Local and Equitable

Our town has a good record when it comes to ethical issues. Every September we have a big event of debates and workshops, and every May (for Fair Trade Week) we have a: 'Marché équitable' means Fair Trade Market, by the way. It was billed this year as a market of 'Handmade, Fair Trade and Organic' produce, which sounded pretty good for someone doing the Challenge of the Utmost Kind...

... and a Green swap!

As always, it's hardly overwhelmed with visitors, but it seems to have enough to make the event viable each year... The mum of one of my pupils is hidden behind those posters, making crèpes!

This is certainly a stall to admire...

And not only were these Palestinian products very impressive, but I adored the van and its logo!

As I was shopping for swapping, as it were, I can't reveal one of my finds, but I can tell you that I bought some symbols of justice:

Fair Trade bananas!

I have a bit of a thing about FT/organic bananas. I don't really like any other kind in the house. The poster above shows just some of the reasons why your average banana is not a Good Thing. We eat an awful lot of bananas in our house, so they are one of the few things on which I'm prepared to spend FT/organic prices. In an ideal world we'd only eat fruit we could grow in our own garden or our own country, I suppose, but I have a son who believes 'Bananas are the Only Fruit', so at least he gets ethical ones...

Accro'...

When Sharon gave me my award, I was way too hot to list five current obsessions, but it's cooled down (hurray!) and had a chance to think about a few of the things on which I'm 'accro', which means 'hooked' in French! (See the link to the word crochet, there?) The only problem now is the order to put them in!

1. Charity Shopping and other second hand shopping. I love the thrill of never knowing what you're going to find, I love the good value, I love the character and quality of older, local things and I love the fact that I'm not contibuting to modern problems such as sweatshop labour and environmental degredation...2. Mother of Pearl buttons and hand made lace. You'd never have guessed that one, would you? 3. Nature - these hoopoes are a good example, but really, all of it... I just think that the entire of creation is so incredible, and fascinating, and makes me feel warm and fuzzy! The hoopoes came to mind because we have them here in springtime and summer, and some people are totally unmoved by these incredible birds. We drop everything to watch them, and we just feel so grateful to be able to share our garden and our area with such incredible wildlife.
4. People - the same way that thinking about nature makes me feel connected with the whole world, I think a lot about how what I'm buying has been made by people, making links: across time if I'm brocante shopping, and around the world, if I'm in the supermarket. I find myself thanking God for the people who made the stuff I get to buy - am I sounding too Pollyanna yet? Probably. So that's why I like Fairly Traded stuff, anyway.
5. There's a link here. Avoiding the Pollyanna preaching, as a family we're somewhat obsessed with looking after the world. If you love nature and people, and you love your family, then how can you not care that the world where they all live is getting into more and more of a mess? Oops, didn't avoid the preaching. I'll shut up and leave you with a quote from my boys' favourite, Sir David Attenborough; "How could I look my grandchildren in the eye and say I knew about this and did nothing?"
Ooh, a serious note... I think the most important thing is to realise that if we dwell on how hard it is to protect our planet, we'll do nothing, but if we enjoy every little attempt we make to improve things (like shopping second hand, he-he!) then we can protect our children's future and love the life we lead at the same time!

Indoor projects...

It may be a strange thing to hear that we are mainly indoors at the moment, at least in the daytime. In Britain when it's sunny you get out when you can, but this summer in France we are currently hiding from the heat! Over the last week, therefore, we have finished long-running projects such as Son 1's trebuchet (now capable of throwing blackberries for the dog to catch) and my rocking chair.This is the 'before' picture. Ben bought the chair for me while he was picking up our incredibly successful second-hand swimming pool - someone was having a kind of house sale. I liked the chair but never got round to finding successful fabric for the cushions.
This is some of the vintage fabric that I bought from the charity shop the other day.It was only when I hung it on the line to freshen up that I realised that the strident tones on the right side looked beautifully faded on the wrong side, so, if you look back up to my first photo, you'll realise that I sewed the cushion cover, quite deliberately, 'wrong side round'. Do you think I'm crazy?
I knew, as we stayed stuck inside, that the internet shopping would come into play... so far, it's window shopping only. I got an email about this wonderful collection today - it's now called 'Created', but in the past I've bought from it as Tearcraft. I guess that 'Created' is a better name - it's Fairly Traded gifts from self-help projects around the world and I love what they have this year. I fancied recycled packaging bins last year, but they were really expensive. How can a Fair Trade one be cheaper? This is only £14!
How could you not love this hand felted trivet from Nepal? £12. I could have a few of those...
More felt! Hmm... I have a lot of sheep stuff, a collection from when I was younger. Only £10!
Although I like an 'ethnic' feel in my Fairly Traded stuff, I can't avoid their 'Country Pastel' range either. These caddies are only £10...
And the blogging winner? I suspect it might be this one, at £12.
There we are, I've had my shopping fix without spending anything! (yet...)

