Friday 31 July 2015

Getting grease stains out of a silk t-shirt




I think I've mentioned in a couple of blogs that I ruined my grey t-shirt quite early in the challenge.

At the age of 35 you would hope that I could eat a chicken without getting the skin on me. And if I can't live up to the standards of mess free eating expected of a 5 year old you'd at least hope I'd spot it soon enough to prevent permanent damage.

But nope on both counts.

I did manage to attach some greasy skin to my tshirt, and then popped it in the linen bin without noticing which meant it was a week before I realised my mistake. And in that week the grease and my t-sirt had a bit of a love affair, resulting in a grease stain right on the boob. Because of how pale this tshirt was this basically made the bloody thing unwearable - or at least unwearable to work. And what with only having 4 tshirts at the moment - I cannot afford for even 1 to be out of action.

So I asked around for getting rid of grease suggestions. I was kind of amazed at the response - some of my most unlikely friends had suggestions handed down from grandparents that they swore worked (and perhaps would have done on a less established stain). I tried pretty much everything suggested (except where some of my less trustworthy friends suggested that I just buy an identical new one - CHEATS). Unfortunately nothing worked.

So instead I dyed it.There are some super lovely dyed silk t-shirts out there - take this insanely expensive example from Harvey Nicks.


I considered trying to do this with mine - but honestly I can't risk ruining this tshirt so in the end I chickened out (see what I did there?). At went for a simple single colour dye job.

The whole thing took an hour and less than £10 of materials. 


So here's the stuff I used

First I had to dilute the dye

Then add it to salted water

Then add in the T-shirt for 60 minutes. Stirring loads.



Before


After!
I'm pretty pleased with the result. I actually prefer the new colour to the origianal. ( though predictably first time I wore it I spilt noodles down it but ho hum!)
























What this has taught me is that I either need to eat more carefully, or make a bib one of my items !

If you want to encourage me to keep going with this (I have 10 months left and as you can probably tell I'm super clumsy so this'll be a proper challenge!) you can sponsor me. It's for a very good cause!

Saturday 25 July 2015

Emotional shopping and capsule wardrobes don't mix

Hello folks,

So this week I've discovered that I'm an emotional shopper.

I've had a load on this week, not slept very well and put myself under pressure. Those of you that know me know that I have high standards for myself, and yesterday I had one of those moments when I was sure that I hadn't met them.

What's interesting is the way I reacted.

I've been doing the challenge for 2 months now. It's been a good couple of months and I haven't really thought about my relationship with shopping. Partly because at the beginning of the challenge I was shopping, the trainers, denim shirt and both the skirts are new, as is the lovely dress from toast.

So last night feeling like I'd let myself down and knowing that Matt was working late I found myself heading to Oxford Street. Since the death of the sandals last week I've written myself a list of everything I need to manage the year. 35 items is feeling like a very small number right now. Top of the list is another pair of jeans. I simply won't survive the winter without them.

I knew exactly what I wanted. A pair of dark wash levis in the same size and cut as the jeans I'm already wearing. The idea of 'treating myself' was a wonderful distraction.

But then those jeans weren't in stock. And even though I knew exactly what I wanted I went to three more shops that I knew didn't stock Levis, and when I finally faced the fact that I wasn't going to be able to 'treat myself' I sat in the Urban Outfitters changing room and had a little cry.

Now I'm not daft. I know that my little moment wasn't about jeans. But I wonder how often over the last few years I've distracted myself from thought and feelings I didn't want to have by shopping.

It's not very healthy is it?

If I hadn't have been doing this challenge I know exactly how last night would have gone. I'd have spent a couple of hours at the shops and come home with some new bits that I didn't neccessarily love - that I'd wear a couple of times and then forget about. They'd take up space in my house, empty a portion of my bank account, and serve no real purpose except for helping me avoid addressing anything that worried me.

I'm a cheerful person, and it's quite important to me that that's how people see me. So when I'm worried, or my confidence has taken a knock I distract myself. And having my standard distraction no longer available to me was a bit of a shock last night. And I had to face the fact that for the next 10 months I'm going to have to do without it.

So how did I manage? Well I did two very healthy things that really really helped.

