Fun new fabrics and a quartet of recommendations...
I know we've been remiss in writing blog entries, but that's because we've been putting all our efforts into entering new fabrics. And what a lot of fun surprises we have in store for you! We're happy to announce some more NearSea Naturals exclusives, including five colors of glorious hand-batiked wide-width sateens. There's our exclusive Cave Art Print, available in fleece, Plain Weave, Knit Summercloth, Arctic French Terry, and Colorgrown Green Woven, several with unprinted versions of the fabric to match. And don't miss our Amity Peace Silk, which is a double-layer fabric (the two layers of the fabric are attached only at the selvages) of the sheerest tussah silk imaginable. Glorious for summer wear, formal attire, and so much more, it was imported from a women's cooperative in India just for us.
There's more in the extended entry, so keep reading.
What else? Well, we've also added a medium-weight hemp herringbone, in Deep Brown, Black, Sand, and Natural. This fabric is so durable, versatile, and sophisticated; can't you see entire fall wardrobes out of it? We sure can! We finally have the deep plum hemp/silk charmeuse that we've been waiting for; the picture doesn't do it justice, so be sure to request a swatch. There's a fun hemp/conventional cotton print that will look glorious in your kitchen (and many other places too), and an unprinted featherweight jersey of hemp and organic cotton. We now offer the natural version of our Embossed Melon fabric; these heavy fabrics are splendid for upholstery and so much more. There are a few more new fabrics that I'll let you find for yourself -- what a great excuse to peruse the site, right?
And now for the recommendations. Our local Farmer's Market has an occasional movie night, and at the last one they showed the documentaries Billion Dollar Crop, about industrial hemp, and Buyer Be Fair, about fair trade certification. Both were fascinating and inspiring (or depressing, depending on how you view things!), and both are very much worth watching if you have a chance. Buyer Be Fair will have you only drinking fair trade coffee from now on, and feeling very good about it too. Billion Dollar Crop, which does include depictions of people smoking pot at various times while they're discussing how different industrial hemp and marijuana are, will have you up in arms about the folly of forbidding industrial hemp's legal cultivation in the US. If you're interested in the quest (which has actually made some progress recently -- go California!), check out VoteHemp.com. It still surprises me when people ask if they could smoke our hemp fabrics, though I guess it shouldn't; we always say "sure, but you'll get lung cancer long before you ever get high!" Industrial hemp has a THC content of less than 0.03% -- nothing to be worried about, that's for sure!
The wonderful folks at Life Elements sent us a selection of their Romantic Aromatherapy Bath and Body Collection for Couples. How can you go wrong with a slogan that says "Some relationships benefit from therapy. All benefit from aromatherapy."? They offer a very nice collection of romantic and passionate items, including candles, linen sprays, and more. Definitely check them out if you're in the market for some socially-responsible intimate goodies. (They're also business members of Co-Op America, which is how I learned about them. If you're not a Co-Op America member yet, check them out. If you ARE a member already, check out the website anyway -- they're always adding new ways to make the quest for a "Just Planet" just a little bit easier. And you could nominate us as your choice for Green Business of the Year, which would be quite nice of you.)
Lastly, and apropos of nothing, I spent a good portion of yesterday (when, yes, I should have been working) checking out the plethora of options at archive.org. There're tons of old-time radio shows, which can be so much fun to listen to in the car or elsewhere, live music, movies, texts ... it's definitely worth checking out. I think my father's going to be hooked on all the cowboy radio shows he used to love -- but now he'll be listening to them on his iPod, how anachronistic is that?