Frugal Facebook Friends

This may sound a little bit idealistic, but when I go to my blog, my Facebook page, my Twitter account, I talk to different people from all over the world, and you see how it’s easy to establish a dialogue.    Paulo Coelho

Think about what people are doing on Facebook today. They’re keeping up with their friends and family, but they’re also building an image and identity for themselves, which in a sense is their brand. They’re connecting with the audience that they want to connect to. It’s almost a disadvantage if you’re not on it now.    Mark Zuckerberg

Beat The Man by joining hands and minds with like-minded RUDIES!!  Karen Ellis / RUDE Girl

RUDE Girl [reuser of unloved discarded excess] is a die-hard Facebook fan.  I love Facebook and I love my FFF’s or frugal Facebook ‘friends’.  I rarely use Facebook to keep in touch with family. In fact I prefer not to have family following me.

What is truly awesome for me about Facebook is that RUDE can build an image and identity for ourselves and more importantly by ourselves.  We are not paying a middle man to create this for us.  We have the ability, to be able to create what in a sense, is our brand.  When you are volunteering your time and effort on-line, the no cost of Facebook, is the icing on the cake that helps us to spread the RUDE philosophy.

RUDE strives to promote our ‘brand’ as a priority, and Facebook gives us the opportunity to spread the word about living a frugal life that incorporates reuse and repair. We believe our volunteer on-line and community ‘brand’ is unique, and worth shouting out about.  We do this most days on Facebook @ruderepair, and weekly on this blog.

This week RUDE were humbled that its philosophy was openly recognised by a Facebook friend.  She was introduced to Facebook via a group that I administrate, and from there found out about RUDE.  She has now created her first Facebook group titled Friends who like Rude Record here.

Over the past couple of years she had been inspired by what RUDE promotes, and is incorporating more reuse and repair into her daily life, as a result of following Rude Record on Facebook @ruderepair.  She has definitely been beating The Man, as she builds a new home, and furnishes it totally with pre-loved pieces, and her own handcrafts.  Her husband has been helping her to re-vamp these pieces, and to make them their own.

This is what she wrote as follows:

For all the Friends Who Like Rude Record, I need to stress that Rude Record is not a site with cheeky pictures of naked ladies. RUDE is:

Reuse Unloved Discarded Excess

Rude Record is a blog full of useful and inspirational ideas of how to share a lifestyle of frugal living and the Eco Warrior lifestyle. Friends Who Like Rude Record is for the benefit of the fans of Eco Warriors Karen and Danny Ellis, better known as RUDE Girl Karen and and RUDE Boy Danny from RUDE Record.

RUDE Girl Karen is the administrator of their blog RUDE Record. Karen jumped off the “working for the man” treadmill a few years back. RUDE Boy and Girl combine their shared abilities to immerse themselves in their passion for rescuing and reusing stuff dumped at the point of landfill. At the moment RUDE Boy Danny continues six weeks on and six weeks off “Working for the Man”. However, this will soon change.

These two radical Eco Warriors are passionate recyclers who maintain a very thrifty and modest lifestyle by making do, restoring, mending and more often than not choose not to buy new products. RUDE Girl and Boy have a frugal philosophy which they describe as Scavenger Style. It is a political statement against textile waste, a throw away society and planned obsolescence.

Friends Who Like Rude Record have the opportunity to share their own ideas here, to spread the word about the alternatives for our consumer society. This site is for all the Friends to post ideas, information about secret places where free or dirt cheap stuff is languishing away instead of being usefully recycled. Finally, it is to share your own ideas that highlight and help to share the knowledge of how to live a rich lifestyle without being a thoughtless consumer.

I invite all Friends to join hands and enrich your lives from the knowledge base that is Rude Record.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/109378302822919/

Cashmere Capers

 

Scavenger Style

Front view

Back view

 

I’m pretty much a cheap date, you know… no alcohol, no meat at dinner, and then, you know, when I buy, go to Payless for shoes. When you don’t buy leather or silk or cashmere everything is much cheaper.
(Alexandra Paul)

The past few years I have really felt the cold, and have been on the search for woolen garments.  I am not too fussed about the condition of them.  Scavenger Style is my signature folly, so the more tattered the better.  And it gives me the opportunity to mend the garments.  This process enables me to make the items of clothing  my own.  I am currently watching The 100 and feeling very on trend.