First I called my Mum. Mum's are great aren't they? My mum in particular always tells me the same thing when I'm worried and it always helps. I'm not going to go into it here (it deserves it's own blog really). But it was good.
 
Then I messaged some of my girlfriends. I'm rubbish at asking for help even though I know with this particular gang of ladies it is always freely and lovingly given. But I knew that sitting in urban outfitters for the rest of the evening sobbing was not an option. So I sent a 'guys I'm miserable & don't like myself very much' message to our WhatsApp group. And immediately got my soul shored up by loving, supportive and helpful responses from women I love and respect. And who- even when I'm grotty and insane somehow love me. 

I would NEVER, never have done this normally, no matter how healthy my adult self knows asking for help is, the teenage (asshole) part of me thinks is attention seeking and therefore very not cool.

So there you go. Maybe this capsule wardrobe thing won't just raise cash for charity - maybe it'll lead to some personal growth, and the final banishment of my inner teenage asshole.

So you know if you want to donate - you'll be helping me grow into a proper adult as well as supporting familes of disabled children. A 2 for 1 if you will.

Take care Folks

And for you list checkers here is the weeks outfits

Sunday (Day 58)

 

Monday (Day 59)



 Tuesday (Day 60)

Wednesday (Day 61)


Thursday (Day 62)

Friday (Day 63)



 

Saturday 18 July 2015

Can your capsule wardobe survive the wear? My sandals haven't

Yesterday I completed my 8th week doing the clothes of my back challenge and I've begun to realise something a bit scarey. When you wear your clothes a lot - they wear out really fast!

I appreciate the rest of you probably knew that - but for me this is genuinely a bit of a shock. I was prepared for my clumsyness to rob me of an item (hello grey t-shirt, don't worry I have plans for you....), but I thought everything else would just tick along for the whole year. But already I can feel my tshirts getting thinner with each wash.

And worse my sandals are beginning to give up the ghost. 



On the third or fourth day of the challenge I went to the pub with some fellow dog owners and a couple of them expressed real concerns about my sandals. They all know how much time I spend walking and didn't think they'd last the course. I naturally poo pooed them explaining that the rules allowed me to wear my walking sandals when I was walking the dog (as long as it wasn't a social walk that'd end up with a coffee or a meal somewhere), so the sandals wouldn't really see that much punishment.

How wrong can one person be. What I think I'd forgotten about myself is three things:
  • I walk a lot. Everywhere, all the time. Even not counting walking the dog I probably do 6-8000 steps a day
  • I like to get my toes out. So if it's not raining I will be wearing sandals. So far I've worn them 37 out of 56 days. That is 66% of the time. I start wearing sandals in March and rarely put them away until October. If I continue to wear them at this rate for that long we are talking 146 days of wear.
  • I'm not 23 anymore.
Not being 23 anymore might feel a bit irrelevant here - but it isn't. I truly wish that sometime in my late teens or early 20's someone had taken me aside and told me, really convinced me that continually slamming my heels against the pavement in paper thin soled shoes would come back to haunt me. I wore ballet shoes (note not ballet flats - actually wear to dance class when you are 6 ballet shoes) to tramp around Sheffield for years.

I can't do that anymore. The padding on my heel has worn down after years of abuse and feeling the pavement through my shoes hurts now. It sends shocks of pain up my legs, it's more than a little bit grim. And about two weeks ago this began to happen with my sandals. 

I panicked a bit about this - I don't really have room for another pair of shoes in the capsule ( I currently have 4 and have allowed for 5 with some winter boots), unless I'm prepared to sacrifice a winter jumper or a second pair of jeans. But equally there is another 109 days when I'm going to want to be wearing sandals to get through that I can't spend in pain.

So my first thought was to try and fix them. The lovely chaps at the cobblers put on new soles for me. This gave me an additional couple of millimeters between me and the pavement. What they couldn't do anything about was the wear on the cork, which has basically compressed as a result of an 11 stone woman taking 260,000 steps in them and so has lost it's shock absorbing qualities.

Insoles in sandals are a tricky issue, I always think a visible insole in a sandal is slightly revolting. Just a receptacle for sweat and odour  - a sanitary towel for the foot. This is not an option for me. But after a bit of a search around I found some gel pads in M&S. I took some photos of them here - they are not pretty! They are also super tricky to get into sandals that have anything that goes over the top of your foot.

