Announcing our New Bath & Body Product Line

raison éthique™ by Second Star Designs - is our newest bath and body product line featuring ethically made, hand-crafted, organic, biologically friendly products.  Our mission behind this new line of products is to operate in an ecologically and biologically friendly manner, using organic materials and ingredients where ever possible, and supporting small, sustainable, like-minded businesses that are local to somewhere.

Love Warms the Heart

This time of year, the air can have quite the chill. Last week, I picked up a handful of pairs of $1 gloves from Target. Yesterday, there was a man standing in the pouring rain at the freeway offramp, asking for help. I didn't have any cash on me ... but he appreciated the warm gloves as much as if I'd handed him a handful of bills.

On our walk this morning, we went past a group of people packing up their belongings in the Park. Of the three, one man's hands were visibly cold and his need for warmth drew me across the grounds like a moth to a flame. Another pair of gloves found their way to someone in need.

Small acts of love can change the world around you into the world you wish to see ♥

Beauty Berries & Birch Trees

You could say that I've been on vacation this past month ... not really ... but it sure could be considered something like that.

Time has flown since the last post ... lots of time.  Time that was necessary to heal a few things from my psyche.  Oh ... and we've been a bit busy.

We began our morning walks again ... not as frequently as last year ... but morning walks none-the-less.

Fall is amazing in town ... the leaves are changing, the Beauty Berries in bloom, and every now and then, you stumble across a peeling Birch Tree.

Fred has some new friends.  After a few weeks' getting to know the place, they've become part of the family.  Quite the talkers they are ... gigglers, too.  They've recently discovered how to get out of the garden and chuckle between themselves when they get caught ... literally.

No eggs from them yet, but it's winter and eggs will come soon enough.

With Christmas just around the corner, we're finding ourselves a bit short on cash, yet abundant in the realm of imagination and resources.  For all intents and purposes, it looks like it will truly be a hand-crafted Christmas.
And with less than a month to go, it's looking like I'd better get started  =)

In the meantime, with 2013 just a few short months away, we've started on our Spring/Summer 2014 clothing lines for the runway.  Lots of organic fabrics in loose-fitting designs.  And with the recent opening of opportunistic doors, there's more potentials for 2013 than ever before imagined.

In addition to children's clothing, we're expanding our line to include grown-ups ... an avenue that is becoming quite the adventure.

For now ... that's about all there is going on in our little corner of the world.  There have been trials and tribulations, challenges and clearings this past month.  And I expect there to be more before the year is out.  Hopefully, those on the horizon will be a bit easier to navigate than the ones up until now have been.

Cheers!

Lucy & Pepper

My husband wrote this tonight ... I've been an emotional wreck ...

so, tonight I had a few moments of almost return .. of the turning back of the clock and down of the vibration.. it was a difficult while.

I didn't get out and close up the ducks early enough, at about 8, I went out to put them to bed for the night, safe and sound in their duck house.. Fred was the only one I could find.. the two hens seemed to be missing.. it's a big garden and there's still a lot growing out there, and brown ducks can hide pretty good, but not that good, and I'd run a raccoon out of the far end..

He went up a tree just across the wall between us and the convalescent center next door.. Caryn came out to help me look and a neighbor walking by said, "ten minutes ago, there were two by the fence here".. then as he walked on, he stopped by the pond and said "hey! there's two raccoons here"..and then "I think they have one of your ducks"

they did.. Lucy and as they ran she flopped trying to get away. I grabbed her and held her close, and we looked for Pepper.. Caryn found a bad sign, feathers by the back wall where I'd seen the first big coon.. she asked how Lucy was and I said "not so good, she's bleeding quite a bit" and she left to get a blanket to wrap her in.. while she was gone, I found Pepper. She was hanging on the fence where the raccoon had either left or lost her in it's haste to get away from the approaching human. Pepper was not with us any longer.

I met Caryn by the gate and we took Lucy into the shop to clean her up.. she was a mess, her neck completely torn up and several bites in her back and sides.. we gently cleaned her and put salve on her wounds, and then wrapped her in a light blanket for the night. Twenty minutes later when I went to check on her, she was gone too.

We both cried, and then wept a bit, and then .. I didn't go out and kill every raccoon in a three mile radius, but for a minute, I thought about it. I didn't even curse these three. We lost two members of our family tonight.

Pepper and Lucy were our friends. They and Fred live in our garden and eat bugs, and duck food. They lay eggs and we feed them, and pet them, and they keep the garden for us.. we'll miss them..

