Have Fun with Eco-Friendly Home Projects

Christmas Tree from old Christmas Crackers

2011-12-05T23:03:00.000-08:00

It's that time of the year again - you're right - time to get busy preparing for Christmas! And what can be more fun than getting the tree up? As usual, the rules here is to have nothing (or very little) bought. Everything must be old, used, or recycled.

We had a great success last year with our CD Christmas tree, and the CDs were then stored away for their future use in God-knows-what; maybe rebuild the same tree, who knows? But this year we're going to be away for the holiday so we'll just have something really simple and doesn't require much work.

As I was going through my craft boxes, I found this stack of beautiful glossy cardboard that used to be the body of some Christmas crackers we used last year (yes I actually saved those bits). Was initially thinking of making some party crowns for my nieces, but then it strikes me that I can use them to make a Christmas tree.

It's really simple; each card has a die-cut slit and slot mechanism, that made it easy to join them together to make a longer strip.

Just secure the joining at the back with some cello tape.

Then complete the circle, and make several of them, from big to small.

Fold the circles into equilateral triangles, and stick cardboard strips on the insides to strengthen them.

Then stack them up, from big to small. Viola! Took me less than 2 hours!

By the way, this can also be flat-packed completely and stored away for another year. All I need to do is to detach one of the slit-in joining and that's it. Totally worth the effort!

Hope you're also having a lot of fun anticipating the festival. Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Stockings from Old Oven Gloves

2011-12-05T01:11:00.000-08:00

Bought a pair of oven gloves last year, which can't withstand a single wash - the inside was some sort of fluff that started coming off. So lesson learnt: must only get oven gloves that are fully fabric made.

Anyways, being the hogger that I am, throwing away a rather new pair of (non-functioning) oven gloves still bothers me. So I've turned them into a pair of mini Christmas stockings, as they are red and green and look Christmasy. The magic wand I used here is a 1.5-inch needle and some magical red threads :-)

Here are the oven gloves-turned-Christmas stockings:

Here is what they looked like before:

Being taken apart for cutting:

Nothing's wasted!

Paper Mache Jack O Lantern Candy Pots

2011-10-23T05:08:00.000-07:00

We're going to have a family dinner right before Halloween so we gotta have something special for the kiddies. I've always wanted to let them have a little trick or treat for fun but I'm really skeptic about buying the ready made ones and make some rich business owners even richer by producing more plastic stuff. So a DIY paper mache Jack o Lantern is an obvious choice.

Here are the material used:

2 old unused balloons from last Christmas, blew them up and wrapped each up with a layer of cling film (for easy removal when the glue is dry), and these are the base mould for the pumpkins.
Old newspaper and old receipts, torn into tiny strips.
Glue made from tapioca flour
Leftover white base coat paint
Acrylic colours
String from an old wrecked drawstring bag

First layer for the shape.

Few more layers to shape the ridges.

Punched holes for the handle. Base coat done, in and out.

Getting the right colour, bit by bit.

Once the colour's done, smiley Jack-o-lantern faces are drawn using the DVD labelling markers I used for the CD coasters project (yeah I know, lasted a long time!). Then the handles are made with the strings made into thick braided pattern.

Ready for the show!

It's really simple, just like what we used to do at school when we're kids. I know it's no big deal - not like I'm creating some great sculpture, but it's really enjoyable. Just need a little time and patience. Get started a couple of weeks ahead of time would be ideal.

DIY WIne Glass Charms

2011-08-10T20:58:00.001-07:00

We like throwing small dinner parties and enjoy some home cooked food and nice wines - with proper crockery and cutlery - NO disposable ones! But having to keep washing up and drying wine glasses is a pain, especially when everyone seems to get their wine glasses mixed up and decided to get a fresh one. If only we can have something to individualise each wine glass, but obviously not buy putting a horrible looking sticker label over the glass.

When I first saw this brilliant product at a department store, I knew that's what I need to add to our wine accessories - some wine glass charms!

