's exhausting and lovely and hard. Like Winter.

I've been bursting with creative ambitions for so long now and there's just not enough energy or time to get everything out there into the universe that needs to be made, expressed, created, grown.
Or even just one thing. Before I fall asleep...
There isn't time. It's frustrating. It's hard work. And sometimes lonely. And everything's a little out of focus.




I'm trying my best to nurture myself with beautiful food, days with friends, exercise and snippets of time to work and create and spend time on our garden. That garden. The one that looks like a trench and weeds right now, but a lush, abundant forest in our minds... It's what brings it all back into focus. And the small and slow steps we are taking to its creation, on the days where there's sunshine, are what we are marking our days by. Pushing us forward to longer days, warmth and abundance.

How are you coping this Winter?
Are you looking forward to Spring?

Happy Saturday... xo

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dreams :: {part two}

This was my grandfather's wheelbarrow. He was a gardener among (many) other things. I remember following him around to many a nursery, many a gardening job... and pottering in the garden with him. Between him and my Mum, if not a green thumb, then certainly an appreciation for time spent outdoors, growing my own food and getting up to my elbows in soil, developed.

When I was in high school, I decided I wanted to be a landscape designer. Not a Landscape Architect, or a Landscape Gardener, but a Designer. I did work experience with a woman working as a designer and planted petunias in some of the poshest gardens in Toorak. And learning so much along the way... I especially liked how she snuck Australian native plants and edibles into English-style cottage gardens, unbeknownst to the owner... That felt like some sort of guerrilla or activist type of gardening. Making the world a better place, one posh garden at a time...

So I decided that was for me. I set about designing garden beds for my school, which were met with quiet, respectful nods and pleasant smiles, then binned filed. I read up on gardens in France and England and Italy, admiring their patterns and making plans to visit someday... My art teacher was married to a prominent Landscape Architect/Gardener and decided that, knowing the reality of it, it probably wasn't for me. My hands were getting shaky and how was I going to draw up perfect plans with hands like that? Despite my protests that my Grandfather's hands shook and it never became a problem for him... My maths teacher told me my maths wasn't good enough to be a Landscape Architect. And, despite that not being the direction I wanted to go, I listened. I suspect Mum and Dad had higher aspirations for me than Horticulture College (that's where used up footy players went), and for some reason, at that time, I was sensitive to that too. My art teacher encouraged me towards other areas, thinking I'd make an excellent Art Teacher, or Art Historian. And although she was incredibly inspiring, and a great teacher in so many ways, I ignored her advice and went a different way (that she also discouraged) and became a Textile Designer.

I loved Textile Design. I still do. It's certainly a process, and part of my brain, that just works and comes naturally for me. It can be slightly messy and colourful and full of patterns... But garden design was still there.

I began collecting gardening magazines and researching correspondence courses I could do at night, after a long, exhausting day pushing pixels on a screen to put socks on supermarket shelves (I was a sock designer). I visited open gardens on the weekend. I gardened in our backyard and one year managed to grow most of the veggies that we needed for a whole season.

I sat in a tent at a festival one weekend and heard David Holmgren (co-originator of Permaculture) talk... Mind. Blown. Huz (not yet Huz), and I started looking into Permaculture and off-grid living... One day we might move to Tasmania and do that...

I came very close to enrolling in a Diploma of Horticulture at a local TAFE, having abandoned uni plans after almost paying off a sizeable HECS debt... Whe Huz found employment, I planned how I'd quit my job, or do the course in the evening... While I pined for days wasted while sitting at a computer, under fluoro lights, for a pittance.

I needed to be outdoors. Out in the real world...

And then a little voice came and chatted in my ear... I had a dream where I walked into a red and yellow tent at a different festival. A little girl, aged about five or six, took my hand and said "I'm Audrey. You're going to be my Mama". And so it was...

