Why I've given up on sewing with organic cotton

It's because the stuff is so damn hard to find where I live, and when I've found online suppliers in New Zealand it has been really expensive.

Once, I found a small selection of plain, block coloured organic cotton. At Spotlight of all places. It was lovely to sew with and is lovely to wear. It seems to need less ironing than the normal cotton, and has that softly crumpled linen look and feel. But I haven't found it the last few visits.

Come, NZ fabric retailers - surely you can do better than this.

Prize giving at primary schools

When I was at school we didn't have prize givings, not until I got to secondary school.
So I was surprised (but initially not unpleasantly) when I would read in the newsletters from TLM's primary and intermediate schools about end of year prize giving.

Then I would be slightly disappointed that TLM never got any prizes - because she is brilliant. At writing, designing and drawing greeting cards, making comics and beating the boy at computer games. And probably other stuff too. When I saw who did get the prizes, it looked like sportiness was an important selection criteria so I left it at that.

So recently in the news I read that an Auckland primary school decided to do away with prize giving. And lots of people responded by saying it was PC gone mad, cosseting our kids, discourage kids from aiming for excellence etc etc.

Now I'm not against kids competing to win, or kids working hard at something to reach a goal.

But you know what? I reckon most prizes go to kids with natural talent, who didn't have to work particularly hard to get there.

I saw a study about rewarding kids for being clever vs rewarding kids for trying hard. And the kids who were rewarded for trying hard kept trying hard - so they kept improving. But the kids who were rewarded for being clever either slacked off ('cos they are clever) or were crushed by the self-imposed pressure of needing to stay that way.

And here's another thing. If there are 100 kids and only 10 of them get a prize but you don't, then it's no biggie because clearly you had to be something special to get a prize and if you didn't then you're in good company. But if there are 100 kids and 80 of them get a prize but you don't, then wouldn't you feel really shit? Something like this happened to TLM at the last year of her primary school. Needless to say we haven't bothered to attend those events since.

ranking the memoirs

In a fit of post-birthday shopping I decided "to hell with only buying digital books or borrowing from the public libary" and that I would buy me some books.

I ended up with four memoirs:

• Educated by Tara Westover
• Diary of a bookseller by Shaun Blythell
• Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood
• Girl with the lower back tattoo by Amy Schumer

The first three were all books on my mental must-read list after listening to the authors interviewed on Radio New Zealand; the last one I got because there was a buy-3-get-one-free deal at the bookshop.

I began with Diary. It's quite amusing in a Lake Wobegon sort of way and really reminds me of the Black Books tv show. So, not a waste of money but not un-put-down-able.

So I moved on to Educated. Which is a wonderful read. Westover's Morman-but-different family is fascinating and horrifying in equal parts. I was amazed at how great her family's talents are considering they have no formal education (apart from Tara and one brother, and that's not until their mid- to late teens).  It was hard to understand how the family allowed one brother to abuse Tara and her sister pretty much without any consequences. The workplace accidents and near-accidents are hilarious and horrendous. It's a must-read and I will recommend it to anyone who will listen.

Priestdaddy was next. Actually when I was looking for Educated in the bookshop I asked an assistant and accidentally described this book instead. But he found me the right one anyway! So I ended up putting this one down about a chapter or two in. Not sure why - maybe at first glance it is too similar to Educated, maybe Educated is just a hard act to follow.

Funnily enough, Lower back tattoo was a great read (it made me laugh, it made me cry...). Before reading this, I had found Schumer raunchily funny. Now I just want to be her friend (but I'm not really in her demographic so she would probably find that weird).

Now that we have the two winning memoirs out of the way, I am alternating between Diary and Priestdaddy. I'm pretty confident they will grow on me.

Evicting fruit flies from the compost bin

Not being a proper gardener, our compost bin is mostly full of "green" organic waste (unfinished apples, old bits of veges, tea leaves) and hardly any "brown" waste (which in our household is mostly bits of shredded cardboard).

As a result, the bin has fostered a largish population of fruit flies, as well as a couple of very happy weed plants.

So I have dumped most of a bag of citrus fertiliser into the bin. At least now the contents look more like what we are supposed to end up with eventually!

On trying to be a tidy kiwi

On the one hand, I've always tried my best to follow the rule that you should always put your rubbish in a rubbish bin (I think I've succeeded).

On the other hand, I always drew the line at litter that ended up around my property because it was put there by some lazy passerby, or the wind.

Since it's not my rubbish (nor that of my family members) why the hell should it be my job to dispose of it?

This of course is not a very constructive reaction, because unless that rubbish is helpfully blown off the property again by another gust of wind it means the rubbish just hangs around on the property or just on the other side of the fence. Not to mention the fact that the wind is an unreliable rubbish disposer.

So recently I've come around to the idea that maybe it's worth picking up other people's rubbish. Both TLM and I will pick up the odd bit of litter while out and about, and put it in a nearby bin - as long as it's not going to require  full-on rubber gloves, rubbish sack and the availability of hand washing facilities nearby, in which case it has to be an organised event.

Yesterday, I picked up three plastic bags on the way to the bus stop to go to the Green Expo. But I couldn't do anything about the bag stuck on the pohutukawa tree.

Beachcombing

On Sunday TLM and I went to a beach clean-up, organised by Kowtow to celebrate the launch of their swimwear collection (made from old fishing nets, but on no way resembling fishnets).

For a couple of hours we scoured the sand, peeked under piles of seaweed and poked around surrounding shrubbery. We managed to fill a third of a sack, which is no small amount because it's a small beach and there were at least 20 other people there.

Afterwards there was free People's Coffee for all - bonus!

Even better, it turned out that one of the people blocking our car was Kowtow designer herself, Gosia Piatek. While her designs are a big oversize for someone of my height, I really appreciate the effort they go to to produce an ethically made, eco-conscious product. So I did as much of a fangirl thing you can do when you have only ever bought two of their t-shirts.

In the Folds pants part 3

Today it was finally warm enough to wear my new outfit

Its been a heck of a long time since I last walked around with my top tucked into my bottoms! But I felt I needed a bit of shape and wouldn't have got it otherwise. But when I wear the pieces separately I reckon I'll be fine to go untucked.

It is possible I added too much to the crotch curve, but I dunno...they are pretty comfortable!