Still eventually I got them in, they are invisible once the sandals are on and they are a tiny bit more comfortable. But if I'm honest will they see me through another 109 days of wear? Doubtful. And the attempt to get them fixed wasn't cheap either £25 for the new soles and £5 for the gel pads. I'm really aware that these repair attempts wouldn't be an option for some of the parents Contact a Family support, who are struggling to make ends meet due to the extra costs of raising a child with additional needs. And being comfortable in your shoes isn't a luxury.

Anyway, I think you can expect to see a new pair of sandals being added to this mix over the next week or so. Which means there is something else I won't be able to have come winter - so let's just hope it's a mild one!

Why am I putting myself through this you may ask? Because 65% of families with disabled children Contact A Family spoke to said they went without essentials like clothes in order to cover the additional costs of meeting their child's needs.

This is not ok and I'm raising money for Contact A Family and awareness of the challenges families face through the #clothesoffmyback extreme capsule challenge. You can help by donating to Contact A Family's work supporting these families here and by sharing my posts through your social networks.

 Finally for all you rules checkers out there here is what I wore on days 55 and 56



Thursday 16 July 2015

How to clear out your wardrobe (for people who aren't naturally minimalist)




Today I am 55 days into my capsule wardrobe challenge, and I have finally, finally got enough emotional distance from the clearing of my wardrobe to be able to talk about it without being overcome by waves of fear and nausea. 

I’ve gone from having clothes overflowing from my double wardrobe, massive chest of drawers and ottoman, as well as strategic piles of clothes around the house (I wrote about the ridiculous amount of clothes I owned here) to wearing just 21 items for the last two months and 35 all year. I’m really enjoying how clear my wardrobe looks now. 



Doesn't it just fill you with a sense of calm?




 I’ve read loads of blogs recently about what a beautiful and cathartic experience an extreme clear out of your wardrobe is.  I’m here to say it wasn’t like that for me.

Those people who felt exhilarated and like their rooms suddenly had more light are potentially aliens and definitely better at this than me. Because when I finished I just felt knackered and grubby, and incapable of taking another decision ever.

For me it was two days of self doubt, punctuated by gin drinking and despair. Followed by about three weeks of revisiting the stuff I decided to keep and reducing it bit by bit.

Everyone says you should start by getting all your clothes out of the wardrobe (& wherever else you keep them) and putting them in a pile. So that’s what I did. I created a small mountain of clothes on the bed which my dog immediately decided looked like the most comfortable place in the house and planted herself on top of. This meant that every time I wanted to look at a piece of clothing I had to negotiate with an increasingly resentful dog who just wanted to sleep on the super comfy new bed I’d made for her.

Anything that had direct contact with Squeak had dogs hair on it which meant that rather than having a keep/ don’t keep pile I had a rather more complicated system of keep, keep needs washing, keep needs dry cleaning, throw away, resell, resell needs washing, resell needs dry cleaning – it was mayhem. And I hadn’t properly delineated the piles so they kept drifting into one another.

Deciding what went in which pile was pretty hellish. Stuff I totally hated, or had holes in was easy, but everything else not so much. It turns out I’ve got a load of things that I had weird guilt about  the idea of getting rid of - Because who in their right mind gets rid of a perfectly serviceable striped t-shirt – even if they do have another 20 that are practically identical? And cashmere, you can’t throw away cashmere, or silk- they are investments – they are supposed to last a lifetime. And things I wore in 6th form – I must love them right? Otherwise why would I still own them 17 YEARS later?

Long story short at the end of my first attempt at de cluttering my wardrobe I’d got the equivalent of a large suitcase worth of stuff to sell, 2 binbags to throw away, and 2 extra large vacuum pack bags designed to hold a families worth of duvets and pillows of things that I ‘needed’ to hold on to for next year (in case you are wondering there were 11 striped tshirts in that bag – because you know there might come a time when you can’t go into ANY SHOP ON THE HIGH STREET and find one).

So attempt number 1 was a bit of a fail. 

But over the next couple of weeks I got there. What worked for me was two things.