But they aren't cheap; in fact, they are really expensive! Minimum RM50 for a box of 6 or 8 charms, and that's all you can get: just the 6 or 8 different designs. That's when I decided to make our own customised wine glass charms. I started collating everything I need: old pendants, old earrings, beads from some accessories came as unwanted gifts; and bought a bag of wine glass charm hooks off Ebay that costs me £0.99.

It did take me a while to finish collating the parts, but the whole DIY process took me less than 15 minutes. And viola, I got ourselves 15 different wine glass charms - both male and female friendly :-D

Fruit Packaging Nets Craft Apples

2011-01-09T01:14:00.000-08:00

No matter how hard we try to buy everything in the least packaging, we somehow still end up with quite a bit that we can't avoid. These net packaging came with some of the potatoes and onions that we bought from our local store, when we had absolutely no choice but to get them. Over time, we've collected quite a few and here's what I've done with them instead of throwing them away:

1. After cleaning thoroughly, fold the net opening out- and downward.
2. Keep folding down, as if rolling down a sock.
3. When fold till the end, turn it up-side-down and we'll get what looks like an apple.

I learned to do this from my sister who brought the craft home from her preschool one day years ago. It is extremely easy and fun to do, and they are now in my 6 year-old niece's toy fruit basket :-) (which she would then create a story around whilst playing).

Using Old Food Wrappers As Bin Bags

2011-01-03T20:55:00.000-08:00

Bin liners / bin bags are one of the most ridiculous household products sold to consumers: something that you buy just to throw away! I can't agree with that, especially when it is absolutely unnecessary.

Some people wonder how I survive not buying a single bin liner, yet not taking the plastic bags given by vendors to use as rubbish bags. The answer is: easy!

We get plastic bags from packaging alone, and most of them can't be avoided; for instance, bread wrapper bags. We'll try to use up any wrapper bags our food comes in: bread, oat, flour, rice, etc, as long as they are not too fragile or easily torn.

We still get the odd plastic bags whenever we can't avoid it, but the key is to moderate and reduce consumption as much as we can.

Life isn't what consumerism tell us to have, we don't have to buy bin liners just because the label says that it is for the bin. We can create our own lifestyle without depending on what's sold in the shops :-)

Reduced sugar, homemade mince pies for Christmas

2010-12-18T03:21:00.000-08:00

Last year we made some mince pies (recipe here)instead of buying from the shops. This year, we've gone even further to make our own reduced sugar mincemeat. Now we just need to make some custard sauce to pour over these little sweetie pies and we'll be ready for Christmas.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Make Christmas Wreath from old packaging box

2010-12-13T23:48:00.000-08:00

Before I learned how to make mince pies, we used to buy them from the shops, and have kept the packaging boxes which I knew will come in handy one day. The red colour and the festive patterned borders on the box can be used for making any Christmas decor. So we thought we'd make a Christmas wreath out of them.

I cut the boxes into short 4-5-cm strips and stick them in a random crisscross pattern to make a circle, with cellophane tapes.

I've also used some left over old sequins (taken off from an old bag), an old red ribbon, and a "Happy Christmas" wording cut out from an old Christmas card.

Easy peasy.

Handmade Christmas Tree from old cardboard

2010-12-01T02:11:00.000-08:00

All these preparation for Christmas just reminded me of the very first handmade Christmas tree I made back in 1988, when I was still a college student living with 6 other college mates in a rented property. I was staying in the house all by myself as all my friends have gone home for the holiday and I really wanted to have a tree so I decided to make one (that was all that I could afford to do).

I made mine out of some used mounting boards but you can try with any big cardboard box. Unfortunately there isn't any photograph taken (there was no digital camera so we had to really be careful not to waste our films on non assignment related stuff) but I've drawn some diagrams to show the process.

