Bambootique’s wholesale program just keeps growing! I’m delighted that the following shops are now carrying my fair trade products. If one is in your area be sure to stop in to get your Bambootique fix.
Lucias Imports
523 East High St.
Lexington, KY 40502
(859) 389-9337
One World Shop
19321 Detroit Rd.
Rocky River, OH 44116
(440) 333-770
Who: You and all your closest friends, family and neighbors. Bring your girlfriends along to introduce them to everything you love about fair trade!
What: Two days of holiday shopping that makes a world of difference! This year’s trunk show features products from India, Afghanistan, Bolivia, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Nepal, Guatemala, Honduras, Togo, South Africa and more! Bambootique’s fair trade selection includes handbags, candles, scarves, skincare products, jewelry and handmade paper products, all made by women artisans in the developing world. We’ll also have a fabulous selection of Christmas ornaments and nativities from Haiti, Afghanistan, Thailand and Peru.
We’ll have a fun play area to keep little ones busy while moms shop.
Other features of the show include fair trade freebies such as take-home samples of Strictly Organic Coffee, Kalahari tea and copies of The Conscious Consumer for every attendee. Plus don’t miss our incredible Clearance section, homemade chocolate chip cookies, fresh fair trade coffees and teas, and great music!
This year Bambootique is thrilled to partner with Haiti Foundation of Hope to support their community health program in Terre Blanche, Haiti. 10% of all sales from the trunk show will be donated to HFH. There will also be a selection of Haitian arts and crafts of which 100% of sales will support HFH’s excellent work.
This event is open to the public so please come and bring your friends!
Me (center) with Greenheart manager Katherine and staff member Laura
Chicago is a city teeming with fabulous restaurants, breathtaking architecture, interesting museums and little neighborhoods full of gorgeous boutiques. Strangely there is an incredible shortage of fair trade boutiques (any Chicago-based entrepreneurs want to take up the challenge?) but one shop has got it right and you don’t want to miss it.
I visited Greenheart a few weeks ago while visiting family in Chicago. The shop is amazing, I wanted to buy one of everything! Greenheart is the kind of shop that has figured out the perfect harmony between good prices, great quality, and excellent style and selection. I found the expected variety of fair trade goods – handbags, jewelry, some nice clothing lines, children’s toys and home decor. On top of that they’ve hunted down some truly unique finds such as ethical flip-flops (I’m loving my new pair!), scissors handmade in India, outdoor floor mats made from recycled materials, and the cutest umbrellas made from recycled plastic laundry detergent bottles.
All these great products were laid out in a warm, inviting space where my sister-in-law and I were treated to tea, fair trade chocolate and great conversation with the store staff. I walked away with my funky flipflops and an organic lipstick I love. Now at Greenheart you’ll find a selection of Bambootique’s messenger bags from South Africa, jewelry from Honduras and Nepal, journals from Thailand and more!
Greenheart is located on the north side of Chicago. They packed up and moved everything to an even bigger, better space just a week after I was there and I can’t wait to check it out next time I’m in Chicago. Find them at 1911 W. Division and tell them I sent you!
If you’ve always coveted these gorgeous bags from Indonesia but didn’t want to pay the steep price, now’s your chance. I’ve discontinued the line, beautiful as they are, to make room in Bambootique’s inventory for all the other great new bags I’ve started carrying. The styles that remain were just marked down to 40% off. There’s only one or two left in each color/ style and when they’re gone, they’re gone. Now get shopping!
Twice a year I voluntarily turn my house topsy-turvy. The toddler toys are scooped up and replaced with tables and racks of Bambootique’s best. Pretty spring purses, soft cotton scarves, hip messenger bags, glittery beads, delicious fair trade snacks and more all help transform my home into a global shopping bazaar. Each time I wonder “will anyone come?” and every time the crowds of happy shoppers swoop in. Last Saturday over 50 of you came and it was so much fun!
Thanks to each of you who came to support fair trade and pick out great gifts for yourselves and people you love! Thanks also to the vendors who donated snacks and drinks for us to enjoy – Strictly Organic Coffee, Numi Tea, Slo Chai, Theo chocolate, and Honest Tea and also to Food Front Cooperative Grocery who gave our first 25 shoppers free reusable cloth shopping bags. Thanks also to my mom who baked mouth-watering fair trade chocolate chip cookies we all enjoyed! Thanks to my wonderful helper friends – Katie, Karin, Lorie, Megan, Karen, Mary Lee, Connie and Kristin. And finally thanks to my husband Steve and daughter Grace for putting up with it!
Do you want to make sure you don’ t miss the next trunk show? It will be in November 2009. Contact me to be added to the invite list!
Earth Day is Wednesday April 22nd, but lots of folks will be celebrating our planet this weekend at all kinds of events across the globe.
