Tin Lizzie Food

I used to watch YouTube movies about the Stone Age, early humankind and how the modern man evolved. Realising how people that time used to live and eat drew my attention to find out more about their lifestyle and especially, what they ate. During the same time, I read an article in a newspaper about several celebrities and their eating habits. Among them was Henry Ford that loved to eat Wild Edible Plants (Afrikaans onkruid). Immediately I knew what to name my blog. I started the Tin Lizzie Food blog in 2017 and the whole idea of the blog was to illustrate Wild Edible Plants. It dawned on me how fascinated I was about the Homesteading and Sustainability concept. Today, with all the hype about climate change and ‘saving the earth’, I realised how close to the earth I’ve been living all my life. I truly want to do everything in my power to be a part of it - to be able to say one day that I tried my fair best to conserve our natural resources and to reduce my carbon footprint.

I am very well aware of Air Fresheners - the spray cans you buy at the local retail store, but I was thinking of taking a different approach towards making my home smell fresh whole day long. On my blog "Why Tin Lizzie Food", I mention ways how you can naturally freshen your home without buying expensive Air Fresheners. Because I love plants, I incorporated plants into my home. In my living room, I have Pothos (Epipremnum aureum) . This beautiful climbing plant with its green-white-yellowish leaves removes xylene, benzene, formaldehyde and trichloroethylene toxins from the air. It is also believed to be one of the top air-cleaning plants for your house. A  Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum) is standing a mere reach of an arm from me when I watch television at night. When in bloom they produce the most beautiful white flowers with a bright yellow Spadix. Peace Lilies removes toxins such as benzene, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, trichloroethylene, and xylene from

I am sure you bought shoes and after some time the complete inner sole lifted out as you pull out your foot. Know that too well, and then every time you need to squeeze the inners in place again. What makes it worse is that the thin material on the top of the inner sole crumbles up which makes your feet all sweaty and sticky. Charmaine made a plan.  With so many material off-cuts and torn jeans around, you can easily devise a plan to revamp your shoes. Can you see what I did on the picture above? I took a torn jean, cut off a piece of the legging and marked the inner sole to cut the fabric to the correct size. With needle and thread, I stitched the jean into place. I used Super Glue to keep the inner sole from popping out again.  There you go - shoes as good as new! Instead of spending money to have it repaired or buy new shoes, I revamped it in a short period of time at no cost at all. 

As a Homesteader (or Apartment Homesteader in my case), there is nothing more rewarding than making your own things. I am living in an apartment in Port Elizabeth, a coastal metro of South Africa. In an apartment in the city, it is not easy to go fully off-the-grid or sustainable, but you can try as far as possible to live in a country-like way. Living in an urban area it would be more manageable to adopt the 3 "R's": - Reduce - Reuse - Recycle Instead of spending money to buy a new blanket, I crocheted this Queen sized blanket over a period of 4 months using off-cut wool from previous projects. Because I was using crochet, it went faster than knitting and the pattern left small holes in the process. When I layer this blanket in between other blankets or sheets, the small holes form little air bubbles - it is these air bubbles that increase the heat so you can have a snuggly, cozy bed without heavy or expensive duvets.