1. Cut the board into 4 equal shapes like this:

2. Mark 3 places where you will put support in for the tree (x, y, z points shown below), measure the width and cut 3 circles with radius the same as x, y, and z respectively. Cut a 2mm thick slot into the boards as shown below:

Do not cut the slot too wide from the beginning, only slightly widen it if it is too tight to push 2 boards in together.

3. Hold the triangles upright whilst slotting the circles in sideways, horizontally:

4. Continue with all the other triangles, and you'll have a pine tree structure. The circles can serve as shelves for holding little gifts, or for placing ornaments. And when Christmas is over, just separate all the pieces and pack them flat for next year. I did that and painted it silver (young and foolish and didn't know much about the harm spray paint can do back then) the next year because it was pretty dusty and mouldy being in the tropics.

It was a very therapeutic little project for me then - made myself very happy and gave all my friends a nice surprise when they came back for the new term.

Note: you can make a tree of any size depending on the cardboard size you have.

CD Christmas Tree

2010-11-29T20:10:00.000-08:00

2 years ago I made my own Christmas tree out of used A4 and A3 paper, but it can't be reused as it was glued to a fixed shape. So last year I made a 2-D foldable one from old cardboard box so that I can store it in my Christmas box for future use. However, when I dug it out a few days ago, the edges were rather bent due to the space constraint and the extreme humidity here in the tropics. It's still usable, I guess.

But then the stack of old CDs on my shelf caught my eyes and gave me an idea: perhaps I could do something with them and make s tree that can be reassembled completely.

How to make a Christmas tree out of old CDs?

I started drawing out plans and decided that a 3-sided pyramid-like tree is possible. But I may need more CDs than what I already have so I asked for help on FreeCycle KL Yahoo Group. Within days I managed to get more CDs contributed by some of the kind members. (Big thanks to them!)

And after a few trials and errors, my transparent, 100% reusable CD Christmas tree is born. This is a 2-tier (each triangular pine tree shape is a tier) size but I can reshape and resize the tree the way I like it next year. I did peel off the shiny coating layer of the CDs before I constructed this, but if you would like to try one yourself, you can also opt to leave the shiny bits on, like what a friend of mine did to her version of CD Christmas tree:

Here is the step-by-step guide to making a simple Christmas tree out of old unwanted CDs:

Step 1: Arrange CDs into the shape of a tree, secure each adjoining point with cellophane tapes (make sure you tape on both sides). Make 3 sets of this.

Step 2: Base on the number of CDs used on the bottom row of step 1, make a triangular base like this, with the same number of CDs on each side. Secure with tapes like in step 1.

Step 3: Join the tree shapes by the base with each side of the triangle shape (indicated by the red marks). Secure with tapes like in step 1, but with even stronger tapes or stick a few more layers. And to make sure the tree structure is strong enough, stick more CDs on joining points to prevent the tapes from breaking up (shown below as white CDs). The reinforcement CDs should be facing the inside of the tree.

Step 4: Hold up the tip of each side and join them by point X (you'll need someone to help you hold this whilst you stick the sides together). Secure as many touching point as possible with cellophane tape to make the tree as stable.Material:
Old CDs that you have no idea what to do with. I've used 120 CDs (3x27 for the tree shape, 24 for reinforcemnet and 15 for the base).
Some cellotapes. No drilling, no glue.
Tools: Your hands and 1 more pair of hands.

Storage: Any old CD box, or any box.

The 2-D foldable one? It's still very much alive on one of the walls.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Handmade Christmas Cards from Recycled Material

2010-11-15T19:39:00.000-08:00

Greeting cards are one of the biggest consumerism scams to get people to keep spending and "saving" time on writing sincere messages to their friends and family. Yes the cards can be so pretty that you can easily be tempted into buying some and send it to someone. But the clutter it creates is beyond imagination. I don't encourage anyone to send me cards, nor do I buy any greeting cards to give to anyone. But, as and when I can, I will try to make some cards using used and/or old material (not the type you make from ready-made trimmings and decoration/stickers you buy from the shops).

