Learning to Love Charity Shop Shopping

February 22, 2013 By in Harpenden Tags: , , , , , 24 Comments

charity shop books

When I was a kid, I hated charity shops. My Mum was brilliant in them – she had a real instinct for finding hidden treasures in the unlikeliest of places – and would always emerge victorious with a perfect pair of jeans or a cashmere cardi. She and a friend would take whole days to visit other towns nearby and trawl their shops for a change. But I didn’t to inherit her skill, and I wasn’t prepared to work at it. I’d get bored quickly, and could never be bothered rifling through the racks of musty smelling garments on the off chance that I might find something useful.

More recently, I’ve had a change of heart. I still don’t buy clothes in charity shops (mainly because, as you’ll have guessed from my post on fashion earlier in the week, I don’t really buy clothes at all…) but if I’m looking for books or toys, they are the first place I go.

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Sharing the Blog Love

February 21, 2013 By in Blogging Tags: , , 48 Comments

The blogging world can get a bit ‘mememe’ at this time of year, as we all hustle for your votes in the various award ceremonies. So I want to do a ‘youyouyou’ post that balances things out slightly, and promotes other people instead.

Here are some of my favourite posts by other bloggers that I’ve read recently.

1. “Being a leftie is, frankly, complicated and exhausting.” – A brilliant post by In A Village By Mistake about activism.

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Fashion – Who Cares?

February 20, 2013 By in Nostalgia Tags: , 27 Comments

red silk dress

So apparently it’s London Fashion Week. Or LFW as those in the know seem to be calling it.

Now, I like to think of myself as a fairly open minded kind of person, with a broad range of interests. But when it comes to the F word, I struggle to count how many damns I do not give.

It really, truly, genuinely baffles me that otherwise quite sane people can go into raptures over a heeled shoe, a hat or handbag.

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A Guest Post from Indonesia

February 19, 2013 By in Activism, Guest Posts Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 8 Comments

Yesterday I wrote a post about Save the Children’s new campaign on breastfeeding.

Today I’m absolutely thrilled to have a guest post on the blog from Tasya, an inspiring woman who works as the head of advocacy and legal division for an organisation in Indonesia called AIMI.

AIMI (the Indonesian Breastfeeding Mothers Assocation) is a group of mothers providing advice and support on breastfeeding through Facebook, Twitter and Blackberry Messenger. They provide a 24 hour hotline to support and educate women about the option of breastfeeding, and also use social media to gather evidence of marketing malpractices of breast milk substitutes, for example crowdsourcing photos of posters which break the breastfeeding marketing code of conduct.

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The Power of the First Hour

February 18, 2013 By in Activism Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 17 Comments

breastfeeding in the Philippines

When I started this blog, nearly two years ago, one of my very first posts was titled ‘Breast is Best, but there’s no need to keep shouting about it.’

I stand corrected.

Sometimes, it’s absolutely crucial to shout about it.

Not when you’re talking about the UK – where mothers can make an informed choice, and where babies are likely to grow up healthy and safe whatever choice they make – but in developing countries, where the choice can literally mean the difference between life and death.

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