Soup's on!

The weather has started turning cooler, and rather than gaze longingly at all the signs of spring on the other side of the world, I'm going to embrace the change of season. I decided tonight to make soup - you know, the "clean out your pantry and fridge" type of soup. I hoped Peachfuzz would enjoy it, since she hasn't been eating many veges lately, though she will gladly scoff down these pumpkin muffins (with sultanas instead of carob chips). Being that this was a thrown together, whatever goes sort of soup, I was thrilled that Peachfuzz not only liked it, but ate it up with cries of "more, more". Papa Bear and I also couldn't get enough, so I thought I'd share the recipe here. And even if nobody else tries it, we will have the recipe for next time.

Quick & Easy Vegetable Soup
Heat some olive oil in a large saucepan. Add:
- 2 medium carrots, diced
- 2 medium zucchini, diced
- 3 large cloves of garlic, crushed
- a good shake of Italian herbs
- a couple of pinches of salt
- a few good grinds of pepper

Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or so. Add:
- 1 large (810g) can of crushed tomatoes
- 1 litre (4 cups) vegetable stock

Bring to the boil. Turn down heat, simmer and add:
- ½ cup red lentils

Cook for 10 minutes or so, stirring occasionally. Add:
- 100g soup pasta
- 1 can (400g) corn kernels, drained
- a couple of handfuls of frozen peas

Simmer for another 10 minutes, or until everything is tender and soup is thick. Enjoy with some warm crusty bread.

The wedding of the year!

The wedding was absolutely beautiful, despite the weather being wet and windy. My brother looked dashing all spiffed up in his suit, and his bride was just gorgeous. I may be a little bias, but I think the flower girl was pretty sweet too. One of the highlights of the day was the arrival of the bride - by helicopter! Here's just a few pictures for you to enjoy (click to see the full photo - blogger is cutting the edges off).

The anxious groom, waiting for his bride to make her entrance

Making their vows

My gorgeous sister and I, with Peachfuzz

It's official, "Mr & Mrs"

At the reception, our little princess with her serviette crown

Two sweet flowergirls, having a cuddle

Peachfuzz and I, still smiling, but ready to go home and sleep

Belly pictures and other news

Apparently, there is a baby growing in my belly. After weeks of my dad and Nanna asking me "are you sure you're pregnant?", I woke up on Monday morning looking like this. Yes, it really did happen overnight! It's so nice to finally look like I'm expecting, and not just like I've eaten a little too much. This is me today, at 18 weeks and 5 days.

Well, since it's been so long since I last updated, I'm not really sure where to start. I feel like I have so much to say, and yet here I sit, typing and deleting, because nothing seems quite right.

Perhaps I should start by saying hi to everyone who has found this blog over the past few weeks. I've had comments from people here and there, some I know who you are and how you arrived here, and some I have no idea how you found me. But, either way, I look forward to meeting new friends, reacquainting with old friends, and just getting to know who's reading. So, a little request for you. Can you leave me a comment if you are normally just a lurker, or even if you're not? I'd love to know who's reading, where you're from, how you found my little part of blogworld. And I promise to comment more on the blogs I read too. I can't ask, if I'm not willing to do it myself. And for Lotta (and anyone else who wants to get in touch outside the blog), email me at greenjellysnakes @ gmail . com (without the spaces).

Okay, well, I guess I should update on the compact, since many of you have been asking. The simple version is that we have failed miserably, and we've not even been at it for a month yet! Here is a list of what we have bought new since we started, and why.
1) Nappy covers for Peachfuzz. I wanted to make some (and still do), but given my limited sewing abilities at this stage, and the fact that we were down to two covers on which the plastic was torn, making them leak, we were kind of desperate. So we bought four new nappy covers at $5 each.
2) Wedding gift for my brother and soon to be sister-in-law. But that was on our exceptions list from the beginning, so it's not quite so bad.
3) Underwear and other fun things for abovementioned sister-in-law (hens night!). It was a gift, so I don't feel as bad as if I was buying it for myself. And also, I wouldn't actually buy secondhand underwear for myself, so I certainly wouldn't buy it for someone else.
4) Two books (Vegan Planet and Becoming Vegan). I ordered these online. I did have a look on Ebay and in a couple of secondhand book stores, but didn't have any luck. I feel like I could have tried harder to get these secondhand.
5) A bottle of bubbles. Yes, a silly little thing, to keep Peachfuzz amused outside. We don't spend enough time outdoors, and she doesn't enjoy it much when we do. I'm trying to find ways to make it more enticing to her. I could have made my own bubble mix though.
6) Craft supplies - wool, knitting needles, fabric. This purchase was okay according to our exceptions list, because the supplies are to make gifts. I am knitting a little duckling (maybe two or three) for Peachfuzz for Easter, instead of overloading her with chocolate. The fabric is for a quilt, which will also be a gift.
7) Not yet purchased, but I am going out today to buy something for my brother for his Bucks party tonight. A small gift from my husband to him, as yet to be determined, though probably a book of some sort. I know the type of book I'm looking for would be difficult to get secondhand anyway, let alone that he will be receiving it in about 8 hours time!
8) Also not yet purchased, today I plan on buying a jacket of some sort for Peachfuzz, in case it is cold on Sunday (forecast to rain). She is one of the flowergirls in my brother's wedding, and her dress is sleeveless. I toyed with the idea of knitting her a little white cardigan, but with my current knitting skills, I should have started when they were first engaged! I also bought her new shoes for the wedding, though I'm kind of thinking shoes should be on the exception list too.