I have just made 8 Christmas cards (one of them already sealed in the envelope) to send to our family and friends - exactly 8 families. They are all made according to whatever I can find in my craft box: old felt I collected from God-knows-where, pretty pictures cut out from old magazines, old greeting cards, old mince pies boxes, tissue wrapping paper saved from packaging, sequins from old bag/shoe trimmings, etc. So you can see that they all look completely different - absolutely no homogenisation! The only NEW stuff I have used - really - are the envelopes.

At least these cards will be appreciated more when received, as they contained real effort and love put into the card making process.

Make your own wallet security hook in pocket

2010-10-21T01:33:00.001-07:00

If you are a man who doesn't like taking bags when going out then you are likely to put your wallet and/or cash in your trouser pockets, and you are more likely to become a victim of the pickpockets, especially when the pockets are not zipped or buttoned. My husband is one of these men so when he experienced a few pickpocket incidences recently, we decided to make his pockets more secure.

Here's how we did it:

1. I cut a nylon woven strap (which I'd kept from some old neck tag and I knew it would come in handy one day!) into 8-cm-length strips and hem both ends by melting them over the blue flame of a candle. (Note: just barely touching the flame will do, too close to the flame will burn the strap.)

2. Folding the strips to half in the middle, I sewed one strip tightly onto the base of each pocket to make a loop:

3. He then tied his wallet to a removable hook with an old ribbon. This way he can hook his wallet to the pocket loop; and if his pocket's ever picked, he'll be able to feel it happening.

If you do have one of those hooks that come with a retractable string, it would be quite a good option too.

Too many old receipts and "sold" stickers

2010-08-16T03:13:00.000-07:00

We probably can't go a week without buying something. Some of us try to reduce consumption, reduce the use of plastic bags, use BYO containers, go to the nearest shops whenever we can, etc; but the issuing of receipts seems to be a mandatory for all the major shops and malls. No matter how hard I try to squeeze as many items into one purchase, I still end up with way too many receipts. What's worse is: you get 2 sets of receipts when you use a credit card, and the thermal receipts are apparently not recyclable!

Being a stubborn cow that I am, I refuse to throw any away as long as they still have a blank side on them - thermal receipt or not. I've been using them as note pads, to take phone messages (not that we had a lot), and write my shopping lists on, before I put them into the recycling bag for paper.

Along with the compulsory receipts, these supermarkets and department stores also make sure that they paste a "Sold" sticker onto every bag (or every item if you choose not to have a bag). I reckon this is just another way to help them advertise now that they have to coincide with the no plastic bag propaganda. I sometimes wonder if this is more wasteful than having a plastic bag.

So whenever I come back from a shopping trip, I will remove the stickers and place them on the fridge door for future use. This is what my fridge door looks like:

All of my friends have laughed at my outrageously looking fridge, but you'd be surprised how useful these are, if you want them to be.

As for the thermal receipts, I've found a way to utilise them at least once before they make their way to the bin: as food storage labels. I will label anything to go into the fridge or freezer in a jar or tub, on a piece of thermal receipt (half, if it's a short name). By using the used "sold" stickers, I can stick the label onto the containers. This is extremely useful when you have a lot to store, especially things that are not easily recognised when frozen. (Hint: if you have a husband who can't tell beef from chicken, labelling is essential :-P )

If they are not ruined when defrost, these labels can be reused again and again. I just stick them on the fridge door again until they are needed next. This saves me repeating the writing process unnecessarily.

Yes anyone visiting my place is still laughing at the fridge, but I'm just happy about making something useless, useful, even if it's only for a brief period of time.

Note: I use all sorts of packaging bags that come with food or clothing as garbage bag. Sometimes there are holes on the bags so I'll use these stickers to patch up the holes.

Twist tie wires, a useful thing

2010-08-16T02:34:00.000-07:00

Have you ever bought electrical appliances or laptops, etc that came with not one but several of these twist tie wire thingies? Of course you have, and they will keep coming for as long as you plan to buy more in the future. Some people find them annoying because apart from tying some wires for storage purposes, they would just become clutter.

