These golden, dangly, fun earrings are made from magazine paper! Rolled into delicate cylinders and strung onto these perfectly sized hoops. Light and pretty, a compliment to any outfit day or night.
I've written about Global Goods Partners in the past...because I positively love what they do!
Smitten again and again.
Mela Artisans’ gold and turquoise Cleopatra Earrings are fit for a queen! I love that they are completely handmade, as well as their slightly retro shape, bold color palette, and traditional elegance!
After a life-long appreciation for the handcrafted goods and jewelry from India, father-daughter duo Navroze S. Mehta and Sonali Mehta Rao recognized a growing problem for indigenous artisans - the ability to market their products and sustain their livelihood. After reading one too many articles about artisans trading their time-honored skills for unskilled laborer jobs in large cities, Mela Artisans was created as a platform to connect these craftsman to the global market, as well as preserve the traditional methods necessary to create these handicrafts.
In addition to this mission, Mela gives 1% of sales back to the artisans’ communities. This fund provides basic needs for these artisans to succeed as independent entrepreneurs, such as medical care for their families or solar energy for improved workshop lighting.
Mela translates to ‘Festival’ in Hindi, and I couldn’t agree more - their products come together as a true festival of beautiful handmade goods!
Smitten!
Exciting, eye-catching, ear candy: classic gold shimmering hoop earrings. Strung with metallic faceted beads...perfectly wearable day or night.
These yummy hoops are available in both Gold and Silver and have a 2 1/4" drop, with a 1 1/2" width.
I love these earrings, but I love the company behind them more.
Purpose jewelry, is handcrafted by survivors of modern-day slavery.
100% of the proceeds from Purpose benefit International Sanctuary, a non-profit that provides holistic care for young women rescued from sex trafficking.
When a girl escapes or is rescued from sex trafficking she is faced with an enormous level of trauma with very little support.
In 2007, International Sanctuary (iSanctuary) was created to address the needs of these young women through holistic care and empowerment. The women are offered mentorship, education, medical and dental care, scholarships, and micro-loans to prepare them for brighter futures.
In September 2014, International Sanctuary launched Purpose, a way to empower the survivors through employment and financial stability. The women are able to enjoy a healthy workplace, free to laugh and grow. A place that helps to transform these once victims, into skilled artisans, survivors...and thrivers.
Super Smitten!
notablySmitten introduced Half United in August of this year...and now these Gold Bar Rae Earrings! Divine and delightful...they come in silver and rose gold as well.
For every product purchased, Half United will give 7 meals to a child in need! Currently focused on the United States, Fiji, Cambodia and Haiti.
Food is really just the beginning for Half United. Currently primarily focused on hunger-alleviation, they also have strategically partnered with organizations that work hard to empower, educate, and inspire the children, families, and communities they feed.
...continue to be Smitten!
These entirely chic, lightweight, geometric lovelies are made from stacked, glued, cut and sanded recycled magazine pages! Totally modern, totally original, swank, sustainable, everyday accessories.
~ Made from 100% recycled magazines
~ 3/4"W x 3/4"L, hangs 3"
~ Choose from Aqua, Black, Pink, Orange and Green
Both professionals in International Development, it was part of Catherine Lieber Shimony and Joan Shifrin's job to travel to impoverished areas around the world to see what could be improved. What they began to witness over and over again, were creative, energized women producing magnifient handmade goods...yet, they lacked any access to sustainable markets in which to sell their products.
Catherine and Joan had witnessed women in marginalized communities throughout Asia, Africa, and the US being able to advance the wellness of their families when their income was stabilized. In 2005, the friends founded Global Goods Partners to create a practical pathway for women to generate income opportunities and gain access into the consumer marketplace for handmade, fair trade merchandise.
Global Goods Partners (GGP) is a nonprofit social enterprise dedicated to alleviating poverty and promoting social justice and empowers women to create sustainable change.
Once again, Smitten!
These Silver Infinity Hoops are deeee-lish. A perfect gift.
Handcrafted in Rwanda. Each pair is finely crocheted with metallic plated seed beads on 24-karat hoops. Hoops measure 1.5” in diameter.
Same Sky is working as a trade initiative to create employment opportunities for women in Rwanda struggling to lift their lives out of poverty.
In 1994, nearly one million people were murdered in just 100 days during the genocide in Rwanda. A quarter of a million women were raped, and 70% contracted HIV/AIDS. These women were used as weapons of war, left as widows, single mothers and orphaned girls. Same Sky was born with a mission to help them.
