CHARIDEE

Holidays and sunny days plus living a life of excess = an uncontrollably messy living space. Decided to fix that this morning and 3 hours later, it looks a lot better. I thought I'd take 5 mins to tell you about this new thing I've signed up to with Oxfam. Basically I get a bag from work, I fill it up and tag it with my own personal donor number and take it back into work. Oxfam collect the bags once a week and every so often email me with an update on how much money the sale of my stuff has raised and what that money could do. I always give bags of stuff away to charity anyway but this scheme is great because
1. It's super convenient
2. Oxfam make 28p in every pound more because they can claim gift aid on the sales of all my donated stuff


To find out more you just need to go here.

So after I bagged up all my old clothes, I still had a huge pile of magazines that has been threatening to over take my room, so I decided to go through them all and pull out the things I liked, before commiting the pile to the recycle bin. It wasn't until I got to the last one I realised I left my scrapbook at my parents house, so sticking down will have to wait for another time, both my noticeboards are already full!

H&M + Sustainable Fabrics

I booked a trip to India (Mumbai and Goa) for May - little over 5 weeks away!! I've basically promised myself no shopping because I still have a HEAP of clothes from last Summer I wore once in Jamaica and didn't get to wear back in England where Summer was shortlived and pretty much over by August when I got home. However I've just seen H&M's Garden Collection, made from recycled polyester, organic cotton and other sustainable materials and I feel I may need to treat myself to one or two of these gorgeous pieces, in the name of doing my bit for the environment of course.



More at hm.com

BY HAND, BY PEOPLE TREE

A couple of weeks ago, our amiable post room guy dropped a copy of this book on my desk without a word of explanation. I put it in my bag and forgot about it until later that evening when I came across it looking for my keys.

By Hand written by People Tree founder Safia Minney (which you can buy here for just £5) states the case for supporting ethical fashion and organic handwoven cotton. With beautiful photography and interviews with garment workers, farmers and jewellery makers in Africa and Asia, it is truly an inspiring read. I can’t honestly say that I am going to abandon the high street completely for Fairtrade products but it certainly made me stop and think (as well as leaving me with an unhealthy obsession with the beautiful jewellery by Sam Ubhi).

Read it, the book explains itself better than I ever could and it may just change the way you think about fashion.