Is this too easy? Let's make it harder....

“You don’t make things easy on yourself do you?”

Honestly I feel like someone says this to me at least once a week. Not just in relation to the challenge but everything I choose to do….

When we first got Squeak, she ate my sofa and both of my armchairs, tore up skirting boards and freaked out every time she was left alone for 5 minutes. I of course immediately adored her, but several friends asked me why on earth I’d want to take on a dog that was such hard work.

But not my best friends mum, she’s known me since I was eight and to her it made total sense “Of course you’d take on a rescue dog, and a clumsy, anxious one at that. You’ve always found easy things boring” – and she was right.

 

Squeak - showing off her appetite for destruction!

That sofa Squeak ate – did I buy it from a shop and have it delivered ready to go like a normal, sensible person with a full time job would? Of course not. I bought a second hand vintage suite, went on an upholstery course and spent 6 painful months taking the chairs apart and putting them back together. We sat in and enjoyed the chairs for maybe 3 months before we got Squeak……

The thing is Squeak has been worth the sofa, and the changes to our life, the expense, the vet’s bills, and the constant worry about if we are giving her a good life. She has an amazing personality and has repaid us tenfold in love and laughter for every effort we put in. And actually I’ve found that about almost everything I’ve ever worked hard at (except maybe that sofa – that I will admit was a momentous waste of time). If I have to push myself to do something then I value it, I almost always learn something new and I LOVE learning.

Squeak - worth the effort for food cleaning up support alone!

I hit the 100 days mark on the challenge on Monday. In the last 100 days some awesome things have happened – 2 weddings, several engagements, trips to the zoo, family parties, nights away with Matt, at work there have been award nominations (lots of them!), interviews, events, conferences, round tables – a really busy, challenging and rewarding 100 days. And through that 100 days, 23 items of clothing worn, a photo taken every day and 38 posts on the blog.

And I’ve learnt LOADS about myself. But maybe not enough – because last week I made a decision that will bring me great joy – but is going to make this whole challenge that little bit harder. In January I’m going to take a month off work to travel around India.

I am hugely excited about this – I love India and it’s been a decade since I was last there, I’m going with a friend that I love dearly and who makes me laugh so much I snort things out of my nose.

And so mainly I’m excited - but there is a teeny tiny part of me that is (very) worried about clothes. I have 12 items left to add to my year’s allowance (13 if you guys decide to let me swap the broken sandals for the new pair I got). And as everyone who’s seen Game of Thrones knows – winter is coming.

In my summer wardrobe I didn’t include a single long skirt or lightweight pair of trousers- both of which I’ll need in India, I’m also going to need another long sleeved shirt – ideally these will be lightweight as it is going to be hot.

But winter here? Christmas? February? (Especially on return from a hot country) – That’s going to be cold. So I’m still going to need winter boots, a flannel shirt, a couple of long sleeved t-shirts, a couple of jumpers, a coat, a warm skirt, a second pair of jeans, a hat, scarf and gloves – oh and something to wear to Bob and Laura’s wedding. Which the mathematicians amongst you will notice is 16 new items, out of a maximum of 13 things I can buy between now and May. And that doesn’t leave even a tiny bit of wiggle room for things wearing out.

So I’m going to have to think about this really carefully – how cold is it likely to be here this winter? Do I need a winter coat or will I be able to get away with layering jumpers under my Mac? What about if the jumpers are long sleeved? Can I manage without gloves?

I think it’ll be doable (just). But it isn’t going to be easy – of course not – everyone knows I don’t make things easy on myself!

*A huge thankyou to everyone reading the blog. At the time of writing this there has been a hugmongous 18,500 page views. I’m loving hearing from you all – keep the comments, tweets and messages coming! And remember I’m doing this whole shindig for charity so if you feel moved to donate you can do so here.

Enjoy your weekends.

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!

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

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!

Stats watch - Month 1

I know you've all been dying to see the whole month in one shot, with some very niche statistics... no? Oh well - brace yourselves because I'm doing it anyway!

So between 23rd May & 22nd of June:

I've worn 19 items that is 54% of my allowable clothes.

