Felted Purses Return

Back by popular demand, Satch & Sol is offering a limited supply of lovely hand-felted purses in soft pink, deep blue and light burnt orange. All felted purses are handmade in Mongolia by one artist who is located close to the slipper artists.

I am so happy to be able to offer three colors in one style for 2009.

Reminder: Slippers for School Program

Solomon begins Kindergarten in 13 days. He is keeping a calendar in his bedroom and marks off the days at bedtime. Solomon is excited and nervous, and, well, so am I. Solomon is ready with school supplies, including his "indoor shoes" to keep in his cubby at school. He selected the blue mocs that he decorated for himself a few months ago.

All this preparation reminded me of the Slippers for School savings program that was a success during our online launch last year. A few schools have already taken advantage of the 25% savings for their group this year.

If your group can commit to purchasing at least six pairs of slippers, Satch & Sol will send you a savings code for your group to use for anything in the online boutique. You select the dates for the savings code to be in effect and the ship date. Satch & Sol ships all the items to one location for you to distribute. Shipping is free. If interested, please email me at handmade@satchsol.com. Thank you!

Artisans receive a well-earned grant

I cannot say enough wonderful things about the talented artists who create slippers for Satch & Sol. I love love love their traditional wool felting craft. Even more, I appreciate their willingness to hone their skills to innovate for Satch & Sol and their willingness to incorporate my design input.

Of course, I am certainly not the only person to be so impressed by these fair trade micro and small businesses sprouting successfully in Mongolia. Congratulations to one of the largest felting cooperatives upon receiving a modest funding grant from EBRD (a European Bank) to finance their continued growth through training and innovation.

I am honored to have been asked for input regarding innovation. I am confident that they will surpass even their own expectations as they take on this new challenge. And, I am eager to see their future work.

Happy Birthday to the online boutique

Our online boutique celebrated its one year anniversary several days ago, and I forgot to celebrate until this evening. Happy 1st Birthday!

I will now celebrate by wrapping gifts, writing cards, and printing shipping labels for today's orders. Although first, I need to go put my four year old back to bed, for the third time tonight. This small business owner really knows how to throw a party!

Although we opted for homemade popsicles rather than cake tonight, we selected zucchini from our tiny garden and made a special zucchini pancake dinner. And, there was face paint (applied by the kids). My children loved it, although neither seemed to understand what aspect of our family business we were celebrating.

I am so thankful for this past year of learning, community, successes and trials. I am especially grateful to the artists in Mongolia who have been a pleasure to work with (since long before the online boutique began) and to the customers who have visited us online. For a birthday present, I will send a savings code out to the newsletter list sometime soon. If you want to receive it, please sign up by creating an account and checking the newsletter option.

I look forward to Year Two!

Satch & Sol Approved by Green America. Yippee!

I have been striving to emulate the values of Green America since the very early stages of Satch & Sol. Green America (formerly called Coop America) exudes the eco-friendly and fair trade values that are core to Satch & Sol's vision. Thus, I am jump-up-and-down excited to see Satch & Sol be approved as a member of this wonderful organization. And wow (!), that was quite an application process of in depth questions.

For anyone thinking Green Entrepreneurship, I recommend joining the Green America Business Network (GABN). GABN is an email list that you can join prior to being approved by Green America. Learn how to join by visiting the Green Business network. I asked a lot of questions of established Green Business leaders and received many helpful answers to keep my business growing. Finding Green America early in my business development was a great discovery for me.

For anyone looking to GREEN there lives and business in anyway, bookmark the GreenPages.org. This reference provides a list of all Green America approved members.

I look forward to updating my website soon to show the official Green America Seal of Approval (tm) and to reflect membership.

New New New

I am excited to add new colors, styles and products for Fall and Winter. You will see them appear gradually in the online boutique by September 1.

Some of the lovely new items the artists made have yet to arrive...and perhaps are lost in their travels forever. I hope someone, somewhere will enjoy them and appreciate the handcrafted beauty of each piece. Ahhhhhhh, but I am so happy to have the ones that arrived! My favorite are the natural flowers with their muted burnt orange pedals. They make me pine for toddler feet in our household again. I will happily gift a pair to my newborn niece.

Watch for new felted wool mittens, hats and gloves in baby and toddler sizes!