Janet Street-Porter has turned a bumper sticker into an entire book and one that brings to the fore a lot of herself and plenty of advice, ideas and straight-forward commentaries on contemporary life and tips for living. It also chimes with our Make it and Mend it ethos.
Here at MIAMI Towers, we’ve been handing round Janet Street-Porter’s latest self-help book and wondering if we’ve found ourselves a new handbook. Not that the title; Don’t let the b*****ds get you down, immediately screams Make it and Mend it at you.
Stick with us for a minute and you’ll see what we mean. Take this little nugget from the chapter ’The New Etiquette’, where she talks about loving your home and “Staying in is the new going out”:
“How to make your home somewhere you enjoy – without spending a fortune. I buy second-hand furniture at jumble sales and little auctions in Yorkshire and have it recovered in fabulous fabrics. I never throw picture frames away, but re-use them and swap around the pictures every few years…”
Life’s too short…
OK, so she says “have it recovered” rather than “and recover it” but we can’t all be uber Make it and Menders accomplished at everything and while Janet’s obviously a dedicated veg grower, up-cycler, cook and brilliant at saving cash (and chucking her opinions around), she can’t re-upholster. But I bet she’d give it a try because as she points out “Life’s too short not give it a go”.
Think what you like about JS-P – she won’t care, and our opinions are divided here – but she is a woman who cares about living with a conscience. She’s a walker, she grows her own, is involved with the land-share initiative, really does wear second-hand clothes (not just because they’re vintage, either), is clearly worried by environmental damage, but hates green-wash, isn’t too pleased about our financial systems either,
Want to win your own copy of Janet’s Don’t let the ba****ds get you down?
We’ve got 3 copies to give to the most inspired and original tips for living sustainably (and creatively!). Just email your tip and tell us what you do, why you do it and the difference it makes. Get your emails to us by Sunday 24th January 2010 and we’ll publish the best and announce the winning 3 on Sunday 31st January 2010.
Email to: info@makeitandmendit.com. Include the word JSP in the subject line. Check our terms and conditions for competition rules.
Street-Porter talks a lot about money, how there’s less around and what she’s doing about it. Included in her eclectic hand-book of tips and personal experiences is a list of things we should no longer buy from supermarkets. Things like bottled water, baking mixes of any sort (batter, crumble etc), vitamin supplements and BOGOFs. This is a manual full of ideas and rants about what we can do to cut down the cost of living – and a lot of it is to do with making things and enjoying simpler lives.
Modern thrift
While there is a lot about thrift from JS-P, it’s kind of modern and doesn’t sacrifice the concept of having a good time, looking great or being original. It’s not a rule book, just a point of view delivered with wit, style and yeah, OK, sometimes a degree of vigour.
And this is why I think that JS-P is our role model du jour, because she thinks like us and even though she’s not used the phrase anywhere (“too much like bloody marketing jargon” I can hear her nasal Estuary tones grate), her little handbook is all about Creative Sustainability.
“Buying presents and cards. Expensive cards now seem vulgar and impersonal” she says and by making your own you not only save money (yes, she does suggest cutting up last year’s and making collages) but are far more personal. And isn’t that what’s really important? Isn’t it more meaningful to give someone a jar of jam you’ve made yourself, than something mass-produced and which will cost you lots more cash?
It’s all about feeling better about yourself
That’s right. JS-P makes and remakes the biggest point of all throughout the book: making stuff yourself, mending things, being careful out shopping, caring about things being meaningful rather than expensive, changing the way you do things – even just a little – wanting to make a difference actually makes you feel good. It’s healthy and can make you feel a million times better than any number of designer handbags, expensive nights out, and throwing away half of what you buy in the supermarket.
Don’t let the ba****ds is a great read and truly inspiring… a fab gift for a friend or just a great addition to your own library. Buy from Amazon and save money.
