Making: Inspirational Art Mirror
Take a plain mirror and some alphabet stickers.
Sorted by Letter
Choose a phrase to incorporate into your art.
Yeah!
Test out the phrase on the mirror before sticking it down: you don’t want to get halfway through and mess up the design.
Yeah, that’s my finger!
Stick the letters down: you may have to buff down the mirror afterwards because you’ve left fingerprints on the glass.
But first, let me take a selfie!
Paint it all, let it dry, and then peel the stickers off.
Making: A Stripy Photo Frame
Happy Holidays!
At this time of year, I always start to feel the pinch so over the next few weeks I will be providing picture tutorials on how to make presents that look classy without costing the earth.
So you take a basic photo frame. You can get a whole bunch for less than a pound a piece from here.
So, I didn’t think about this until I was half way through my craft project
Then, you wrap tape around your frame– I did mine diagonally but you can have fun with this.
Paint
I know, it looks bad!
Leave to dry and then peel off.
Tah Dah
Last Minute Halloween Costumes
So you left it too late to order your costume and there’s a Halloween party tonight; what will you do? Well with a little creativity and some good ol’ fashioned closet raiding, you can pull off a costume without spending a lot of money.
#LoserDonald
iPhone: So you already have one of these (probably) but I bet you’ve never used it to tweet ill-informed nonsense about a pageant winner at 3am (don’t!) or tweet that climate change isn’t real or tweet that everyone should stop buying Apple products…from your iPhone.
Play Money: You know, for all those billions that you claim to have… With this printable money, you can even write cheques from your charitable foundation to a political candidate.
An ill-fitting suit and a blonde wig
We’d be more than happy to help #Trump dress better—because at the end of the day, we all have to look at him.” https://t.co/3yUx2LQHjq pic.twitter.com/11jkQ8j2R2
— Emma Murphy (@mainstreamqueen) October 19, 2016
Whatever your Halloween Costume, remember to have fun and stay safe.
HOW TO ECO-HACK YOUR HALLOWEEN
Hey everyone and welcome to this special Halloween blog, where you too can learn how to be spooky and sustainable from someone who dresses up like a witch all year long.
As with all big holidays, there is a lot of waste created over the Halloween period; from far too many candy wrappers to cheap costumes that are made to be worn only once to perfectly edible pumpkin pulp, which is far too often thrown in the bin when carving Jack O’ Lanterns.
With that in mind, here’s how you can susty-hack your Halloween.
COSTUMES
Many store-bought costumes are mass produced and designed to be worn just the once (that’s how big business stays big) but that’s an incredible waste of materials and money.
Here are some alternatives:
- Create your own costume using items you already have to hand i.e. a black dress, stripy socks, some temporary hair dye, and a cat necklace makes you a modern-day
- Swap costumes with your friends so that you can save your costume from landfill without being the person who has dressed as a pirate for four years running.
- Buy a costume from a charity shop to save money and do some good.
TRICK OR TREAT
Unfortunately, the time when you could give handmade sweets out on Halloween is long gone. Parents will assume, no matter how nice you are, that something has been done to it and will throw it out. But does this mean that you’re stuck with giving out individually wrapped sweets?
No, there are plenty of other options.
If you have kids, ask them if they’d like to throw a Halloween party, complete with spooky homemade treats, rather than trick or treat. They can invite their friends and you’ll save a mountain of candy wrapper from landfill.
If you don’t have kids, consider only allowing children you know to trick or treat at your house, like a friend’s child or younger relatives, so that you can give out unwrapped sweets. Alternatively, you could give out fruit or sweets with eco-friendly wrapping or small toys.
If you have let your children go trick or treating (or your own trick or treaters never arrived and you ate all the mini chocolate bars) and you’re stuck with a tonne of wrappers, you could always recycle them via TerraCycle (fees apply) or upcycle them into a craft project (perhaps even next year’s Halloween costume).
DECORATIONS
As someone whose house is perpetually Halloween-ready (by which I mean, there are always cobwebs), I love creating Halloween decorations rather than buying them.
One of the key things here is pumpkin carving which I adore, even though I’m not that good at it. In order to keep my Jack O’ Lantern susty and scary, I make Pumpkin Gut Soup but you could make pumpkin spice latte, sweet pies, or even a body scrub with the leftovers.
Other ghoulish Halloween decorations include:
- Making tombstones from painted cardboard boxes
- Cut up laddered tights to create spiders
- Make ghosts out of old sheets
One last thing, remember that our animal friends don’t enjoy Halloween as much as we do. Keep all pets (especially black cats) inside this weekend and on Halloween; away from fireworks, chocolate, and people who may cause harm to them.
So what are your tips for a green Halloween? Share them in the comments below.
Why is LGBT Pride so important?
As of 2017, there are 71 countries where being gay is illegal and ten where it carries the DEATH SENTENCE (All Out). There are many more countries where the government will deny your human rights due to your gender identity or sexual orientation. There is no country in the world where LGBTQ+ people have full equality.
Source: Why is LGBT Pride so important?
What do I do with burnt saucepans and my other junk?
Susty-hack your way to better finances; get items for free, rejuvenate your damaged goods and sell on your broken electronics.
Part of Your World
Harvey Milk Day
In honour of Harvey Milk Day, which is on Monday, I’d like to share with you some of my favourite pictures of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay official in Californian history.
The importance of checking your bank statements
This Finance Thursday is about the importance of checking your bank account and credit card statements.
All it takes is about 10 minutes a month and it might save you lots of money.
I’ve taken a picture of a credit card statement that I received at some point last year: I know the amount of colour coding is offputting. I’m Type A.
For most people, this can be as simple as just confirming that the purchases on the statement are purchases that you can account for.
There are five separate transactions of between £1 and £23 at the Fleet pub on April 2nd, did someone steal my card or did I buy a round for my friends, a couple of pitchers and one shot? Does that sound legit?
For others, you can keep track of refunds that you should receive (Diamond).
I go a little beyond that but no one else needs to.
Colour Key
Blue: These are postage charges for my business. I like to highlight it so that I can keep business expenses separate. These charges are ultimately paid by my customers rather than myself.
Red: This was a vet bill, that I had to claim back on my pet insurance.
Yellow: So at this time, I owed money to my parents. I paid for some of their purchases on my credit card and at the end of the month, I totalled it up and took it off the amount that I owed them.
Green: This related to business expenses to put on my tax return for next year. That way, even if my receipts went missing, I would still be able to access the charges and claim for them.
Red and Purple Diamond: I do not have enough highlighters. This was items that I was waiting for a refund on. H+M- the clothes didn’t fit and The Works- they charged me but something went wrong with the payment system and I never got any order confirmation. This was to remind me to check that I had received the refund by my next statement.
Green and Red Star: My dad hates the internet and asked me to order a present for my mum… actually, did he pay me back for that??
Gotta go.
Hotel Rooms Perks
So you’ve already read about saving money when booking your hotel room and cheaper alternatives to traditional hotels.
We now move on to: what can you take from hotel rooms?