I've heard a few little voices since then (including one I'm having stern words with right now). And I kept working with socks as long as I could manage in amongst moving to Tasmania, Grandfather's wheelbarrow and all, and the rest which is documented in this blog...



We have three living owlets and a menagerie of animals living with us and although we've been in our nest for almost six years now, and the natives out the front have come along and look great... we have no established garden. No design. No food forest. We've had not much time or money to devote to it and although we've improved the soil immeasurably in places, you wouldn't know it to look at it. I'd all but given up on me and gardening. And still that other big niggling voice is still there...



Get out in the garden. Learn all about it and how it works. Find a way to make the world better. One garden at a time... starting with ours.

I imagined and dreamed of gardening courses... workshops came and went as I faced facts that I was here, with owlets all day long, loving that, but needing something for me. Something useful. So I decided if the timing was right, the stars would align and it would just work out. It always does.

And then Milkwood Permaculture advertised that they were coming to Tasmania to teach Urban Permaculture Design. And I umm-ed and ahh-ed until the very last minute...

And I made the stars align...



And right now now Tiny is up from her nap, so I'll continue the rest later... But do come back to read all about the course and where to next... I feel like I'm on an exciting new journey and I'd love to have some company along the way. xx

dreams :: {part one}

When I was growing up, just a little older than Big Owlet is now, I'd visit Jeffrey's Bookshop with my pocket money and I'd look at art supplies. I'd walk past the shelves full of books to the dark back corner full of little shelves and glass display cases. I'd pore over all the paint boxes, tools, pencils and paintbrushes... I'd wonder at what things might be used for. I'd delegate a portion towards buying something small and some to save for a tin of Derwent pencils. I loved the smells and the colours. All that wood and pigment just waiting to be put to paper... The potential. The colour. I decided that one day I'd learn to use those tools. And one day I'd have my own art supplies shop.

About a year ago Huz and I sat down after a long day and we decided to make that tiny glimmer of a far-off dream a reality. The dream looks a tiny bit different now, but the chest of drawers in my hallway is home to a growing range of beautiful, colourful art supplies. Childhood fantasy realised.

I'm a bit of a dreamer, as my year 10 maths teacher can attest... "You're very vague and dreamy, aren't you...?" She sighed in exasperation over what, I don't remember, although the words have stuck. Vague perhaps, but dreamy indeed, and unashamedly so. Dreams are what propel us along and I've got lots of dreams to work my way through. Part two is a doozie. Stay tuned...

Do you have any childhood dreams that have been realised?
Are you a dreamer? 
Are art shops your favourite thing too? xx

planning my beautiful year...

I'm writing this tonight in the lounge room, under fairy lights which are still draped from the ceiling in our vague attempt to ignore the fact that it's February and this year has already begun to fly by. I'm still in the planning phase of my year... It takes time, you see. And time is what I don't have very much of. Yet. For the longest time, I've suspected that putting it all down on paper - writing lists, setting dates -  would be the thing that tips me into feeling organised again. Organisation is most definitely what I lack. What our nest lacks. And when you live in a state of, as Big Owlet puts is, "everyday is holidays", it's easy to see why organisation falls off the list, so to speak.

So I've begun with my gorgeous diary (yes, skipping a month to Feb), and this. After a long time on Leonie Dawson's email list, nodding my head along to certain posts and things I needed to hear, I invested just under $10 and bought her workbook planner. So far I'm about halfway through and it's fab. Just what I needed. A little hippy and goddess-y, but gorgeous and nurturing and full of all sorts of exercises that make me pause and think about me for a sec. Not something I've done for a very, very long time. What is it that I actually want to do this year? For me? Now I have some semblance of an idea and that helps immensely. Things that were bothering me, and I couldn't quite work out why? They're now turned around into positive, actionable things - or let go of, which is hugely cathartic and feels just right for the decluttering path Huz and I have been on for the last 6 months.

