Reduce, Reuse and Recycle: DIY Painted Sign // Guest Post from Deb of Living the Good Life

Firstly, it should be said, ive never done a guest blog before, so thank you to Rachel for letting me and i hope you have a great holiday!!!!

I am an avid believer of Reduce, re-use, recycle this, if theres anything i can use the 3 R’s for i will.  I hate waste so if it can be re-used, it generally is. Also with having children, teaching them early and getting them involved, means that it becomes a way of life for them from the off.

At the moment on my blog http://livingthe-goodlife.blogspot.com/ we as a family are trying run a bit more self sufficiently and its an educational experience for my daughter, who can see that veg comes from the ground and not from the market.  By next year i hope to have a good crop of veg or at least have it planted as well as have chickens  running around the plot so we can have fresh eggs, the blog highlights the highs and lows of this starting from the beginning.

This weekend we have been allocated out allotment i cannot tell you how excited i am about this, i can not wait to get cracking on it and i have so many ideas as to what we are going to do, how it will be set out etc....

So to get into the spirit of our allotment obviously a sign for our plot was a must!!! Even if theres nothing on there the sign can go up and people can see it belong to someone, and using the above mantra ‘reduce, re-use, recycle’ i started hunting around the house to see what could be used.

Upstairs in our bedroom we have a very old, haggered dining table which is currently being used as a clothes horse!! 

 

At this point it worth noting other half of this table has been ‘used’ and painted and been made into a desk for my daughter room, eventually with a bit of luck ill use so much of it for different things there will be nothing left of it and we will no longer justify using it as a clothes horse!

On either side of the table of the centre of the table one of these has been taken off for the ‘sign project’.

 

All the handles and screws have been taken off and it had been sanded down.  Then with the clever use of greaseproof paper and any font you fancy on the computer:

TA-DAAAAAAAAAA.

Now it wouldn’t be ‘me’ if it wasn’t a little bit ‘kooky’ so the bit about the fairies has been added because, lets face it, id love to think there are fairies helping around the garden and secondly, and more importantly, my daughter can not wait to get down to the allotment to look for them, i wonder how long it will be before i can convince her that if she digs up carrots the fairies will be under them!!!!

Finally, a little bit of paint, we’re going for a bit of a mad hatters/alice in wonderland theme.

And there we have it a handmade sign, completely free to go on the allotment.

Pop over to the blog http://livingthe-goodlife.blogspot.com/ and become a follower and keep up with us as we hopefully progress into becoming a tad more self sufficient.  And any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Loving: Decoupage

Because we are going to be on a tight budget when we move in the new year, I am looking to update and revamp our existing furniture for our new house. I've been living in magnolia rented flats for years, so I am desperate for a bit of colour. On my list of to-do projects is to decoupage a couple of items. Here's my inspiration:


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I'm not sure the Aussie will let me go so far as to do a whole ceiling, but I love this black and white contrast and the birds and flowers theme.


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I have a little old coffee table I recently picked up from my local hospice shop for 50p and I would love to do something like this colourful floral decoupage on the top of it.

I am so smitten by this little table by Carolina Cottage, I have a damaged old atlas, so I'm thinking of trying something like this out on an old wooden ikea tray we have.

I wish I had more photos, but the famous Beat bar Cafe Vesuvio in San Francisco's tables and inside of the bathrooms are covered in decoupage. I so loved this 'Language of the eyes' in the Ladies' (mine are green!)

I hope you are having a good Sunday x

Loving: Cut outs

Inspired by the magnificent cut out artwork of Claire Brewster, I saw at the Origins Craft Fair in Spitalfields last week (please have at look at her website for the most exquisite birds cut from reclaimed materials) here are some of my other favourite cut outs to share with you this Sunday:


Beautiful and delicate cut out jewellery from the wonderfully named Hairy Growler


Fun and funky cut outs on this top (I want one for Halloween)


Amazing cut out scarf


Not yet cut out, but I love this Punk Rock Girl Paper Doll, she is very anti-kitsch


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I hope yours is! x

The other side of LFW?

(image - Craftivist Collective)

A really inspirational evening spent in a vintage shop with the Craftivist Collective, which coincided with the start of London Fashion Week, has left me thinking long and hard about about ethical fashion. The Craftivists have been displaying (beautifully made) mini protest banners at LFW trying to expose, in a non-confrontational way, the true cost of many of the clothes we wear.

I love vintage clothes and I also love a charity shop bargain, I try and buy separates from more ethical clothing companies like People Tree and American Apparrel. But the High Street is so instant and accessible and often meets that 'need' feeling at a low impact on my wallet. However, I have resolved to try to stop and think hard about the wider impacts of my purchases.

An excellent article by Ruth Rosselson on the Ethics Girls website suggests the following principles of being fashionable 'ethically':

Putting ethics into practice – the future for ethical fashion

• Wash all your clothes at as low a temperature as possible. This will not only mean that they’ll last longer, but will also reduce the amount of energy that you use.
• Develop your own style, rather than following the fashion crowd.
• Dress for your shape and ignore impractical and unflattering trends.
• Choose timeless stylish garments that you’ll be able to wear (and look good in) whatever the current ‘fashion’.
• If you’ve got an occasion coming up and want to wear something special, instead of buying something that you’ll only wear once, consider renting or borrowing instead.
• Develop some basic sewing and mending skills to customise your clothes or make them last longer.
• Try vintage fashion stalls, second-hand shops and Ebay for good quality second-hand clothes.
• Use tailors and stylists to help you create stylish, timeless, personal garments. Search out ethical clothing companies that eschew virgin resources and instead customise clothes, remake or recycle fabrics.

There are also countless inspirational blogs out there, that I hope to provide me with the motivation to avoid the instant high street fix:

• The incredible Natalie made all her own clothes she wore for a year as part of her Makeshift project.
• The hilarious Marisa is making a new dress a day for a year out of 365 dresses bought with a budget of $365.
• Countless revamping inspiration on Wardrobe Refashion.
  
• Plus I will also be looking to vintage, carbooting and thrifting queens like Vix and Jem to learn to stop following the high street crowd.