Brrr it is getting cold outside

... and it is not much warmer inside either. This year we have made a family commitment to consume less energy around our home.  This means we have made an agreement not to use our heater whenever possible this winter. We will not use the heating until at least July 1st and at that time we'll reassess if we will use the heater until spring. We did the same thing in the Summer (trying not to use the air conditioner) and we survived.

Here in Western Australia our homes are set up for dealing with the heat. Most homes have a large portion of tiled or wooden flooring throughout the house, and we limit the use of carpets and rugs to the bedrooms and the lounge room or home theatre areas. Most homes have large windows to catch the breeze (like the Fremantle Doctor* in our case) and if we're lucky we have shady trees near the house and wide eaves or patios for shade. Our winter isn't usually too bitter (I am touching wood here) there's rarely never any snow falls although we do get an occasional frost. For anyone who has suffered through the last northern Winter (USA, Europe, Japan etc) saying we aren't going to use our heating will be no big thing, but as we are coming off our hottest and driest Summer on record it is still an interesting idea. Our current temperatures have dropped by about 20-25C from the peak of Summer.

So this means cold hands and cold feet. We are all dressing very warmly and using our favourite rug to stay warm in the evening but I find my feet are the thing I just can't keep warm. Walking around on freezing cold floor tiles is not helping. So this week I have been making myself some Kimono Styled Slippers. They are not too gorgeous... more of a prototype really as I have made them with 49c/metre decorator fabric... but they are great around the house with my socks on and I can throw them into the wash to clean them up. (Something I can't do with any other type of sweaty slippers)

I admit they are a little too big, the pattern is a Size 9 and my foot is a half size smaller. They also look like hospital slippers... maybe that is just down to the fabric choice. Anyway they were fun to make and I'll make them again in a different fabric and size to test this theory. Also I think thicker (firmer) interfacing would be better in these as would a sheet of template plastic inserted into the pad of the foot. Maybe a set of them would be good for visitors.

Image from Wikipedia

. * The Fremantle Doctor is a cooling breeze that blows in from the Indian Ocean to cool the coastal lands during summer. To the East of Perth the landscape is hot and dry (with increasing desert area the further inland you travel) so any Easterly wind can be blisteringly hot in the summer time. The Westerly wind is called the Freo Doctor because it soothes us and provides relief to everyone that feels it. We all love an early visit from the Fremantle Doctor.