I Designed my Own Keep Cup

(This is not a paid review, I'm just very easily excited. All links are meant to open in new tabs if you're on a computer. If any don't do that, let me know and I'll get cross with them).

When I first wanted a reusable take-away coffee cup, I wrote all about it on this blog. I wrote again when I found my perfect cup. You can read about that cup by following this link. I told that link to open in a new window, so it had better... Anyway, when I got that cup, I loved it. You know what? I still love that cup. and its twin. I'll tell you a little bit about those two cups, and then get on with what you came here for.

The first cup, the one featured in the linked blog post, was free with any Nescafe purchase from Coles. That's one thing that made it the perfect cup for me at the time: I had very little money indeed as I had no job. My second reusable cup, that one's twin, I got soon after I moved to Brisbane, when I found it beside the footpath when I was walking to the bus one day... or home from the bus, I forget which. Anyway, I found it, and it didn't look like it had ever been used, so I adopted it. It's not weird.

Anyway, those cups are about six years old, now. They're still perfectly usable, because I generally only use one of them once a week or so. If I used them every day, they would be getting very old and would definitely need replacing.

Recently, my mum was in hospital in Brisbane and, since I was the only person that lived close enough, I was going to visit her every day. That's when I decided I needed a third reusable take-away cup, and when I decided that should be a Keep Cup.

Why did I decide I needed a third cup? Well, one day, both of my reusable cups were dirty and so I needed to get a paper take-away cup. Since it only happens rarely, this is fine. It is an unfortunate truth that sitting at the hospital requires coffee. The problem occurred when I heard "cappuccino" and just grabbed it and left. I had grabbed the wrong cappuccino, a simple mistake, since all the paper cups look the same. It would usually have been insignificant, but this cappuccino had vanilla syrup in it. I don't mind flavoured coffee, but flavours are for lattes, not cappuccinos, so obviously my day at the hospital was ruined!

And why did I decide my new cup had to be a Keep Cup? Well, that is an excellent question, which calls for photos!

The lids of my two old cups are like this:

It has two little holes in it: one for drinking through (the most important one), and one tiny little chimney one, which, to be fair, you probably don't actually need since the steam can probably get out the other one. These holes are both open all the time, which is great when you're drinking out of it, as it allows this to happen. When you're finished your drink and want to stick the cup back in your bag, however, it is not good. You either need to rinse your cup in a public bathroom, or wipe the inside of the cup and lid with a paper napkin, which creates waste.

In contrast, this is a Keep Cup lid:

WHERE IS THE DRINKING HOLE!?

THERE IT IS!

It safely hides away under a little plug, so that you can put it in your bag and carry it home to wash, even if you don't have a spare plastic bag, or a stockpile of napkins.

I ordered my Keep Cup from the company's own website. One reason I did this was so I could come up with my own colour combination. Obviously, I chose a different colour for every piece of my cup.

The package arrived today (Monday the 30th of April). I was impressed that there was no excess packaging, the box was just the right size for my cup.

I opened it up, and stared at my beautiful little cup for a while.

Honestly, I already want to order another one, just so I can put four new colours together...

All the standard colour combinations on the Keep Cup website have cool names, like "Kinetic" or "Zephyr", so I have named my colour combination "Gladys", which I feel is as good a name for a colour combination as any.

If you want to design a Keep Cup in Gladys, choose "Punk Pink" for the cup, "Acid Plum" for the lid, "Sunflower" for the plug, and "Satsuma" for the band. YOU'RE WELCOME!

Anyway, obviously the first thing I did was compare this Keep Cup to the  reusable take-away cups I already had.

Initially, I thought the Keep Cup was slightly larger and was a little upset that I'd obviously been marginally overcharged for my hot drinks for six years, but to check, I performed the very scientific experiment of filling the old one up with cold water, and pouring it into the new one.

I did spill a bit, because I am slack and clumsy, so taking that into account, they're actually the same volume, just different dimensions. SCIENCE!

I haven't used it out yet, since I just got it today, but here I am using it at home:

#SELFIE!

I promise I'll brush my hair before I use it in public. Probably.

You can buy your own Keep Cup here. If you design one in Gladys, let me know and we can be twinsies! If you design one in a different colour scheme, let me know what you call your creation!

If you don't want to design your own, I recommend this one that is modelled on the dog man from the Star War, or if you want everyone to know you're a good person without having to tell them, you can go for this Sea Shepherd one over here or that 1 Million Women one over there. No, but seriously, Sea Shepherd and 1 Million Women are both organisations close to my heart, which I will talk more about some time when I'm not talking about cups and myself instead.

