Crafty hen parties Blackpool

 So after a long time of teaching people to sew I decided to add some strings to my bow of being self employed and am venturing into hen and birthday parties! I have taught quite a few craft workshops before, in fact I am off to a lovely farm in Dolphinholme tomorrow for a weekend of workshops, Saturday I am teaching ladies to make lavender bags and lavender wheat bags then staying over in the farms caravan (hoping there are no spiders) and on Sunday joining in with their biodynamic compost making course. Very exciting learning new skills which I can use on the allotment and eventually in Portugal.

 

So I made this poster for the hen parties and am hoping it should be lots of fun, it's a little bit scarey too venturing off in another direction but I am asking the universe to help me and send me lots of lovely ladies!

Our allotment

I always wanted an allotment especially after watching the good life as a child, I adored Tom and Barbara so much and thought it would be a dream come true having some pigs! 

What I didn't realise is how much hard work they are to get them into shape, I'm talking aching bodies after hours of digging, sore arm muscles after lugging bricks around, and a sore back after bending over so much. 

I always feel like I have achieved something great though and that I deserve my dinner after all that fresh air and hard work. 

We have has an allotment for just under a year now and have gone from half a plot to a full plot, the thing is its takes x full year if having a plot to know how the sun moves over the plot, what is already established and grows perennially, how it drains after a pour down and how the wind hits it, our first plot was sheltered, sunny all day and peaceful as it was at the far end of all the plots. 

Now we have moved to the bigger plot we are right in the middle of the action, overlooked by a huge house that blocks out the sun, compacted clay soil and the drainage is terrible. 

So we have gained growing room and the previous owners left us a shed which is awesome but we have lots of work to do to get it in order and with quality growing going on. 

So the above pic is when we first took over the plot, when its all sorted I will take another and show you guys. 

I have been starting to plant seeds at home and the courgettes are growing so fast already. 

   

 We are trying to grow as much as possible this year and be as self sufficient as possible, practising for our move to Portugal. 

I am hoping I have more success with things like butternut squash and red cabbage this year, last year they didn't grow. 

Happy colour revolution!!

I want to start a happy colours clothes revolution in UK, pledge your alliance to Dotty wear and this week choose to wear an outfit the does not include grey or black. Make sure you tag your photos ‪#‎Dottywear‬ on Twitter so I can see you in all your gorgeous glory! Share this and lets see how far around the UK this can travel.

                                                             Lovely colours = happy

I love making clothes and wearing combinations that make me feel beautiful. Today I went to town in the pink skirt in the last picture, I had a bridal net underskirt under in which peeks out of the bottom and floral docs, the amount of filthy looks and stares like I was an alien I got (mainly off women) was crazy, I often don't really care what people think or if they stare, after all I live in Blackpool in the dreary north of UK where the folk wear black and grey clothes but today it made me think, why is it so wrong or not normal to wear colour?

 Little girls wear lots of colour and loads of pink, at what age does it become wrong and the 'adult' wear has to be bleak and dark colours? I looked out over the high street and surveyed the sea of jeans and black coats, the only bits of coloured clothes was on children and a disabled lady. 

This is sad really. In other countries women wear glorious coloured clothes and are deemed beautiful. I think women should encourage each other to look lovely and support each other by smiling and not sneering. It just reminds me of bullying and that's not nice.

  
I think seeing women comfortable in their own skin and owning their power can make other women uncomfortable, or feel like they are somehow inadequate, which is crazy because we are all beautiful x

A little bit of magic

Welcome to Bumbly Burrow, an enchanted allotment where fairies live, their neighbours are frogs and bees and they spend long days playing around the vegetables and in the orchard. The allotment owner loves fairies and made them these houses to live in, she has plenty of crafting skills and will be making more for them, so don't worry about buying them for your own fairies to live in.

