Win a cheeky monkey

Boudalu, in collaboration with new website ticatoca is running a competition to win a fairtrade monkey.

All you need to do is visit the site and answer two short questions to be in with a chance to win

2 sheep to go

I have had a rush on baby gifts recently. It’s that time of year, people are sprogging like there’s no tomorrow. I guess the recession is giving us a baby boom like in post-war eras.  As a consequence Carol and Margaret left the flock this week (as they were named by their Kenyan makers) and only Lucy and Elizabeth are left. They need good homes.

I am a mumpreneur!

It’s official – weird word but hey I’ll go with it. I still cringe though at the thought of being any kind of ‘entrepeneur’. It feels like I should be Richard Branson.

I was approached by BT Tradespace who were writing an article on how to be a successful mumpreneur. All publicity is good publicity right?

I have lifted the below from the article which can be read in full here

For some like Sarah Alderson, owner of ethical and green business, Boudalu, running her own business wasn’t a choice, but a necessity, “I don’t think I really chose to become a mumpreneur, it just happened. When I was on maternity leave, I went slightly crazy. I was just not used to not working (not that having a newborn isn’t hard work but I missed the sense of creating new projects, project managing and making things happen)!” Sarah found a gap in the ethical and green business market and founded Boudalu, a fairtrade boutique where users can shop by type of product or by cause. She’s proves she’s committed to her cause – both as a mumpreneur and as a green business when she says, “We don’t think it would be right to keep our profits, so we donate them all back to grassroots social projects in the developing world.”

The article has some good tips for success for other women looking to do the same and some inspiring business stories from other mothers.

Sold Out!

I sold out of the lovely fair trade aro bracelets that I mention in the blog post below – thanks to the lovely article in Mizz magazine. It did say ‘Buy it now or regret it’. I won’t be ordering any in for a while yet,  but from the same company, I do have these gorgeous fair trade bracelets.

Made from tagua, a rainforest nut, this is a stunning alternative to the plastic and resin jewellery on the high street. Other people call it vegetable ivory, because it has the same texture of ivory, not that I’d know, not having stroked any tusks recently, but it is rather lovely. Very elegant and Holly Golightly-esque. Definitely something to rescue you from the mean reds.

Available now at Boudalu for just £15

Mizz Magazine and Boudalu bracelets

Our lovely Aro bracelets (that’s palm fibre to you and me) are featured in Mizz Magazine this week (apparently teenage girls read it a lot). I am wondering whether they are the only organic, natural jewellery in the jewellery universe. They are made completely from plant fibre and each one is dyed a different colour using vegetable dye. In terms of eco-credentials, get this – local and indigenous people in Ecuador harvest the palm fibre to make the bracelets, this means trees aren’t being chopped down (leading to deforestation and soil erosion).
When did buying a piece of jewellery ever stop climate change before. Ok, so it won’t stop it in its tracks but initiatives like this are so worth supporting.

Buy now from Boudalu before they sell out!

Comfort blanket

Even though it’s supposedly summer out there, it was freakin freezing earlier today.  I found myself crashing out on my bed half way through the morning (I had just swum 50 lengths). There was no gorgeous man handy to keep me warm so I cuddled up underneath this gorgeous number instead. It got a lot of wear over the winter, along with matching fleece lined slippers but I didn’t expect to be still wrapping myself in it come June.

Made by a fair trade women’s cooperative in Kenya called Kenana Knitters. Set up in 1998, to help rural women find some much needed form of income using their spinning and knitting skills, the group makes cuddly toys, finger puppets and a gorgeous line in slippers too.
Each blanket is hand-knitted, meaning that each is a little different from the next (the one you purchase therefore might look a little different to the one in the picture). Kenana Knitters are a group of women who live in a rural area of Kenya where steady employment is hard to come by. Kenana Knitters enables its workers to directly benefit from their efforts. Knitting is ideal; it requires minimal equipment, can be done in snatches when time permits. When the rains come and the family crops and vegetables need tending not much knitting gets done, but in times of drought and crop failure, when the family garden is bare of supplementary vegetables, money can now be earned to purchase the necessities of life. The money goes direct into the hands of the women who are thus able to improve the quality of their lives.

Kenana blankets, toys and slippers are all stocked at fair trade boutique boudalu

Recycled Paper Bowls

These papier mache bowls must surely win a prize for most innovative use of sardine tin labels. It’ll be the talking point of your coffee table, not just because it’s gorgeous, but because by buying one you’ve also supported a charity that employs HIV positive women in South Africa.

boudalu fair trade bowl

Fair Trade Bling

well as bling as I go, which isn’t very at all. But it is gold (in colour, not alas in any other way).

This bracelet is handmade in Kenya by a women’s co-operative. They make fabulous fair trade gifts, especially if you like giving gifts to yourself. As each one is hand-crafted, each piece varies slightly from the next, ensuring you a truly unique piece of jewellery.

Founded in 1975, Kazuri was set up to provide employment for struggling single mothers and continues this mission today. The workshop is in Karen, named after Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep played her in the film ‘Out Of Africa’), on part of the farm once owned by her. Today over 300 local women are employed by Kazuri providing them with a rare opportunity to earn a fair income.

Kenya is currently suffering extreme poverty and social unrest. Unemployment is estimated at between 65% – 90%, and one jobholder often ends up providing for an “extended family” of 20 or more. It is particularly difficult for women to find jobs. Those with little or no education find it virtually impossible. Those lucky ones who do find employment are shown great respect by their families and communities. Unlike here in the West, where a friend’s husband yesterday blanked me because apparently I’m a bad influence on my friend for being, shock horror, a working mother.

Back to this lovely bracelet though – how lush is it? AND it also costs a staggering £10 less at Boudalu than it does at John Lewis.

Fair Trade Silk Scarves

I want these guys to start doing knickers. Fair trade silk knickers that don’t cost the earth. That would be cool. Until then, I make do with their scarves which are utterly gorgeous and ooh so chic.

I sourced these from a lovely company in Laos. They took about a hundred years to arrive due to the Laos postal system. They are made by a not for profit company that seeks to create income generating opportunities for the people of Laos, in a socially and environmentally responsible manner.

Fair Trade silk scarves from boudalu

The company provides training, tools and a market for village people, helping them grow the mulberry trees, care for the silk worms (that’s gotta be an interesting job) and turn the worm goo into silk to make into these lovely scarves. Very clever. They even use organic fertilizer – so it’s an organic silk scarf, on top of being fair trade. The dyes are also all derived organically – from local plants and berries.

In a range of colours stocked exclusively in the UK by Boudalu. Shop now before they sell out and you have to wait another 8 months for them to arrive.

Fair trade bags for kids

How cute is this bag. I love it – although I’m about 25 years too old to actually take it out on the street. My daughter thinks it’s about the best bag in the whole world. It fulfils all the necessary criteria – being pink and having a horse on it.

This lovely bag is handmade and fair trade. It’s made by young people who are skilled up by a charity in India and then employed on a fair trade basis to make clothes and other accessories. I have some lovely children’s clothes too from the same producer (less pink but still not for 30 somethings).  There’s more information about the organisation here too.