A little less spending, a little more Scrooge.

Christmas, a killer day trip to Brunswick St, Melbourne (source of all credit card woe and consumerist happiness), via Falls Festival, Lorne, and a rather ambitious 25-presents-to-celebrate-my-boyfriend's-25th-birthday project have all conspired to render me without cash or credit for the forseeable future.

Not wanting to be without entertainment I set myself a mission to ferret out free things to occupy myself with this weekend - and have oh-so-graciously decided to share said free findings* with you.

*All two of them. I plan to get better at this, to improve my spend-thrift self.

1. Cinema in the Cemetery

Genre-defining zombie horror flick, George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968), is screening in a cemetery. Yes, it does seem like a blatant bid by the church to draw a younger crowd, but it's also an opportunity to watch a zombie film in a cemetery. For free. Bring a blanket to sit on/cover your head with/turn into an ingenious zombie-destroying device in case of a zombie apocalypse.

When: Friday 5 Feb, 8pm
Where: St John's church cemetery, 81 Alt St, Ashfield

To whet your appetite for all things zombie, watch this excellent 30 second re-enactment of the film...by cartoon bunnies.

2. CarriageWorks Kitchen Garden Project

CarriageWorks is launching phase two of their Kitchen Garden Project, a series of community workshops and activities for those interested in making their urban life that little bit more sustainable. Head along to the opening expo to hear from sustainability guest speakers and get some more info on the grow-your-own-kitchen-garden-project.

When: Saturday 6 Feb, 1pm - 4pm
Where: CarriageWorks foyer

Green AND free, with potential for grocery bill savings when you start growing your own vegies. Aren't you a lucky urbanite.

Since my list is not very list-like, at only two items, feel free (ooh! buzzword!) to add to the list in the comments section.

It's beginning to look a lot like (a budget-friendly, sharehouse) Christmas...

I'd like to say, 'It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas' in an appropriately sing-songy tune (when else can one be so cheesy as at this festive time of year?), but as the shopping centres have been all over Christmas since October that would be a lie. Instead - and for your benefit I'll just write it rather than sing it - it's looking rather like Christmas in my living room.

This will be my third sharehouse Christmas. The kind of Christmas where no one is actually at the house, because they've all gone home to families, so a tree is probably an unnecessary cost. I took this attitude for my first Christmas out of home - rather than going to the trouble of a tree I set up a Christmas staircase. I still do this for novelty value, just a little more pared back now that I have a tree as well. You can wind tinsel or lights or something similar - I have used a wrapped and beaded wire - around the bannister and then hang decorations from that. The little wiry twists that come with garbage bags can be used to affix decorations directly to the staircase - just put one of the wiry pieces through the loop on the decoration.

As I said, I have a little tree now, just a plastic one bought from a homewares store a couple of years ago. It seemed a tad ridiculous to buy one of the 8ft trees when there would be no one opening presents underneath it. I suspect trees of that stature have to be earned, you would need to prove to the sales person that you had enough people coming to your Christmas to justify that amount of tree. I have to admit that I miss the smell of the pine, but am forever scarred by an image from my childhood of a grand and beautiful green tree taken down in the New Year and left by the house to wither to a sad brown. It turns out there is a service for people like me (besides therapy) - a great business in Melbourne called Eco Christmas Trees that rents out living, potted trees to those that want the best of both worlds - a lovely scented tree that doesn't die AND can be delivered to your door. It's up to you whether you keep the tree or return it after Christmas, and if you're the sentimental type you can even have the same tree back year after year.

Once you have the tree sorted, you'll be wanting to light it up all pretty. If you're feeling green, LED lights are apparently the most friendly and least energy-sucking. They aren't the most attractive Christmas light, but you could make it fun, like this rather handy, design savvy person did. For those still stuck in an 80s/90s glitter nightmare, tinsel goes on next, as chunky and lurid as you can possibly make it. Decorations next. If you like the luxe look for your tree but have a sharehouse budget, buy brightly coloured wired ribbon and tie the ribbon into bows and affix them to the tree. If you like to update the look of your tree each year, but don't want to waste last year's decorations, you can change the colour of the ribbon. This year I've used red ribbon with gold edging.


The Christmas warehouses can be a good source of inexpensive decorations, although I would suggest limiting your time in those places as they tend to divide people into die-hard elves and Scrooges. Alternatively, if you're feeling organised and perky, pack your best armour and pushiest friend and hit the post-Christmas sales at a department store like Myer in preparation for the year to come.

More Christmas posts to come.

A green glow...

Miss Molly the pussycat went to play
In a beautiful pea-green bag..

On shopping day, kitten rediscovers her favourite thing. The green bag. As the groceries are unpacked, she paws closer and closer, until the bag is empty and there is sufficient space for her to wriggle in.

I like to think that kitten loves the green bag because, at heart, she is a little furry eco-warrier. More likely, I suspect, she likes the pea-green colour and its function as her playground.

That said, I like my things to be beautiful and functional as well as environmentally friendly. So you can imagine how delighted this caffeine-fiend was to find this lovely item at the Young Blood markets on the weekend, at the closing of the Sydney Design Festival...


The Keep Cup is the first barista standard reusable coffee cup. Very sexy. All the pieces come in a variety of colours (polaroid tones don't do them any justice), so you can mix and match until you have one that suits you. Take a look at the website for more information about the design and concept, and if you're as taken as me, to buy one for yourself.

www.keepcup.com.au