The first was instigating a strict rule – once something went in the sell pile it couldn’t come back out. This just meant I’ve emotionally divorced myself from anything in those piles and have happily started to sell them without looking back.

The second was that I didn’t let myself put any of the stuff I was saving back into my drawers or cupboards. They had to stay vacuum packed and in my bedroom. And those vacuum packs are huge and ugly so that was a hugely motivating factor over the next few weeks.

I grew to hate the sight of those bags, and so finally I made a deal with myself. I was allowed to put aside some clothes for next year, and I’d let myself use two of my drawers to put them in. Everything I wanted to keep had to fit in those drawers, and if it didn’t then it’d have to go in the vacuum pack and I’d have to keep the pack in sight of my bed all year.
Let me tell you it is much easier to get rid of a striped t-shirt when it is a choice between getting rid of it or living with the first thing you see every morning being a plastic and beige monstrosity filled with guilt clothes. 

So those are my clear out tips:

·         Once you’ve decided something can go don’t look back

·         If you have to own storage make it ugly – that way you are motivated not to need it!

Remember if you are having a clear out you can raise money for Contact a Family by selling your clothes on ebay and donating some or all of the sale price. It’s really easy and ebay donate the money for you automatically once the sale goes through. I wrote a helpful how to guide if you want to give this a go.

Alternatively you could just sponsor me to keep going here.

And finally for all you rule checkers here is what I wore on days 52,53 & 54





Take care folks,
Ed x


Friday 10 July 2015

Good News and Bad News for child poverty


Today is my 49th day doing the clothes off my back challenge. If you're a regular reader of the blog you'll remember that it all started with a conversation about capsule wardrobes and child poverty (you can read about it here), and has turned into me following these rules for 49 days so far, and a full year by the time I'm done.

I've been thinking about child poverty even more than usual over the last week for one good and one not so good reason which I'll share with you.

 As is traditional I'll start with the bad news....

Our government has decided to change the way child poverty is measured. And (in my personal opinion) they've got this wrong. 

Our current measure says that a child whose family are living on 60% less than the national average income are living in poverty. Now as a measure it's a bit of a blunt stick as individual families will move above and below that line based on national income without their ability to pay their rent changing one iota. But it does acknowledge that you measure poverty by money.

The government will now measuring the impact & the causes of poverty (impact - attainment of children, causes - families being out of work) - this isn't a bad idea BUT without maintaining an income measure there is a risk that this will shift the debate from poverty to education and back to work programmes. Crucial work to be sure but I don't care how well your teacher/ mentor has prepped you for that exam/ interview, you are not going to perform your best if you enter the room starving hungry.

In my borough (Walthamstow) End Child Poverty estimate that 34% of children are living in poverty. To put it another way 10 children in the average classroom round here are living in families where they struggle to make ends meet. Not struggle to buy designer trainers, a new xbox or holidays. But to heat their homes in winter and keep everyone in the home fed and sheltered. This makes me angry. I spent years of my life doing direct work with families in areas of Sheffield and London where poverty is a real issue. I've worked with children who despite their parents best efforts are inadequately dressed for the weather, come to school bone cold because their house has no heating, or indeed hungry. And much as the rhetoric from our more right wing media would have you believe that this is because their parents are feckless and lazy -  my experience is very different. 

Lots of the families I've known who live in poverty have one or both parents in work (63% of children living in poverty nationally are in a working household), lots of them have children whose care needs are higher than the usual and most of them have cut out the luxuries for themselves before they reluctantly decided that their son or daughters winter coat would need to wait for the next paycheck. These are families like yours, made up of people like you and difference between what they need to spend to keep their heads above water and what they have coming is stark.


Income matters and I'm really worried that we've stopped measuring it.You can read more about why it is important here.

The GOOD NEWS of the week is also about income. Specifically it's about the rights of families of children in hospital to continue to get DLA. You'll remember I've talked about the brilliant Mathieson family before in my post about Dowser Day.


Contact A Family have been campaigning with the Mathieson family against the rule that meant DLA payments stopped when their son Cameron was in hospital for more than 84 days.

On Wednesday the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that this was a violation of his human rights. This is the first time ever that the Supreme Court has found for a claimant in a social security case, and it will be transformational for all those whose children face extended hospital stays. 


