Last day in the car (for now)

Dad, can we take it for a spin.....
Found outside a cafe in Wallace, Montana. We stopped in town for a quick morning tea break.
(read - bathroom break, quick stetch and caffine hit)
As we had a six hour day of sitting in order to cross from Montana, over Idaho, through Washington and up into Canada - we were looking for every opportunity to get out before we really started!

Our own private Idaho.

Lunchstop in Idaho at the most delightful lakeside spot found purely by taking a couple of turns off the highway. Good timing too, Tommy needed a run - there's only so much sitting a four year old can do.

Our final stop of the day......(looks a whole lot like this!)

Whistler, British Columbia.

on the road again...

Sometimes long, long ,long car trips make me feel like I've been holding my breath.
There's incredible things just outside your window, but you just can't touch.

(Yellowstone National Park)

high noon

Watch out streetlight, he looks serious!

(The things you see cruising with your kids. Sunday afternoon Jackson, WY)
I've noticed loads of this cut out silhouette art work. Mostly signs for ranches and for the most, they're way cool.

Road trip

40F outside + 104F in the water = 1 happy family!
(roughly translates to 6C outside + 40C water temperature = very happy family!)

Ahh, just rewards! After many hours in the car from friends visiting firends in Shiprock, New Mexico - up and over the border to Colorado to a town wedged into the mountains - Ouray. Claim to fame - ice climbing capital. Lucky for us these thermal pools have been open year round to the public since the mid 1920's. (Mid winter the lifeguards often guard from in the pool because it's hard to see folk though the steamy mist!)
Many, many hours on the road....

Time to leave Arvo's after a mere 3 week stop over....

bright point

'The Johnsons take their annual imaginary holiday'
This was wrapped around a light fitting at a cafe we stopped for sustenance and sanity. Worked on both accounts.

life at 7000ft

First impressions at Arvo's Solar Ark.


Bridge building (to get around the snow melt river)
Just rewards - thermal hot springs
Not starting at the very beginning, just where we're staying now. We're helping Arvo out with his place - jobs too numerous to list. Straight into the planting. Divine little ones started off in the green house to extend the 2 month growing season of the region. Spring is all over the shop, from a hint of wind, to a hint of snow, a hint of frost and stunning crystal clear days where being inside is plain old rude.

A quick trip to the hot springs was a four hour return hike down loose scree to the bottom of the canyon, building bridges and hiking along a fast flowing spring melt river. Minor hazards for the juniors and minor heart palpitations for the parents - but all good.

Back to the farm this afternoon, after an overnighter in Taos. And further palnning whether to head south to Mexico or take on hte drive to Canada. Oh the choices!

Researching the Researching

You would think that heading off for a research trip would be all peachy. Well, I am sure it will be once we get going. The amazing thing is how much work there is to make it all happen...

There are tickets to book, insurance to sort, luggage, gear and all the regular stuff, which are a fair bit of chasing around, especially when you are trying to get it all second hand (Love you ebay & gumtree). Well OK, most of it second hand (The second hand plane ticket and insurance market is not really happening).

The biggest challenge has been to identify, contact and book WWOOFing hosts. Do they take kids? Do they provide all meals? Are they currently working on something interesting? Can you get to them without several days of hiking through remote wilderness? Etc etc...

So basically, we'll keep researching the research trip and when we are getting closer to departure, we will fire up this blog and keep you informed on the discoveries we find around this amazing little planet of ours.

Give us a few weeks! We set off in March

Happy Holidays - yeha!

Hello all - just a little note to let you all know we're off for summer fun in only 8 sleeps! So our shop will close from December 22 through to January 5. whew! Home again and back on deck after seeing in the new year at Peats Ridge Festival.

Have a lovely relaxing break.

NOW IN STORE !!!

"The collaboration between four businesses focused on environmental sustainability has resulted in a new eco boutique in Wollongong. It is now possible to find organic food, sustainable home wares and gifts, funky retro furniture, artworks made fro found materials, bulk organic whole foods and cleaning products all in the one store....."

"....These like - minded businesses provide a unique shopping experience, which showcasse a range of products that put the planet before profit...

located at 409 Princes Highway, Woonona"

So says our press release sent out locally.

Please drop by and say hi!

Almost there...

Alchemy by Tanya Stubbles
For ever I've wanted to open a store. somewhere that's part lounge room, part store, part office, part workshop. A welcome space, where you can be free to wander and have a good look at the goodies.

Well, it's almost there!! We'll be upstairs at 409 Princes Highway, Woonona in conjunction with Manic Organic wholefood store. The space is generous, airy and we'll be sharing with Supertrash (mid 20th century design furniture and treats), with works by Tanya Stubbles (awesome artist) gracing the walls.

Only 7 sleeps to go.....

Lifestyle before Landfill

Ever cruised by one of those enormous roadside billboards and wonder what happens to them at the end of the advertising campaign? Me either. I've since found out from Scott @ Haul, those billboards are actually UV treated (which means their colours stay true outdoors and don't fade away) PVC.

Printing on this plastic makes it impossible to recycle at the end of the campaign. That means tonnes and tonnes and tonnes of the stuff is destined for landfill EACH YEAR. (Approximately 850 tonnes to be slightly more precise) Lucky for us, Scott - founder of Australian street culture brand Haul, saw the potential. Each year Haul divert approximately 35 tonnes of these PVC banners from being buried as landfill. The creative talents of the Haul team scrub, stitch and breathe fresh life into this discarded material, reincarnating plastic into innovative, hard-wearing gear.