Lots of love,

Cassandra Louise.

This post has been shared on the May "Snapped Up" Linky Party

And on Deep Fried Fruit's Lovin' Life Linky Party

Biome Haul

(not a paid review. I just like my new stuff) 

Ok so I say "haul". It's a slight exaggeration. I only got three things, but in my defence, I am not particularly wealthy and "some stuff I got" is not as good a title.

My order arrived quickly (probably at least partly due to the company and me both being in Brisbane) and came in a lovely little brown post satchel with an exciting little sticker on it to let me know what was inside.

So what did I get!?

I'm getting to that. Do calm down. I got these things:

And this lovely little personalised note:

But I didn't test the note, I only tested the things.

The first item was this environmental toothbrush:

This isn't the first time I've used one of these toothbrushes, so I won't include a review here, but you can read all about how excited I was my first time by following this link, which will open up in a new window so you can go read it later.

The second thing I ordered were these wooden disposable teaspoons.

My plan is to always have a couple in my handbag, so if I get a coffee or a cake when I'm out, I can use them rather than the plastic ones that are usually provided. I do know from experience these spoons can be washed by hand and used a few times before they wear out, when I will pop them into my compost bin. If you try to wash them in the dishwasher, it's too hot and the spoons lose their shape. NEVER MIND HOW I KNOW!

The third item I got was these reusable produce bags, to use in place of the single-use ones provided in the fruit and veg section of the supermarket:

Each bag is fairly large, but only weighs 10 grams:

and eight bags fit into the handy carry pouch:

This one is holding just under one kilogram of bananas, and could easily hold another kilo:

The bags are made from recycled plastic bottles.

I will definitely be placing another order in the future!

If you would like to check out the range, you can visit Biome here (opens in a new window) or check out their Twitter and Facebook profiles (those do too).

Let me know what you think!

Cassandra Louise.

This post was shared in the April "Snapped Up" Linky Party.

Beauty Tuesday: Microbead-Free Exfoliation

Last week I decided that every Tuesday would be Beauty Tuesday and I would talk about sustainable fashion, environmentally responsible cosmetics or natural beauty products on Tuesdays. This Tuesday, I want to talk to you about microbeads.

You've probably heard about microbeads but you may not know what they are. A lot of companies use microbeads as a selling point. It is a selling point - microbeads are great for exfoliation - but microbeads are wreaking havoc on our waterways and marine life. Microbeads are plastic. They are tiny little pieces of plastic that go down your drain and then never, ever dissolve or disappear.

You can read about what microbeads are, exactly why they are a problem and what products you may have that contain them here (the link will open in a new tab).

If you have something with microbeads, I would suggest throwing it out. You should know by now I don't suggest throwing things out lightly, but the less microbeads flooding into the ocean, the better.

I don't have a photograph of microbeads for you as I don't want to demonise a particular brand or product, so I drew some for you:

I didn't think that adequately captured how evil they are, so here they are lighting a bushfire and running away:

And here's one making a fish sad:

But on a serious note, they make fish more than sad, they make them sick, dead and extinct. Don't use them.

"But what," I hear you cry, "can I exfoliate with?! I'll get all scaly! Do you want me to be all scaly?"

Of course I don't want you to be scaly, and that's why I've made this simple recipe for you.

You will need:

The most gentle conditioning baby shampoo you can find

Normal white table sugar

And... that's it. Pour one tablespoon of baby shampoo into a small bowl or a teacup.  For the kind I have, 1Tbsp is ten pumps, so that's easy.

Next, add two tablespoons of sugar to it.

You can either just let it sit, or poke it with a spoon for a bit, either way, in less than a minute the sugar will have absorbed all the baby shampoo and turned into a sort of crunchy gel:

You can use this scrub and know that you will not be scaly and you are helping to keep marine creatures and environments safe.

If you have very dry skin, you can replace the baby shampoo with olive oil or coconut oil.

I would like to make this post an informal link-up, which will be open... well, basically forever since it's informal. If you have a beauty post you would like to share, link to this post on yours and leave a comment here letting me know you've linked up.

You could link an environmentally-friendly alternative like this, a natural skin or hair care product like the one linked here, a fashion-centred op shop/thrift post like the one at this link, or a refashion project like this one. I really look forward to seeing your stuff! :-D

Happy Scrubbing!

Linky love,

Cassandra Louise.