I'm not ashamed to say that there were tears and whoops in the Contact A Family offices as this verdict came through - it is brilliant, brilliant news.

It's made it easy to keep plodding on with the clothes of my back challenge this week. I know in the scheme of things that the challenge is a small thing - but the money raised helps Contact A Family to do the big, the exciting, the life changing things. 

And with 41% of families of disabled children telling us they've had to take a loan out to pay for food, there is still a lot of work to be done. Thankyou for your support - as always if you want to Support Contact a Family's work you can do so here.

And here for all you rule checkers are day 47 & 48's #clothesoffmyback photos. No effort at all made to pose in these sorry!






Tuesday 7 July 2015

The shiney thing that has made my day




I thought the thing I'd miss most this year would be my vintage dresses. I took the decision ahead of the challenge that my favourite couple of dresses simply wouldn't stand up to daily wear. They were handmade in the 50's and everything about them is just a bit fragile. I decided that I'd sell most of them and just put aside the ones I couldn't bear to part with for a years rest.

But they are not what I've missed most. What I've missed most has nothing to do with the challenge, except as far as my sense of identity goes.It's something I'm allowed to wear as far as the rules of the challenge go, but that through a little twist of fate I couldn't.


Just over 5 years ago a couple of weeks before my 30th birthday, Laura and I headed to the E17 Designers fair, if you live in or around Walthamstow it's worth looking out for. We have some talented artists and makers around here, and there is always something to spark your imagination. I'd picked up a couple of presents for people and was about to head out for a glass of wine when something shiny caught my eye.

That shiny thing was this gold necklace.


Something about it really appealed to me. I couldn't work it out. It broke both of the 'buying Ed jewelry she'll like' rules which are (or were), I don't wear gold, and chunkier is better. But I couldn't stop looking at it.


Anyway - I had a chat to the lovely designer Faith (her website is here) who gave me her card so I could go away and think about it. And I thought about it (a lot) and in the end asked Matt to buy it for me for my 30th - for whatever reason I didn't use Faiths website (I don't know if she had one then?) but just gave Matt her card and described the necklace as being 'like the sun'.

Looking back this was a huge risk - I hadn't seen anything else Faith had designed so I could have got anything. For all I knew she could have had a whole collection made up of those horrible grinning suns (she doesn't - all her stuff is very tasteful). Thankfully Faith remembered what I had been looking at and I got exactly what I wanted.

And since then I've worn it nearly every day, somehow everything else I own looks nicer alongside it. Even though it's tiny and it's light there is a comforting weight around my neck when I put it on, and when I'm nervous I rub it between my fingers.

Until I popped to Sheffield without it for a weekend, came back and couldn't find it anywhere. The weekend I was away Matt had taken up & relaid the bathroom floor, after turning the house upside down I came to the conclusion it was under the bathroom floor. I asked Matt to take up the floor to look for it and he (because he is in full possession of his senses) said no.

And so I started this challenge with simpler clothing, and a whole jewelry box full of other necklaces, but without the one thing that lifted everything I own. Every day I've got dressed and found myself lifting my hand to my throat and feeling the absence of it.

Until today. I have worked from home today and Matt is working lates this week, so when he went out to run an errand mid morning I assumed he was out getting drill bits or whatever plumbers use (really - Matt knows nothing about legislation around disabled children's rights, why would I know anything about plumbing...) Of course because he is an excellent husband he had in fact been over to Faith's to pick me up another necklace to replace my old one. 

I can't tell you how happy I was to see it. 

Matt put it on me straight away but something wasn't right, the comforting weight wasn't in the same place. The chain was a slightly different length to the one I'd had before. I still loved it, but it didn't feel like my necklace.


This is why it's so great to buy from local makers though - because when I texted Faith to say I thought my last chain was 3cm longer - she didn't ignore me, or call me a spoiled brat, or try and charge me gazillions for the change- she invited me to pop round to hers so she could put it on a longer chain. So I knocked off work a half hour early and did just that.

Here is Faith sorting out my chain and being very lovely about the second Archer home visit of the day.





And here is me on Day 46 feeling really comfortable and happy with my lovely necklace back round my neck.
 

