We’ve had such a hot, dry summer with heat wave after heat wave. I don’t love hot weather, so I was very happy when we had a nice cloudy day recently with a good rain. Unfortunately, it’s been so dry that the rain didn’t make much of a difference to the water table, and we really could do with several days in a row of a steady, soaking rain…but at least we had that small reprieve. And when it had finished raining and the clouds had passed, there were millions of diamonds left behind frosting each and every petal.
I hope you will forgive this blog turning into a diary of all of the photos of flowers I’ve seen lately. I haven’t been feeling well the past week so wasn’t able to finish a different post I had planned, so here are some Spring blossoms to cheer you on this Wednesday!
I wish you could smell them, they are so delightful, and this is such a lovely time of year, isn’t it?
Do you have blooming trees where you live? What are your favourite Spring flowers?
Spring took its time arriving this year. The leaves have finally popped, and the flowers are just starting to bloom. We are several weeks “behind” (though it’s not as though Spring follows a schedule) so it’s been lovely to finally see the garden coming up in the past couple of weeks.
These are tiny yellow and white tulips- only a few inches tall, and they were the first to come up!
I don’t have much to say today. I was looking forward to getting into blogging regularly again and had a schedule planned, but then hit a bump in the road health-wise which has slowed me down quite considerably for the past week. Thankfully, I am now on the road to recovery, and at last able to put down some words and edit some photos! I’ve also been thinking a lot lately about different fashion related topics. I haven’t written up any posts lately, but am hoping to get some thoughts down on paper soon, and be able to bring you some more blog posts, like back in the “old days” of this blog. (haha- only a couple of years ago, but time does fly!)
I hope you are doing well, and happy weekend everyone!
I wish you could smell this iris- it has the sweetest scent!
Nanking Cherry with such a pretty pink bloom,
These tiny little violets came up in the lawn- so adorable. And hens and chicks on the right.
These tiny white flowers are a weed, but so pretty! Each bloom is only about 3-4mm across.
These tiny yellow cinquefoil flowers also came up in the grass- so cute. Right: don’t you love new leaf green?
My favourite plum tree, just covered in beautiful, sweet blooms this year!
More plum blooms, and False Spirea leaves on the right.
Bog Rosemary- such a cool pink flower!
Elephants Ears on the left and Bethlehem Sage on the right.
I was almost hesitant to share these photos, and for a reason that isn’t readily apparent. It’s not because my hair wasn’t quite cooperating this day, my camera wasn’t focusing properly or because it was really warm in the house and I was eager to get this sweater off.
It’s because this outfit fails at ethical fashion.
If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, it won’t come as a surprise that I care about responsible fashion- I talk about it a lot. I take part in Fashion Revolution each year. The majority of my clothing is secondhand. I sew slowly and thoughtfully- I try to make sure that each of the items I make are ones that will add value to my closet. I don’t technically have a “capsule” wardrobe, but each and every item is chosen carefully and definitely worn more than 30 times.I very seldom purchase anything new, and when I do, I try to buy natural fibres, and search out ethical brands if possible.
I love fashion (no surprise there), but seeking to be purposeful and ethical in a world where fast fashion is the norm, can be hard.
And sometimes when you find a mustard yellow sweater, you buy it.
A few weeks ago, I was visiting a local clothing store with my mom and sister, trying to help my mom find a sweater, and as we were looking, I came across this mustard yellow sweater. I’ve been looking for a long time (a couple of years) for some mustard yellow pieces, since it is my favourite colour, but is extremely hard to find!
Since it was on sale, I bought it.
And then I immediately started thinking about the fact that it is made out of rayon and polyester, and dyed with a toxic mix of chemicals, and was made in China, and other than that, I definitely don’t know “who made my sweater”, and then I started regretting it, because this is not ethical fashion, and how can I call myself an ethical fashion proponent, when I just made a very unethical shopping choice?
But I’ve been doing some thinking lately, and I would like to share a few of thoughts on whether it’s possible to be completely “ethical” in your shopping choices.
I participated in a course that Fashion Revolution was offering a while ago. It was an interesting activity, but the one thing that stuck out to me, was this response by the founder of Fashion Revolution, Orsola De Castro to the question, “Is it possible to have a 100% sustainable or ethical wardrobe?”
I don’t think it’s possible to have 100% clothes that were designed or made sustainably or ethically. I think that is going to be very difficult, but it is possible to make sustainable and ethical choices about all of the clothes you have in your wardrobe. So, somehow, you can refresh with love and turn them into something they weren’t originally. . . You can do things like shop at Primark and H&M, but with the same respect if you were shopping somewhere like Gucci. You’ve got to treat your fiver like it was $500, and choose that piece not because you are “stress shopping at Zara”. We are not stress shopping at Zara: we are “deep love shopping at Primark” or Zara or wherever. . . Because, if we were to commit to 100% not putting one foot wrong, we would be damaging ourselves and our wardrobes immensely, and also the people who actually make our clothes, because there are an awful lot of people making clothes who are waiting for the industry to ameliorate, and what are we going to do in the meantime?Boycott them all? As consumers, we still buy that product. We just buy it in a different way, so we can give a really strong message to the brands. This message might be “Slow down”. This message might be “No, we don’t want five for the price of one; we want one well made piece for the price of five”.
