Make It Happy

No shopping today, some successes, but also some fails. Maybe at some point we will have at least one plastic-free day!

Birthday Party present

I hadn’t contemplated birthday party invites in my planning. Getting party presents is difficult enough at the best of times, and I think we exhausted the books option last year! Luckily we had a ‘drawing’ book which we can give and also a grow-your-own cress kit. Then additionally, to make it a little more special, I thought we could try out a homemade ‘treasures’ box. Little MIH was keen to design it, so a little cardboard box construction and pretty patterned paper decoration later, voila:

Little MIH is very pleased with it, so I hope it goes down well.

Toothpaste

We may have a toothpaste situation coming up. Mine and Mr MIH’s toothpaste is low and may not last the month. We do have some dental tablets that we got to try out and each tried them once and then left them in the pot not to be touched again. I can’t say they were a pleasant experience – you have to crunch up the tablet into a powder and kind of mix it with the saliva in your mouth to make a ‘paste’. I was not a fan of the whole powderiness thing, and also they just weren’t that minty compared with normal toothpaste and I could just taste too much of my yucky mouth taste leaving me concerned my breath would not be ‘minty fresh’! But seeing as our toothpaste may not last the month, we have switched to using them in the evening, and then still using the normal toothpaste in the morning before we face the world and the world has to face our breath. We’ll see how it goes. At least we will be using only half the toothpaste in normal packaging.

More difficult is that we are also low on Little MIHs toothpaste. I had fully intended to cheat and buy some more before the month started, but forgot. I am not convinced we will convert her to the tablets, although I suppose they might be something like sweets for her, so we may well give it a go. We have a little while to decide what to do at least.

Fails

Lolly wrapper – It was the school Summer Fayre. We tried to distract Little MIH with cake, but her friend had a lolly, and it was super sunny and baking hot. A tricky one, but as Little MIH hasn’t really signed up for this challenge, although we can try and explain the reasoning, I didn’t want to say no on this occasion.

Things we wanted to buy but couldn’t

Unsolicited items

Sellotape – another parcel I ordered before we started the challenge. The last one I think!

Plastic packet – the parcel was part of an attempt to put together a plastic-free craft box. I ordered paper straws, and unfortunately they came in a plastic packet. In the plus side, the little wooden spoons came in a paper bag.

Two envelope windows.

Kids birthday party ideas? Any plastic free toothpaste recommendations? Please do leave any comments below!