This and that

I cannot believe it's been a month since I last blogged. I really love doing it but life has been crazy and I've let it slide. I apologise, dear readers.

The two parts to the Footprints project are trying to live as eco-friendly and ethically as possible. I realise, as time progresses, that I'm far more passionate about the latter. Unfortunately, it's the latter that is a can of worms! I thought I was doing pretty well until I took the following quiz and learnt that I have 40 "slaves". WTF!!!
http://www.slaveryfootprint.org
We try to be conscientious about what we buy but what we hadn't taken into consideration were issues like where the raw material is sourced. Apparently that's a big ethical issue, too. Cotton farming in some countries uses children, as does the farming of one of the raw materials used to manufacture smart phones. I'm glad my phone's dumb.

One store that seems to be doing okay is American Apparel. They've had some complaints made against them by past employees but, on the whole, they seem like they're trying to make a difference. I don't know if that difference extends to the cotton etc used in their products but their clothes are made in the US (it's a US company) at factories which are safe and where employees are paid at least the minimum wage. My husband and I checked out their Adelaide store recently and decided that we might try some of their clothes. The best thing is second-hand, however, so this would be more for underwear etc.
http://store.americanapparel.com.au/

The water bill came in the other day. All I can say is, "Aaaarrrrrgggghhhh". The bar graph showed an increase in water output. I'm at a loss to explain this. I only hope it's because of watering our fledgeling veggie patch. We've been trying to cut back on all use of resources so I'll have to get back to you when I've figured this one out.

Cheers