you don't need a new hat, just jazz up an old one with a broach or badge! I did this the other day and it feels like a brand new lovely hat...here's one of mine!

i've had this lovely butterfly badge for ages, from a museum in New Zealand and looks fab on my old beret!! xxx

A stroke of GENIUS! if i say so myself....I am a self-confessed shoe whore (there I've said it) and I cannot get enough shoes. What with the big birthday coming up I was tempted by all those gorgeous sparkly pairs about at the moment, when I just had a brainwave - shoe clips!! Jazz up old shoes with a lovely pair of shoe clips, and even better and cheaper, use old clip on earrings, or even make your own! I have not tried this yet but I will be getting right onto it this week....So watch this space.

NB - you can get cheap and lovely vintage shoe clips from the online Oxfam store, so you can save the pennies whilst giving a few to charity!

Sodshopping is actually getting easier...it's now been 2 months since I bought any clothes or anything I don't need and the longer it goes the better it feels. It really makes you realise just how ineffective it is to buy stuff for the sake of it, and how much stronger you feel for resisting the urge and instead, doing something creative or active. With the money I've saved I've been able to sign up for a charity funrun - a 10K for Race For life (http://raceforlife.cancerresearchuk.org/index.html) and to do something so much more proactive and worthwhile feels fab!! Yesterday it was beautifully sunny and I took myself off for my first run! it was hard work but I felt great afterwards.

The other day it was less sunny and I spent my time making a wee keyring, here she is...took longer than I like to admit but a lovely way to get creative and use up some old scraps!

my next challenge is the BIG 30 coming up and I am trying to work out how I can feel like I'm wearing something new and gorgeous without actually breaking my pact....Any ideas??!

LOVING Superscrimpers!! such a great show, especially like the idea of changing your watch strap - I have done this recently with an old silk neckerchief I have; it's such a pretty colour that I didn't want to throw so this is a lovely way to reuse it...

oooh! I have just found this lovely blog http://mariezvezda.blogspot.com/p/craft-fair-display-ideas.html - filled with fab ideas and gorgeous bits and bobs. I have moved recently and a real bug bear is my jewelry always being tangled and boxed away - I was going to buy a jewelry stand but then on this blog I found the idea of hanging earrings on a pretty teacup! brilliant! here is mine...

my next plan is to use up an old canvas I have for other bits and i will post a pic when i've done it. thats at least £15 saved! whoop.

up the downs!

so after a long deliberation I have decided NOT to join the Lido - it seems another extravagant (if lovely) way to spend money. Instead I am taking to the Clifton Downs, which are gorgeous and luckily just at the end of my road. After dusting the cobwebs off my old trainers and finding something slightly luminous to wear, I'm off for a jog! Saving at least £45 a month, no bad! xx

to spend or not to spend...

now would it be worth joining my local lido? when i say lido, it probably conjures up images of a cold wee filled, fly spotted pool. but NO! this is clifton after all...the lido is ace, and gorgeous and well, expensive. It's £45 a month, gulp, but if i went 3 times a week it would be worth it.

I can't afford to join now but if i carry on sodding the shopping i will soon have enough to get myself a lovely lido membership AND get fit and healthy....

La library!

ooo i nearly swerved into a shop today to look at some (gorgeous) shoes, but managed to force myself away. Instead I directed my energy towards the local library, where of course there is a tonne of fabulous free stuff! I have joined up and now I can borrow books, great films, and find local free events so pretty happy about that :)

plus I have saved at least £50 on them shoes....

beat the urge to spluuuurge

so i shop because it makes me feel good, and it's a little treat just for me. but now i want to replace it with something more constructive, that still makes me feel good, but hopefully the feeling will last a little longer. such as:-

• go for a walk or run
• instead of buying a magazine, read a good book
• do something pampery! have a bath or face mask or sommat
• call a friend and have some wine (can't all be wholesome)

this week i thought I would get stuck into my book...

won first mini battle

pippa: 1 shopping: 0

i have the day off today and was pottering around the house, sorting out bits and bobs. i suddenly thought 'ooo i need a new diary, a nice pretty one' and went online to order it.

then i remembered the pact, and dug out my old filofax with a perfectly good diary in it. ta daaaa. pippa 1 shopping 0.

spent the time instead doing something creative, and did a page of my journal/scrap book. feel sooo much better for doing that and i have saved my first fiver!!! XXX

does it really matter what we wear?

well, judging from this picture, yes, it does a bit. if first impressions are anything to go by...but does it really matter if we are on trend, when they bounce here there and everywhere (jumpers with massive animals faces on anyone? remind anyone else of their year 6 pullover?!). Instead of thinking about how right what I wear is for fashion, I will focus on what's right for me. this look may not be :)

and so it begins...

Welcome to SOD SHOPPING!

At the start of a brand new lovely fresh year, 2012, I have decided to SOD SHOPPING for the whole year.

It is going to be tricky, because shopping is my fall back, my pick-me-up and the thing I do when I want to put off something else...But this morning, I bought myself some new jeans, that I 'had to have' and felt, well, crap. It didn't pick me up, it didn't erase the things I was meant to be doing, it made me blue. It is time to SOD SHOPPING, to reassess why I do it, and to see how different life could be if I stopped.

It has been done before, and I will find inspiration from those who 'shop their own wardrobe'. I will post here when it's tough, or when it's wonderful, and all those little bits in between.

I knew I would not do it if I kept it to myself, so here goes! Please join me, and if you don't, wish me luck...SOD SHOPPING!!