Is What You Want ... Really What You Need?

Not being entirely sure in which direction this is going, I will instead forge ahead in an effort to quiet the endless words swirling in my head.

I just returned from dropping off the kids at daycare for the day - there is only so much that can be accomplished with two munchkins bouncing off the walls. And after delivering them into the loving hands of their caregivers, I decided to swing by the store to grab a few things I needed. On my way, I was sidetracked by the big "50% Off ....Sale...." sign at the Salvation Army.

I love that store! I think it speaks to the dumpster-diving side of me

Anyway, the store was filled to overflowing with hundreds of people all there to take advantage of the sale. Low priced merchandise is shinier than new when it’s 50% off.

I found two antique matchbox tins at an amazing price.
One for myself, the other to be a Christmas gift.

Wandering further, my attention was drawn to an antique steamer trunk in exceptional condition. Late 1800’s. Covered in stickers from the ships upon which it’d sailed. Drawers lined in vintage canvas. Brass bindings and corner brackets. Leather strapping still in good condition. Wood hangers hung from brass bars in the top of the trunk; the bottom was divided into drawers and compartments to hold everything from hair pins to hats. A section of the trunk even pulled out and turned into a padded seat. 

Absolutely beautiful.

Priced to sell at discount for only $50.

I wanted that trunk with every ounce of my being.

As I was admiring the craftsmanship and its condition, an older woman came up to me and complimented it as well. Seems she collects antique steamer trunks. She said this one was in the best condition she’s seen for its age and at an incredible bargain to boot!

Her next comments were a little more profound.

“Can you imagine what it would have been like to place everything you needed to have inside of this trunk, to travel to a foreign land? A hundred years ago or more, people packed everything they could into a trunk such as this to come to a new country, to start a new life.”

Everything they needed.
A few things they may have wanted, if they would fit.
An entire life packed into a 4’x3’ steamer trunk.

And at that precise moment, I turned and looked around the store filled with people walking that fine line between Need and Want. Justifying their Wants because of a simple sale.

For a good 20 minutes, I walked around that store looking at the people shopping, listening to their conversations [Salvation Army Stalking], and thinking about all the things that I have that have been purchased out of Want and not so much out of Need.

And I put the antique matchboxes back where I found them.

Because while I wanted that trunk more than I want Universal Healthcare, I needed that trunk to remind me of what is important.

Everywhere you look, people fill their heads and their homes and their hands with things they do not Need.  I am no different than the millions of other people around the world who purchase to fill a Want because it screams louder than a Need.  We get coerced by the bright lights and the discount prices because ‘tomorrow it may be gone!’ Cheerful music playing in the background soothes the voices in our heads that tell us we really don’t need another one of those for the house.

It’s sad, really.

And merchants sing to the voice of Want.  Capitalism at its finest.

I am one of those merchants.  My nights and weekends are filled with creating things that people Want; that children Want.  I present the fruits of my labors to the loudest voices of all:  children’s voices.

I do what I do because I do not want to continue working for a company that is more concerned with how the world is doing than with how its own country is doing.  I want to give back to the Land of Opportunity.  And it is only through the growth of my own business that I will be able to bring jobs back to my homeland instead of shipping them overseas.

It’s a long journey; one that began with a small step many years ago.  It is a journey that will continue to the end of my days, because each day that passes is a forward step in a positive direction.  Each day presents the opportunity to give back in some small way.

So, as I prepare for one of the largest shopping extravaganzas in the ..Pacific Northwest.., I am also setting aside a few things for those children whose voices are not so loud; whose voices cannot be heard above the cacophony of Christmas overindulgence.

This year, as with previous years, I’m giving back.

  

As for the trunk, I may go back and get it as a reminder, but for now I have a job to attend to: filling the Wants and Needs of others.

1,000 Fan - $50 Gift Certificate Giveaway!

Okay ... so the thing is ... we love our customers and we'd like to have a few more Fans.  It's that warm, fuzzy feeling we get when everyone loves us!  The business has been steadily growing and we're doing new things, exploring into uncharted waters, every single day.  And we are looking to reward one Lucky Fan!

So, here's the deal:  to celebrate an incredible year, we're giving away a $50 gift certificate to Second Star Designs when we reach 1,000 Fans.  With the holidays right around the corner, we're pretty sure that a "little something" for yourself, after all the festivities have subsided, would round out the holidays quite nicely!

What's the catch?  Share our Fan page with as many of your friends as you can.  Enter as often as you like, using the link to our little Rafflecopter Widget ... we've given you a number of opportunities to enter.  On New Year's Eve, we'll enter all of the names into the coolness that is Random.org.  One lucky Fan will receive a $50 gift certificate to be used for the purchase of anything in our store.

Just follow the link below ... you have until 12/31/2012 to get all your entries in  =)

Good luck!

$50 Online Gift Certificate Giveaway!

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  =)