I really am ready for a time when everything on this planet doesn't have to kill each other.

Eco-Partnership with French Quarter Linens

Saturdays are always good days in which to receive news ... especially news that is exciting in nature.

But this story goes back to its origins on Thursday.

See ... I found myself wandering into this incredibly amazing shop in the Pearl District of Portland.

An exquisitely lovely bedding and bath shop called French Quarter Linens.

I wandered in with the intention of talking to them about certified organic cotton sheets.
'Cuz there's this company that I work with that creates some incredible fabrics that would be to.die.for as a set of sheets ... and ... I know a seamstress.  Personally.

Never even got to mention the subject ... I was sidetracked by the incredible tranquility, the soft music, the vibrant colors, and the luxurious textiles found at every glance ... in every nook and cranny of that glorious store!

I was swept away to Wonderland ... 

And then ... I saw the display cabinets filled with sample fabrics ... swatches of every imaginable textile any one could wish to have created into one form of amazingness or another, for the personal spaces within their homes.  The Creativity Muse made her appearance ... gave me the proverbial push toward the sales counter.

So ... I wandered up to the counter and had the opportunity to speak with a member of their Sales & Design Team.  I asked him what their store did with their textile samples once they were discontinued.

His answer met my surprise head on:  they threw them away.

!!!

In our subsequent conversation, I explained that I am a clothing designer, creating two clothing lines for next year's Baltimore FashionWeek.  Eco-friendly clothing lines.  He explained that his store was very eco-oriented; doing whatever they were able to reduce their overall ecological impact on the environment.

I offered to take their discontinued fabric samples to be used in my clothing creations ... in exchange for advertising that they will be a primary sponsor for Second Star Designs.

An Eco-Partnership.

In today's email, was a response that French Quarter Linens would love to work with us on this project!!!

Yay!!!

We're very excited ... we're helping to change the world ... one pretty, textile at a time  =)

My name is Caryn ... and I've been a Facebook User since 2008.

With the most recent changes implemented by Facebook this past week, I was disheartened to discover that the posts that I have been making on both my personal and business pages are no longer being shown to my total audience.

With over 300 followers on my Second Star Designs Fan Page, instead of each post being shown to 150 or more people ... now, only 20-30 people are seeing my posts.

And the automatic Twitter feed linking my FB Fan Page to my Twitter account has been deactivated.

In order for my potential customers to see anything that is posted on my Fan Page, Facebook now requires you to promote your post ... for a fee.

$7.00 per promotion.

Or ... you could pay for advertising ... a minimum of $1/day for pageviews.

Since Facebook went public, it was only a matter of time before they did away with the small business social media promotions ... requiring all businesses to pay for advertising on an otherwise "free" platform.

Times are a-changing.

And in a similar manner as the migration of MySpace users to the "new" social media platform known then as Facebook ... it's time to once again migrate to a new platform.

Diaspora.

It's Facebook + Twitter + MySpace ... without the game feeds.

I'm there.

Check it out ... www.diasp.org ... the future of social media  =)

Thoughts for Today ...

Here, at Second Star Designs, fashion is equally as important to us as the health of our people and our planet. We work hard to integrate our personal beliefs into our company's mission - when it's time to leave, make sure that what you leave behind is better than what you originally found. To that end, our 2013 children's and adult clothing lines will be hand-crafted using only refashioned or certified organic materials.

We have partnered with some amazing artisans to help bring our ideas to life. Harmony Art Organic Design is our primary sponsor of the certified organic cotton fabrics to be used in our Eco Art Wear Collection for Adults. Returning for 2013 will be Riley Blake Designs, providing us with the organic materials to be used in our B.F.F. [Biologically Friendly Forever] Clothing for Kids. We are proud to have these two textile manufacturers as an integral part of the Second Star family.


Because fashion is not just about clothing, we have also aligned ourselves with two accessories artisans whose outlook upon the world match that of Second Star. Joleen Taylor and Karen Davis Smith will be accessorizing both of our ecologically friendly clothing lines with their own interpretations of jewelry design, using only natural materials in their astonishing creations.


Being ecologically friendly is not simply a catch phrase or a passing fad, it's a fashion initiative trending its way into the hearts of our planet's people and way of life ... an initiative of which Second Star is proud to be a part.

Look for our designs gracing the runways of Baltimore in 2013!