Monday 22 February 2016

A Fabric Pencilcase and a Journey Back to Good Ol' Days

Do you remember your primary school years at all? Do you remember your first school bag for example, or your school shoes? How about your hairstyle? (Ok, I see, the hair style could be a topic on its own, I totally agree. Great to look at the family albums for a giggle but for now, forget about this last question, lets move on. )


When I was a child, which I don't know when and how became a 'history', people -if lucky- had one school bag, possibly for the rest of most or all of their Primary school years. We had school books and notebooks that we had to cover and put a name sticker/label on before school started. Most people had a few older siblings to receive help from but otherwise, parents or in later years, some friends would sit down and would cover them one by one for hours. The labels had cute little pictures and depending on our favourite subjects or books, we would choose our most favourite label and stick on that particular book etc. It was a lot of work (especially for the ones that were doing the main job) but so much fun too.


I also remember how precious our school items and belongings were to us. We would have only a very limited amount of pencils and rubbers and would look after them as if they were made of gold. Even the tiny little pencils were used until it was simply impossible to hold anymore.

I remember, most of us at the time used small prints in our hand writing so that our writing would look neat while saving space in our notebooks for future use.


I suppose those were the good old days. Now, things have changed.


I now see that consumption is the hidden word behind most conscious or unconscious behaviour and it starts even before the babies are born, with the parents indulging their unborn children, -or rather themselves perhaps- with  the best of everything they can afford. I mean afford as in 'buy' because it often means buying; the best furniture with the right colour combination and the perfect amount of contrast, tens and hundreds of cutest clothing pieces with often some expensive tags attached, the who-knows-how-many pieces of shoes that most babies won't even get to wear more than once and so on. And the list of what we buy for our kids regardless of the motives behind only grows with time.


Arguably as a result, I see that today's children are so much less caring with their blessings. It is often a 'given' that parents buy so many school uniforms (and seriously, what is it with the uniform prices these days? They are astronomic!) because things get 'lost' often. How about all those pencils and other stationary bits and pieces that never make it until the end of the year even though it looks like a life-time supply at the beginning of the year? If you are a parent of a student these days, I have a strong feeling that you know what I mean.


Anyway, the point is that the pencilcase in the pictures above is one of my son's many pencilcases. Some is too big for school, some is too small, some works perfect for the car trips, some is great for home. (Talking about indulging much?). By the way, in case you are interested in trying your hand at a small sewing project, or simply you just want to make your own customised pencilcases for your loved ones or yourself, there are many great tutorials on the internet. Don't roll your eyes, I promise, working with a zipper is not as hard as you have always thought. Just give it a go and see it for yourself.

Note: The colours of the pencilcase were chosen by Mr. Junior and I just added a few extra touches to it. I must admit, this one small pencilcase made him quite happy and proud (he loves it when he gets an opportunity to tell his friends that his pencilcase was made by his mum).





Monday 15 February 2016

Lunchbox Ideas (7)

Yes yes, I know. It has been ages -and felt even longer!- since I was able to post anything here the last time. Even though it might have looked like a big break here, it was actually a very busy period for me. Life was in its full swing on this side of the planet for sure.

The new school year has started a few weeks ago Down Under and even though I love spending time with my children during school holidays and that we all really enjoy not having to rush in general; reality has already kicked in and we like it or not we have already adapted to our school-day routines well.

Below is some more inspiration for your in case you are looking at healthy variety and are happy to try new recipes and combinations. You can find the links to the previous lunchbox idea posts at the bottom of this page. Enjoy!

1. Lunch and snack:
* Cucumber dip (finely chopped cucumbers, natural yoghurt, a small pinch of salt, some dried mint and some fresh mint leaves for decoration).
* Flat bread chips (Lebanese/flat bread cut into triangle shapes and toasted until crisp).
*Purslane (Never underestimate this edible weed. It is full of Omega 3 just to say the least. Read more about it and get some recipes here)
*Grapes
healthy lunchboxes for kids


lunch ideas


2. Lunch and Snack:
*Pasta salad (pasta made from the night before. In the morning, I added some raw red capsicum, lightly blanched peas, and some dried mint. Feel free to add your favourite seasoning).
*Fruit salad (fresh garden grapes, some plum and nectarine slices)
*A salad (toasted halloumi, home-grown cherry tomatoes and home-grown basil leaves)
homemade food ideas for kids

healthy snack ideas for lunchboxes

3. Lunch and Snack:
*Some organic rice crackers and spreadable cheese
*Home-grown celery sticks, homegrown-cherry tomatoes and mozzarella cheese cubes
*Pear
Lunchbox ideas by home of homemade treasures

4. Lunch and Snack:
*Sandwich (meat balls, green salad eaves, cucumber slices and spreadable cheese) (in a foil wrap in the picture below)
*An apple (cut in half)
*Carrot sticks
*Two types of grapes
Homemade lunch for school lunchbox

Healthy lunch ideas for kids

Previous lunchbox ideas for you to check out:
#6
#5
#4
#3
#2
#1