What's it all about?

I ran into my friend Sarah at the Thames Festival, and she was like, "I voted for your blog! I really like it!" She shoveled a spoonful of rice into her toddler's mouth and cocked her head. "But can I just ask you - what's it all about?" 

Ok so that's a really good question. I can always count on Sarah for really good questions, and I hope I can do it justice with a fairly good answer. 

I started this blog to coincide with New Years in January after coming across a word I’d never heard before, upcycling. To upcycle is to take an old redundant object that’s served its life purpose already, and then revamp it so it can enjoy a brand-new existence. It’s a happy ending for the object, but it benefits the environment too because whenever you can use existing materials instead of new ones you minimise energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. And what's more, upcycling lets us flex our flabby creative muscles. 

A lot of mainstream media can only exist with advertising, so a lot of the inspirations that are provided to us in what we see and read are predicated on a desire for us to buy something new. A blog doesn’t have advertising though, so instead of encouraging readers to buy new stuff, I wanted to give people inspiring examples that will encourage them to make creative leaps in solving everyday problems. So even though you might not go out and make dumbbells out of breeze blocks (which someone I blogged about did), you might look around at the redundant resources available to you and try to get maximum use out of them before they wind up in the landfill – like when Hannah made a whole stationery set from paper and scraps she salvaged on the street and from bins.

So anyway everbody, let's quiz Sarah next time we see her and make sure she's been reading carefully... And in the meantime, our pic for today is one that came via Vaughan. Here we have a bike that features a sawed-off broom handle as its replacement handlebars, along with a beer can that's been mustered into service as shimming material - courtesy of a blog called Bike Snob NYC. Cheers dears!