Posh Swaps Blog

If you are organising a swishing party for your friends, why not continue the environmental and sustainable them by serving some delicious and organic cocktails. By using organic spirits and fruit juices in your cocktails, you will get a very pure drink with no pesticides or nasties and may even avoid that hangover sore head the next day. Best of all these cocktails are delicious and very refreshing, great for sipping at whilst deciding which clothes you would like to swap.

Spajito - a new twist on the classic mojito

2 oz. Cucumber-infused Square One Organic Vodka

6 sprigs of fresh mint

1 Tbsp. organic Agave nectar

3 Tbsp. peeled and diced cucumber (preferably English)

1 lime, halved and juiced, with one half reserved

Club Soda or Sparkling water

Ice

Remove leaves from all but one sprig of mint, reserving that sprig for garnish. Place mint leaves, agave nectar, cucumber and lime juice in a cocktail shaker. “Muddle” (mash) the contents of the shaker with a wooden spoon or muddler for at least 30 seconds. Strain the liquid into a tall glass filled with crushed ice. Add the vodka and the lime half and stir. Fill glass to desired level with soda water. Garnish with the remaining sprig of mint.

Lavender Honey Cream - great for those with a sweet tooth

1.5 oz Square One Organic Vodka
1 oz organic heavy cream
1 oz organic egg white
1 oz lavender honey syrup*

Add all ingredients over ice in a shaker and shake gently for 30 seconds. This will make a thick, creamy cocktail without too much ice. Strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with a piece of lavender (this will add to the nose with each sip

*Lavender honey available in specialty stores. Boil one cup of water and slowly stir in 1 cup of lavender honey until dissolved. Lower heat and reduce for 3 minutes. Let cool and add to a squeeze bottle.

from the Square One organic vodka website

Second Hand Ivory Lace Wedding Dress

Whether you are an eco warrior or not, having an eco wedding is a great way to show your commitment to the environment and get your married life off to a great start. A wedding is often a time when consumerism takes over and thoughts of the environment are forgotton. The carbon footprint of a wedding is often huge especially considering it is just one day.  Having an Eco chic wedding is also a great way to show your family and friends great ways to live a greener life. Here are some of our ideas for a greener or eco wedding.

• Buy a second hand wedding dress. As wedding dresses only get worn for one day, it is likely to be in great condition and a fraction of the cost of a new dress. Once your special day is over you can recycle it by selling it or donating to charity.
• Serve organic and locally produced food at the reception. Although organic food is a bit more expensive than normal food, it will taste better and you can keep it affordable by keeping it simple.
• Encourage guests to buy recycled wedding presents. You can still make a list of what you need, they can then look on ebay, at charity shops or car boots for something you will love.
• Reduce the carbon footprint of your honeymoon by holidaying in the UK. Just because you are not flying miles away, it doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy a luxurious and romantic break.
• Grow the flowers for the wedding in your garden. This will take a bit of forward planning but will be better for the environment than flowers that have travelled miles.
• For your hen night, why not do something green and fun like some a conservation weekend or for those less outdoorsy types a clothes swap?
• You could even have a second hand / vintage theme or dress code for guests at the wedding.

Eco friendly weddings has a great list of UK suppliers of almost everything that you could need for an eco f wedding. even if you do not manage to make the whole of your wedding eco friendly, every little helps. Keeping things simple is  a really good start.

Most people will probably admit to enjoying spending money but it is not the only way to have fun. In fact there are so many ways of having fun that do not involve spending money. Those who find themselves spending money to feel happy are likely to spend more than they have and end up in debt. The happiness caused by spending money is an empty sort of happiness and not really very fulfilling.

There are so many fulfilling ways to enjoy yourself without spending money. Spending time with family and friends is one of the best things in life. Having a chat over a cup of tea costs next to nothing and is likely to give you an instantly happy feeling (depending on who you are chatting with). A clothes swapping party with friends is a great way to refresh your wardrobe for free. You get just as much of a buzz from swapping something lovely that looks great on you if not more because you have no credit card to pay off afterwards.

The recession has caused so many people to rediscover the simple things in life and reconsider their consumerism due to lack of money. Perhaps some people will find that by spending less money, they can afford to work less hours, spend more time with the people that they love and lead a less stressful life.

Green Britain Day is on 10th July and Team Green Britain is all about showing that Britain is leading the world in the race against climate change and coming together as a team to make a change for the better. Green Britain Day is the chance for everyone to do something green for the team.

You can sign up to a variety of teams on the Team Green Britain website, which suggests lots of difference ways that you can become more green and even save some money from swapping something to changing your light bulbs to low energy.

At Posh-swaps.com, we have joined the Team Green Britain, Team Swap. You can swap anything not just clothes but we are pledging to clear out out wardrobes and find lots of lovely clothes to swap. There really is no hardship as we will get lots of lovely clothes in return without spending any money.

Why not join team swap and arrange a clothes swap with your friends for 10th July or list some of your old clothes to swap on www.posh-swaps.com.

If you haven’t yet joined in with the frugal, environmentally friendly and highly addictive (in a good way) trend for clothes swapping. What is to stop you? With parties for those who like social shopping and clothes swap websites for those who prefer to browse online, there is something for everyone. Here are 10 great reason to get swapping:

1. You can ensure that you have a balanced wardrobe with the right amount of different types of clothes to suit your lifestyle.

