Strummer of Love festival

If you love festivals and you love crafting you can combine the two this summer at the Strummer of Love festival, from 17^th– 19^th August. The festival, which will take place in Somerset, boasts a fantastic line-up including the Pogues and KT Tunstall.

When you’re not dancing away you can relax in the ‘Handmade Hangout’, where numerous free craft classes will be held, giving you the opportunity to make some fab festival gear including flower garlands and dream catcher jewellery. You can also attend discussions and classes on craft and activism and join the Shoreditch Sisters WI in their quilt project.

However, there is a more serious reason for the festival; it will be commemorating the tenth anniversary of the death of Clash front man, Joe Strummer. His daughter, Jazz Domino Holly, author of Queen of Crafts:The Modern Girls’ Guide to Knitting, Sewing, Quilting, Baking, Preserving and Kitchen Gardening, will be hosting the Hangout.

Other attractions at the festival include ‘The Blackdown Hills Elderflower Kitchen’, a pop-up cafe which aims to source ingredients from within ten miles of the festival. Traditional English tea will be served daily in the kitchen, which will be situated in an Indian tent with hay bale seating.

To find out more visit the festival’s website or Jazz’s blog.

New Year, no new clothes

Stuck for New Year resolutions? Here’s an idea:

Christmas might be over but there is still New Year to look forward to and all those optimistic resolutions to make. If you’re struggling to set yourself any New Year resolutions for 2012, an article I read in the January 2012 issue of one of my favourite magazines, Company, offers an inspirational read. 

January 2012 issue of Company magazine

The piece discusses how style blogger Vicky Sowerby (you can find her blog at: http://www.sewabee.co.uk/) gave up shopping for a year (from 1 December 2010 to 1 December 2011) and yet still managed to wear a different outfit every day for 365 days, donating the money she would have otherwise spent on clothes to the Oldham Cancer Support Centre.

Vicky told Company her challenge made her a lot more creative with the clothes she already had, wearing them in combinations she never would have thought of and up-styling and accessorising them to look different.

Not only can a challenge like this save lots of money, but it can help the environment by reducing the amount of clothes being bought, hardly worn, wasted and sent to landfill.

The article on Vicky's challenge in Company

There are plenty of ways to create different looks without buying new clothes, including shopping at charity, second-hand and vintage shops, making your own clothes, customising clothes you already have or hosting swap parties with friends.          

So, this New Year, why not resolve to buy no new clothes or, if that’s just too unrealistic for you, only buy one new item every month.