IF YOU ARE LOOKING TO CREATE A MAGICAL CHRISTMAS WITHOUT COSTING THE PLANET OR YOUR POCKET, THIS GUIDE IS FOR YOU…..

Read on..

Christmas time has become synonymous with a whole lot of plastic crap and tat and over spending… but i’m here to tell you, especially during this time of economic uncertainly, that Christmas can be more magical and beautiful than you can imagine.

Many of the traditions we embark in at Christmas have roots in traditions that have been around for thousands of years.. and they’re not about lining the pockets of billionaires.. they’re about honouring the season, the gods, nature and spending time with our loved ones.

Here you can find our guide on how to have a sustainable Christmas with so much meaning and beauty, which will delight your loved ones, warm your heart and save you pennies.

SUSTAINABLE DECORATIONS

Use all of natures beauty for your decorations. Bring greenery inside.. The bringing in of a fir tree for Christmas was popularised by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and has roots in Germanic and Slavic culture, although decorating the home with ever greens has been observed across the world.. Since winter solstice recognises the return of the light, with the longest night and shortest day of the year.. After this point, the days become longer again. The ever greens signify everlasting life and serve as a reminder that some plants thrive all year round..

I like to bring in evergreen branches from the tree in my garden, or i forage.. remember to take only what you need. I like to hang up large boughs and decorate with natural decorations like dried oranges and pine cones. It looks magical and delights everyone to see a beautiful natural mobile in the home. Hang on walls or in hallways, where there is hight.

SUSTAINABLE CHRISTMAS TABLE DECORATIONS

Decorate your Christmas table with beeswax candles and arrangements made from smaller pieces of ever green. Keep everything green and twinkly. Write handmade tags with peoples names on for place settings and use pine cones and slices of dried oranges everywhere. Im a maximalist when it comes to decorations..

MAKE A YULE WREATH, SUSTAINABLE AND PLASTIC FREE

A wreath is known as the wheel of life, and used to decorate winter solstice tables adorned with candles. There are plenty of natural ones you can buy, but why not have a forage for some bendy branches and make your own. Take a mindful walk, maybe with your family and collect fallen foliage, cones and branches.. then sit around the table together and talk about what you want from the year ahead? Enjoy the process.. make it a tradition.. if you don’t want to make a huge fussy one, a simple strand of ivy in a circles.. looks really beautiful and simple.

SUSTAINABLE GIFT GIVING

Shop small, where-ever you can. Support your local shops and indies. Make gift giving all about the story of the item. I love to tell the receiver, “i found this amazing woman who makes ceramics from home” ..

I like to make food gifts too.. from items ive foraged in the later months of the year. Elderberry Syrup and quince jam are up there as my favourite things to make.. As well as mince pies and cookies.. Everyone loves a food gift and works so well for school teachers and relatives.

We have some great gifts for all the family.. check out our gift section of the website for gifts and festive items for all.HERE

GIFT WRAP

Rather than buy reems of wrapping paper, which usually cannot be recycled due to plastic content… wrap gifts in fabric, or brown paper. Use ribbon to tie them up. You can use string too or any twine you have lying around the house. Add slices or orange and ever green and add a hand written gift tag..

HOW TO HONOUR SAMHAIN THE CELTIC HALLOWEEN FESTIVAL

This time of year holds many festivals honouring the harvest, the end of the year and our ancestors who have passed… Halloween leads in the commercial world and has already happened on the 31st October.

I feel more in tune with Samhain, pronounced SAU wen, which is roughly translated as summers end. Samhain hails from Ireland and this year falls on the 7th November, but its not just a day. Its a period of time, so if you want to celebrate or honor this time, you just need to tune into how you feel not worry about a specific date.

I am not traditionally religious and was brought up in an atheist home, although my Irish and Scottish ancestors would have been both catholic and christian, but i have found that ritual and ceremony give my life roots and meaning. Honouring the seasons seems like the most natural way to do this, since we are cyclical beings and the draw of festivals before Christianity and Catholicism interfered with them are much more appealing.

So this time of year, i naturally enjoy slowing down. I want to be quiet and still… It is said that the veil between the worlds is thinner allowing our ancestors to come through or make connections. I like to meditate more frequently and pay particular attention to my dreams and the messages they hold.

I create an alter in my home.. which i have all year round as a place to centre my meditations on. At different times in the year i dress it with different objects associated with the season. I burn incense and leave offerings.

I spend time there whilst i journal and try to create a calm loving space.

Understanding the seasons and cycles, keeps us rooted to the earth.. and being rooted to the earth, keeps us making better decisions for the planet when it comes to our everyday life.

Pagan festivals have zero to do with over consumption and capitalism, which is so refreshing and has a much cleaner energy around them.

If you want to create an altar for Samhain its really simple to do.

Find a space on a sideboard or its own table. Cover with a cloth or scarf. Add candles, crystals and any natural objects that appeal to you whilst you’re in nature. Acorns, pine cones, beautiful leaves, stones. Then add in pictures or objects from loved ones who have passed. You can add offerings in the form of food, sweets, seeds, apples. You can also do this outside your house to welcome ancestors in. Sage and incense is a traditional way to cleanse energy.

