Local and Handmade; Upcycling!

Upcycle: a totally new word for me. When I first read it in the infinity-sphere of the internet I thought someone was trying to be clever. It's REcycle silly!! hah, I guess I'm a little behind in the HIP new vocab these days. 

Nevertheless, with our consumer culture whispering insidious suggestions to buy buy buy, it's so easy to delude ourselves into believing that simply changing our endless purchases to "green" choices means we are doing the best for the environment and our earth. Really, the best idea is to stop buying so much STUFF. Really who needs all the random things that we buy?

Upcycle is the next step after reducing. Upcycling speaks to those creative peeps out there that take something used, old and destined for the black hole of landfills and magically create a beautiful, changed and useful product. Although at first I thought the word was a little corny- I mean it IS essential recycling... but with a TWIST. Upcycling as a term really speaks to the work and creativity that goes into these new and beautified products and imply a sense of ART with thought and love.

For example: so far this winter I have not had mittens. When it was -27 celcius my hands were quite cold. I just didn't want to buy ANOTHER pair of GAP/etc mittens that were mass produced, chemically dyed and shipped to Canada from China. Today I finally found a pair of mittens that I could buy at Love Me Boutique (a post on this fantastic boutique to come!). These mittens are Upcycled: created by a student out of previously worn sweaters by hand to raise money for this student to volunteer overseas next year. Now THAT speaks of mittens made with love.