I think that's it. There may be more that I just haven't remembered yet. It seems to me, that all the time we were toying with the idea of the compact, we were very careful with what we purchased, weighing up each decision carefully. And then as soon as we said we were "officially" doing the compact, all the rules went out the window!

Enough has changed that I don't enjoy shopping like I used to. The best weekend we've had this month was when we didn't end up at the local shopping centre (which we seem to do 90% of our weekends!). But I still feel like we haven't really been trying hard enough. I've been really thinking a lot about our reasons for wanting to do this and whether or not it's something we really can commit to for a year. Ultimately, I wanted this to be a lifetime change in the way we think about things. So, bear with me as I try to figure it all out. As I clear my thoughts up about this, I will share more here.

Good things in blogworld

*I'm loving applehead recently. Her smallpeople are amazing! And I can't wait to try out her recipe for caramelised tomatoes, mmm yum!

*Over at wish jar, Keri has posted her last entry for create-a-thing-a-day month, and is considering doing this project again, maybe even for a whole year. This (as well as the smallpeople mentioned above), has really got me thinking about doing a similar project.

*Sweet kittens over at hop skip jump.

*Mosaic pavers over at red current. These could make a good compacty Christmas gift to brighten up someone's backyard.

*A great post on ways to reduce plastic over at The Green Mommy.

Birthday Party - our first Compact challenge

Today posed our first Compact challenge - a birthday party for two little girls, sisters, turning one and four. I spent much of the day on Friday trawling through op-shops, keeping my eye out for childrens books and toys to see if I could pick something up for them. But after nothing really jumped out at me, I decided the better option would be to make something. Of course it had to be something fun for the girls, but quick and easy for me to make - especially given the fact that I decided on this at 5:30pm Friday, we were going out to dinner at 6, and then the party was at noon on Saturday.

I decided on a felt board for the 4 year old, somewhat inspired by this one. The friends we had dinner with last night actually had some big sturdy boxes to give away, which I made use of for the board. The adhesive spray, backing fabric, felt and cardboard for backing I had already. I cut out only a few basic shapes, as well as the numbers 0-9, and the letters of the birthday girl's name. I also included a little plastic bag to hold the shapes, with seven or eight scraps of felt for her to cut her own shapes from.

For the one year old, I decided (thanks to a suggestion from my mum), that playdough was the way to go. I used the recipe for cooked playdough on top of the cream of tartar container, splitting it into four and colouring them in vibrant shades of pink, yellow, green and blue. I put each colour in it's own personally labelled container, and added a container with four cookie cutters in it. Most of the ingredients I already had, and those I didn't were very cheap. The containers to put them in cost me $3, and the cookie cutters were doubles of a set I already owned.

I was a little apprehensive about how these obviously homemade gifts would be received, in amongst all the shiny new toys, but they were both a hit. Though I didn't know this when I chose the felt board, the birthday girl's mum told me that Shannon "loves making shapes into pictures". I knew the gift was a success when I saw Shannon running around holding onto the felt board, desperate to rip the cellophane off and start playing. The playdough was also well-received, and the girls parents were impressed, and touched, that we made their gifts. So, two birthday gifts for $3 - our first compact challenge... and success!

The Compact

As I mentioned in my last post, we started The Compact on Thursday. You can read more about the original compact group and their rules in this post at the official compact blog. The basic principle is no buying new for a year.

I can hear you thinking "are you insane?!". Yes, probably a little. But we have agreed to do this for a number of reasons. They said it better at the original blog than I can myself, so:
1) to go beyond recycling in trying to counteract the negative global environmental and socioeconomic impacts of U.S. (Australian) consumer culture, to resist global corporatism, and to support local businesses, farms, etc. -- a step, we hope, inherits the revolutionary impulse of the Mayflower Compact
2) to reduce clutter and waste in our homes (as in trash Compact-er)
3) to simplify our lives (as in Calm-pact)

So, here is our personal compact, adapted to fit our goals and priorities.

The Rules
1) We will not buy any NEW items for one year.
2) We will only buy items that we NEED.

The Exceptions
1) Food, health and safety items
2) Items needed for work (Papa Bear)
3) Car seat for our new baby
4) Photo printing
5) Art and craft supplies (but only if it's for a gift or a necessary item)
6) Wedding gifts for our two brothers, who are both getting married within the next 12 months.

Yes, I feel like the exceptions list is ridiculously long. But we have our reasons for all of them, and I will talk a little more about them as they come up. We also have some goals for the next 12 months.

The Goals
1) To eat out less, remove processed food from our diet, eat locally, organic and in-season as much as possible.
2) To hone my sewing skills and provide clothes and other necessities for my family.
3) To plant a vegetable garden for food, and a native garden for pleasure.
4) To gradually replace disposable products with reusable versions.
5) To cut down on "screen time" (TV and internet/computer)
6) To cut down on petrol useage, combining trips and walking or riding whenever possible.
7) To learn to be content, be mindful consumers and tread lightly on the earth, and teach our children these same values.

I am excited, nervous, and a little overwhelmed at the thought of this. I'm sure there are things we haven't thought about that we will "need" in the next year. But I really look forward to this adventure, and can't wait to see what the next twelve months will bring to our little family.

Much of this post was adapted from Sara's post. Hers is such an inspirational blog, check it out.