Transformation happens with the dignity of work and the freedom of being self-sufficient. Same Sky employs the artisans of Rwanda, giving them fair wages and further training and education necessary for them to live empowered lives.
“Talent is everywhere, opportunity isn’t”— Same Sky aims to change that.
A purchase of Infinity Hoop Earrings bonds you eternally with a woman a world away.
Infinity Hoops come in Silver and Gold.
Same Sky Smitten!
This vibrant, beautiful, multihued adornment is made out of paper. Yes...paper! Each and every bead is created using hand rolled paper. All jewelry at 31 Bits is hand crafted by women artisans living in Uganda.
31 Bits began five years ago, when 5 college friends, Kallie Dovel, Alli Swanson, Anna Toy, Brooke Hodges, and Jessie Simonson, with graduation just a year away, found their lives changing drastically.
Kallie, had just returned from a trip to Uganda where she met and spent time with women that had grown up in war and had nothing. They were single moms with no education and no job prospects. What struck Kallie the most, the women were her age. The contrast of the lives the women were leading was stark.
Kallie witnessed, that though the women had not had the opportunity of an education, they made up for that with amazing artistry and ingenuity - making unique, beauteous jewelry out of old posters.
Miss Dovel brought a box of the jewelry back with her, when the rest of the friends fell in love with it, they all knew a business was emerging.
A few of the girls went back the following summer and spent time with the women making jewelry and sharing life stories. Kallie stayed through the following year, setting up the organization.
Fantastic!
31 Bits has also implemented a five-year holistic development program in Uganda, where each woman receives health education, finance training, counseling, and business training. They currently have 120 women in the program whose lives have been transformed.
100% Smitten.
Through your purchase, you are helping to empower women rise above poverty with dignity and grace.
I think these rolled magazine rod earrings are truly stunning. The craftsmanship is perfect...I can't believe these are made from rolled magazine paper. Clever artistry and design. Totally stunning, absolutely chic!
~ Made from 100% recycled magazines
~ 3" in length
~ Choose from Black, Green, Fuchsia, Dark Violet, Lime and Teal
Due to the recycled nature of this product, colors may slightly vary
Both professionals in International Development, it was part of Catherine Lieber Shimony and Joan Shifrin's job to travel to impoverished areas around the world to see what could be improved. What they began to witness over and over again, were creative, energized women producing magnifient handmade goods...yet, they lacked any access to sustainable markets in which to sell their products.
Catherine and Joan had witnessed women in marginalized communities throughout Asia, Africa, and the US being able to advance the wellness of their families when their income was stabilized. In 2005, the friends founded Global Goods Partners to create a practical pathway for women to generate income opportunitites and gain access into the consumer marketplace for handmade, fair trade merchandise.
Global Goods Partners (GGP) is a nonprofit social enterprise dedicated to alleviating poverty and promoting social justice and empowers women to create sustainable change.
Smitten again!!
This is about a movement, and it is called the Red Thread Movement. It is a call to action with the sale of red thread bracelets. This is what one little vibrantly colored, handsomely crafted little bracelet can do!
The Red Thread Movement battles human trafficking and has partnered with a Nepalese anti-trafficking organization that has set up border units between Nepal and India (which is open and allows for citizens from both countries to travel freely with no visa or passport.) As there is an estimated 12,000 victims of sex trafficking between these countries every year, the success rate of these border units is extremely high, each rescuing up to 15 girls a month.
Many girls are not able to return to their villages after rescue, as social rejection and shame are common. Safe houses are established to provide shelter, counseling and vocational training for girls who cannot return to their villages. It is at these safe houses that the girls make the Red Thread Movement bracelets.
The bracelets make a difference in 3 important ways:
1. They provide a Fair Trade income for rescued girls who do the craftsmanship and hand weave the bracelets themselves.
2. Additional proceeds fund anti-trafficking border units and safe houses through the work of Red Thread’s partner, Kingdom Investments Nepal (K.I. Nepal.)
3. Wearing the bracelet generates awareness and declares sex trafficking as human rights crime.
These bracelets are an outstanding way to fundraise and spread the word!
I am Smitten.