 I really enjoyed making this fairy village and playing with the toadstools in the allotment to take the photo's, I wish I had a little girl to share all the magic in the owrld, my boys are now 20, 17 and 16 and well past the magic!!

Microwave danger!

Microwaves are a feature in nearly every American home and in a lot of UK homes too. Yet their dangers are well documented.

A Swiss study led by biologist and food scientist Dr. Hans Hertel identified the effects of microwaved food. For eight weeks, eight people lived in a controlled environment and intermittently ate raw foods, conventionally cooked foods and microwaved foods. Blood samples were tested after each meal. The microwaved food caused significant changes in blood chemistry.

Another study at Stanford University investigated the effects of microwaving breast milk. One of the head scientists said “Microwaving human milk, even at a low setting, can destroy some of its important disease-fighting capabilities.” They claimed that besides heating, there were many other disturbing alterations in the milk

In early 1991, a lawsuit was filed against an Oklahoma hospital after a patient died from receiving blood that was heated in a microwave oven.

In Russia, microwave ovens were banned in 1976 because of their negative effect on health and wellbeing.

* Eating food processed from a microwave oven causes permanent brain damage by “shorting out” electrical impulses in the brain.

* Male and female hormone production is shut down and/or altered by continually eating microwaved foods.

* Minerals, vitamins, and nutrients of all microwaved food is reduced or altered so that the human body gets little or no benefit.

* The minerals in vegetables are altered into cancerous free-radicals when cooked in microwave ovens.

* Microwaved foods cause stomach and intestinal cancerous tumors.

* The prolonged eating of microwaved foods causes cancerous cells to increase in human blood.

* Continual ingestion of microwaved food lowers the immune system.

* Eating microwaved food causes loss of memory, concentration, emotional instability, and a decrease of intelligence.

* Microwaving alters elemental food-substances, causing digestive disorders.

* Microwaved foods lose 60 to 90 percent of the vital-energy field and microwaving accelerates the structural disintegration of foods.

* Microwaved foods lower the body’s ability to utilize B-complex vitamins, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, essential minerals and lipotropics.

The bottom line is that microwaves cause cancer and other diseases. They destroy the goodness in our food and weaken our bodies. Ultimately, we should all be thinking about permanently getting rid of them. They were introduced for convenience and quickness for busy people but it would be much better to invest in slow cooker, pop it on in a morning before leaving for work and enjoying a healthy and wholesome dinner when you get home.

You can do your own home experiment to understand the hazards of microwaving. Plant seeds in two pots. Water one pot with microwaved water and the other pot with regular tap water. The seeds that received microwaved water won’t sprout. If microwaved water can stop plants from growing, then imagine what microwaved food is doing to your body.

Top 10 for living without toxins

" The European Union has admitted that 99 per cent of the volume of chemicals on the market are inadequately regulated, 21 per cent of Europes highest volume chemicals have no safety data publicly available and 86 per cent have less than the minimum amount of date publicly available to make even a basic safety assessment"

Taken from World-Wide fund for nature website

To help you on your way to living purer without toxins I have compiled a handy top 10 tips guide for you to browse through, if you can do all 10 then you get an A star but seriously even changing one thing makes you awesome and on your way to detoxify your body from years of nasty chemicals.

1. Avoid contact with synthetic pesticides, this is a biggy and impacts your life in many ways, things like flea treatments, head lice shampoo, non organic fruit and veg, insect repellent, bleach, some swimming pools and some paint. Look for alternative chemical free treatments such as essential oils and coconut oil. Wash non organic veg in cider vinegar.

2. Always filter tap water before drinking it to remove impurities, we have a Brita filter and can tell the difference when drinking un-filtered tap water, we get sore throats and it taste quite chemical.

3. If you eat fish avoid farmed Salmon ,Tuna, Swordfish (the older and bigger the fish the more mercury and chlorine they have ingested)
Eat an apple or wholegrain beans with the fish as it binds with the mercury in the intestine and most of it comes out in your poo.
Take chlorella or psyllium husks,you can also get mercury free omega 3 oils.

