Heading for the Sunshine State

How lucky are we...thanks to a certain low cost carrier (with carbon offsets) and generous grandparents, it's possible for us to make it to this year's Greenfest in Brisbane. Yay!!! A weekend filled with film, food, fantastic people with fabulous inspiration, markets and more! i love exploring cities!

 To kick it off, we've been invited to the Bleeding Heart Cafe to join an awesome lunch. (Think organic foods, free trade tea & coffee, hanging out on the verandah with a lovely group of like minded souls....) What made me smile about the place before even leaving town, was seeing the Bleeding Heart Cafe's tag line - "using our powers for good not evil"

Now it's off to find maps, reservation numbers and pack my council clean up carry on only bag.

Where does inspiration come from?

I reckon I'm pretty lucky. Actually, I'm blessed. When I'm not at Eco Depot HQ, I work at our local organic whole food store, Manic Organic. And this is the view I get to soak up if I take the long way to work on my trusty bike. 

While at Manic Organic, I get to eat super yummy Australian grown & organically certified produce. (The pineapples wins hands down for taste!) Chat with customers doing amazing things and generally enjoying my job. Pretty fantastic set-up. Both jobs nurture and inspire the other. Kind of keeps things in the round, and keeps it simple! Locally grown produce tastes beautiful and it's only in the shop if it's in season.

So basically, if you're supporting local enterprise, it ends up supporting you. we should try to apply this to all aspects of our lives. This definitely applies to the creative community too. There's something to be said about the awesome projects going on across the nation, so look around locally first before checking out goods manufactured offshore.

enjoy!

Our parcels take public transport

(Thanks Ale, for permission to use your "Post Truck on Bruce Highway Aug.2008. For more of Ale's work on Flickr check it out...Australia Aug./Sept. 2008)

That's right. Every parcel, package, bundle we send out goes by public transport. Lucky for us, the local Australia post office is only just up the street. That means that all our postal goodies get their moment in the sun (by me walking them up the street) before being shipped off to the far reaches. Couriers don't make sense for our business structure.
Why (essentially) send your goods off in private transportation, taking up all that extra space and using all that extra energy to get there? We have a fantastic 'bus stop' just up the road, with a 100% success rate. A little forward planning saves everyone and we can all breathe a little deeper.

We even send some of our goods off in the nude. On of our products, the Tuff Tub, is super tough, so we only bound the handles using off-cuts of other stuff for easier handling.

We put a lot of thought into how we dress our goods for their maiden voyages. Most, will be bundled into reclaimed boxes, some bubble wrapped first (reused - naturally) to make sure they reach their destination in pristine condition. Any bundles we wrap, are done so using Australia's finest 100% post - consumer recycled paper. And tied with string purchased at a 2nd hand market stall.

I do feel a little guilty when I print labels out now and again to go on the larger parcels. But I rest assured that the local Australia post delivery person can clearly read delivery address.

Travel safely and travel smart, little ones.

Disposable culture....

Just landed.

(Image taken just past council clean up pile just up the road from my house.

Disposable Culture

You know when council clean up time is approaching. Slowly but ever so surely piles of stuff start appearing out the front of peoples homes, units, villas. the thing is, they usually start a good month before the trucks come rolling by.

I'm beyond being disturbed by this - just gob smacked, as there are often perfectly fine articles just being abandoned. In this pile looked like a perfectly good double bed frame - new it would cost a few hundred bucks.  Maybe the lawn mover needs a service. But the thing is, some of these bits could have been donated to a local charity. Some bits in these piles need to be put in peoples regular waste collection.

The up side of this embarrassment, is that treasure lies in those piles for bower birds like me (see the red bag above) and my treasure -hunting, scrap -metal -collecting- for- cash neighbour down the road.

I've seen mums trawling the piles too, looking for things they can turn into ready cash. Great for those with the initiative and the time.

For a developed nation, I do find it a bit embarrassing that we see so many of our goods as readily disposable (how many TVs, monitors, keyboards lie down your street at council clean up?)and even then, we believe someone else should clean it up.

Luckily, councils step up to the plate but what do they do with the mountains of stuff? 

Just remember kids, look after your toys. If it's worth putting your hard earned cash into, then it's worth looking after.

Autumn....

AAhhh... Autumn. My favourite thing about autumn is the light. Long saturated afternoons and fantastic shadowplay in the mornings. (Illustrated above - noticed only by diverting my gaze from the depths of accounting.)

The morning has been a little all over the shop for me.

Early morning (5.30) to drink espresso and indulge in design mags before the children arise. ("Mummy - it's getting daylight" 3yr old son). Then there's the obligatory looking at photos/ reading, breakfasting, lunch making marathon, craft session, husband making 15minute stopover from surf - flurry of tea making and whirlwind off to work, dressing children ("Mummy I hate my uniform - you can't run in it" spoken by Miss 6 - 5 minutes before departure, dropping children to respective school/ care facilites, drive home and time for cereal (aahh breakfast) and email checking. Thank goodness for sunshine!

Anyway, I always know that my trusty O'Bon 2B (wriring implement of choice) will be there for me and my list making. Quite amazing what can be done with waste newsprint, graphite and a bit of ingenuity. They do a fantastic artists set (2H to 8B) available here.

Happy autumn days everyone. Enjoy the clear days and deep breathing!

EcoDepot HQ

The loveliest thing about the Eco Depot studio is the cosy factor. I think some afternoons I'd like to move in permanently.  After a particularly taxing time with MYOB, the computer generally / writing / planning / organising (and yay!) packaging, I can look out the door and see green, which is pretty cool. I consider myself blessed. 

A little history of Eco Depot HQ....

The building itself was built by my beautiful husband from recycled materials whenever he could lay his hands on them. The french doors - came from a mates house, the yellow table - a neighbour moving away (the table used to be teachers issue at a local school), the ply panelling was a Ducati case (thanks to a friends husband working at a motorcycle showroom), cushion - one of many in Eco Depot store (not yet up!) made by a local lady from reclaimed fabrics, cushion insert, zipper & where possible thread! Basically, all the goodies have their own history and that's exactly what makes it such a great space to work in.

Makes it all the more important that everything that we source for Eco Depot lives up to this human feel. Knowing the stories makes it all the more fun.