We know the most sustainable garment already exists so were delighted to chat with charity shop queen Cicely Rae!
]]>I’ve always enjoyed shopping resale sites like eBay & depop for secondhand items, but only started loving charity shopping in the last 4 years or so!
When shopping in charity shops, I like the surprise of what I’m going to find. I always keep a list of the kind of thing I’m looking for. For example, at the moment I’m really keen to come across a denim maxi skirt, but am being patient & waiting for the right one to come along. I know it will!
When shopping on resale sites I like to search for the style of item I’m looking for for example “wide leg trousers” & see what comes up! I only like to buy things I know I am going to wear time & time again, & try not to focus too much on what’s on trend right now!
I also like to consider the brand I am buying when buying secondhand; 'Is it known to produce good quality items that will stand the test of time?'.
For children’s vintage I love Be Diddy (@bediddy_), Woodrow & Co (@woodrow.and.co) and Tiny Human Club (@thetinyhumanclub).
I love online window shopping on Glass Onion Vintage (@glassonionvintage), Thrashed Vintage (@thrashedvintage) and Holmfirth Vintage (@holmfirthvintage1).
I love mending our worn out clothes! I felt a moment of pride recently when my 3 year old suggested we needed to sew something that had a hole in. I love that, that was his first reaction!
My favourite fabric to repair is denim as its pretty sturdy & holds the repair well. I want to improve my confidence & skill in repairing knitted fabric though!
I’ve given this a lot of thought & I think it has to be my vintage dungarees from Be Diddy. I love how versatile they are & I wear them all year round!
It’s very rare that I see an item of clothing & consider buying it, as I am normally quite confident I will be able to get it secondhand at some point down the line once someone has loved it first! If I were to buy something new, I would want to know the company I was buying from. Were doing their best when it comes to sustainability?
Halloween is just around the corner & one of my favourite crafts is turning our old socks into pumpkins!
It would be really fun to go secondhand shopping with someone that has never tried it before! It would be really interesting to show someone how much is already out there!
Companies being completely transparent when it comes to their ethics & making changes to be kinder to our planet. Also less focus on churning out fast-fashion pieces, in exchange for slower fashion & considered buying from consumers.
Wearing our Ella Gauze Dress
Wearing our Erin Retro Rib Print Dungarees
Food guru Michelle Evans - Fecci was a contestant on Great British Bake off back in 2019 and we have been following her journey ever since! From great gardening tips to beautiful bakes, we were thrilled to spend some time with Michelle and find out more.
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My earliest memory of baking is being stood on a stool with my Mum in an apron that drowned me, taking everything in with fascination, excitedly waiting to see the end result!
Growing up on a farm, I learnt the basics of cooking and baking traditional hearty bakes with my Mum and growing veggies with my Dad.
It was my love and passion for baking that made me apply for The Great British Bake Off, a show that I'd watched for years in awe of so many talented bakers. To be chosen to bake in the big white tent was nerve-wracking to say the least, but it was an amazing experience I'll never forget and gave me memories that I will always treasure including being Star Baker of cake week. The endless baking and intense recipe development made me the baker I am today, as it gave me the confidence to try new flavour combinations and become more adventurous in the kitchen!
I now absolutely love writing recipes for brand partnerships and sharing recipes on instagram for people to bake along to at home!
I have many! I like to make the things we enjoy to eat as a family often. That can be anything from roasted vegetable tarts, pasta with pesto, soups, soda bread, ratatouille, curry, meringue or comforting fruity crumbles!
Using produce that is in season are always more flavoursome, sweeter, fresher and better for you. They have travelled less and won’t have added preservatives to make them last longer, as the time from garden to table is very short and produce is at its best.
In our garden, I've always found growing from seed such a magical and rewarding process. It's relaxing, very easy, cheap and it's fun planning what to plant, watching seedlings grow, harvesting and adding them in everyday cooking and baking. It’s also a great way to get children involved and allowing them to see how their food is grown. Being sustainable and as self-sufficient as possible is something we love as a family.
I take inspiration from all the delicious produce in season and what grows around me. We grow a lot in our garden so what I make often depends on what we have that’s ready to harvest. We also like to successional sow so we have a regular supply of things we like to eat most often.
I get my inspiration from my surroundings, nature is so inspirational, as well as seeing the different colours each seasons. I find it makes me value my surroundings so much more. From the pastel colours of the houses in my hometown Tenby and the vibrant blues from the coastal sea to the Autumn colours from the trees in our garden, there’s inspiration everywhere I look!
Since buying my first cookbook with my pocket money from the touring bus library that came to my school as a child, it has been a lifelong dream of mine to write my own. I still have that book; it's covered in splatters and held together with tape!