Most worn item so far is my sandals with a massive 19 wears so far - this means I've worn them for 61% of the challenge, and that they are already clocking in at a very reasonable £2.36 per wear (not including all the times I wore them before the challenge started).

25 of us have donated a total of £920 plus £210 in gift aid, that is an average of £45.20 per person! Thankyou you generous generous people!

The biggest single donation so far came from the lovely Sean Davies ( as a tax on not naming his firstborn after me I think!) - Seans contribution alone would cover 2 workshops on something like benefits, behaviour or sleep for 20 parents each. 

You are doing a brilliant thing here people keep it up.

So what will month 2 bring?

Well......invites are going to go out for the first event, I'm going to go big on ebaying, there will be my first ever vlog (that's going to be stilted and awkward) & (with a couple of friends) I'll be setting up some craft sessions for autumn.

If you haven't sponsored me yet, then please do - even if you decide you'll donate the equivalent of buying me a pint (or a pie) every month it will all add up.

There are other things you can do to support fundraising that will cost you NOT A SINGLE PENNY!

Sell some stuff you don't want on ebay - I wrote a guide here.

Raise awareness of what Contact a Family do - or of my challenge by sharing my facebook posts, tweets and the blog itself. Add me to your google circles (this is new to me but I'm told it's important).

And tell me what you think - here on the blog comments. Do you want to dare me to do something silly & are prepared to pay to see evidence of it? Fine make your offer. This is for charity & a charity I love and care about, so (within limits) I'm open.

We're £1k down but there is 2 more to go & frankly whatever we raise will be put to good use.

Thanks for being part of team #clothesoffmyback. I genuinely am supremely grateful for your support!

Normal service will resume tomorrow with a blog on how to make a hat from flowers! 



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Dowser Day - supporting the Mathiesons court battle

Hello Everyone,

Those of you that follow either me (@edarcherthinks) or Contact A Family (@contactafamily) will have noticed a lot of tweets about Dowser Day recently. You'll have seen lots of photo's of dinosaurs and may have wondered what it is all about.

Over the last few years Contact a Family been supporting the Mathieson family as they fight against the government rule that takes away Disability Living Allowance (DLA) payments from children who spend over 84 days in hospital.

The Mathiesons' son Cameron spent over two years in hospital with cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy when his DLA payments were stopped. The family are currently awaiting a decision from the Supreme Court on their legal challenge to scrap this rule. If they are successful it could mean no other family loses essential financial support when their child spends long periods in hospital.



Sadly Cameron passed away in October 2012, aged five. Every year on his birthday, 19 June, his mum, dad, brothers and sister celebrate his life through Dowser Day, a nod to Cameron's love of dinosaurs.

Cameron's dad Craig Mathieson explains: "Cameron loved everything and everyone in his life and, like many boys his age, he was fascinated with dinosaurs. Because of Cameron's speech delay he couldn't say dinosaur and called them Dowsers instead."

 

One of the reasons I love working for Contact A Family is that the Mathieson's aren't a symbol or a test case for us. Everyone in the organization - including people like me who have never met the family take the situation they were put in by this unfair rule personally.

 

Which meant when we were offered a way to show the family we cared about their loss, and we were grateful for all the effort they are putting in to change this situation for other families by joining in Dowser Day celebrations everyone really threw themselves into it.

 

Here's some of the stuff the team made in our lunchbreaks:

You can find loads more contributions to Dowser Day from staff, families and supporters here and our thankyou video here. People from all over the country got involved. It was brilliant, and no it won't make a difference to the outcome of the court case wether we made a giant dinosaur head or not. But it does make a difference to remember that families of disabled children are families first, and to support and celebrate ordinary family life. 

And it does (to me at least) make a huge difference to work in a charity where everyone really gets that and knows that it is not for us to set an agenda for families but to support them to set their own agenda, get their voices heard and celebrate and protest in a way of their choosing. Contact A Family are really good at what they (we) do, because we are all about families leading the way. Doesn't that sound like the kind of organisation you want to support? As always donating is easy you can do so here.

