Upcycling: my new favourite obsession on TV and at home

Why I buy what I buy

I don’t follow trends. I don’t really follow fashion at all, to be honest. If I happen to fall in love with something that just happens to be all the rage then great, I’ll buy it. More often than not, I don’t ‘get’ the latest trends or I remember them the first time round! I actually quite like buying clothes that aren’t really in at the moment anyway. I like to wear stuff that everybody else isn’t necessarily wearing. Charity shop or eBay finds can sometimes be the best. As can the smaller independent boutiques who quite often have things that are completely different from the chainstores.

Having said, I do tend to buy a fair amount of my clothes from the larger stores like H&M, Massimo Dutti, etc. However most of my clothes are bought in the sales, purely because I simply love a good bargain! I’m also very fond of upcycling at the moment too. And I’m always on the lookout for things that can be altered to suit / fit me.

Money for Nothing

One of my current favourite TV shows is BBC’s Money for Nothing. Have you seen it? It’s basically all about upcycling. Not clothes though (not that I’ve seen yet anyway) – this show is all about things that are found in the local UK recycling centres…

Things like old fish tanks, tables and chairs, pieces of wrought iron, gnarled wood, glass bottles, 70s curtains and even old buckets! I’m usually absolutely amazed at what they create out of old rubbish. It’s incredible. They then go and sell their newly upcycled items and give the profit back to the person who was throwing out the rubbish in the first place. There’s a similar show on Channel 4 called Find it, Fix it, Flog it which is quite good too.

Finding things to upcycle

Since I started watching Money for Nothing, I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled for anything that can be upcycled and I even pulled over at a rubbish bin a few weeks ago when I spotted an old wooden chair lol. I brought it home and it is currently awaiting refurbishment in the garage! I’ll keep you posted how it goes. If you like upcycling projects too, check out my Pinterest page – I quite often pin fun stuff on there.

In the meantime, I’m kind of wearing something upcycled today. These shoes. They were given to me by a dear friend who was having a clear out. And if that isn’t upcycling, I don’t know what is! Aren’t they fabulous? They’re from Zara and are black patent leather.

I’ve had leather boots from Zara before and they’ve been lovely quality, lasting for years. I’m pretty sure these will be the same. I wore them with white skinny jeans, a black blouse and my Massimo Dutti suede jacket. I threw on a long black necklace (another gift from a friend) and earrings, my super fabulous handbag (a gift from mother-in-law) and a slick of red lippy and nail polish and felt a million dollars.

All I need now is to work out how to upcycle a pumpkin from my garden into a fabulous carriage a la Cinderella and I’m off out for a bite to eat. You coming? 😉