Creating the world around us, one stitch at a time

Leah Siemens, one of our amazingly creative customers, has started a business that takes advantage of her incredible sewing skills. Her first auction is on ebay right now, and you only have a day to get your bid in. So start typing!

Here's what Leah has to say:
"Here are the pics and write up that are in my current auction, almost all of the fabric and notions came from Near Sea Naturals.... This is the first set that I've made to sell, but I plan it to be the first of many more - I'm starting with baby, but plan to do other household items as well.

"A bit about myself. I am 36 years old, and the mother of four children, 3 girls ages 8, 23 months and 10 months, and a boy aged 7. I grew up with a love for nature and taking care of the earth - my parents gardened organically while I grew up and I follow their example. My Grandparents lived on a farm with no electricity - my grandmother raised sheep, sheared them, spun the wool and died it with natural dyes from plants that she made herself. She made beautiful things that she sold all over the world.

"2 years ago we had to shut down our family business as my husband could no longer do that work, and now he is recovering from spinal surgery. Having had two babies in the last two years and not wanting to leave their care to someone else - my husband's condition doesn't allow him to care for them until he is fully recovered, I started to think about what I could do from home. So I took my love of things organic, and my love of fabric art, and decided to put the two together and see what happened! Here is my 'debut'."

Look at the incredible details on the set. The lace beautifully edges the quilt and crib skirt, the appliques are edged in colorgrown yarn, vintage buttons top the canopy, and so much more. This is the sort of creation I always wanted to make for my kids but somehow it never happened. (Something about a lack of time, or so I claimed ... but Leah has FOUR kids and is still making these incredible things. So perhaps I'll have to come up with a better excuse at some point...) Click on the images to see bigger pictures, and check out the ebay page for even more, as well as more information.

To learn more about Leah's plans (or commission her to make something special, perhaps?), email her. You can see any ebay auctions here.

Posted by Tara at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

That's how one amazed person described our new Gobi Desert Camel Wool Yarn. This was after saying, "CAMEL? The yarn is made from camel hair? How weird!" How quickly her tune changed, when confronted with the reality of a soft, soft, sooooooft yarn, hand-spun by nomadic herders. I highly recommend checking it out. We'll have additional colors sometime this summer, when the next shipment arrives from Mongolia.

With kids who are prone to the munchies at the most inopportune times (aren't they all?), I've grown accustomed to bringing snacks with us wherever we go. But the idea of storing them has been an ongoing issue for me. I don't like plastics, for obvious reasons, but glass containers are more likely to break. Other options are rare and frequently quite costly. And don't even get me started about utensils -- disposables are awful, compostables are expensive and difficult to find (and still a sign of our consumer culture), bringing our silverware almost guarantees that it'll get lost, ... what's a mom to do? Finally we have the answer -- To-Go Ware's Two-Tier Food Carrier and Bamboo Utensil Set! The utensil sets are perfect for commodious purses, laptop bags, glove boxes, lunchboxes, picnic baskets, bike bags, and anywhere else where you could tuck the little roll and never have to use disposables again. The Food Carrier might look small at first, but it holds enough food for even hearty appetites and comes with a handy lift-off plate that doubles as a lid for one of the layers. I was delighted to find these, and am thrilled to offer them to you.

We also added some great new fabrics. Just in time for summer, we have three beautiful colored interlocks in pea shoot green, slate grey, and cornflower blue. And don't miss the new Sweet Pink Flannel, which is splendid for home decor projects, nurseries, and oh-so-pretty clothes. There's more to come, so keep an eye out.

Posted by Tara at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We've added eighteen colors of beautiful organic cotton/wool yarn. The blended fibers have a gorgeous tweed-like effect, and the yarn itself is a joy to work with. A perfect gift for your favorite mother, or for yourself. :)

We are, of course, back from the Green Business Conference, and have been for a little while now. I highly recommend attending one, should you (a) have a business or an interest in one (yes, that includes working for one), and (b) have the ability to do so. It was worth the 20-hour drive each way (in our Prius, with carbon offsets!), and we returned with all sorts of information and inspiration to implement in our business and share with our customers, friends, blog readers, neighbors, and random people on the street. I'll dole it out in little bits, over the next while, but figured I'd start with this. Are you familiar with the Social Venture Network? They are, and I quote, "a community of leaders — company founders, private investors, social entrepreneurs and key influencers — who share a commitment to building a just and sustainable world through business. " They have a series of books aimed at "offering a new direction for socially conscious entrepreneurs." The books cover a variety of topics; the one I'm currently reading is Growing Local Value: How to Build Business Partnerships that Strengthen Your Community. None of the books are earth-shaking, but they've all made me think and have given me data to support my convictions (and thus made some of our choices easier to explain and more understandable). I definitely recommend the books to anyone involved in businesses of any sort or size.

Posted by Tara at 08:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)