Have you ever heard of recycled paint?

No me neither, but it makes perfect sense. So if your shed or garage looks anything like this - or has maybe one or two tins less, then read on as I'm sharing a fabulous guest post on recycled paint here today.

DOES YOUR SHED OR GARAGE LOOK REMOTELY LIKE THIS?

Recycled paint, really?

Really. 

Hi, I'm Amy from from EPS and Amy I am a parent blogger at heart, but am here today to talk about another topic which means a lot to me: Paint Recycling, no I’m not talking about scraping paint off walls (how many times have I heard that?!), we take the half empty tins which everyone has in their sheds or garages (collected from household waste recycling centres, aka the local tip) and batch it all up, add a bit of chemistry magic and turn it back into brand new, beautiful new paint, which is available in 28 colours from Reborn Paints.

The process itself was “invented” by my father, Keith Harrison, patent pending and we now licence the process to others so paint is being recycled up and down the country. Between us around 1000 tons of paint a year is being stopped from ending up in landfill. We add various clays and limestones to the “unloved” paint and filter and treat it, and re-pot it into our own livery.

The paint itself is “as good as Dulux” (quote is from a professional painter), available in premium quality flat matt finish it is £29 for 2.5 litres, but if you order a sample pot we will send you a £5 off code for use on a full sized pot, so you get your sample money back if you decide to go with us!

There are a couple of stockists across the country - we are looking for more if you are interested - but the easiest way to purchase our paint is directly from our online site: www.rebornpaints.co.uk.

Thanks Amy, that's totally fascinating and I can see lots of mileage in this. It's a shame you can't take paint direct from the general public, as I've a few tins in MOH's shed that I'd willingly donate (don't worry we'll get them to the tip!).

So, what do you think? Would you buy recycled paint? 

* All photos are with thanks to Reborn Paints.

The importance of green spaces in urban cities

You'll know from reading my blog this year that green spaces are important to me, and I'm fortunate that where I live in Greenwich there's plenty of green spaces. All too often we assume that city dwelling means very little green spaces, but I hope I'm showing that's not necessarily the case. London has many more green spaces than people think, a map - even of Central London - quickly shows parks, squares and even forests. 

GREEN SPACES IN GREENWICH

My favourite, and local London park, is Greenwich Park which is also part of my walking commute every single day, even when it's dark in the evenings and therefore shut, there's still my morning commute. It's been a while but we've even looked at some of London's squares - I really should try and revisit Russell Square to look at that lime tree cloister.  And we keep promising to head over to Epping Forest with our bikes one day, too.

But it's not just the large and more public open spaces that make a difference though, it's also about our gardens. Enviro Waste, one of London's professional waste clearance companies say that "London's gardens account for 24% of the space in the capital" which when you think about it is quite a lot isn't it?

That means that each of us have a responsibility for reducing pollution levels, in our local area, as Rosie from A Green and Rosie Life posted on Instagram recently:

We are living on this planet as if we had another one to go to. When will we realise how we cannot go on like this if we wish to survive? #Green #Sustainable #Organic #Nature #Wildlife #ecology #conservation #preservation #reduce #reuse #recycling #sustainability #zerowaste #ethical #environment #upcycling #foraging #local

A post shared by Rosie Hill (@greenrosielife) on May 6, 2017 at 1:39pm PDT

Yes, that's a sobering thought isn't it?

But what can we do...

If each of us with outside space, however small, takes action together we can reduce pollution. Whether that's

• growing herbs in pots,
• feeding the birds that visit our garden,
• encourage wildlife into our spaces with plants and bug boxes,
• keep our outside spaces by keeping on top of gardening, 
• responsibly disposing of our waste and 
• recycling whenever we can, including council green waste collections.

For some tips on how to get started see my post from National Gardener's Week.

It's a fine line though

Last summer, we needed to fox-proof our greenhouse as our neighbour had four fox cubs living in her garden next door and while we were away I wanted to leave the greenhouse door open and be confident my seedlings were safe.

It's not as if the fox cubs weren't cute, they were, and clearly they'd been attracted to our neighbour's garden because of its safety and overgrown nature. We spent quite some time watching the cubs play next door. I mean, who wouldn't be mesmerised by their puppy-cum-kitten like tumbles and play fights. Certainly not us.

We knew though that they wouldn't stay fox cubs for long and it wasn't too much longer before they dug their way into our garden, under the fence and soon walked a trail - and mud patch - into our grass. I was glad to have rigged up the protection for the greenhouse as when we returned from our holiday we found small holes across the lawn where they'd been practicing their digging skills.

Our neighbour's garden hasn't improved much this year, but thankfully the foxes haven't returned, they'd made a den under the shed, which is now under all that ivy, here's the view out of our back window:

UNDERNEATH THAT IVY ON THE LEFT THERE IS A SHED, I'VE SEEN IT

So do what you can to be responsible and help improve our environment, but remember that fine line, your neighbours will thank you for it. Trust me, I know I would, what about you?

* This is a collaborative post but all views and opinions are my own.

Travelling light, and stylishly so too...

On my visit to the London Graphic Centre in Covent Garden before Christmas I spotted some unusual looking bags, made from recycled tarpaulins, displayed in the shape of a Christmas Tree. My interest was piqued and I decided to look into them further and discovered a fascinating story of how two brothers were looking for a robust and waterproof bag to hold their creative work and hit on the idea to reuse tarpaulins from trucks. 

There are now over forty different models, with each bag unique and incredibly strong. With an overnight trip to Kufstein on the horizon and Christmas ahead of me, my own idea started to form and so during our Christmas shopping we ended up back at the London Graphic Centre. In my mind I thought I'd leave with a yellow or green bag, but it turned out I was wrong. 

We left with this red and blue F251 Kowalski. 

Not yellow. Or green. At all.

In the shop, this was the one that spoke to me.

My biggest concern was if it was practical for a short break.

And having travelled light on my recent trip to Kufstein and Munich, it was. 

It was also much admired, and drew comments on just how light I was travelling. But with careful outfit planning, I had plenty of options.

I packed a pair of trousers, pyjamas, two long sleeved T-shirts, a vest top and cardigan, toiletries, my bag of liquids to get through airport security and a big wooly scarf to help combat the expected negative temperatures. I didn't pack a pair of shoes, because I didn't think I'd need them for two nights away, especially if it was that cold and with the information that heels weren't permitted in the fortress at Kufstein where we were dining.

I didn't realise it but packing our panniers back in the summer was good practice!

It's quite a clever design, apart from the tarpaulin I mean. Pushing the shoulder straps to the side frees the top opening, and then it does look a lot more like a (stylish) cycling pannier. On the Freitag website they say the bag is "automatically weatherproof and closed when on your back" and they're not wrong.

Inside there's a couple of smaller side pockets which came in handy for my passport and smaller items. It's a bit dark in there, but you get the gist.

And it's strong. I pushed it to the limits, adding more papers and paraphernalia for the return journey, like always seems to be the way. But it's tarpaulin, from trucks, it's made for hard work. 

But I bet no one expected them to be recycled into something so stylish in their next life. There's plenty more colourways on the Freitag site, and a short video showing how the design works.

I think this has to be one of my most stylish Christmas presents ever, and over the coming year (and beyond) I'm hoping to put it to good use. 

Gorgeous isn't it?