Less Plastic...

I think by now most of us have seen the horrific video of a straw being pulled out of a turtles nose....We need to reduce the amount of plastic we use daily. It can seem like one of the hardest things to do but am hoping to show how making some small changes can have a big impact. 

Not only in reducing the amount of plastic but also our household waste.

Many of my followers, do so for different reasons. Some will follow just for my Vegan dishes, others my love for Vintage Caravans or for my reviews. Many are not Vegan, and I want to state for the record that am not trying to push this on my lovely followers but just share what I do. 

Even by just changing one meal a week to veggie or Vegan it can make a huge impact. I love when one of my followers asks for help in ditching dairy or how to seal a leak on their caravan. Through my blogs and videos I want to help others, share how I do things and give my self a way of looking back on our adventures.  

Am sure you will all agree, we need to start thinking more about our impact on the planet. When I was a child, we where taught 'save the planet for our children's, children....' Now we are being told we could lose our oceans, not in our Grand children's life times but OUR life times. Yes I may sound like a tree hugging hippy right now, but don't you want our beautiful planet to be around, even, dare I say thriving for our Grand childern? So what small thing can you change right now? 

Change just one thing, and the impact will still be BIG!

For me, I have always been a huge car fan and I feel like I have balanced out our big old car by not eating meat and dairy. If someone told me I could eat meat or drive a petrol car - am going to pick the car ;) So naturally, being more mindful about what we eat, has lead to me thinking more about what we buy and use. 

You know am from a long line of hoarders and love using old things. I love to buy second hand, love a boot fair or charity shop. So I started to think what else I can change to reduce my foot print. 

We have seen the signs at the beach, leave only your footprints and its so important. I don't want to be remembered for the amount of waste I left hundreds of years into the future but what I meant to my loved ones. 

Here are some scary figures:

A disposable nappy - 200-500 years
A plastic bag: 10-500 years.
A plastic straw: up to 200 years.
A plastic water bottle: 450 years.

Every day, Americans throw away 500 million plastic straws

My mother asked for a straw at a bar the other day, and was so happy to see it was a paper straw. The barman told her how when he handed people a paper, not plastic straw most shouted abuse at him! They wanted a plastic straw, so if the only thing you do from reading this blog has happily accept that paper straw I will be happy! Please support companies reducing their use of plastic. 

This is one of my lovely followers Steph: 

'Although I am a meat eater I follow alot of vegan blogs as I have learnt so much about our environment and ways we are harming it without even realising. What really brought this home for me was watching Blue Planet 2. With the pilot whale carrying her dead baby killed by plastic. Also The Russel Howard hour with a section on good deads where a girl volunteers her time to collect plastic from her local river. It made me stop and think, every day I make a packed lunch for my husband using 3 sandwich bags, every couple of months I'm throwing out plastic toothbrushes, plastic hair brushes, plastic everything! It's shocking to think my great grand children will die aged 100 before my plastic waste is almost gone from this world. Even then it isn't truely gone, just disintegrated small enough that we can't see it. I decided to make small changes little by little until I was living almost entirely plastic free, some immediate changes were super easy. I no longer use straws or sandwich bags, instead I use tin foil and tupperwear boxes. I have bags for life which I ensure I use for all shopping not just food. I've sourced biodegradable bin bags and a bamboo toothbrush for when I need to buy these. My next thing was my food shopping, everything is plastic wrapped usually in multiple layers of plastic so I thought OK let's go to my local green grocers and buy individual items. I thought this would be expensive but as it turns out it cost me the same as in the supermarket, but I have less waste and I chose individual items rather than buying a big bag of stuff and hoping they are all OK, I'm also supporting an independent shop which is always a great thing. Some items still came in plastic but as I said this is a journey to reduce my use to almost zero. This shop came to £30 but £5 of this was on treats for my pets, it will last us a week, myself, my husband and our three parrots who eat large qty of fruit and veg daily.

As it came 

Unwrapped

The only remaining plastic

It really wasn't hard at all to make this switch, it was simple required no planning, no effort and no extra cost, if everyone made the same effort imagine the impact this would have on our oceans and environment! Steph Suter, follower of Seaside housewife'

Thank you so much to Steph for sharing that, and like she said these things are easy to change with little thought. Also its supporting local smaller independent shops too, win win!

Here are some of the things you can change -

Washing Powder/Liquid - What do you currently use? Small plastic tabs, big boxes? I switched over to Soap Nuts years ago, its saved us huge amounts of money, so much better for our skin and the planet. Also has reduced our waste and use of plastic.  Click here for my review of Soap Nuts.

Plastic Sandwich bags - You can make or buy reusable sandwich bags. Not only helping the planet but pretty too! Am am working on a pattern I will share with you soon. Also think about the wrappers you have, the loaf of bread you brought, don't just throw that plastic bag away but reuse it! 

Plastic Straws - Do you really need that plastic straw? I m so used to drinking when out with a straw, if wearing lipstick it means it won't all come off on the glass. Am so used to it in fact I think I would spill a drink all down me if without one.....So how do we replace? You can buy paper straws, metal ones and I have even seen ones made from pasta!! I have just ordered some amazing metal straws to try out. Soon as I have used them for a while I will link the review here. 

