On Thrift Shopping

I love second hand shopping. I'm completely hooked. Give me an opshop over a shopping mall any day.

I've never really given myself much of a budget for clothing. I love fashion and style, for sure, but buying clothes isn't a high priority for me. I'd much rather save my money! 

In my final year at art school the majority of my research was about the fashion industry. I researched topics from sweatshops & labour laws, to designers & runway shows, and the one thing that really stuck with me was that so many of our clothes have very unethical backgrounds. 

I couldn't get that out of my head. It makes me uneasy now when I see clothes on sale for a few dollars - those few dollars wouldn't even cover manufacturing costs, let alone all the other expenses involved!

It can be hard to find an alternative, though. It's hard to resist the pull of a nice top on sale for $20, and finding ethical clothing is tricky (and sometimes quite expensive).

So what to do?

Thrift shop, of course! 

Personally, I find it to be a good alternative - I still like shopping but I don't have much of a clothing budget, and thrift shopping fills those needs nicely.

While it would be nice to buy all fairtrade and ethically made clothing (& support local designers), thrift shopping is a way to reuse all those clothes currently in circulation. Tonnes and tonnes of clothes get dumped every year, many of them still completely wearable, so thrift shopping is like recycling!

It's cheap, it's environmentally friendly, and it's like going on a treasure hunt - you're never sure what you're going to find!

Do you ever go thrift shopping? What's one of your favourite things that you've bought?

Here's some of my favourite thrift shopping tips:

Elsie's Thrift Tips from A Beautiful Mess

How To Be The Best Thrifter Ever from Yes And Yes

Making A Healthy Change

Detox Salad via Iowa Girl Eats

The older I get, the more I realise that I can't get away with eating whatever I want without some sort of consequence. For the most part I am happy with my body and how I look - but it's my diet that could use some improvement. 

Honestly, I eat more carbs and sugar than I do veggies and fruits. As a child I never liked veggies, but in the past few years since I've started cooking for myself and experimenting with recipes I've learned that actually, veggies can be pretty yummy! But I'm still not eating as much of them as I want to be, and I'm eating far too much sugar than I would like.

A few weeks ago I read this post by Bri Emery on DesignLoveFest about body image and healthy eating. A point that really stuck out for me was how she gradually cut unhealthy foods from her diet. I liked the idea of just restricting one thing, and not everything. It seems like a more manageable approach!

So for the month of April I decided to not eat any chocolate or lollies. Those two things are my kryptonite. I can never have just one piece, and I always end up with a headache afterwards. I never learn my lesson! 

I'm 11 days into this goal and yes, I have broken it a few times. But I am persisting! I don't really want to cut chocolate out of my diet forever, but I would like to not need and crave it so much.

To help me with this healthy lifestyle change, my husband and I watched the documentary Hungry For Change on the weekend. I was hooked! I've since started juicing every morning - the juicer now has a permanent spot on our bench (instead of on the shelf gathering dust) and the first thing I have every morning is a blend of spinach, celery, cucumber, carrots, and oranges. I love the hit of nutrients, and I've been feeling much more awake in the mornings.

I'm a big believer in making small changes that are sustainable and then building on them once they're firmly established. For now I'm simply focusing on having a fresh veggie juice every morning, and resisting chocolate and lollies. We'll see what happens next! 

Do you have any healthy changes you'd like to make? I'd love to hear!

On Waking Up Early (Or Even Just On Time)

Image via The Everygirl

I'm not really a morning person. I've always struggled to get out of bed when the alarm goes off, and I'll hit snooze over and over again. I would set multiple alarms hoping that one would be the magic one, but when I'm all comfy in bed it's easy to convince myself that I can sleep for just a few more minutes.

So I changed my tactic. I now have two single alarms - one on my phone that rings first, and the other on my iPad which rings 5 minutes later. 

I keep my iPad on the other side of the room. When my phone alarm goes off in the morning, I know that I've got 5 more minutes before I need to get up to turn off the iPad alarm. The first alarm is my buffer.

I also set my alarm for the latest possible time that I can get up. Instead of trying to get up early and be all productive, I just set my alarm as late as I reasonably can. This means that when I stumble out of bed to turn off that annoying noise, I know that there's no way I can have 'just 5 more minutes of sleep.' 

I've been doing this for a week so far, and I've been getting up on time without fail. This is a huge achievement for me!

I plan on gradually turning my alarm back a few minutes at a time to get up a little bit earlier each day. I'm just taking it slowly though, I don't want to push my luck!

It is really nice to not be in such a rush in the mornings anymore.

Are you a morning person, or do you love to snooze? What tricks do you use to get out of bed on time?

I'm Getting My Routine Back

These past few weeks have been good. I feel like I'm getting into the swing of things and I'm loving everything that I'm doing. 

I know that I've been quiet on the blog front. Now that I'm in a good routine I'm hoping to get back to blogging more often.

I'm a routine person - I really am. Just having certain things to do at certain times makes me so much more focused and productive. 

I've spoken before about my difficulties trying to find work. To go from years of full-time study to having nothing on my plate was a really uncomfortable change and I struggled with staying productive (and not losing my mind).

That's why a month ago I jumped at this opportunity to study again. I'm studying Clothing Manufacture - it's a full-time course and I get to spend my days sewing. I love it! And it's something exciting and uplifting for me to do while I keep looking for work.

I'm improving my sewing skills, but without any pressure. There's no rush to start a business, or create lots of new products. I'm simply taking my time learning and soaking everything in, knowing that I can do everything I want to do in time. 

It almost feels like a stable transitional part of my life - I know I won't be here doing this for long - but I have enough things figured out for the moment to relax. 

Things always work out in the end. And in the meantime, I'm going to enjoy these moments.