 

  

Clothes diary Day's 23- 30

Hello Everyone

This week has been a little special. Tomorrow I'll do you an update on how dowser day went - I think it'll give you a taste of why the charity you are all supporting by sharing, promoting and sponsoring this challenge is so amazing. I'll also do you a tutorial on how to make the fabulous fresh flower hat I wore on day 29. But for now here's a super quick overview of what I wore and how many items are now on the list.

I spoke at a conference on Wednesday - this involved adding 2 dresses to the line up. For you maths geeks (who are going to LOVE my stats post on the 23rd of each month) That takes me to 54% of my wardrobe in 8.2% of the year.

So the new items are......


My 'pretending to be a grown up' Hobbs dress. It's a beautiful, basic navy number which crucially has pockets which has made it one of my favourite peices of workwear. So here you go. Item Number 18 The navy dress:

 

And my favourite (it's 5 years old now at least) summer frock, item number 19, adding some much needed colour to my wardrobe :

And then this week:

Day 23 

Sunday - lot's of lazing about going on

Day 24

Monday - working from home

Day 25
Tuesday - double denim at the office

Day 26

Wednesday - pretending to be a grown up at a conference

Day 27

Thursday - linen and silk in an attempt to deal with humidity (spot the dowser day prep)

Day 28
Friday -end of the week frock action

Day 29
Saturday - Jeans, trainers & a hat made out of flowers (what else would you wear to a wedding?)

Day 30
Sunday - summer frock for pub lunch

 I'll update you in week with posts about the stats so far, some things you can do and why Contact a Family is a cause you'll want to donate to, but for now happy Sunday xx

What do they call double denim in NYC? The Texas Tux? Disappointingly No

So far in the challenge lots of people seem a bit concerned about what I’m wearing out. Not  OUT out – everyone’s clear I’m far too conventional to allow myself to be inappropriately dressed for a wedding, and they know I’ll have made sure I have smart enough stuff for presentations  and work events. People are worried about what I’ll have t for evening drinks in town.

It’s true that there isn’t much in my wardrobe that’ll work for a cutting edge bar in Shoreditch – but I thought I’d got it sorted. Double denim . Jeans, denim shirt, heels and a slick of lipstick. It’s a classic no? 

Every year a glut of fashion magazines announce that we’ll be amazed to hear double denim is back. And we aren’t because it’s never really gone away. Yes, there is a risk you look like you’re dressed up as a cowgirl – but I’m ok with that. So I’ve full on embraced the looks other nickname – the Texas tux.

I love a bit of bluegrass, and deeply uncool as it is I also have a lot of time for 70’s country and western. Rule of thumb – if my dad played it in his car I love it. One of my happiest childhood memories is me, Zoe & Jason in the back of the spacecruiser roaring along to Grandma’s OldFeather Bed  – that is what family is all about right? And I’ve always wanted to do the old City Slickers cow herding thing – so the name always felt cool to me.

Until I met my lovely friend Leah for lunch on Sunday. Leah is a full on Yankee, with all the epic coolness that implies. She’s sharp, she’s got a filthy sense of humour and has insanely good hair. Sickening all round really.

When Leah asked the- “But with that few clothes what do you wear to bars?” question I replied almost cockily “the classic texas tux”

And Leah attempted to stifle an enormous snort. “that is not what we call in in NYC – in New York it’s called ………..

……A CANADIAN TUXEDO”

Her face made it very clear this was not intended as a compliment.

Thing is I’ve always had a soft spot for Canadians – they take a lot of stick for Celine Dion – but really what nation doesn’t have a star that they are a bit ashamed of – David Essex anyone?  When I first traveled with friends I met countless Americans who wore a Canada pin because they knew people would be more friendly to them if they thought they were Canadian. This was in ’99 – it wasn’t political. It was about politeness- that’s the reputation Canadians carry (excepting the odd crack smoking mayor) – that they are polite. I’m not ashamed to hang my hat there (even if I’d rather it was a Stetson). 

So regardless of NYC disdain you’ll find me at the bar rocking my Canadian tux.

P.S. Philanthropy is well cool – you can donate here.

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