Crafting eye pillows for special people in your life: A tribute for World Ovarian Cancer Day

Although I made these eye pillows late last year I held off on writing this post since I gave one in our family's Kris Kringle and I didn't want to blow my cover. Sadly I am sharing it because the recipient of my secret gift has passed away. My aunt was quite sick with ovarian cancer at Christmas. I don't think any of us realised just how sick she was though. She died within 2 months. Since she was only 49 it has been a stark reminder to us all that life is fleeting and you can't know what might be around the corner.

My gorgeous aunt at our wedding 2011

I love eye pillows and thought that it was an appropriate gift for my aunt while she was having chemotherapy. I discovered them during rest time (shavasana) in yoga and found they help me to relax and unwind. I liked the idea of making an eye pillow since it would be more personal. We also had a $20 limit for our gifts so it helped me to come in under budget while still being able to give other things as part of the gift.

Since my sewing skills are rather lacking, however, I was a bit hesitant about how it would go. Luckily a friend had recently made herself one, although she used a sewing machine. She encouraged me to do it and said it would be easy. Now that's my kind of project!

I went to the fabric store to buy some silk. That's right, I went straight to the silk. The eye pillows I had previously used in yoga class were silk and I loved the feel of the cold soft fabric on my eyes. Once I started looking I realised that the silk could have been spun by child labour for all I knew. I didn't feel comfortable buying new fabric either. Surely there was a more ethical way to make my gift?

The local op shops were my next step to see if they had any silk items that I could upcycle for my project. I was in luck! I found the most beautiful fabric in a dress that cost about $25 from memory (note: since I could make multiple eye pillows I decided that adhered to the Kris Kringle rules). I was sad to cut it up but the style didn't suit me at all. Then I was set to start. I am glad I chose silk because, apart from being lovely on, the silk ended up being very easy to sew.

I cut the fabric in a long rectangle of 10 x 25cm to make sure there would be room for my rather unskilled sewing errors. Then I hand sewed three and a half of the sides, turned it inside out and filled it with linseeds. I was careful not to overfill it since it wouldn't feel as nice or shape as nicely to the face. I also added some dried lavender from the garden for a slight scent to aid with relaxation. I only added about 2 teaspoons of lavender so that it wasn't too strong but some blogs recommend adding much more. After filling it, I sewed the last part up and it was done. I made an extra eye pillow for myself at the same time.

I have been very happy with the mine, despite it being a tad wonky. I use it after every yoga practice during shavasana. I encourage you to give it a go - give one to someone special in your life and keep one for yourself.

This Friday is World Ovarian Cancer Day. Learn the facts about ovarian cancer and share them with at least 5 people to try and raise awareness of ovarian cancer amongst women everywhere. To find out more about ovarian cancer and the symptoms follow this link to Ovarian Cancer Australia's website. 

My aunt was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in late 2013 and died in February 2015. She stopped work immediately after her diagnosis and had two prolonged chemotherapy treatments. It has been a terrible loss to our family, particularly for her older siblings. My mum and uncle. May she rest in peace and be lovingly remembered always.

Our New Bed - A Good News Waste Story

So I have a neck/shoulder problem that started about three years ago and has become much worse (boo hoo! poor me!) since having a baby.  All of the feeding, carrying, rocking and lifting while doing a million other things clearly isn't helping.

One of the things I had never considered doing about it, despite seeing a chiropractor, doing stretching and yoga, then an osteopath and currently a physiotherapist, was to buy a new mattress.  Silly, I know, but true.

The osteopath was the fist specialist to suggest it, bless her!  It took a good 6 months for us to do anything about buying one though.  I'm pretty sure I whinged to poor Mr Fix It for at least that amount of time but finding time to go mattress shopping is difficult.  Let's face it, the idea of buying a new mattress is daunting so that didn't help either.

We finally managed to get there on what could have been the worst possible day.  My neck had been quite sore for a couple of weeks and I had gone out for a friend birthday the evening before so I had a slight hangover from the few wines I had consumed.  In short, I was a desperate woman seeking an answer to all of my problems.

We tried to play it cool but of course the smooth talking salesman, who had a toy box that kept Turtle happily amused while we compared various mattresses, helped us buy a (rather expensive!) mattress in the first shop we went into.  In our defence, it was great service and we just don't have the time or energy to shop around anymore.  We're still not sure that we made the right decision but I do feel so much more supported in bed and my neck isn't sore in the morning when I wake up.  Definitely an improvement.

The point of this whole post (apologies for the rambling about my neck!) is that when we bought the mattress we were given information, at our request, on how to recycle our old mattress through Garbologie.

Garbologie had approached the bed shop to see if they would promote their recycling service to customers.  I'm not 100% sure if our Local Council does recycle mattresses as part of the hard rubbish or verge collections since we are in the southern suburbs.  I know that the northern suburbs do recycle mattresses.  However, I decided that I wanted to support this entrepreneur regardless of whether we have a free service from our Council.

The service we received from Garbologie was efficient and professional.  I went to their website and booked the collection online.  I requested that they let us know before they arrived (in case Turtle was napping since our dogs go crazy barking when anyone comes up our driveway).  Mr Fix It was home on the day that they collect from our area.  In response to my request, he received a text message a short while before they came to collect the mattress.  He left $25 in an envelope taped to the mattress and that was it.  It was collected with no hassle.  I wanted to share this experience because I love seeing such motivated and inspirational people starting businesses that are so environmentally focused.  Particularly dealing with waste, which is such an important environmental issue.  I encourage you to look out for Garbologie and use their services too.  I am planning to visit their tip shop to see if we can find anything there to upcycle.