I prefer to get my cashmere cheap or for free.  The cashmere pullover below is the same colour and style I rescued from the free textiles’ bin at the local charity shop.  It is an Ann Taylor brand.  It was in the free bin because it had lots of holes in it, however it appeared unworn because it was clean, and still had the designer tag attached to the label.

Prior to tackling the visible mending [inspired by boro and sashiko] the  pullover was placed in a plastic bag in the freezer for 24 hours.  This process kills any moth eggs.  It was then hand washed in cool water and wool wash liquid.  The excess water was squeezed out of the pullover, by wrapping it in a towel.  The pullover was then dried flat.   The instructions stated dry clean only which RUDE Girl totally ignored.  I do not dry clean anything and have not done so for 20 years or more.

Using African waxed cotton fabric [image below], I cut out circles and have handstitched these over the holes.  The holes were stitched closed too.  I was initially going to darn the holes but I decided to add some colour and pattern to the pullover this way instead. 

Circles cut from this fabric

 

My revamped pullover makes me smile.  It now has a story and is fun to wear.   It makes me happy that I have a piece of clothing that is warm, light and comfortable and it has cost me zilch.  And that I have rescued it from landfill fate, is the best feeling.

NB:  If you have not seen it already, there is a short video on RUDE’S Facebook page @ruderepair, of the pullover with holes,  prior to mending.

Beat The Man by sourcing your own charity cashmere sweater.  This will help to prevent The Man from trying to pull the wool over your eyes.

Rest is Best

I prefer rogues to imbeciles, because they sometimes take a rest.

Alexandre Dumas / French Writer

RUDE guys are hibernating for the winter.  We rest at home in the warmth and familiarity of our surroundings.  We potter about with our little make do and mend projects.  We feel wealthy and happy, to have the luxury of peace and time, to think and create.

Today, I said to RUDE Boy that I want to go to my studio to do some slow sewing.  He replied, that I need to get off my computer.  Easier said than done I indicated to him,  as I have OUR blog post to write! 

RUDE Boy then firmly tells me I do NOT have to write a blog post.  I reasoned he was right, and that I did not have a boss who was giving me a deadline for goodness sake!   I told myself that I am RUDE Girl and retired.  I can rest and let it be. 

Therefore I decided to rest and write a blog post about how I have decided not to write a blog post.  You all get it, right?

Should you want to know what we have been reusing and repairing please check out our Facebook page @ruderepair.  I created a couple of videos that have been posted direct to the page.  These videos have not yet been uploaded to my You Tube channel.

A wedding anniversary perfumed rose for RUDE Girl.  it was freshly picked from the garden by RUDE Boy.  The kitsch orange glass vase was purchased for 50 cents from a TIP SHOP.

RUDE celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary on 5 June [photo below].  We had fun hamming it up for the video camera.  It’s a fun and free celebration at home.  You can see our antics on RUDE Girl’s personal timeline here.  We are not shy, and love to share the joy of music and dance. 

All clothes in this image have been rescued by RUDE from landfill fate.  We have worn Scavenger Style 24/7, for over 6 years

Beat The Man and take a rest at home! 

Boro Time

Patches inserted and stitched into back of waistband

Finished alteration a la boro style.

This Friday’s RUDE blog post is inspired by an article in Womankind magazine titled The Stuff of Life by Jo Immig.

“A growing band of people are tying up what’s precious in a handkerchief on the end of a stick and stepping out to create a different culture…….  A culture where the people understand we are but one of the millions of species on this blue planet; where people like to shop locally, re-use and up-cycle; where we make community gardens and cherish the hand-made, bespoke and unique. One where we once again embrace a life entwined with nature. A life with less stuff.” 

Jo Immig / Writer

And RUDE Boy was on borrowed [not boro] time recently when he came to RUDE Girl and indicated that his boro mended Levis #3, that I had spent 5 months patching and stitching, were too tight around his middle!

“Men are allowed to age. Men are allowed to gain weight. Men are allowed to be quirky looking” Janeane Garofalo

 

Seriously, I was once again aching to feed my addiction to boro, and took RUDE Boy’s weight gain as a good excuse to immediately make alterations.

Here is the You Tube video link to how I went about this boro project and RUDE Boy muddling….whoops modelling his altered pair of Levi’s #3.

https://youtu.be/BMMO9-otp5Q

Beat The Man and work on boro time not boss time!