TLBG: Green Swap 2010

Hello again Emma here, this time and both Rachel and I are sooo excited to say that we are holding our first ever swap (well, on TLBG). We thought it would be a really fun idea to make it a 'Green' themed swap and thought it quite appropriate seeing as we have just celebrated the 40th Anniversary of Earth day.

It's entirely up to you what you send to your swap partner, it could be something Eco friendly, reusable, tips and ideas, re-purposed, organic, what ever you like. We thought it would be nice if you included at least one handmade item (after all, we are all crafty types, are we not?), so it's time to get your thinking caps on. You could even include a little card with a green tip, it could be for cleaning, recycling, shopping, cooking etc?

So.....

1. Leave a comment on this post telling us that you would like to join the swap, please state if you are willing to post internationally (therefore we can pair the non international people together).
Edited to add: Blogger comments don't give us a return email address, so please either include this in your comment, or ensure that we can contact you via your blog. Thanks!

2. Closing date for participants is Friday 7th May and partners will be drawn at random and announced on Monday 10th May.

3. Swap parcels should be sent by Monday 7th June.

4. We suggest you send 5 or 6 items, at least one of which should be handmade (eg, made from re-purposed material or an item that is reusable), and it would be great if all your items could tie in to the green theme somehow.

5. Last of all have fun and get to know your swap partner.

Don't forget to invite your friends/blog readers and followers over to join in, the more the merrier!

Edit: Signups are now closed. We'll be sorting out partners and posting details here on Monday.

NB. To the person who left the last, anonymous comment, we have no contact info for you! If you still want to take part, please email us with your blog details asap to thatlittlebitgreener@hotmail.co.uk



Emma & Rachel xx

The paperless kitchen challenge continues!

Hi, Rachel here! Just thought I'd pop in with a quick update of how I'm doing with our paperless kitchen challenge. The good news is that it's going really well and it's actually been really easy too, much easier that I expected, if I'm honest! We have been using our homemade fabric napkins and the muslin "quick-clean-up" cloths on a daily basis. And I have been remembering to use an old sheet of newspaper for veg peelings. I do still occasionally use a sheet of paper towel, and I still need to train the hubby (!) but it's very noticable that a roll is now lasting several weeks instead of one!

I also wanted to mention a couple of other items I have started using in the kitchen. I recently invested in a couple of sets of silicon cupcake cases. I do quite a lot of baking and, with kids in the house, cupcakes get made on quite a regular basis, so I thought I would give these a try. They fit into a standard size bun tin, the cakes cooked exactly the same and they came out of the cases very easily. The only downside is the extra washing they create! Apparently they are dishwasher safe, but I don't have one, so have to wash them by hand and they do need a little bit of attention to make sure all the crumbs are out of the creases. Apart from that though, top marks! No more paper cake cases for me!

I also use a Magic Non-Stick Liner on baking trays when making cookies or meringues instead of greaseproof paper. It's like a specially treated fabric that is washable and re-usable - it's supposed to last up to 5 years and, again, I've been really pleased with how it performs. I've actually just noticed on the Lakeland website that you can also buy this in precut circles for sponge tins too.

Now, I will admit that I have no idea exactly how "green" these products are in terms of the materials used to make them and the manufacturing processes, but they have certainly helped to further reduce the amount of paper going into our rubbish bins, and that has to be a good thing, right?

Do keep a look out for our next post as we have something exciting planned!

Take care

R x