Drop your satchel at the door, unload the shopping (swim gear/ laundry...) and then lounge around on your beanbag blob, in the warm glow of knowing you've done something good for us all ! (supporting locally made, innovative business, kept materials in the loop, investing in stuff that won't fall apart next week - just in case you were wondering)

Good on you Scott!

(Haul's gear is also certifiable - so says Good Environmental Choice Australia, the national crew who've audited Haul and passed them with flying colours!)

Plastic detritus never looked so good

Remarkable - what a trained artist can construct with up to 3 000 pieces of discarded plastic toys (and no doubt a ridiculous amount of time!) Hats off to Robert Bradford for having the patience, training and aptitude to capture a moment of contemporary culture sourcing materials from local salvage stores, his kids toybox and numerous other locations, whilst keeping the plastic out of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. (Check out David de Rothschild's adventure aboard the Plastiki, raising awareness about this issue.) It's certainly no mean feat to build a pony life size or larger from such tiny itty bits we wish would just all go away.
Thanks to The Cool Hunter, for keeping us up to speed.

Things are going swimmingly (finds from NZ)

Martin Adlington ("Gone Fishing, Back after lunch")

from recycled, found on the local beach & repurposed materials

constructed with a little lateral thinking and a sense of humour. More please!

Salvaged stuff

We love clever folk. On one of our expeditions, we stumbled across these fantastic bowls welded from sheet metal scrap. One talented welder + scrap metal = beautiful heavy duty objects for everyday use.

Eco Kids Festival

Busy weekend! After riding my trusty steed (read: bike) to Wollongong towing my little cargo trailer of market delights on Friday, it was all social fun on Saturday with my little family & set the alarm for 5am to hike up to Luna Park on Sunday. Big day inside the Big Top, glad to be out of the midday sun! Fantastic entertainment for the kids, although I don't know if everyone knew about the eco Market stalls upstairs on the mezzanine deck. Not the largest crowds I've ever experienced, but I did meet some lovely people. Check out Vikki & Jackie's store The Flying Penguin for sustainable toys and visit Nick at Etiko for fantastic sweatshop free, fairtrade footwear & sportsgear. Great to see we've got more & more informed choices available!

Eco Depot delivery system

My pushie my not look too flash, but I stand by Eco Depot's credo -

If you've already got one, use it 'til it breaks

This one has been in for a service or 2 in it's life, has towed the kids around in their little trailer and helped me clear my head on countless occasions. And it's fun to ride.

Well now I'm doing the homework on turning it into my market vehicle. Tracking down a trailer, which will fit on trains is my first hurdle. Not all markets and expos are within my fitness range, so I think between public transport and human power, I should be right. A little cargo trailer will fit the bulk of the market stock in, it'll just test my tetris skills.

Stock has been rolling in for our adventure to the Eco Kids Fest which should be a great day out. As soon as the rain eases, the camera will be out for show and tell.

Spring Time has sprung

I don't know about you guys, but things seemed to stepped up a notch around here. Sunshine and spring blossoms have motivated me, but oh boy! the list is a long one.

I'm stocking up for The Eco Kids Festival, to be held at Luna Park (Sydney) which should be an awesome day out. Just recently I took myself off to hte movies for Age of Stupid, an eye opener & makes you reassess where you're at & where you'd like to be going.

Plus all the regular family stuff, like trying to get the kids to eat the beautiful organic veg for dinner (uphill battle that one!)

So these photos are just my moments pause looking at the goodies (admittedly selectively) on my desktop and out the studio door.

But there's always the fun stuff of sourcing products for the shop and making sure they live up to their green creditials. Enough to keep me out of trouble for a while....

Multi Use pieces

I'm all for stuff having more than one function. As our world fills up with more and more STUFF, it seems a fair call to make the things we do have work harder instead of getting 1 article/ object/ tool/ product/ thing do do 1 job only. Take this humble muslin wrap. Originally designed just to swadle little ones, it can also hand the Christmas pudding, strain the bits out of your home made jam or cheese, hang up over a window and watch the shadow play or wrap around your neck to keep the chill out. See. Easy peasy. Beautiful certified organic cotton, double layered. The company making these 90 cm squares of wonder make sure all their employees and their families have health and a safe work environment. Lets not forget they get paid a fair wage too! Everyone wins. Who wants the intensive chemically grown stuff (ie- cotton) nect to their little one, in their food or wrapped snuggly around their neck. Keep it in mind.

Hi ho, it's off I go!

Super quick one - I'm off to Melbourne tonight! I've arranged leave from my family & will squish the trip around work to visit Melbourne's State of design festival. Can't wait! Loads of markets and catching up with a long lost friend for dinner.

Why the train? Everyone has been asking. Two words - carbon footprint. Flying is a lot of fun, but if you don't have wings, it's not overly planet friendly.

Back is packed, now it's off to work....

mmm, smells like honey....

How's this for a tidy bit of innovation. Straight from New Zealand to our studio desk is a big fat box of Honey Sticks. No, they're not colourful lollies, they're fantastic stumpy, chunky, colourful beeswax crayons for the arty underagers in the home. Pictured is my daughter's playtime with the newest product for our store. Built for small hands. Stumpy = harder to snap. Nice work. The wax is a by product of the new Zealand honey industry and draws beautifully. (I reckon there's the chance of drawing on fabric and then ironing it in to set - if you try this, make sure to put a piece of paper of the new artwork so you don't have a permanently coloured baseplate.)

Boxed set of 12 available shortly!