Reduce, Reuse, Relove! -

This blog started in #RecycleWeek. I finally had the motivation to have another look at tote bags made from recycled sofas! Relove that leather! Beastie was all over this piece of leather. It had been a sofa in the house where her mum and brother live. In fact, it was probably right next to her when she came into this world!

Helping Bully -recycle, reuse and relove that sofa leather!

As it’s a lasting material, there’s a lot of history attached to leather. We often attach feeling or emotions to items that have been with us a long time. Beastie could literally smell the history on that leather – it’s had a good clean since then, I promise!

This foraging pouch is made from leather that was a sofa in my house in the early 80s – where the business was born. My dad made that sofa! He also made a chair out of some of it, still in use! Reloved 3 times over! Pouch coming to our online leather store soon!

Eco ravn recycled leather foraging pouch multi s Gotta relove a leather sofa! — Recycled Leather Foraging Pouch

Oak and recycled leather chair. Recycle reuse and Relove your leather — Recycled leather chair

My favourite Eco Ravn make was reusing a buckle from someone’s grandad’s belt – worn in the trenches in WW1! The guy ruined the belt as a kid. He used it on a rope slide in the garage! But it was a privilege to able to replace it so the belt will live on! Reduce waste, reuse and relove!

But this blog wasn’t meant to be an advert for my repair services! (Link just in case!)

We’re like a worn out sofa!

To the moon! — My “old habbits can change” purposeful scarring! (and accidental scars, sun damage..)

I was thinking more about the human factor. If you’re anything like me you’re (more than) a bit worn down from life: scars and wear accumulated over the years. But that doesn’t mean we’re useless or fit for the rubbish heap. (No matter how appealing it might seem to lie down, even in a rubbish heap and never get up again)!

My scars tell stories, and often taught me lessons (barbed wire, axe…) and are visible proof that I’ve survived! And whilst I’m grateful that the worst, and majority, are on the inside even they have helped shape me and make me who I am today. And I’ve survived so far to tell the tale!

I don’t get out much, but chatting to a random group of strangers the other day I realised that we all had something to contribute to that conversation that encouraged someone else, that came from our own unique and often turbulent experiences.

So my message is, you may feel you’re reduced to nothing, but you can recycle old skills and rekindle old passions. You can learn to relove your life! Whatever state you find yourself in today, however scarred and used up you feel, however you got there: if you’re not dead, you’re not done! Like the sofa, whatever tattered mess remains of your life (believe me, I get it, I’m right there with you!) you can build from that. There is still something beautiful to be made of your life. I’m not saying it’s easy, but just surviving your mesy experiences can encourage others, you are still useful.