Personally, I find them highly useful in aiding me in my daily chores and getting the house organised.

Here is what I did with some of them:

An extended hook for this calendar with a hole that's too small to go on the existing hook:

The previous tenant left behind quite a few pointless nails - like this one that is too deep into the wall - which I can hardly hang anything on. So the twist tie wire came in handy as an extension:

Due to the flexibility of these twist tie wires, they can be twisted into any shape and form to adapt to your needs. They are also quite strong and sturdy so I've used some to tie the new roller blinds to the old blinds holders which are not the right type for the new ones (as I'd rather not to drill new holes into any of the walls if I can help it):

Tied the bamboo blinds onto another pair of existing nails on the wall which don't seem to fit the width of the blinds. But the twist tie wires saved the day. This has been up since mid 2008, and it's still going strong:

Apart from these, you can also use them to:
- hold plants together for example tomato and other crawler plants
- tie up opened food packages e.g.: flour that comes in a non-resealable bag

The good news is, should I ever want to relocate these things, I can easily untie the wires and use them elsewhere. Not a trace, not a stain.

Velvety drawstring knapsack made from old dress

2010-07-15T02:19:00.000-07:00

No matter how careful I am, I sometimes buy things that I end up not using much - like this brown velvety halter dress. I bought it for some special occasion but it has not been worn much since. As you grow older, the chance of getting invited to parties and going to gigs reduces tremendously; this dress became too dressy for just going out in the day.

After a few drafts on the drawing board, I've decided that I will make a simple knapsack out of it. The halter neck tie around strap is cut off to make into a thin scarf, and the length from above the waist and down is cut into this:

The bottom hem is sewn together to make the base

The top bit is hemmed up to leave openings for the drawstring

Each corner of the bottom is sewn into triangular flap to make a depth on the base

Leftover fabric (from the top bit of the dress) made into pockets on the inside of the bag.

The rest of the leftover fabric is used to make a pocket on the outside,
complete with zipper (a used one from some old clothing)

The drawstrings are taken from an old belt which buckle was broken.
The loops holding them at the bottom of the bag is made from the shoulders of the dress.

A new drawstring knapsack!

What else can you do with old CDs and DVDs?

2010-06-26T09:03:00.000-07:00

There are some CDs which I can't get the printing or labels off, so they can't be used for making coasters. But I still refuse to send them to the landfill and I have used them to support plant cuttings over water like these herb cultivations here:

I often make cuttings from my existing herb plants such as basil and mint to prolong and increase harvesting. I will place the cuttings in old jars (especially those which labels can never be taken off) filled with water till they root and can be put into soil. However some cuttings can be rather short and the leaves may fall below water surface and they will start to rot. So I put each cutting through the hole of the old CD/DVD, then place over the jar. This way the leaves can stay dry whilst the cuttings stay safe in the water.

I have done this so many times, my very first basil plant is still alive since 2008.

Turn old bread into golden-brown crouton

2010-06-19T23:52:00.000-07:00

Have you ever bought too much bread and they ended up getting moldy? Been there, seen it, done that. I like making bread and butter pudding, croutons or breadcrumbs out of them.
Or you can also do what my sister has done just the other day: spiced up croutons with butter and chili powder. Yumm...

Before

After: Golden Sauteed Croutons

Bet she enjoyed making and eating them.

Turn an old ripped skirt into handbag

2010-06-19T09:59:00.000-07:00

In life you often come across things that you love so much you hang on to it whatsoever. I had a short checkered skirt that was altered from a long skirt because it was stained by some green paint, which I had worn from mid 90's till 2009, when I noticed a hole on the back of it. I had no idea how it got there but it is definitely not mendable. I was devastated as it was one of my favourites, and I certainly can't make it any shorter!

