Landlocked Mermaid

I am a massive advocate of reusable cups. Having worked in a coffee shop, I've seen first hand just how many paper cups are handed out every day - and the store I worked at was not a busy one. And even the stores which recycle their paper cups, the lids are still non-recyclable and that relies on the good will of people bringing them back and not just flinging them on the ground. Let's be honest, how many paper cups do you see strewn on the floor on a twenty minute walk into town? I would say on average around five. Count it next time, I'm curious! With this in mind, I thought it was high time to put my advocacy to the test and do a Pro/Con list on reusable cups. To start with: They are better for the environment. Reusable cups are much less wasteful than paper cups. 2.5 billion coffee cups are thrown away a year in the UK alone. Having a reusable eliminates the opportunity for litter or cups ending up in landfill. If every person switched to reusable cups th...

Recently, I've been feeling like my efforts to reduce plastic consumption have plateaued. Is this a good thing? Have I found my threshold or am I just getting lazy and complacent? Honestly, it is more likely the latter. Hence why I have made it a goal of mine this year to get back into action! Now, I have reduced a lot of plastic use across my life: I have more reusable cups than one person needs, I use shampoo bars, I buy loose fruit and veg, etc etc etc. So I had to look at what plastic I am still using. There are still items in my food shop which contain plastic - pasta, rice, bread, etc - I recycle what I can but I honestly feel like I cannot change this until the alternative is readily available. Our closest packaging free store is in Shrewsbury and it feels counter intuitive to drive forty minutes each way for our weekly food shop. All the good I'd do with no packaging would be undone by our carbon footprint! So that is another mission for another time, I feel. (Unle...

Fair warning: This is a post about periods and sanitary products. If you're squeamish or not comfortable reading about this sort of thing, give it a miss. My next post will be about my diving trip this weekend, come back for that. About this time last year, I was beginning my journey into reducing plastic. One of the guides I looked at outlined the fact that women's products - tampons and sanitary towels - are a massive contributor to plastic pollution and talked about how to reduce that. Honestly, the way it came across was a little "just bleed less", which is definitely not how that works. But some further research and discussion with friends and family did uncover some alternatives to the plastic heavy products the market is full of. The obvious choice was to go for a Mooncup - as they are probably the best known alternative. But they weren't for me. I have never used tampons and these are a natural progression from there. Plus, I don't really wor...

We all know that I am not a massive girly-girl. I do not spend hours doing my hair and make up every day; sometimes I don't even brush it. But, I do like to take care of my hair and do a little to aid the natural curl. I have a few sprays, serums, and mousses but in the interest of reducing plastic and not purchasing unnecessary bottles I decided to have a go at making some. So I turned to my DIY Plastic board on Pinterest and picked this spray from PullingCurls.com for curly hair. The ingredients were simple and contained the same moisturising component as my conditioner: coconut oil. Got to take care of the hair. And it was nice and simple to make. The longest part was waiting for the water to cool. All you need. THE METHOD WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 1 cup water, preferably distilled. 1 tbsp sea salt 1-2 tsp coconut oil 10-20 drops of essential oil Empty spray bottle  Ideally, the spray bottle would not be an empty Febreeze bottle but it was all I could ...

Back in the summer, we had a chat with a friend of mine, Niamh, about her EPQ . She planned to make a sculpture highlighting the plastic pollution issue . The exhibition for her artwork was at the beginning of last month, so I thought it was high time we caught up and had a chat about it. Last time, we met in the picturesque village of Norton-in-Hales and went for a stroll in the summer sunshine. It was a bit grey and drizzly this time, so we met in the local cafe, The Hideout , for coffee and a catch up. Her final sculpture was a shark; frame shaped by chicken wire and filled with plastic bottles collected from the college campus. I bet you can guess my immediate response was 😍. She chose this design because it was the most striking of the ideas she'd put to paper. The shark is an iconic image and familiar to the public and she, quite rightly, argued that "scary attracts more attention". She wanted something recognisable and, taking inspiration from the famous ...

I love to read. Always have. As a kid I wandered around Hogwarts with the Golden Trio (and wondered why there was not more Neville). As a teen, I adventured around Tortall with all the heroines. As an adult, I read ahead of Game of Thrones and felt really smug when people were theorising what was going to happen and I just knew.  Over the last few years, I have struggled to keep up with reading. Between busy lives and Netflix being so easy to binge, books have stayed on the shelf. However, my family and friends have a book club which recently celebrated its second Birthday, and that gets me reading at least one book a month. (Providing I actually read the selected book, there have been a few which I didn't.) Still, slowly but surely, my love for reading is returning.  And with that comes a TBR Pile. A small section of my TBR Pile My "to be read" pile largely consists of books borrowed from other people, but in it are a few books which I hope wi...

Over the last nine or so months, I have been slowly making changes in my life so that I depend less and less on single-use plastics. It's not been as hard as I feared; it was all very daunting at the beginning with so much to change. But it's amazing to see how much I've already done and what ideas I have to further it all.  Jay cloths --> Microfibre cloths I have actually had a load of microfibre cloths for ages. My Nan gave me a packet when I moved into my flat. I used to use them as tea towels, with varying success, so when I moved in with my partner they just got chucked in with the rest of the towels and largely over looked for the ones which actually dried stuff. But when I was considering jay cloth replacements my brain finally kicked into gear and remembered what they are actually good for! They are great for cleaning down the counter, soaking up spills, and don't scratch the hob. And I have enough that I can rotate them every few days and not...

Hello everyone! Welcome to one of my new shiny regular segments: Mermaid Kitchen. I love to bake, always have. Admittedly, I do it with varying degrees of success, especially in my old kitchen with bad counter heights and an oven which only cooked on one side! But since living with my partner, I have a nice big counter to prepare on and a decent oven so my baking mojo is alive and well. As part of my 2019 goals, I want to make more. Make more food from scratch. Make more crafty things. Make more beauty products. This is all part of my way of trying to reduce my plastic impact on the environment. So I thought it'd be prudent to share incase it inspires anything for you guys or (better yet) you have any tips for me to improve what I'm doing, or any ideas you'd like me to guinea pig for you. Changes are easier when you do it together. One of the reasons why I want to bake more is, well, because I like cake. I like to have something sweet in my lunchbox, pudding is a m...