My book, The Seasonal Baker, is out May 2022. I used my time in lockdown to bake and write delicious easy to follow recipes, which my husband lovingly photographed. It feels very special having done both the writing, baking and photography ourselves, it was a lot of work but worth it! The book is filled with colourful, flavoursome bakes from my kitchen to yours, to enjoy and become family favourites in your home as they have in mine. The inspiring creations in the book will keep you baking through the year with the best produce each season has to offer with little hints and tips on what to grow and when to harvest.
I always suggest buying the best quality ingredients you can afford to buy. I always have a lot of flour, sugar, eggs and cream in my kitchen, as you can whip anything up if you have those! From cakes, to pastries, desserts and biscuits. I always have a lot of veggies in the fridge that can be prepped or frozen if needed, but they’re the perfect base to most dishes including soups, salads and more!
Whether you have a small plant pot, window box, balcony, raised bed or garden veg patch, we can all grow our own! We have a selection of herbs and mushrooms growing on our kitchen window sill which is so handy to cut a few and add straight to your dishes. You can also grow micro greens/herbs in the same way! Micro greens are just smaller versions of fully grown vegetables harvested very young, a few weeks after germination. Perfect to add flavour to your dishes and super easy to grow.
If you’re limited on space, it’s easy enough to grow tomatoes and strawberries in hanging baskets outdoors or in a balcony box, and fruiting bushes such as blueberries and raspberries in pots and potatoes and carrots in bags or tubs. If you want to add some colour to your garden or pots, summer baking or dishes, why not try edible flowers. They’re not only pretty bursting with vibrant colour, they are also really easy to grow and will bring pollinators into your garden. Try some Violas that look beautiful on cakes or nasturtium leaves and flowers to add a peppery kick in your salads. Homegrown goodies are full of flavour!
I would absolutely love to cook or bake for Nigella or Jamie Oliver. I love watching their shows on TV especially their Christmas specials. I love Nigella's indulgent cooking and Jamie’s home style full on flavour approach! They’re both so amazing! I would love to hear what they thought of my bakes.
Pre-order Michelle's 'The Seasonal Baker: Baking All Year Round' book
Follow Michelle and her baking journey on Instagram (@bakesbymichelle).
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I love so many different things and my house is full of vintage books, children’s books, record sleeves, vintage clothes and just about everything can be inspiring. Vintage books are just so beautiful and simple, they are really inspiring!
I work from home, an art studio and a shop so I am now trying my best to get super organised. I have an assistant who works with me for 4 hours a day and that has really helped transform my working day and making time to paint.
I tend to get on top of the admin in the morning and then spend the afternoon in the painting studio. I will then do the school pick up at around 3 and family time to the early evening. If I am working on commission, then I will go back to the art studio for a couple of hours in the evening. I will also sit and do a painting or a collage at home. I work non stop and just love what I do. I try to get 2 long days painting so that I can stay on top of things.
I love anything that has a bit of quality to it. When things were produced in small batches in factories or by a craft person, these products really keep their value and quality. Charity shops are so plentiful here on the Isle of Thanet.
This was an area where lots of bed and breakfasts operated so there is an unbelievable amount of crockery in this area. I love the rummaging looking for something that is rare or beautiful.
I think there is definitely an undertone of folk art in what I do. I love the process of making and creating in a methodical way. My art studio is in the top floor of an old factory and I will work on a group of paintings at the same time. This allows me to paint in a pop art kind of way. I worked in New York near Warhols factory and met the artist who took it over. I feel really inspired by modern art merges with craft and the skill of had painting.
We love the beach - swimming and beach barbecues with friends. We moved here 11 years ago and it was really quiet. Every year it gets busier and busier but it is such a big long coast line, so there is lots of room for everyone!
I am always playing around with new things in the studio. Love the idea of using materials that are available - I love to paint on wood and recently have been commissioned to paint onto a mirror.
I have to say that having my work in the Turner Contemporary shop is absolutely amazing! I would love to do a show in New York as that really was the birth place of my artistic ambitions. New York is such an amazing cross roads of culture and full of amazing art!
I met a Abigial Fallis in London in 1992 when I first went to art college - she is one of my longest friends and her art is amazing. Abigail recently had a large scale banana sculpture in Fulham town and she made smaller scale stacking bananas sculptures and I am eagerly waiting the delivery of this sculpture.
Follow Margo and her daily drawings on Instagram (@margoinmargate) , and see her latest work at www.margomcdaid.com
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Well, aerial is essentially a visual circus art. Hoop, silks, trapeze and straps are probably the most common disciplines. I've been really obsessed with aerial since I was a kid and trained at the national circus centre when I was much younger. But my first true discipline was pole - which has recently been more widely adopted by aerial schools and shows. I also teach and perform hoop and hammocks (aerial yoga mainly).