Last worn on 3 April 2009, Lee on Solent

Stubborn as I am, I refused to throw it away just yet. So I decided to make a bag out of it. The actual process of making it was not that long, but it was the waiting for the right material to come along. My sister passed me some old straps she took from her old ripped travel bags so I used some to make the straps, as well as the horizontal line pattern by the straps.

The bottom piping was made by wrapping fabric from an old t-shirt (that was waiting to become a cleaning cloth) around an old cord off a broken iron (the cord was given to be by a friend). The black flowers, one of which is to hide the ripped hole, are from my craft material collection.

I tried looking for an old/used black or white zipper that is long enough for the bag, but failed. There isn't any shop near me that does these stuff and I didn't want to make a trip down town just to get a zipper. So this project has been abandoned for a while. 6 months later, I managed to get one when I walked pass a shop that sells sewing material whilst I was running an errand down town. That costs me 60 sen (12p/20¢), and I thought that's fair enough.

At least I don't have to part with my favourite skirt for now.

Keep privacy and let light in with window frosting sticker

2010-05-22T01:43:00.000-07:00

The big 2-panel full window by our bathroom long tub is one of the prettiest features in our flat. The problem is, some evil developers have built 2 much taller condominium blocks right opposite us. This means that the residents on the higher floor of these blocks might (we just won't know) be able to see us in the tub through our big clear glass window. One might argue that they are too far away to see us clearly, but the thought is just scary.

We have done some DIY frosting on the lower panels of the window when we first moved it, just so that we have some privacy (just in case) and will still have good sunlight shining through in the morning. But these high rise blocks were not built then.

I would hate to fully block the whole window, nor do we have enough window frosting sticker left from the last time (the lower panels and those in the second bathroom). So I thought I would improvise with the left over sticker.

I cut the sticker into small rectangles and stick them on to the top panels to make a checkered pattern, by leaving space after each one of them. This way I can still have my view out the window as well as sunlight through to keep the bathroom dry and bright, whilst reducing the visibility of our bathroom interior view to a minimum.

And we get new window decoration!

Recycled gift wrapping

2010-01-08T20:09:00.000-08:00

Although I make a point to tell all my friends not to give me any presents to avoid unwanted gifts and excessive gift wrapping, I still get nicely wrapped gifts from time to time. When I do I will unwrap them very carefully and keep almost everything - from the gift wrapper, greeting cards to the ribbons and trimmings - and reuse them whenever I can.

This month I happen to have some gifts to give away, so I've recycled these wrappers and cards.

The purple patterned wrapper in the foreground is from a Christmas present I received in 2008.
The white tissue wrapper in the background came from a clothing packaging.
The dark pink tissue wrapper underneath is from another gift I received some years ago (which will be used for wrapping the other present) .
The gift cards are cut out from old birthday cards.
The ribbons are taken from an old top I dismantled.

Nothing is new here except for what's wrapped inside, which is the most important thing. But I think they still look quite sweet anyway.

Elevate shelves with old yoghurt tubs

2009-12-31T00:17:00.000-08:00

We live in the hot but humid tropics so stuff in the house tend to get mouldy easily, especially the 3-tier shelve units that we stacked up to make a sideboard. The construction site opposite our place makes it doubly dusty so we have to sweep and mop very often, and the fact that these shelves are in direct contact with the floor is just not helping.

The only short term solution (besides moving to another country which is not happening in the near future, bah...) is to give the shelves legs to elevate them from the floor surface. I've been collecting a lot of Sunglo Sour Cream and Sunglo Yoghurt tubs - mainly for freezing stock and storing leftover food in the fridge - which are rather tough.

So I scraped the paint off the tub label and stacked them under the shelf units, and this is how the sideboard looks now:

I've done the same to the book shelves in the study, hoping that they would not getting mouldy so easily. Whilst achieving the purpose of elevating these shelves off the floor, I've cleared up some of my yoghurt and sour cream tub collection that's been taking up space in the kitchen cabinet. What's better to do on New Year's Eve than de-cluttering your house?