Are you looking for a holiday card that is both planet conscious and charitable? Well, I was too! I am a huge fan of all things letterpress, and I love communique the old fashioned way... the US postal service. Thus, while looking for an enchanting, simple, well designed card to mail out for the upcoming holidays, I was more than pleased to stumble upon Holstee.com.
Their choice of printing paper: 50% elephant poo and 50% recycled paper. Yes! The paper is handmade, acid free and 100% natural.
Delightful designs, letterpress printed in silver, blue and gold inks on white cotton paper. Each set comes with six 5"x7" cards and six envelopes. The cards are blank, giving you the opportunity to pen your own singular, spectacular greeting.
Holstee offers an array of cards, posters and other colorful, uncommon gift items.
A portion of all proceeds go towards funding Kiva microloans.
Smitten with Holstee.
In the world of charming, fashionably conscious jewelry, the 100 Good Deeds bracelet is at the top my list. Engaging colors, beautiful, hip...and glamorous!
In 2000, artist and activist Mary Fisher, was asked by the White House AIDS office to act as a Special Representative of the UN and travel to Africa. While there, Mary worked with those affected by poverty, violence and the stigma attached to HIV.
Mary started the Abataka foundation to partner with these women by designing jewelry that they could make and thereby earn a positive, sustainable living.
In 2012, Mary released her memoir Messenger, and also met filmmaker Thomas Morgan. He shared with Mary a game that he and his family created, where they would complete 100 good deeds anonymously.
Mary was Smitten and responded by designing the 100 Good Deeds bracelet. Each bracelet is hand-braided with one hundred glass beads and a single rubber ring. After wrapping it around your wrist, each time you do a good deed, you move the rubber ring one bead closer to the 1GD charm.
"The motivation behind the 100 Good Deeds collection is to inspire simple acts of kindness around the world." ~ Mary Fisher
The bracelet serves as a reminder to pay it forward, and has found ambassadors in celebrities like Susan Sarandon, Katie Holmes and Naomi Watts.
Smitten!
It was late in the month November 2013. I had waited until the last minute (surprise!) to get my husband a 4th year anniversary gift. This was actually not so much about my procrastination issues, more the lack of inspiration for a unique, meaningful gift.
I don’t go for all the traditional elemental gifts: paper, brass, china...all that. I just wanted to get him something that had significance and expressed love.
As it was the eleventh hour, I had very little time before dinner reservations at 8:30. I landed at a tried and true, happening boutique off of Melrose that I frequent for gifts. I scanned the men’s section with keen eyes and landed on a case filled with colorful, sporty, rubber watches. They didn’t necessarily scream “significant”...but they were hip, manly and fun.
Out of the corner of my eye to my left, I spied some dangly well-worn chains swinging. At the bottom of each chain was an intriguing tattered key with an imprinted word on the front: HOPE, FAITH, FEARLESS, COURAGE, LOVE. I was instantly attracted. The placard on the wooden display read:
"When you get this key, you must give it away at some point to a person you feel needs the message on there. Then write us the story of why you gave it away."
The chains with keys were delicious looking, I loved the instructions, but the last sentence on the mission statement knocked me out:
We employ those who are looking to transition out of homelessness.
The Giving Keys was founded by Caitlin Crosby (an actress and singer/songwriter,) when she began wearing a NY hotel room key around her neck as decor. She had the idea of engraving old keys with inspirational words. She felt we were all like these keys...unique, scarred, flawed, and at risk of being discarded.
The idea was for the keys to be repurposed over and over. The message on the key is yours until it has served you, then you pay it forward to inspire someone else.
The charitable dimension came to be after Caitlin met Rob and Cera sitting under an umbrella on Hollywood Boulevard with a sign that read: Ugly, Broke & Hungry. Over dinner, Caitlin discovered that Cera made jewelry. Both Rob and Cera joined the team and started making Giving Keys the next day.
Later, the business partnered with the United Way and PATH (a reputable transitional home in Los Angeles,) to help to find workers to employ and help build The Giving Keys team.
Since the beginning, The Giving Keys has employed 19 people experiencing homelessness, helping to provide opportunities for the team members to move into permanent housing.
The 'Pay It Forward' blog is really terrific!
So I found the one that was imprinted with LOVE. There were a few ancillary gifts that evening...the chain with the aged key was the one that made the impression I was hoping for.
I’m Smitten with The Giving Keys.
They are carried in over 500 stores in the US and internationally. Anthropologie, Fred Segal, Henri Bendel and Kitson to name a few local to Los Angeles.