Great minds think alike

Yesterday, I met up with my best friend Julie and excitedly told her that I had a present for us. She said what a coincidence that was, as she had ordered us a present that morning. Laughing, I said I hoped they weren't the same thing and handed her the gift - a copy of the Rebel Badge Book and the accompanying stickers. Published by Charly Lester, this was delivered with a handwritten card to welcome me and my friend to the badge club.

Cue Julie contacting Charly to cancel her order!

Several hours later, we had our usual badly conceived plan to get started on our new project. Variously, we plan to start with the following : cycle and swim distances that we may or may not have decided on (trust me, they'll be short); provide each other with two cast-off garments to upcycle; become critics (cue booking two shows and one exhibition); complete our apothecary badge; and be conscious consumers. We had a short discussion about whether booking tickets would negate our attempts to be conscious consumers but decided it was fine.

We then discussed the apothecary badge and whether we should do a load of shopping for that before attempting to become conscious consumers but decided that was not in the spirit of things. Obviously, it would be much better if we completed the badge using the contents of our kitchen cupboards and using recycled jars and bottles and that was our aim. It seems you can make quite a few products including lip balms, moisturisers, face masks, toners, exfoliators and perfumes from just a few ingredients. Unfortunately, neither of us owns coconut oil or shea butter and Julie declined to experiment with bacon fat as an alternative (is there a better smell than bacon?), claiming that moisturising with bacon fat while living with animals and carnivorous men could have unpleasant consequences. Fair point.

So, our conscious consumerism is on hold but the oils, butters, waxes and some cute little pots and bottles should all arrive in the next few days and we will be well on our way to our first badge.

I'll let you know how we get on.