Then, simply spend time there. It is a good opportunity to talk with the people you live with about your loved ones.

You cant get it wrong really.

So Samhain blessings to you.

As the season starts to turn to winter and more pointedly, christmas weve booked in some market dates so you can some and see us locally, close to you.

We will be bringing all our sustainable gifts.

Environmentally friendly and completely plastic free gifting and home products to make your home extra festive and seasonal.

Our reusables wipes are not only super practical for cleaning your home and using on your skin, but they’re are only made from 100% organic cotton sourced from GOTS approved factories.

This is so important for many reasons..

Using natural fabrics, meaning anything that is grown from a plant, means that as long as they are unprocessed with harsh dyes, they will be reabsorbed into the earth, making them degradeable. This means that unlike fabric made from petrochemicals like polyester and acrylic (think microfibre cloths and fleece).

Natural fabrics include, cotton, linen, hemp, bamboo, silk and wools.

But its not enough to simply use cotton fibres..

Growing crops using heavy pesticides, kills soils quality and harms the health of farmers and workers who tend the crops. We need a soil quality to be high so that the food we eat is filled with all the nutriants we require to be healthy.

Right now, only 1% of cotton produced worldwide is organic. Rather than seeing this as a huge problem, i see it as a huge opportunity for customers to be demanding more organic cotton. For more retailers ti use organic cotton.

The great news is that it only takes 2/3 years to go from a pestacide using farm practise to fully organic. Meaning soil quality can repair and farmers dont need to risk their health.

We all have a responsibility to understand how our choices impact not only our beautiful planet, but all the people who live on it.

Rest assured that when you buy our reusable wipes or unpaper towels as they are sometime called, they are made from only the most ethical fabrics, from the best factories, and are made by hand here at our studio in Digbeth Birmingham meaning you can shop without guilt.

I Have this theory about soup… Its come together over the course of a few years and i think the following is the full soup low down..

Ok, so soup is a great sustainable dinner, because you can make it from literally any veg left over.. That wrinkled up parsnip that’s been in your fridge for 2 weeks? Chuck it in the pot, Those potatoes that have started to sprout, chop em up and chuck em in… maybe not the broccoli though.. i’m not convinced about broccoli in soup. Basically, you can chuck any veg in the pot with some vegetable stock and voila..

The next thing about soup is that its just what you put in it… and whilst you stand there and stir it, you can stir in some good intentions. Infuse your soup as you stir it with love, strength and health.. so when you eat it, you can absorb all those gorgeous intentions.

The other thing is that, its as easy to make a stack of it as it is to make a small amount. Why not make a bunch and take a portion over to a friends house.. that way you can offer them the love and positive intentions.

Heres the recipe for my favourite most frequently made soup. Vegan and chock full of nutritious vegetables, and high in protein. Freezes well.

You can also double or triple the recipie easily, substitute any ingredients for something similar.

RECIPE

One onion

Two sticks of celery

3 large carrots

2 large courgettes

3 large cooking tomatoes

A litre of vegetable stock

A can of butterbeans

Chilli flakes or fresh

A couple handfuls of chopped kale

Oregano fresh or dried

Method

Heat a splash of olive oil in a pan and add the chopped onion. Sweat in the pan for a few minutes. Mean while chop all the veg and tomatoes (offially a fruit). When the onions are translucent and soft, add the courgettes and cook for a little while longer, until the courgettes start to turn a little brown. Then throw in all the other vegetables and absentmindedly stir. Speak your spells and intentions into the mix..

After a few minutes, add in the stock and allow to bubble nicely.. Add the drained butter beans and reduce the heat. Add salt and pepper, oregano and chilli to taste.

Allow the soup to simmer for 20 or so minutes. Use this time to dance around the kitchen for music of your choice. Gesture your arms whilst dancing towards the cooking soup and sing your heart out. The joy will make for an extra special ingredient.

When the soup is cooked and the veg has all softened, add in the kale! Allow it to cook for a further 5 minutes or so.

The ladle out a steaming bowl of the gorgeous steaming soup and serve with crusty bread..

If you are not vegan, you could grate some cheese and add to the top.

Portion up some into tupperware or a flask and leave on the doorstep of a friend with a love note and a posy of wild flowers.

A lot of people ask… what’s so wrong with using kitchen paper? It’s paper… It biodegrades??

Well, I’m afraid to say that depending what you’ve used your kitchen paper for, it may not degrade or be suitable for recycling.

Chemical cleaners, and kitchen oil and grease affects the biochemistry of soil and so shouldn’t be added to the compost heap. And for the same reasons can’t be recycled.

Also, the power needed to fell trees, process them into paper and then bleach, wrap and ship, is huge!! That’s a massive carbon footprint. In fact, the paper and pulp industry is the 4th largest contributor to greenhouse emissions.

Our reusable cleaning wipes are made once,
and then can be used over and over again. Some of my kitchen wipes are still going strong after 3/4 years.

Once they are not functional anymore, you can put them in the compost, clean.. even the thread we use is made from organic cotton and will entirely biodegrade.

You can clean your whole house with them, polish your wood and shine your windows…
Wipes hands and faces. They are so versatile and so much better for the environment.