Gifted

Welcome to 2020 and the year of me actually putting some effort in, strap in kids because this will undoubtedly become insufferable. Apologies in advance but hey, some of you might like it.

Now all the festivities are finished I actually had time, in between working, to sit down and sort out some of the presents I got for Christmas. I’m pretty particular with presents so it’s no easy task to buy for me but I got a lot of eco conscious gifts this year which made me extremely happy. The gifts included experiences, plants and practical house ware items I was in need of but there were two in particular that needed some attention.

My partner is very understanding of my ways but I did give him a small list to work from and he did magnificently. He bought an item from the list that I have been thinking about for a while which is a reusable razor. I have wanted to ditch plastic razors for a while but I was terrified to buy a reusable just because they look fairly daunting. Now I am in possession of one they don’t seem that scary but I do however have to practise with it.

The set is laid out beautifully and of course comes in recyclable packaging with no plastic. I have finally got round to setting this bad boy up with a blade in it and cannot wait to try it out. As it’s totally new to me I will watch multiple Youtube videos on the correct ways to use/handle it to minimise injury and I’ll be plastic razor free in no time. I am totally over the moon with this product though and the quality of the razor is amazing. It’s got a lovely ergonomic wooden handle design and a weight to it that echos its robustness. I will most likely give my review on it on my Instagram @wornoncebefore in the coming weeks so look out for that.

The next gift was a surprise to me. When we were Christmas shopping I went into a charity shop to look for a present for my Mum and tried on a pair of shoes but decided to leave them and unbeknown to me he sneakily bought them. The shoes were a bit different from my usual choices mostly just due to the colour but they also needed a bit of TLC so post Christmas I finally had a chance to get to work on them.

As you can see they are a very light beige colour. I don’t really do beige… but I was drawn to these for some reason. I have not yet worked them into a look but I’ve got time to do that, however, before they can be styled or even worn I needed to give them some attention. Each boot had scuffs and marks as well as one of them having a droplet stain on it. So I spent a morning looking into how to clean suede correctly and effectively as I don’t have a pair of suede shoes in such a light colour. Turns out a bit of a brush and a pencil eraser solves the problem. I didn’t have a suede brush so used an old bamboo toothbrush and it worked beautifully. I literally erased the imperfections away, if only everything was that easy! I would recommend every person with suede shoes owns these two simple tools to fix the majority of their suede based problems. I adore these boots and after a little clean up they look brand new!

I have loved putting time and effort into my ‘new to me’ things and I think if we all did that a little bit more our clothes/belongings would last a lot longer and we might just change the throwaway attitude a little.