The Touchwood Project

“We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.” That’s the phrase circling around my head this morning as I watch another thrilling gust of snow sweep past the kitchen window.

I’m thinking about the often delightful responsibility of being a dreamer, a storyteller, and how you tell a story that’s both honest and worth telling.

A good story starts with the improbable or downright impossible

I think you start with attempting the impossible, which is why the quote above, which I discovered courtesy of Willy Wonka, keeps going through my mind. Here, take a look:

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Tags: fun things to do, happiness, personal development

Today’s fun and games involved Malcolm dishing up tasty slices of 6 different brands of butter atop oatcakes to answer that timeless question: Is it worth paying more for a better butter?

Since we’re such butter junkies — I’d guess we go through something like a pack a week — we thought finding this out would be be both fun and illuminating. In our case, is it worth dishing out the extra money for Lurpak and President over the cheaper ones? A blind taste test is the only way to find out.

Handily, it’s also a good excuse to eat lots of butter.

Butter taste test ready to go

Tags: frugal, fun things to do

I’m writing this post at my kitchen table in between bites of breakfast porridge because I’m so excited about how warm, comfortable and easy my latest MacGyvered project is, and I had to share it with you while I’m still riding high from all your fantastic comments in my last post.

“Up from the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success,” says the fount of wisdom that is Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I had cause to remember this as I made a complete mess of things initially with my first project, Wellie Boot Liners. I mentioned yesterday I was working on these and this morning I was determined to finish them, but I ran into problem after problem and finally had to admit defeat.

However, where my the boot liners failed, my alternative solution came up blooming because its far, far easier and quicker: Felted Shoe Insoles.

Cosy insoles for wellies made out of an old felted sweater

These handy little babies are what’s going to let me wear my utterly charming but poorly insulated new Wellington boots instead of having to stump for the practical but boring option.

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Tags: DIY projects

“If I didn’t care what people thought, I’d…”

I’d write on the blog about what I’m thinking about with Touchwood and life. I’d share this North Star stuff, the ever-changing plans and dreams, different projects I’m working on.

The above sentences are from my notebook as part of an exercise from the book Finding Your Own North Star: Claiming the life you were meant to live. There are a series of sentences along the lines of “If I were sure I’d succeed, I’d…” and “If I had the nerve, I’d…”.

So I dutifully wrote down my answers only to reach the end of the exercise where the author, Martha Beck, says:

Now I’d like you to choose one of your answers that is neither illegal nor physically dangerous and do it. Right now, before you’re sure that it’s fail-safe, or acceptable, or risk-free. When you’re finished with that item, pick another one, and do that one too. Yes, I know you’ll be breaking the Rules. I don’t care. The needs for certainty and permission are electric fences in your mind. Which would be worse: whizzing all over them or permanently forfeiting all of the things you wrote on the list above?

What? I have to actually do what I just wrote?

So here I am, writing, a part of me convinced that no one’s reading this anyway because it’s so self-indulgent. So New Agey.

But then I think “Hey, it’s the New Year, 2010, and it’s the time to do things that scare us.”

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Tags: happiness, personal development

Another Power Off experience, this time from urban New York. Kerrilee, who wrote our first guest post on how to make a recycled magazine basket, had this to say…
-Rachel

Greetings!

I figure, since this is my second guest post, I should probably introduce myself a bit.

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Tags: Poweroff

A lot of people have asked us, “So how did the whole Power Off thing go?” Rather than just our experience, we asked a few people to share their thoughts.

Esther Pawley sent us her almost haiku-like notes that we just had to share…

Official candle lighting time – 5.23pm

Feel like Wee Willie Winky carrying my candle about. Such a beautiful warm glow – should use candles more often.

Frustrating – need internet connection – but can cycle to work to use their connection – when they’re there (long story don’t ask)!!

Thank goodness for gas and the fact I’m not too fussy about warmth – long history of freezing houses and wearing lots of clothes inside the house. Don’t be fooled by location – no central heating and plenty of healthy drafts.

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Tags: Poweroff

Storage basket made from recycled magazines:

Finished and ready to use

Hello there,
Rachel asked me to do a guest post about this project, since it’s one she and I had worked on together before and that I recently took on all by myself. It probably would have been a good use of your Power-Off Weekend. Well, maybe next time. So! Let’s talk weaving.

Time required: Uh… several hours.
It took me an American football game (roughly 3.5 hours) and another hour or so to finish, but in fairness, I made a custom-size basket out of magazines, so there was a lot of time spent looking at things sideways and gluing bits together to make them as long as I needed them. So, if you use newspaper, or use magazines to make a smaller basket, it will take less time than that.

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Tags: Christmas, Environment, frugal

It was wonderful, magical, like Christmas!

The weather helped, with sunshine and no wind. At night, stars mesmerised me as the scent of wood smoke drifted down to my eager nostrils. Joy! The time has just flown by, and to be honest life was so enjoyable without the electricity that we are only re-introducing it selectively – I call that a success!

First day of the Power Off weekend, embracing light and the simple pleasures

We rode our bikes to the local Stenness store, only a 5 mile round trip but something was special, we were really enjoying the day, soaking everything up, like we were on holiday. We kept the open fire lit with driftwood, boiled water using an old coffee jug and embraced the smoky flavours! People called by every day, bringing gifts of food, warmth and friendship. We feasted on plentiful supplies of food, cooked over the fire, we read stories out loud and relaxed.

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Tags: Environment, frugal, no electricity, Poweroff

We’re up to over 100 people participating in the Power Off Weekend coming up Friday night, with 46 families officially signed up through our Facebook event page or who have emailed us directly to join in.

We are asking participants to take a survey before and after the event so that we would like to understand a bit more about:

• why people are participating
• what they’re worried about and
• what they hope to get from the weekend

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Tags: Poweroff, survey

Dear Power Off participants:

Please will you all follow this link and complete the quick 10 question survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XJP2H5B

Thank you.

Please, will you also make notes of your experiences during the weekend, keep a diary, take photos and complete a final questionnaire afterwards?

Best wishes!

Malcolm

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Tags: Poweroff, questionnaire, survey