2. You can ensure that you have a wardrobe full of clothes that you really love.

3. You never need to get bored with your clothes, you can swap them as often as you like.

4. You can try out new looks that you never would have tried before.

5. You can help to reduce the amount of clothes and textiles going into landfill each year by recycling or swapping your clothes.

6. You can reduce environmental impact associated with the manufacture of new clothes by swapping instead of buying new clothes.

7. What better excuse for a spot of socialising than a clothes swap or swishing party.

8. You can save yourself lots if money by swapping instead of buying new.

9. You can feel happy that the expensive suit you bought last year for a wedding will get loved by someone as much as you loved it.

10.  You can avoid getting a cluttered and over crowded wardrobe by always removing an item before replacing with something new.

Neon Floral Pattern Mini Skirt - Want to Swap?

If you haven’t had a chance to make your first clothes swap on posh-swaps.com, why not give it a try? I guarentee that you will be addicted. The thrill of recieving your first swap is just as exciting as that feeling that you get from going on a shopping spree. Actually it is a lot better as you don’t have a great big credit card bill to pay off at the end of it. It is also a great way to refresh your wardrobe so that it does not get too over crowded.

It is quick and easy to list your items on posh-swaps.com. All you need to do is set up an account (if you don’t already have one), take a photo or three of your item. Then log into your account, go to the add a new item, select ’swap it’ and complete as many details as you can before submitting. Don’t forget that the more information that you give about the item that you are hoping to recieve in return, the more chance you have of getting what you really want. If you are not really sure what you want, give a few clues like size,  casual clothes etc and state that you are happy to consider any proposals.

If you have a blog or participate in any social networks like Twitter or Facebook, you can also link to your item page to help promote it.

This week from June 22nd to 28th is Recycle Week. This is an event organised by Recycle Now each annually and is now in it’s fifth year. The theme this year is to waste less and the Recycle  Now website encourages individuals to pledge their commitment to recycling more and saving less. Amongst the suggested ways to reduce waste are reducing textile waste, recycling bottles and cans whilst out and about, home composting kitchen and garden waste, reusing carrier bags and using leftovers for lunch the next day.

We can’t think of any better way of recycling clothes than by selling them or swapping them on posh-swaps.com. It is an easy to use website, free to use and best of all you either get some money or some swapped clothes as a reward for your efforts. You can also recycle your clothes by donating to charity shops and taking to clothing banks. Another great way to recycle clothes is by making them into something new. You can turn old jeans into shorts, shorten a dress or embellish a jacket.

Clothes swapping is becoming very popular. We at Posh-swaps.com love Twitter, there seems to be plenty of tweeting going on about clothes swapping at the moment.

If you would like to receive regular updates about all of the latest clothes swaps and second hand clothes listed on posh-swaps.com, the just follow poshswaps on Twitter. You will also recieve updates on recycling, eco fashion, sustainable living and looking stylish on a budget.

We are really pleased to have a mention in the June edition of The Ecologist. The article which is part of a series entitles 101 ways forward:resources for a better world, discusses the issue of consumerism as well as 7 other topics of huge importance to the environment including waste, climate change and energy, food and farming. It outlines how we can take simple steps to reduce our consumerism and live a more sustainable life.

Swapping is of course one way to buy less new stuff and recycle old stuff and the article gives some great ideas for swapping, other than clothes. It also talks about ethical shopping and fairtrade, all great ways to live more sustainably.

Overall the article urges us to try and point where happiness comes from how little we own, not how much and changing the word ‘more’ for ‘enough’.

picture from the Ecologist

We have already established that clothes swapping is a great idea because it is environmentally friendly, frugal and fun, we have also discussed how to arrange a clothes swap. If you have already had a go at clothes swapping and enjoyed it, here are some ideas for clothes swaps with a difference.

1. A children/ baby clothes swap - this is a great way to recycle childrens clothes as they grow out of them. As baby clothes are only worn for a short amount of time they are often in really good condition. If you arrange a ticket system where everyone brings a bag of clothes and gets a number of tickets in return, it will allow people to swap clothes for the right size for their children.

2. A clothes swap and customising competition - not only can you get some new clothes but you could also get a completely unique and individual outfit that no one else has. You can ask frinds to bring along a sewing kit and any old buttons, trims, beads etc that they have. Once you have swapped, you can then spend the evening embellishing your clothes over a glass of wine or two. At the end, you can show off the clothes in a fashion show and award a small prize to the best creation.

3. Vintage clothes swap - If you and your friends love vintage clothes, why not arrange a vintage clothes swapping party. This is a great way to refresh your wardrobes.

4. Themed Clothes Swaps - for a bit of fun why not arrange a themed clothes swap. Perhaps try a flowers theme or  choose a particular colour which everyone should bring clothes in. In the run up to christmas, you could arrange a sparkly clothes swap with sparkly or evening clothes.

5. Accessories swap - you could arrange an accesories swap for accessories in general or for one particular type of accessories such as shoes, hand bags or jewellery.

Let us know your fun ideas for clothes swapping.