If you’re here in Portland, head on over to Bambootique’s Spring Trunk Show and Inventory Clearance, all day Saturday (10am-4pm). You’ll find a huge array of fair trade products, all as good for the planet as they are for people. You’ll find bags made from bamboo, jewelry made from recycled soda cans, handmade paper journals, candles made from vegetable waxes and dyes, plus hundreds of other purses, jewelry items, soft toys, and more, all made by hand which means a very low carbon footprint.
What: Bambootique’s Spring Trunk Show and Inventory Clearance (10-75% off throughout)
When: Saturday April 18th, 10am-4pm (open house – drop in anytime)
Where: My home in Tualatin, OR. Email me for address/ directions or call 503-781-3244.
Who: You and all your friends, family, anyone you’d like to bring to shop fair trade!
Oh, and did I mention free chocolate chip cookies, homemade by my mom with fair trade chocolate chips?
Twice a year I open up my home for a Bambootique Trunk Show, where all Bambootique products are available for purchase in person and, for the first time, it’s ALL on sale.
If you haven’t come before, why not make this year the first? I have overstock from Christmas I need to move plus with the way the economy is, we’re all looking for a deal. Everything will be 10-75% offweb prices. On top of that, I’ll have dozens of new products and trunk show exclusive products not available online. Like what you say? Gypsy bags from Honduras, woven baskets from Rwanda, and finger puppets from Peru to name a few.
It will also be your chance to grab one of our brand-new messenger bags from South Africa. These babies are literally flying out the door and I’m afraid there may be a waiting list soon. A new shipment is (fingers crossed) arriving from South Africa just days before the trunk show. If a messenger bag is on your trunk show shopping list, I advise you to arrive early.
The trunk show is not just a chance to shop, although a lot of shopping will go on. It’s a great social event and a chance to introduce your friends and family to the world of fair trade, even beyond Bambootique. Everyone will get a free sample bag of Strictly Organic Coffee (roasted in Bend, Oregon) and I’ll have samples of Theo chocolate, not to mention my mom’s popular fair trade chocolate chip cookies, fresh-brewed fair trade coffee and organic Numi teas. Wear comfy shoes, grab your best girlfriends, and drop on by!
Mark your calendar!
What: Bambootique Spring Trunk Show and Inventory Clearance (10-75% off)
When: Saturday April 18th, 10am-4pm
Where: Bambootique Founder Beth Sethi’s home in Tualatin, Oregon. Email me for the address (I prefer not to post it online, but everyone is welcome!)
Why: Because shopping is so much more fun in person than online, especially when it’s all on sale! If you don’t come April 18th you’ll have to wait for (gasp) the Christmas trunk show.
I was just thrilled to be featured today in a segment on the TV morning show Better. It was great to share the story of Bambootique with interviewers Marni and Holly as well as highlight some of my favorite artisans and their handiwork. Here are links to some of the items featured on the show.
Meet Zoleka. Age 28, resident of Khayelitsha just 30 miles outside Capetown, South Africa.
She has a beautiful smile, doesn’t she? Zoleka left home when she turned 18 because of a stepfather who mistreated her. She turned to her older brother for help but burdened his family for years while she looked for work. Without skills or training , Zoleka didn’t have a lot of options as a young woman. When she heard about Learn to Earn’s vocational training program however, she wholeheartedly enrolled and learned to sew beautiful skirts, dresses and Bambootique’s latest line of gorgeous messenger bags.
Zoleka has worked with Learn to Earn for two years and has saved enough to move into her own home. After years of being a financial burden on her brother, a shaming position but so common for women in South Africa, Zoleka is now giving part of her pay back to her brother to help support their younger siblings.
So that smile you see above? That smile shows the pride of a young woman standing on her own two feet. Bambootique is equally proud to introduce these super adorable bags, all priced under $55 and already selling fast.
For a limited time I’ve marked down all our gorgeous bags from Indonesia. They’re sewn by women who survived the devastating tsunami of 2004 in the region of Banda Aceh. While the media has long turned their eye away from this area since the tsunami, life continues to be a challenge as communities struggle to rebuild. The local economy especially is still especially shaky but manufacture of these incredible bags provides a living income for several dozen women in the area.
Nurali (above) is one of the women who supports her family sewing handbags
using traditional Acehnese embroidery designs.
Some of my favorites from the Indonesian collection
A close-up view of the incredible detail of the embroidery. No computerized machinery is used. The women sew the embroidery freestyle with old-fashioned foot-powered sewing machines.
Earth Day is Wednesday April 22nd, but lots of folks will be celebrating our planet this weekend at all kinds of events across the globe.
overstock from Christmas I need to move plus with the way the economy is, we’re all looking for a deal. Everything will be 10-75% off web prices. On top of that, I’ll have dozens of new products and trunk show exclusive products not available online. Like what you say? Gypsy bags from Honduras, woven baskets from Rwanda, and finger puppets from Peru to name a few.
Beth