Let's welcome a better year in 2010. Happy New Year to everyone!

Up-side-down cake with overripe pears

2009-12-24T16:56:00.000-08:00

I know this is not about craft. But we've bought too many pears last week and the remaining are starting to show brown skin. So I thought maybe this Christmas we would have a pear up-side-down cake instead of Christmas pudding or Christmas cake (they aren't my family's favourite anyway). So it's still about utilising leftover stuff and stop wasting.

I found a traditional pineapple up-side-down cake recipe and replaced the pineapple with the overripe pears, and much less sugar. And I've submitted my modified recipe to a food site too.

This little Christmas baking project has helped me use up the overripe pears, the leftover golden syrup, as well as the leftover self-raising flour. As the UK food-saving campaign says: Love food hate waste.

And here's our little Christmas centrepiece. Merry Christmas!

Beaded tiara headband for kids

2009-12-15T18:20:00.000-08:00

My nieces, like all other young girls, love everything about princess. Last Christmas, I made them tiara party hats out of old Christmas cards and sequins I took off a free handbag (which I've turned into a multi-compartment handbag). Since I have some leftover beads which are not enough for anything extensive, I thought I could make them some beaded tiaras.

I've used only fishing lines as I haven't any steel wire, and buying some just for that is going to defeat the purpose of using up existing material. Fishing lines are soft and flexible so they can't be worn like commercial tiaras. However, they turned out to be dual-purpose: 1. to be worn as a headband, and 2. as a necklace.

Perhaps I can make up stories about some fairy princesses whose tiaras can turn into magical necklaces that give them power, and I think the girls would like that.

Drawstring bag from excess fabric

2009-12-13T22:43:00.000-08:00

My habit of saving up stuff and trying to make them useful traces all the way back to my teenage. This is my first handmade bag, made using the excess fabric from my blouse. My mum and her sisters were tailors so they used to make all my clothes and I learned stitching and operating the sewing machine by watching them work.

I didn't do this all by myself, of course. One of my aunties helped me with the more complicated bits. And we'd a sewing machine then so it was not exactly hard for a 16-year-old. More than 2 decades on later, this bag is still in good condition although it might be a little too small and girly for me now. I can always give it to my nieces, or use it as a gift packaging... well I'll make sure it's put to good use.

Note (21 Feb 2010)
On 14 February 2010, first day of Lunar New Year - my youngest niece used this for collecting her red packets, and I let her keep it as she loves it so much - it's just the right colour for her!

Economical way to have mince pies in Asia

2009-12-10T01:14:00.000-08:00

We have a sweet-toothed big kid at home, so mince pie is a must have on the traditional Christmas pudding list for the whole of December. But buying imported mince pies in South East Asia is not an easy thing to do - each box of 6 will cost at least RM22.00 (close to £4) and they are only so-so in taste. And don't even get me started on the excessive packaging and carbon footprint on air freighted goods.

Last year, we spent quite a bit on buying mince pies alone; but with all that credit crunch this year, I decided to try and bake our own. Since I've saved most of the foil cups from last year's shop-bought mince pies (some damaged ones have been flattened to making 2-D baubles for our Christmas tree), they are now just in time for this money saving mission of ours.

Here is how much we've spent:
1. 2 jars of mincemeat - RM20.00
2. 1 bag of 1 kg plain flour (only used half) - RM3.00
3. Butter - RM5.00
4. Reused foil cups - RM0.00
5. Using old wine bottle as rolling pin (we don't already have one as I don't often bake) - RM0.00
6. Using 2 different-sized glasses as pastry cutters (we don't have those either) - RM0.00

So far we've made 2 batches, a total of about 20+ mince pies, and we still have some dough and mincemeat in the fridge for more.

Yes we did have to buy some mincemeat in jars, but there is minimal packaging, and we can reused and recycled the jars. The aim now is to master the shortcrust pastry, next will be to learn how to make my own mincemeat. Hopefully by next year we can do even more for the environment whilst saving more money.