Fixing Up My Garden

For about the same amount of time I was being a slack blogger, I was being a slack gardener.  Depression really doesn't want us to have any nice things, does it?!  Anyway, last week I fixed up my little garden of tubs and I took lots of pictures so I can share that with you.  I know you care. ;-)

Here's the bit where I tried to get a "before" picture:

I started by taking out anything dead, and crying a little if it was something not meant to be dead; then I stood up the droopy climbers (tomatoes and potatoes).  I had no plant ties or old stockings, so I cut some strips of bubble wrap and tied them very loosely.  I took out some of the clover, but left a bit because I like it, and another patch I left in a tub I then sprinkled lettuce seeds in.  Clover actually puts nitrogen in the soil rather than sucking it up, so my lettuce will be extra green and lush!  I also found one basil plant- I thought none of them had taken!- and a little radish plant.

Radish. :-D

I took out my last silverbeet plant.  It had always been stunted and recently got attacked by bugs.  The plant was over a year old, so I thought I'd use it's space for something else.  I was a bit sad but managed to save this much to eat:

So not a total loss.  The roots and the rest of the leaves are in my compost bin.

If you are very obsessive or have a lot of free time, you may remember this little guy:

Well, now my chilli plant looks like this:

It's in a much bigger pot and gives my more fruit than I can use.  Wonderful!

Then I tried to get an after picture for you:

Well, you get the idea.

Signed with love and joy,

Cassandra Louise.

Compost Soup

The following is everything currently in my head about weeds, how to make weeds useful and compost soup.  There will not be a quiz, because by the time I read your answers I will have forgotten the questions...

A "weed" is basically a plant that's really good at growing.  Some of them are very beautiful, and many of the plants considered weeds in one area are not considered to be so in a place where the climate is different and the plant is not as good at growing, thus can be "controlled".  My favourite weed is clover, every kind of clover ever, and I tend to leave it, unless it's growing in one of my pots.
The problem with weeds is not so much that they're good at growing, it's why they're so good at growing.  Weeds are nutrient sucker-uppers, which robs the other plants around them of nutrition.  Clover (best ground cover ever!) doesn't do so much of this, and actually adds nitrogen to the soil, which makes the other plants sharing the soil with it (such as grass) greener, but can stop them from flowering, which can be good if you don't want a plant to go to seed.  Enough about clover, I digress.
As I have said, most weeds are nutrient sucker-uppers, which is why you don't want them in your garden unless they're really pretty taking over your chosen plants.
You can, however, use the nutrients locked up in weeds to feed your lawn and garden.  You can't put weeds directly in the compost, because the compost heap is a great place to keep seeds dormant until you spread them all over your garden and they sprout up big and healthy, nor should you use weed killer on weeds you intend to feed plants with, but what you can do is very simple.

To feed your lawn, you don't even have to dig the weeds out.  Find a weed, like this one:

Found one?  Ok, now go inside and boil the kettle.  When it's completely boiled and very hot indeed, pour just a little of the hot water on the weed.  The weed will wither down and die very quickly.

The process usually won't harm grass, provided you carefully spot-treat each weed and don't just drench the lawn with boiling water.

For gardens, you can make some lovely, smelly compost soup!  Compost soup is also called weed soup, weed tea or compost tea.  You will need a black plastic bag and some patience.

Dig out as many weeds as you can roots and all and place them in the black plastic bag.  Cover them with water, tie the bag closed and put it in the sun to "cook".  Before I tied mine shut, I also added a tiny splash of this:

and a wee sprinkle of this:

but just the weeds is plenty.  I was also using a very small bag (a plastic shopping bag) which obviously reduced the amount of soup I could make at one time.
The bag should be left in the sun for at least a week.

(exciting picture of a bag, there)

To prepare the soup you will need a container large enough to hold the liquid, a strainer or some folded paper towel and gloves if you don't want wet, mucky hands.

After a week, the soup in my plastic bag looked like this:

and smelled like bunyip farts, which is good as it means the weeds have broken down.  I wanted to add a little extra boost to my soup, so I added a little black tea to the container before filtering the soup.

I don't have a strainer for my garden right now, it's on my list, so I used two sheets of paper towel as a filter.

It was working well until it got too heavy and tried to fall in.  I squeezed it out into the container and got more paper towel, this time a stabbed some little holes in it.  I carefully tipped the bag and poured into the filter I had made.

When there was no more loose liquid in the bag, I took handfuls of the mushy weeds and squeezed as much as I could out of them (that's where gloves are handy).

And there you have it.  Compost soup.  All you need is about a quarter of a cup of the liquid in 9 litres of water (standard watering can) about once per month.  Super! :-)

I put all the paper towel I used in the process and all the dirt that had come from the roots of the weeds in my compost, along with the now safe cooked weeds. :-)

Happy gardening!  Love to you all!

Cassandra Louise.