A Year of Ethical Fashion

I've decided to sign up for 'A Year of Ethical Fashion', which has been launched by Pip Lincolne on her Meet Me At Mikes blog.

Here's the Year of Ethical Fashion (#YOEF) pledge for 2014...

If I'm looking for things to wear I will only:

a) Buy from ethical makers or
b) Buy second-hand or
c) Make it myself  or
d) Wear things I already own or
e) Borrow or swap garments with friends

I had been thinking about doing something along these lines myself, but it will be so much more powerful to be part of a group!

If you want to join in, you can sign up here and there is also a facebook group.

People are going to take a variety of different approaches to this. Some folks are planning to do a lot of home dressmaking, but I am more likely to wear things I already own, buy second-hand and buy from ethical makers.

Here is an example of the kind of ethical fashion I tend to wear. This second-hand denim jacket came from a dress agency.

Over the next year, I'll be trying other options for ethical fashion, including ethical knickers, jewellery and fairtrade footwear. I'll be writing about this on my Minibreak Mummy blog.

Here are the ethical fashion blogposts I've written so far:

• Slow Fashion from People Tree
• Who Made Your Pants?

Three Good Things - Week Two

I'm starting a new job on Thursday, and really looking forward to it. But moving house is proving to be more complicated and slower than I had hoped. 

However, there are always good things in amongst the hard work, and Liz from Margot and Barbara has encouraged me and various other bloggers to join in with listing 'Three Good Things'. So here are my 'three good things' from the last week.

1. 'Electric' by Pet Shop Boys
I love this so much I have been listening to it every chance I get. My son loves dancing with me in the living room, and this album has been a big hit with him too. 'Love is a Bourgeois Construct' is my favourite track. The photo below shows the Pet Shop Boys 'in' my living room.

2. envirofone Argos voucher

Normally when I get a new phone, I stick the old one in a drawer and forget about it. This time, I signed up with envirofone who sent me an Argos voucher for £118.26 in exchange for my old iPhone 4. I am planning to use this to purchase something for my new house when we finally manage to move.

3. Flowers

These beautiful flowers were given to me by my colleagues on my last day in my old job. I think they are the nicest flowers I have ever received.

Recycling Christmas cards into gift tags

When I was little, I remember my mum making gift tags out of of the previous year's Christmas cards, using pinking shears to create a lovely zig-zag edge. 

This is an old idea but a good one. As well as being a great way of recycling, this also means that you can select the gift tag to match the preferences of the recipient.

Following my mum's example, I have made gift tags in the same way this year.*

Here are some photos of my gift tags:

I'm linking up with Recycled Christmas at Lulastic and the Hippyshake. This is a great idea for a link-up. It is very easy to spend too much money at this time of the year, so it feels good to recycle instead of always buying new.

* Of course one thing that has changed since I was a child is that people send fewer Christmas cards. So instead of just using cards from last year I have used Christmas cards received over the past few years.

No-sew lavender sachets made from odd socks

How to turn odd socks into lovely lavender sachets:

1. Gather together all the odd socks* left over after you've had a clear out, and ensure they are all clean before you start.
2. Use a dessert spoon to fill each sock with dried lavender (or you could use mixture of lavender and dried rice). Ask your four-year-old to help you with this for extra fun and educational value!
3. Tightly tie up the top of the sock using narrow ribbon.

So there you go, low cost and almost instant lavender sachets made from otherwise useless odd socks - and no sewing machine required. 

These lavender sachets are particularly good for putting in shoes to freshen them up a bit. I've put two of them in my red sandals (see photo below) and now the hall cupboard smells lovely.

* Where do all the odd socks come from? No matter what I do, we always seem to end up with some lone socks!