In the last 5 years, I have seen a huge shift in how people work out and keep fit, its become more of a hobby and a lifestyle choice rather then dragging yourself to the gym! Aerial is one form of fitness that has had a bit of a mainstream push because it's such a thrilling way of keeping fit and learning something new. I love teaching it... but I love performing more. Although, the last time I was on stage I was 5 months pregnant in Oslo doing a very cautious pole show.
I started practicing about 10 years ago after coming home from a stint living and working in LA, I was stressed and miserable and I had an awful stiff neck and shoulder constantly, probably from carrying so much tension. My mum suggested it and I have to say, I hated it at first, I found it pretentious and over the top. I gave it a miss for a few months before trying a new studio. Which is where I fell in love with the practice and decided, quite quickly, I'd rather be doing that for work then anything else.
Wearing our Rib Long Dungarees & Rainbear Easy Fit Dungarees
Yes, 100% there are many different styles, especially now, and every teacher will have a different approach, just like finding the right PT you need to find a style or a studio or a teacher that fits you. There is everything from restorative and chair yoga, to gentle slow and beginners yoga, fast paced flow yoga , yoga for strength, yoga for flexibility, yoga that follows sequences like ashtanga and more free flowing freestyle go with the flow yoga like vinyasa. It's so versatile. That is why I love it... I think the two most common things I hear from people that have yet to try are 'Oh I can't even touch my toes' doesn't matter - neither can many people - I can't on a tight hamstring day!
It's not about being flexible its about finding the right rhythm for your body, connecting your breath to movement or just finding a bit of head space! The second most common I hear is that 'Yoga is for girls' (pay partner is guilty of this one, until I made him do a class). I get a huge number of men in my classes, sometimes even more than women, they may enjoy it for different reasons, or get different benefits from it, but it's absolutely not just for girls.
So I currently teach 4 free entry level classes a week online, they are sponsored by Lucozade, Sport England and Our Parks - we started the classes at the beginning of Lockdown last year and I still see the same happy faces on Zoom every evening. It's a great way to keep people feeling connected through everything we have all been through this past year. You can find the info on my website if you wish to join!
Hard. I am a born and raised Londoner and never imagined myself leaving. I still say I live in London and I can't for sure say we'll be here forever, although I do love it. We moved just before lockdown so I went from the hustle and bustle of Hackney living to a locked down small sea side town in the winter - it was a big shift for my family and a humbling one aswell. But we all really love being by the sea on the days the sun decides to show its face - and there it's no comparison between the size of the house we have here and our two bed hackney basement flat.
He's a bit too much at the moment but I really hope he will, he loves shining in my aerial hammock and has got a fantastic down dog though.
My Poppa had an allotment when I was very young and I have fond memories of picking runner beans for tea with him and my Gran. I've gradually increased what I've grown and learnt about lots of plants and what they need to thrive. In lockdown 1.0 we built a raised vegetable patch in the garden and have been (not so) patiently waiting for an allotment to become available since courgettes and pumpkins took over my garden!
I had to register with my local council who allowed me to put my name on a waiting list at 4 sites in my local area. I wasn't fussy and took the first one they offered me. It was TOTALLY covered with weeds but even in just one week we have made such great progress and have planted some things out already.
I first grew courgettes and herbs around 5 years ago and had a few years off as we moved during the months where vegetables would thrive. Last year in lockdown 1.0 (March 2021) I decided to commit to doing a whole vegetable patch and grew 10 different vegetables and learnt ALOT.
I would recommend herbs, salad leaves, bush beans and courgettes for beginners - you can't go wrong and they are generally prolific and low maintenance.
I first grew courgettes and herbs around 5 years ago and had a few years off as we moved during the months where vegetables would thrive. Last year in lockdown 1.0 (March 2021) I decided to commit to doing a whole vegetable patch and grew 10 different vegetables and learnt ALOT.
I would recommend herbs, salad leaves, bush beans and courgettes for beginners - you can't go wrong and they are generally prolific and low maintenance.
Thinly slicing my home grown courgettes into a summery salad was a very proud moment for me, that or stirring them through linguine with mint (home grown of course) and lemon zest.
Although I've only had my allotment a short amount of time, I know the pride i will have bringing home the veg I have grown for dinner will be unrivalled. I am also growing things I know my friends enjoy eating so I can share the love!
I eat a predominantly plant based diet which i really think is the most sustainable thing anyone can do. I gradually moved from meat eater to 99.9% vegan 5 years ago and have never looked back! Now I can grown my own vegetables its even better, feeding my family with food I grew from seeds is the best thing ever.
You can follow Paula’s allotment journey over on her Instagram page @paulas_plot_ .
Interested in growing your own ? We would love to hear more , get in touch with us at Instagram: @turtledovelondon & Facebook: @turtledovelondon