The worry lines are gone

I had been a little worried lately about the lack of communication from our Fair Trade bead suppliers in Africa. However Christine assured me that they had come through for us fine in the past and we needed to have faith. Finally this week I had the email I had been waiting for - the beads are being shipped. They have had power problems again and were very apologetic, I even felt a bit guilty for doubting them. So now I can get the focus back on the next collection. Will have news shortly on a show we will be attending in August, which I'm really excited about.

Check out my skincare review at New Consumer, after I received some lovely products from award winning green e-department store - Natural Collection. I wrote this review awhile ago but I'm still loving the Skincare cafe range, especially the moisturiser [See pic]

Ella

Turn your TV off

Treat yourself this Friday & Saturday to a night of music, comedy and drama courtesy of the 'Ostreme Players' based in Mumbles, South Wales. Featuring one of our assistant Green Beachers, turn your TV off and lend your support.

The Summer Repertoire starts at 7.30pm both Friday 29th and Sat 30th June at the Ostreme Centre. Tickets £5. For further information see local press or read Mumbles village diary here.

[Pic: Oystermouth Castle - the Ostreme Centre is located at the foot of the hill of this historic castle]

Party on

Apologies for the lateness of my weekly blog - there's been quite a lot of midsummer madness during these past long evenings. On Thursday - Midsummer Day - we held a long awaited girlie party for our family and friends to chill out and of course, check out our current stock. It goes without saying that we really appreciate their support and encouragement during the beginnings of Green Beach. Last night my street had a Midsummer party too, which is pretty unusual these days. It was great to chat to the neighbours, rather than just pass anonymously in our cars. I love the feeling that I could pop over to borrow a 'cup of sugar' or just pass the time of day. One lady had even found a link to my blog! Hello J!

Funky festival offer to jazz up the Midsummer blues

Midsummer is almost upon us, the night's are long and I can hear the faint echoes of a music festival in my local park. If you need to brighten up your festival slogan tee and wellie ensemble, then look no further than a Green Beach necklace.

I love blue. I love it in every shade from sea green to stormy sky and I didn't think I could ever get sick of it but in the learning curve that is stock ordering I went overboard with blue beads. Luckily the new beads are on the way from Africa but this still leaves me with the Midsummer blues. Until the end of June we are offering a generous 30% discount on all blue beaded necklaces.

If you are still yet to email for your copy of our summer catalogue, now might be a good time!

a long shot?

Christine and I thought it was about time I stopped blathering about how much I love Howies clothing and took some action. Inspired by Howies' 10 stunts for summer, we did our own little fashion shoot of Howies clothes and Green Beach jewellery and sent them to the founders of Howies. Here's the email:-

Dear David & Clare

Head South East for 60 miles and you'll find two believers in a better way of living. We believe in the simple life - shopping local, growing veggies, breathing plenty of fresh air - both enjoying and respecting our beautiful planet. Unsuprisingly, we are believers in Howies too.

The two of us like nothing more than sitting in our seaside gardens creating ethical jewellery, using recycled and fairly traded beads with organic hemp twine. We are inspired by our awesome Gower coastline and have sourced recycled glass pendants that evoke 'washed-up sea jewels'. Our style is relaxed and suits Howies clothing well - we know, we wear it.

Its a bit of a long shot, but we thought you might be interested in using our range on your models in the next Howies catalogue. To give you a quick idea, we have done our own fashion shoot (using an over 40, size 14 model - yes they love Howies too) combining Howies clothing with Green Beach (that's us) jewellery.

Check it out for yourselves, read our blog and let us know if we're in range of the target.

Peace
Ella & Christine

Since sending this, I hear that Howies is going to open its first shop in London. Here's hoping that the second one is in Wales.

Pic top: Unisex Beachcomber choker; T-shirt by Howies (censored to wear at the school gates)

Pic below: Pink Beachcomber necklaces, layered up; Dress by Howies

Ready for summer (and Autumn)

Some say that when the sun's out, the style is out - I disagree. Its great to see people out in their bright tee's and flirty skirts. Dresses (which are totally underrated as a fashion staple) are everywhere and I love my Howies Blossom dress, which is keeping me cool in the hot weather. I'm still not tired of jewellery making and we have placed our second order to Africa, as the Summer range is selling well and our bead stock is depleting. Despite being in the midst of sun, Christine is encouraging me to think of Autumn but then conceeded we could do a few 'Indian Summer' pieces. This suits me because you really have to force me out of summer clothes and Birkenstocks in Autumn - I love to keep that summer feeling going as long as I can. I'm sure I'm not the only one?

I was really chuffed this week to see someone out in Mumbles in one of our hemp necklaces - the starfish, in particular, is a hit and we are considering using that as our logo. Christine sent me some information on the use of the starfish symbol in Ancient Eqypt and the powerful mythology surrounding it.


Also this week we met Jake who represents Green Dragon, he is currently helping us with our environmental policy and actions and we hope to achieve the Green Dragon Environmental Standard, Level 2. More on this soon.

Ella

Recycled treasures

Had a lucky break this week. I was taking my unwanted plastic to recycle at my local amenity site and spotted two guys starting to unload a boot full of fabric samples into the landfill container - Designers Guild, Osbourne & Little - in great big sheets. I zoomed over and politely scooped them up. I have lots of potential uses for the bright fabric - some a bit gawdy, some quite funky - gift bags, big bags, fabric jewellery. Perhaps I will mix it up with some plain organic calico. The only trouble is I now have to find the space to store it, along with my growing collection of reusable packaging for mail order.