Traditional craft revival - Solva Wool Mill, Wales

My friends often tease me for my folky ways, but thanks to my father's hippy roots I've grown up to love traditional crafts. On our recent trip to Wales, we stopped by a working woolen mill in Solva. Not only did I fall in love with the woven rugs, blankets and knitted accessories but also found the most adorbs cat clambering atop of a bin of cardboard and offcuts.

Solva is the oldest working mill in Pembrokeshire and the only one in Wales specialising in flat-weave rugs, carpets and runners. Over the past 30 years, the domestic trade has declined greatly. With us importing wool and brands choosing to manufacture abroad, it's likely the majority of our wool products promote air freight and are potentially sourced from countries where animal welfare is not a priority.

When we move next year, I'm hoping we can upcycle and reuse where possible, but if we're buying new, be supportive of traditional crafts and promote more thoughtfully resourced products. I fell in love with the geometric traditional tapestry rugs. If you're interested in visiting a working Welsh mill, there are more details here: welshmills.org.uk/millsopen

Here are some of our snaps from Solva and check out the links at the bottom for stockists of traditional welsh products.

Solva Woolen Mill
Blodwen - Modern welsh traditional products

Eco fashion finds for earth day

It is no secret that I'm a bit of an eco obsessive and over the years it's become increasingly important to me as a consumer to find out more about where my purchases come from. Everything we do has an impact, so I do my best to follow St David's motto and 'do the little things'. This includes getting organic veggies, dairy and meat from the lovely folk at Riverford, buying fair trade and sourcing second-hand wherever possible.  I'm also a huge supporter of ethical fashion - as someone who studied and worked in fashion for a number of years, it's important to me that as consumers we're not coerced into buying instantly disposable garments from dirty companies but invest in the brands creating good fashion with great values.

Earth day isn't really a big deal here in the UK, but in celebration I'd thought I'd share with you my current eco fashion faves:

1. Breton-style organic dress by Amour Vert, $79 / 2. Big Sur organic cotton/recycled polyester sweatshirt by Poketo, $52 / 3. Blue bin trench from Anthropologie, £99.95 / 4. High-top trainers by Ethletic, £40 / 5. Supa Skinny Organic cotton jeans by Monkee Genes, £52 / 6. Hand-woven ikat downtown Satchel by Push Pull, $169

Megan xo

Budget style survival - how not to spend money on clothes

So, I'm broke. El skinto. Brassic.

And it's tough. As much as I obsess over ethical foods and fashion I am a terror of consumption and, as him can testify, I buy too many clothes. As part of my 9-5, I attended a workshop about defining sustainable fashion consumption and we spend a lot of time discussing what drives women, in particular, to shop. Because let's face it, my closet takes up twice as much space as my man's and it goes the same for almost all my girlfriends too.

Within the discussion it was uncovered that research is suggesting women don't shop to buy into the trend-led nature of fast fashion. But the key reason women buy more than they need is because of how their clothes make them feel.

It made my heart sink a little bit to hear that. That women might feel they need to buy material happiness and also, that I'm more than likely to be one of those women. I'm not gonna lie. Buying fashion makes me feel good.

While ideas were played out for how we deal with modern fashion gluttony, such as training women to shop like men or teaching mending skills at schools. It led me to thinking that perhaps for women, including myself, to be more sustainable fashion consumers, actually, we just need to make ourselves feel great in whatever we wear.

A tough feat I know, but to start us/me off, I put together 10 tips for how to feel great in your fashion:

1. That dress you've had for 4 years, that has seen better days. Don't get rid of it. You've had it that long because it never fails to make you feel good. Because when you feel good, others will think you look great - holes and all.

2. Never lose sight of your personal style. I let this happen because I thought my style was no longer in vogue. And actually, my style not being in vogue made it cooler. Individuality wins.

3. Always shop in thrift stores/charity shops. This will be where you'll find that one-of-a-kind dress which never fails to secure compliments. The reason people like it is because it's unique and they want one. Don't let yours get away.

4. Do-it-yourself. Sewing is surprisingly easy and will open up your wardrobe to endless opportunities. Vintage tea dress in organic cotton for £10 anyone?

5. Make a plan. At the beginning of the week I try to plan all my outfits for my working week and use this as an op. to try new things/experiment with accessories/etc. Not only does this save me lots of time, but for some reason planning outfits on Sunday night creates way better results than 5 mins on Monday morning at 7am.

6. Buy lipstick. Compared to a new outfit, a new lipstick starts at around £4 and it will completely revolutionise how you feel about your look. I have about 20 shades on rotation at the moment, my current fave is Barry M Lip Paint in Baby Pink. Think Thakoon's pink hair sort of pink - delish.

7. Buy nail varnish. Step 6, repeat with nails, join pinterest, search nail art. Nuff. Said.

8. Always have a plan B. Some days an outfit planned out earlier just won't feel good/right. Maybe it's the weather or just a mood - but when I'm in a nasty fashion funk, I pull out my fail-safe, feel-good outfit. This is usually step 1.

9. Host a clothes swap. Easiest way to detox a wardrobe guaranteed.

10. Ignore the media. The majority of the images you see are not real. As someone who has worked in fashion, I know the process photographs go through to make models look perfect and no-one has legs that perfect!

Megan xo