Fair Trade Friday

Welcome to the first installment of Fair Trade Fridays!

It is my heart to spend my Friday blogs highlighting organizations, businesses, and ministries that seek to give us opportunities to buy products that promote fair treatment and compensation of employees.

Fair trade is a term that has become very well known over the last few years, but what exactly does fair trade mean? Well Wikipedia says "Fair Trade is an organized social movement and market-based approach that aims to help producers in developing countries obtain better trading conditions and promote sustainability. The movement advocates the payment of a higher price to producers as well as social and environmental standards. It focuses in particular on exports from developing countries to developed countries, most notably handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, sugar, tea, bananas, honey, cotton, wine, fresh fruit, chocolate and flowers." That is the online encyclopedia definition, but here is what fair trade means to me. It means that the products that I try to buy are not being made by the blood, sweat, and tears of slaves. Slavery is a term that (at least as far as I have seen) has really been coming to the forefront in the last five years. I have come to realize that slavery is not a thing of the past, but modern day slavery is real, is happening today, and is probably happening in your very own backyard (but that is a completely different discussion).

As I write this blog, I first of all want to throw it out there that I am by no means an expert on this subject. I just have a heart for justice and seeing people set free from bondage. I am not saying that everything that I have to say is right, but these are my thoughts and that is what blogging is all about right?

So there is the intro. for Fair Trade Friday. I have to say that I am really looking forward to learning more as I begin the quest to get stuff to share with you. Have a wonderful weekend and many blessings to you.

Thanks for reading :0)

Coming soon - Fair trade Fridays

If you know me at all, you know that I am very passionate about issues of social injustice. Seeing people set free from modern day slavery is a cause that I want to give my life to. Today I decided that I would start with dedicating a little portion of my blog to highlighting organizations and businesses that offer the opportunity for us to buy fair trade products. Most of these organizations will be those who are helping women escape prostitution by giving them a means of making income through creating jewelry, purses, etc. to be sold. This will be the highlight of these Fair Trade Fridays, because it is something that I just love, love, love. So stay tuned. Fair Trade Fridays will be coming soon...very soon.

Goodies!!!

I love getting fun packages and many who know me can probably attest to the fact that the smallest little gift makes my heart delightfully happy. A few weeks ago my friend Karisse and I did a little paper crafty stuff swap. She sent me a package and I got to send her one too. We took stuff out of our art journaling stash that we thought the other person would enjoy and packed it up to mail. Here is a pic of some of the goodies I got from Karisse:

I loved, loved, loved getting so many fun things. Papers, and ribbons, and fabric...oh my! I think that my favorite definitely has to be the "Charm City Cakes" stickers with the icing recipe from Evan ... oops I mean Duff (we like to tell Evan that he looks and acts like Duff from Ace of Cakes). So that was my first delightful package BUT there's more.

Yesterday I received another package from my mom and my grandmother and inside it was.....

BUTTONS...tons and tons of buttons. I loved the sound that they made as they came tinkling out of the package. I was like a kid at Christmas looking through my buttons and dreaming of all the things that I was going to do with them. I spent at least 30 minutes looking through them and pulling out all my favorite. And then I immediately put them to use by sewing some of them into my art journal.

That's just a little sneaky peek :) The full page will be posted on my Flickr.

So if you need to get rid of any fabric scraps, buttons, paper, or odds and ends just let me know. I can give what may appear to be junk (well very small junk that is) a good home.

Ahhh, summer

Then followed that beautiful season... Summer....
Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape
Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

source

Can I just say how excited I am about warmer weather. The smell of sunscreen and a Nalgene full of water and mint leaves bring delight to my heart. I have been making sweet tea and today I tried out some chicken salad ... ah, the taste of summer. In a few weeks I shall make some salsa which will bring much top off a culinary summer for me. I hope that I will be able to make my way to a beach soon because for me the summer is just not complete without some sand and waves. I really do love summer.