—
This past year I have started going zero waste in my lifestyle. At first, I thought the concept of “zero waste” was to try and produce no garbage at all. We’ve all seen the pictures of people’s “trash jars” where they are able to fit all of their garbage from the past year (or more) into one glass jar. It’s inspiring to think about living a life that doesn’t result in garbage, but it’s not completely realistic for most people.
I live in a small town, and there is no bulk store. Cauliflower comes wrapped in plastic. I recycle or compost everything I can, but still end up with garbage at the end of the day.
As I’ve been reading more, and started following several zero wasters on Instagram, one thing that keeps coming up is the fact that we are currently living in a culture that is designed to result in garbage. “Zero waste” doesn’t mean that you are producing zero garbage, but is rather a name for a movement that is trying to restructure our global economy to one designed to be circular, where garbage isn’t part of the cycle. Today our products (whether it’s clothing, or food or other things) are designed with waste. It’s impossible to create “zero waste” as a consumer. And even if you think that you are doing a fairly good job, there is garbage that has been created before the product even reaches you. (I work in a shop, and the amount of packaging garbage that is thrown out before a product even reaches the shelf is astounding.)
But again, this quote by Instagrammer Andrea Sanders (@bezerowastegirl) has been bopping around in my head for a while:
“Zero Waste isn’t easy because it’s an infrastructure that doesn’t exist right now. Access to bulk stores, fresh markets and the like are not accessible to most. Everyone makes trash. Period. Do what you can. Never feel guilty because you can’t do something. There is no absolutism.”
—
And so, it makes me ask: Was this sweater an unwise shopping decision after all? Am I “failing” at ethical fashion?
Our current fashion culture is one that is driven by the need to buy more and more, regardless of how much we already own, but when I purchased this sweater, I wasn’t buying it from a fast fashion perspective.
I have been searching for a mustard yellow sweater for a few years, so it was not a spur of the moment purchase. It was “deep love” shopping, not buying for the sake of buying.
It is estimated that wearing a garment at least 30 times, reduces the carbon, waste and water footprint of a garment by 20%-30%. I wear all my clothes at least 30 times, and despite the fact that this sweater is not made of completely natural fibres, it is well sewn and will last me many years. I also take care of my clothes, and will be hand washing this one to help increase it’s lifespan.
It’s a tricky issue. I can’t say that I’m completely convinced that I should have bought it. Maybe if I had waited a while longer I would have come across something in mustard yellow that would have ticked all the boxes, but then again, maybe not.
I want my wardrobe to be 100% ethical, but that’s not really feasible right now. If 95% of my wardrobe is ethical fashion, then is the 5% that isn’t ethical, OK? Where do you draw the line? Is there a line? How do you balance want vs. need, especially with something as “frivolous” as fashion?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this issue. How do you decide for your own wardrobe?
Melodrama in Mexico: Follow along as an American power broker conquers the jungles of Mexico and might also be involved in seducing someone else’s wife, in this Jazz Age tale of Big Business.
—
That is all I could find out about this novel Tampico, by Joseph Hergesheimer, and it all sounds quite tedious. The novel was also apparently made into the movie “The Woman I Stole“. Considering that no one has ever heard of this film either, I am going to guess it wasn’t a blockbuster hit.
Terrible sounding story aside, it made for a great cover to replicate for #myvintagecover! My friend Chantelle was visiting for a few days, and we decided that we wanted to make a cover together. Finding a magazine cover that had two people in it, proved more difficult than we thought it would be, though. After diving into the depths of google, we eventually found this 1920’s cover art by Erte, and decided that it wouldn’t be “too” difficult.
Why we decided to wear fur and wool hats on the hottest day of the year (it actually was the hottest day we’ve had all summer!) who knows- but after the debacle involving a forgotten camera (it was sitting at home on the desk), a hot and grumpy person (oh- that would be me) and a background that required being completely photoshopped in the end- it actually turned out rather well. Part way through photo editing, I realized that this was not going to be a simple crop and splice sort of editing job, and it took quite a while to get the pictures lined up, the background edited and the colours correct, but I’m glad I persevered, as it is definitely one of the most fun covers I’ve ever done!
There’s still a week left of August- do you think you’ll be joining in with the challenge? There are some pretty great covers over on Instagram- make sure to go and check out the hashtag!