Eggs - permanent and temporary!

The permanent eggs of the title are those I snapped around my parents' house - I think my mum is very fond of egg shapes. The more I looked, the more it felt like a grown-up's Easter Egg Hunt! China eggs in the sitting room...

On either side of the mantelpiece...

Stone eggs in a bowl....Mauchline ware... These are needle cases, I think... A gift from my dad in the dining room...Hiding in a drawer...Another bowl-full!..In a box, this time!..Now into the kitchen... And my final discovery in the hallway. Now for the much more temporary eggs - the chocolate kind.They're going into nests made with equal quantities of butter, fair trade cocoa powder, sugar and golden syrup, melted then combined with cornflakes.Yum!Yum yum! The results were extremely good. The fat charity hens joined us again. As did 'Bloups' the FT fish... And the traditional French bell...

Thanks for all your Easter wishes and your beautiful Easter posts. Easter hope and joy to you all!

Four generations of button collectors (plus a little shopping)

My grandmother, my mother and I have all collected buttons.Most of my teenage finds are still in the beautiful boxes at my mother's house, which may also contain buttons from my great grandmother, who was a seamstress in Blaina, South Wales.
So it's likely that the boxes we sorted through today contain the combined collections of four women over more than a century: Edith, Mildred, Dawn and Floss.

Some of the buttons have come off clothes worn by the family, and others were picked up in charity shop button boxes.Many of the mid 20th century buttons are from clothes my mother remembers: 'Your grandmother had a raw silk with those buttons on. My father brought it back from Shanghai and her mother made it up for her'.
'I had a coat with those sailing boat buttons on,' she tells me. 'It was almost impossible to get them through the holes. You'd never give a child such impractical buttons today...'
We noticed for the first time that the three Victorian dress buttons are shaped like whirls of ribbon. The big beaded button is clearly for mourning.My mum was offering me the chance to take some examples home, but I wasn't keen on breaking up the collection. Instead, we've agreed that I'll take some complete sets of buttons - all the glass ones, for example, to complete the group I took over after Christmas.

These military (and other) buttons are quite fun, and my parents have a friend in the US who collects them. My father and grandfather were in the Navy, and a great, great grandfather was Deputy Chief Constable of Carnarvon, so uniform-type buttons probably have a family history with us. I'm going to check out Great, Great Grandpa's photo to see if I recognise any of the buttons! These two aren't metal - I think they may be Bakelite, perhaps.

Shiny!

Eclectic blue. Wooden. Milly Molly Mandy buttons here, Elizabethd!

And so many mother of pearl...I have taken the square collection - aren't they stylish? Stiletto girl vintage has some great ideas for displaying a collection like this here. She also has a great history of the American mother of pearl button industry here.

I was inspired to make a mother of pearl button necklace. I've never made a button necklace before but Dorcas (above) looked like she would help me. I presume the thread was named after good old Dorcas the early Christian, who sewed shirts for orphans and widows. Her Hebrew name Thabitha has always appealed more to me and Ben than the Greek version Dorcas. If Son 1 had been Daughter 1 she would have been called Tabitha!

So, with the help of Dorcas thread and the Edinburgh Bead Shop ribbon, cord and fastenings, here is my first attempt at a button necklance.
It fits!

The bead shop just happens to be opposite a super-duper little place in Stockbridge, called:Well, what else would it be called?

It's not just a gift shop; its main role is as an art and craft studio with workshops for all ages and abilities. If we lived here, we'd have had plenty of birthday parties here by now! Click here for their website.This is where I bought the Vietnamese rice sack planters which are much admired by Brooke from be in red. Today I bought rice sack bunting to go with the planters! Much excitement. Rhona, who owns the centre, told me that her source for the rice sack stuff is an Englishman who goes out to Vietnam every year and works with the producers, developing new products appropriate for the UK market. This is great, fair trade, fun!

I've admired this fair trade South African chappie for a while now. Do you think I could make one? Goodnight from me and Dorcas the gazelle! (That's what Dorcas/Tabitha means, honest! Coincidence or what?)