how to reuse your bath 'pouf'

isn't this clever? it caught my eye because a most recent bath puff only lasted a couple of months at ours, and that was after already fixing it with an elastic band on its 2nd week of life. maybe we are just really hard on our poufs? i don't know. anyways, salihan crafts has a little tutorial for 2 ways of reusing your pouf. the above image is of a knitted pot scrubber, but i think it would work equally well in the shower as a plain old body scrubber.

my thoughts lately have been on how to not buy too many new things. i was talking to fellow craft blogger kat about a blog she reads (note to self: must find out what blog it is she is actually referring to) about a woman who made a pledge not to buy ANYTHING new for an entire year! she could go to op-shops and she could buy some new things but they had to be ethical/sustainable/sweatshop free etc. it really got me thinking about how quickly i tend to rush out on a crafty whim and purchase things to make things with. it is so hard sometimes to be patient and wait until you can find the buttons in a thrift shop or consignment shop, or order and wait for ethically produced fabric to arrive in the mail. being mindful about where and why you are purchasing something takes a little more time and effort, but is so much better for both your budget and your ecological foot-print. and i definitely always feel better about things i've done that require a bit of an effort, don't you?

we did do something good over the weekend, which involved sewing new velcro on a pair of board shorts that were in good condition apart from the velcro bits, and we were quite happy with ourselves for doing that. it is so satisfying to salvage things, and definitely worth the extra time and effort.


ps: Down to Earth posted today about the hierarchy of food waste, and i can't seem to get enough of her thoughts, so for further reading see here.