 I'm feeling so happy about the whole thing I've donated an extra tenner to Contact A Family - if you want to join me (as at today 7th July 2015 - we've raised £1270 plus gift aid so far) you can push us a little closer to our target here

Monday 6 July 2015

My phone is not making this easy on me

Apologies again for last weeks crummy photo quality. At least the first couple of days this week are going to be similarly pants.

Here's me yesterday:



Here's me today:



I know that those of you that sponsored me want to keep an eye on me to make sure I'm following the rules, and that ideally the images shouldn't be all grainy and shite. The thing is though my phone hates me.

Not only does the camera not have a flash (meaning it's impossible to take a decent photo not only in the evening, but lets face it between the months of November and March), but the bloody cable has stopped working. This means that I might be able to post things on instagram, but retrieving them to use on my blog is a two hour ordeal involving a lot of swearing, one full on pillow thumping paddy and two large books being thrown across the room. I know - it's unfair on the books but the computer belongs to work and the phone (much as it's my mortal enemy as regards its capacity to take and share photos) is how I keep in touch with my mum, my husband and everyone else who doesn't use social media.

I've done a bit of research today about what I can do to make the photos better both for instagram and for the blog. Basically the internet offered up two options: buy a wifi enabled camera, or get an iphone.

The thing is I have a great camera, and a cool little instax mini, and I don't really want to make the significant investment that a wifi enabled camera costs right now. And as for iphones HAVE YOU SEEN HOW MUCH THEY COST? 

Wow.

No.

I'm sorry but I have to presume that no-one actually buys one of these outright but instead everyone gets them on contract and then kids themselves it's free 'cos they are only paying for data right? I can't judge on this by the way, that's how I'm buying my crappy windows phone - slowly and painfully with a commitment until September 2016 for something that hasn't even got a flash. ( I know I'm banging on about this but it was advertised as having a lumix camera & those are ace- this is not one of those).

So what to do?

Thankfully there is (I hope) a third way. I've just found this site and ordered myself a wifi enabled memory card. According to the site I can just pop this in my standard camera and it will automatically update my cloud account and download things to my other devices. Meaning I can use my phone to instagram photos I take from my normal camera.

I'm pretty chuffed with this idea & will let you know how it works out. - Hopefully it'll mean no more rubbish (quality - I make no promises about the me gurning situation) photos on the blog.

I'll probably pick up a cheap pocket sized camera to carry with me (I love my Nikon but it's too heavy to carry everyday) - does anyone have any suggestions?

Sunday 5 July 2015

Clothes Diary Day's 37-43






Hello Gang,

So this is the last Sunday update of this kind. From now on we'll be doing Silent Sunday and I'll post a photo of my outfit here every other day, alongside whatever I've been up to, or am thinking about.

This week has been a fun one.

We're now 5 weeks and 21 items into the years challenge, and it's beginning to feel less weird getting dressed with less choice in the mornings.

 I had a a lazy day last Sunday, on Tuesday and Thursday night had meals lovely friends at mine for tea, and I had two picnics (one of which was at a zoo!). I also took two days off work to tidy my house and identify what more I could get rid of for Contact A Family.

So I added a grey vest top to the list this week. I am now 21 items down & starting to freak out about winter!

Here is item 21





The photos are tiny this week - I'm really struggling with my crummy phone - which has decided to stop talking to my laptop. After about 40 minutes faffing I've emailed them to myself. I'll get this fixed in the week. but for now....


On Sunday (Day 37) -  I forgot to get a photo until I was halfway ready for bed




Monday (Day 38) -  Matt worked late so I had to do a selfie (yes the mirror is still on the sitting room floor, no we haven't put flooring down in the bathroom yet, yes it is embarrassing to me that you can all see the state in which we live!)


 

Tuesday (Day 39) -  I hung out with Ange & Mark, and we took a silly shot with Matt's seriously strong torch.
 


Wednesday (Day 40)-  It was too hot to move from the fan




Thursday (Day 41)-  Cat took a piccie of me making tea (& hiding my face with a spatula)



Friday (Day 42) - was another selfie (don't know why I forgot to get Chloe to take one when we were picnicking)




Saturday (Day 43) - we were at the zoo! (check out my gorgeous nephew)





Have a good week kids!