Thrifty shoes, big & small

We're having a freakishly warm day here today (for winter) in Sydney - the Mr's weather station gadget tells me that it's 23.5c.

So I thought I'd take the opportunity to wear for the first time some 'new to me' shoes. I bought these silver ballet slipper style shoes by Witchery from my local op shop recently for $15. There's lots of wear left in them and so far they're proving to be really comfy, being put to use on our morning out - the walk to school, over to the toddler sing-along, across to the park for a long play session, over to the supermarket and back home again.

And my little girl has been enjoying her silver shoes too lately, passed on from her sister, a bit big but still her favourites. To see her dedication in persevering with them is interesting from the nature/nurture perspective - she's a girl through and through, with no (conscious) coaching from me. They were given to us originally by a good friend who is an amazing op-shopper and generously passes lots of things to us, as she has both a boy and girl older than mine. I in turn have a friend with a younger girl, who I pass things on to, and another due to have a baby boy, who I've passed my baby boy things on to (with a little bit of emotion!).

Do you have people who you pass things on to? I find it feels good to both give and receive pre-loved things, good for the environment, the hip pocket, and the storage situation at home.

Last week two friends and I got together to have a clothes swap, and this week reported back that we'd all enjoyed wearing our swapped items (or our kids had!). Mine were a fab pair of patterned leggings. An interesting aside is that I wouldn't know in which shop to look for them as they're very individual, and thrifting/clothes swaps also save me having to go on a shopping trip, which is difficult to say the least, with small children, as anyone with kids knows.



All this thrifting, passing on and receiving made me think recently about the whole waste/landfill/cheap labour issues that we think and talk about these days. It all makes a lot of sense to me and I'm enjoying trying to be more mindful of whether I need new things or not.

I find interesting all the 'challenges' around lately, from reducing household waste to reducing expenditure and waste on food through to clothing challenges were you don't buy any new clothes for yourself for a year apart from underwear and shoes. This is an interesting blog on ecco-savvy and simple living and describes one family's clothes challenge. And in this one this person's challenge is to not buy anything new for a year - started in 2007 and still going! Now that's dedication.

There's even a blog where someone makes all her own clothes for a year, including shoes and underwear, and documents her outfit daily, which is interesting in several ways from fashion to resourcefulness and craftiness (sadly I can't seem to find the blog again after searching - if someone knows it please let me know the address).

Now I'd better make use of all that sun and get some of the mountains of washing on the line!