During the process, I've had wild, vivid dreams about situations that were upsetting or bothering me and I hadn't given much attention to and expressed anger, fear, sadness... All the things that came up and were making those instances negative for me. Woah did I express myself?! And then woke up, able to make a clear decision and move on. Stopping and thinking, putting things on paper... Amazing, simple and very important stuff.

Huz and I also bought the business yearbook and we've been using it for mini-conferences in the kitchen, over cheese platters and cups of tea, as we sort out a direction for our business. It helped us to identify the negatives, work on the positives and work towards a business that only brings us, and others, happiness. Yay for that! Joy and abundance seem to go hand in hand and this year we are welcoming big piles of each into our lives. It's going to be so fab.

Now to just work my way through to the end... And sort out some time. That will come, right? Yes, it will. It's in the plan.

How about you? Are you a planning type?
Or do you fly by the seat of your pants while everything falls into place? 
Are you dreaming up a beautiful year too?
I hope so. xx

owlet :: five

Yep! It's my Bloggy Birthday today! Five years! Have you been following right from the beginning? I don't suppose you have. There were very few posts in that first year. But isn't it cool to have that whole little story of one's family there to look back on? I can see kids grow, babies born, recipes we've made, craft and design and learning and the evolution of our home... and that familiar cycle of mothering, especially that frustrating, love filled period of mothering a toddler. I can see how we move through the seasons. The traditions, abundance... I can learn from the past.

Owlet, for me, began 15 years ago. It was a range of children's clothing and textile designs, based on a book I was given as a child. What I took from Hiawatha's Childhood was the gentle parenting approach and I worked with symbols of universal motherhood, and brotherhood. I guess things don't really change that much, hey? They just keep growing and evolving as common themes rework themselves... And it is lovely to have a place to watch all that growth happen. 

I'm feeling change in the air this year. A little more than usual. I'm not sure what or when or how, but it is there. We are quite changed after our long summer and something this year will change with us. It is exciting! And lots to wonder and think about, but apparently it's a year of the dragon thing, so maybe you feel it at your nest too?

Anyhow, I'd like to thank you for following our little journey so far and hope you'll keep reading along. It's so lovely to know you. xx

Source: handmaderyangosling.tumblr.com via on Pinterest

nawww... thanks, Ryan! :)

rebuilding

We've been busy this summer. Distracted by the day to day and our adventures. Life is always busy, never dull and there's always a to-do list around here...



There's a to-do list for the basic, just getting by stuff. One for the dreamy, creative, when the baby is bigger stuff... And one for the bigger, rainy day stuff. Like fixing up the kitchen with benches too low and cracks in every wall... forty-eight species of mould under the sink and rust in the taps...



And then some days we realise there's never going to be a better time to do it. And so we just begin. Without a plan, but with every hope it'll get done. Spontaneous is something we do well. Like the time we went for a drive and bought the nest...

A little bit of estimating and thinking and talking, then a seemingly sudden, snap decision and we're on our way. There's lots of finger crossing and trusting in the universe that it'll all work out just fine... 

It always does. One way or another.



This summer has been about peeling away layers. Thinking about how we interact with the world and the people around us. About how we feel in our own skin and how we respond to others. It's been all about being realistic about what we can do and what we can't. We've lost a friend or two and gained some new, very precious ones. We've found out lots about ourselves, just spending time together, living in our space and thinking about it. Changing it to suit us. We've well and truly hit the reset button now.



I feel like we've all grown this summer. I'm feeling more open minded, less judgmental, tired of talking and thinking... Happy to just be here and garden and wander and sleep and eat and do all the regular day-to-day things we do. I'm looking forward to doing them with greater ease when the basics are here again, only smarter and simpler and more practical this time. It feels like a fresh start. And when the summer ends... only a week to go now... I might just be ready...

manifesto

Not resolutions so much as aspirations... a plan of attack... a manifesto of sorts. When I read it, it seems like a guide to the basics one needs for survival, with some fluffery added in. Like the staples. The spuds, plus a few luxuries... I'll be happy if I achieve the survival mode aspirations. So far so good...