Throw Away/Disposable Nappies - Cloth! Cloth is amazing, so much better for babies skin. It can take a moment to get your head around but once you do it becomes easy. Some makes hold their value you can resell them! Not only will you help the planet, your babies skin but also save a lot of money! There are lots of helpful cloth groups on Facebook to help you know what to do and where to get. Feel free to message me about this and I will try and get a blog post all about cloth!  

Shampoo Bottles - This was one I really hadn't thought of, till a follower mentioned it. We don't use much shampoo as am not a fan of over washing all the goodness out of my hair. Having said that, I thought, one less plastic bottle is a good thing so why not try a 'Shampoo Bar' Wow I LOVE it! Click here for my review of the Lush shampoo bar!

I will adding to this blog post very soon, quite a lot happening here at Seaside Housewife so there will be lots more to add!!







Clicks to where I got those scary facts from. 
'It will take 200 to 500 years for a disposable nappy to decompose, leaving a legacy to your children's grandchildren.' - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1287722.stm


ps://plasticgarbage.weebly.com/how-long-does-it-take-to-decompose.html

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/14/world/plastic-straws-ban-campaigns/index.html

Retro Festival 2018

This was my 3rd Retro Fest, my first was with Daisy (who still needed a lot of work) and three mini people. 

My second was a child free weekend with my husband and a very show worthy Daisy. 2018 was only my second outing as a soon to be divorced, single caravaner. 

Only Margo and Ditto's second outing together and their first show! 

Ditto is still not running right, am awaiting a quote....its going to be a scary quote. :(

I thought I had taken a small truck load of clothes but I could have taken more.

 I did giggle a few weeks ago when a lady was looking at retro dress while out shopping with my best friend. She remarked that they where good for 'fancy dress' I giggled out loud. As at the time I was wearing one of my favourite 1970's dresses. (Yes I wear retro/vintage every day, even the school run. Though sometimes you won't spot it.) 

So for retro fest I took my more dresser outfits and all the extras like hats and gloves.   

This is my all time favourite dress. From my Mothers collection, and slowly getting to the point where I will have to stop wearing it due to damage :( Its well hidden here though. This is my 'hand-me-down' outfit. I made the hat many years ago, the gloves where my Granny's evening ones, the petticoat is also from my Mothers collection. Fake fur shall is my Great Grandmothers, shoes and bag where a gift from my lovely friend. Am still as always working on getting my hair right, it does what it likes lol.

You can see here the sliver tread which runs through the dress. I will cry when I won't be able to wear this one anymore but am hoping to take a patten from it. 

Meet Cherry Bomb, and wow, what a trunk! Not only is she a show stopper but her owner is lovely too. Took me under her wing and introduced me to such a lovely group of people who I danced the night away with! 

People really do pull out all the stops for showing at Retro Festival! One of my friends beautiful caravans

I truly had one of the most amazing weekends in a very long time. I felt completely free to be my self and was complemented for it! Treated to afternoon tea in the 1940's tea room, danced the night away and taught lots of Jive moves. I will have to get some lessons between now and next year so I can keep up! (Remembering to not wear a corset next time for dancing...) 

The bands where brilliant, I loved the singer, I will have to look up his name. 

Wonderful event. 

As you all know am from a long line of hoarders, so I already have a lot of retro items in my home. Am always on the look out for new items and Retro Festival is a fab event to look!

I was very good and only brought two items one being this 50p coaster! Not only is it a babycham one but also my star sign! 

I love seeing everyone dressed up and just look at this chap with 'PatsCrap' I think all men should take leaf out of this guys book as a well dressed man is far more attractive! 

I have been waiting for ages to see what my china looked like in Margo and I love it! Also showing off my Grandparents glasses and my picnic box! I still need to make at least one more set of curtains....

I still can't get my hair to do what I want but am slowly learning to just roll with it and not fight to much! As it ends up doing what ever it wants anyway! 

Click above to see my video :)

Keep an eye out for more blogs and videos about Retro Festival coming soon.

Renovating A-Frame, Chassis and Legs

Poor Margo had been stored on grass for over 20 years, and the difference between her and Stanley is shocking. Stanley was stored on the drive and has no damage to his a-frame and legs (only age related.) 

This is what stopped me from towing her home when I went to get her, a-frame was rotted into the ground. :(

But with the help of the wonderful Dan, we got her home and then the hunt for a welder began!

Thanks to Twitter a perfect welder was found! (Thank you!!)

Overall, there was not too much damage to the rest of her, but without a workable a-frame she was going no where fast and we only just got her into position before it fell apart!

 Enter the amazing welder from Mobile Weld Ltd!

She looked so odd missing her a-frame.

This is what was left of the rotted a-frame.

It was really amazing to watch the new frame going on, he paid such attention to detail. 

Thats better!

Yes am a very messy painter but I had limited time! 

Here is the video all about getting her a-frame rebuilt and ready to go back out on the road! 

I recommend Mobile Weld Limited, click here for their details