4. Don't microwave or heat up food in plastic containers particularly if they have a high fat content as the heat will make the plastic chemicals leach into your food and this can cause fertility problems, cancer, asthma, brain and nervous problems and obesity.

5. Avoid mercury in dental fillings, ask for porcelain or white fillings ( the dentist will try to convince you they don't last as long as amalgam ones but stay firm) Mercury has been linked to Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, kidney and brain damage.

6. Use fluoride free toothpaste, fluoride is a known and registered brain poison that lowers children's IQ.

7. Avoid E numbers which are dodgy! I always use this E numbers site where you can either search the extensive list or put the E number you want to find out about in the search box. Remember not all E numbers are bad, some like E260 which is simply vinegar, when I started on changing our foods to chemical free I armed myself with a list, on one side was good E numbers and on the other bad E numbers, the bad side was double spaced there are that many!

8. Throw out your hair products and bath products and replace them with coconut oil, shampoo from companies like Miessence or Alergenics, make your own bath soak with epsom salts and essential oils ( remember to check if they are suitable if you are pregnant or breastfeeding) soap from companies like Dr bronners, Olive oil company or a local maker who can tell you exactly what goes into their soap.

9. Avoid using deodorants that contain aluminium (most do), we use Miessence roll on, that have a mans one that smells of sandlewood and a ladies one that smells floral, they also do an unscented one. When you stop eating meat and dairy your body odour changes, you don't get that pie smell under your pits anymore. PS sweating is good for you, it's the way your body gets rid of toxins, don't block your pores up with anti perspirant that can lead to breast cancer and Alzheimer's.

10. Get a Himalayan salt lamp and lots of plants to absorb airborne pollutants. Salt lamps can create negative ions in the air which reduces indoor air pollution, moisture, pollutants, electromagnetic frequencies, allergens and improves mood and sleep. Great plants such as spider plants, peace lilies, aloe vera and dragon trees remove toxins from air, up to 87 percent of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) every 24 hours, according to NASA research. VOCs include substances like formaldehyde (present in rugs, vinyl, cigarette smoke and grocery bags), benzene and trichloroethylene (both found in man-made fibers, inks, solvents and paint). 

This blogpost is taken from my website www.nakedwildandfree.com

Allotment and chicken winter special

It has been pretty frosty here in Blackpool, UK for the past few nights and a little flurry of snow fell but by morning it had disappeared, we go up to the allotment about once a week at the moment to collect veg and clear up the dead leaves, have a general tidy up and get the beds ready for spring. This is the first winter having the plot and we started quite late planting as we got our allotment 31st May 2014.

We still have sprouts, kale, curly kale and cabbages growing and are ready for eating, the garlic we planted is growing nicely and should be ready for early spring.

I want to learn how to be abundant in veg through the winter months, before getting the allotment we grew veg in our back garden, but every year after a glut of growing in summer and autumn there is barely anything left in winter. Good job we have shops around or it would be meagre pickings! Would would be ok for eggs though, our girls haven't stopped laying, we are getting a regular 2 a day now, the Araucana chickens laid about 3 eggs each all summer and have stopped completely now. They are such a fussy type of chicken but produce beautiful duck egg blue tiny eggs. Did you know the colour of the egg shells relate to the colour of the chickens ears!

The girls love porridge with sultanas in when its cold, they get such dirty beaks eating it and its nice for them to have something warm in their tummies before the go to bed. So far the water hasn't frozen so it's not as cold as last year here.

After such an abundance of sprouts it's nice to have some new ways to cook them and this recipe from Tasty Yummies sounds delicious.

Toasted brussel sprouts with spicy orange parsley chimichurri

                               

  (Photo belongs to Tasty Yummies)

I also love slicing them and frying them in coconut oil, garlic and honey and serving with a roast dinner

 ( especially mash - I adore mash!)