Nurture.

Drink water. Lots.

Eat real food.

Move my body every day.

Build a fort for us grown ups. A cozy place to escape for a moment. 

Sew myself some new clothes. 

Introduce a night time foot soaking ritual with herbs and salts and Huz. 

Study regularly.

Read a book.

Print on fabric.

Go for walks on my own more.

Sleep more.

Sew as much as I can from my fabric stash.

Plan meals.

Go for more picnics.

Learn a language.

Play music.

Stay home more.

Spend time in the garden every day.

Use cash. Freeze the credit card.

Watch a film each week. 

Sew a quilt.

Relaunch owlet at markets.

Learn to crochet.

Reorganise the nest.

Save money for something big... maybe a tipi. Or a holiday!

I hope your year has begun beautifully... We're busy revitalising the nest. This morning I woke to a house of agitated owlets, grumpy Huz, grumpy me. It was time for a change... so we're reorganising the lot. Again. Throwing stuff out. Again. Cleaning the slate so we can find our rhythm again... We've also been getting up and doing a daily boot camp. Yay! Fun! And ouch! 

Thanks so much for all your lovely comments on Monday's post. I was a wee bit nervous about ending Unschool Mondays. There's just so much to write about. I could keep writing for years! And now it seems I'm meme free... I'll miss all the lovely people I've met along the way... I guess I'm looking for fewer limits for myself. So the posts will continue along the same lines, but they won't be restricted to Mondays. And they won't just be about unschooling, but at the same time, they will. Of course they will. How can they not? After all, it is just living... Anyhow, thanks for the support. It means a lot. xx

'til tomorrow...

Well there it is! Almost... HAPPY NEW YEAR! I'll say it now as by midnight I'll have welcomed owlets home from the fireworks, tucked them in, turned off the fairy lights and ducked off to bed early... I'm hoping 2012 brings only the BEST things for you and your family. May it bring your health, happy days, music, yummy food and creativity. And LOTS of laughs. That's what we're hoping for. And some more sleep. So with that in mind, I'm off for a cuppa and an early one. See you next year!

Lots of love from all of us in the owlet nest to you. xxxxx

summer lovin'

We've had mixed weather, but for the most part the heater is off... Where we live, that means summer! We've been berry picking with friends, eating berries, shopping, puddling and pottering and wasting days, as I suppose you do when summer is stretched out before you...



Making: Wreaths. While listening to Aretha. Like we always do. The owlets still don't really get the joke. I've also been making more fungi and procrastinating on the ever growing pile of christmas sewing doom.



Eating: Banana cake. Bananas are cheap again and we're taking them for granted enough to have cake and smoothies... Life is good.



Listening: To Laura Viers children's album Tumble Bee. Even if you don't have owlets of your own, this is just beautiful. Each owlet has a favourite song and we sing it loud. With the windows down.  It's on high rotation here after we gave it to Tiny Owlet for her birthday. Tiny is also right into dancing and has a particular favourite. Robot Rock by Daft Punk is her song of choice. "Rock Rock", which kind of sounds like she is quacking, lets us know she wants to dance.

Reading: Awesome kids e-zines. We've downloaded and printed a bunch of Action Pack and Alphabet Glue magazines and I leave them around for Big Owlet to discover on a lazy day. So many craft/reading/outdoor/science/fun activities there! I highly recommend them.

Planning: Camping trips on our beautiful island. I think a couple of days away would do us all the world of good. I can feel the inspiration and motivation returning to nurture my owlets, Huz and myself... But still, a few days to shake it up and get some perspective would be lovely.

Activity Advent...
* have pancakes (with berries) for dinner
* put up fairy lights in the lounge room
* play mini golf
* go to the movies
* make decorations
* giving day
* write a christmas song
* watch a christmas movie together
* make a wreath