sewing the seeds of change

it's been a while

2009-11-07T16:57:00.000-08:00

well it's been a while since my last post. alot has happened....... i had a very productive trip to india last time and have been back for a few months now. i now am getting ready to had back over at the beginning of december to try and do collections for summer and winter 2010.

i feel like a yo yo sometimes with all this traveling, but also know that it will be worth it in the end.

the last collection called quirky bird had gone really well. we have 2 more retailers selling our clothes for us and are always looking for more, so if you know of anyone in your area that might be interested, wherever you are, please pass on the website to them and we'll see what happens.

the finders keepers market in brisbane was fantastic and we felt really honored to be a part of the first one and hope to do more in the future.

sadly i spent alot of time and energy uploading all the designs to a new etsy page only to be taken down by etsy after a month. their reason being that i didn't manufacture the product by my own hand. oh well it seems there are rules for some and rules for others. never mind, we are definitely destined for bigger and better things.

i will be heading off to sydney in the middle of the month to do some markets down there, i will keep you posted as to which ones when i know my self. this process of applying and waiting can get a little frustrating as it can be hard to plan life around maybes and what ifs but thats ok and like i said i will keep you all posted when i know.

i will post some photos of the new range for you all to look at, it's not up on the web site yet, but you can see them on the facebook page, go to the website and then through the contacts page for that link.

chat soon

meg

website

2009-03-16T20:26:00.000-07:00

www.beej.com.au

at home

2009-03-16T20:14:00.000-07:00

just wanted to let you all know that we had our first home beej party on Saturday and it went really well with Bec's encouragement and enthusiasm she organised it all. Thank you so much to Olivia for being the first, it's always exciting to meet another trail blazer and she's one of them.

everyone had a great time and we made some very good sales, so now Bec is keen to do another one and i wish her well.

as i get ready to head back to India my head is spinning with all that is to be done and all that will be accomplished on this next trip. i hope to be in touch and update the blog as we continue.

also finally the website is up and running. yeah.

thanks Neil Johnson for all your help and look forward to getting it all tweaked and being the best it can be.

go go well everyone and i'll see you on the other side

love and light to you all

meg

photoshoot

2009-03-05T02:14:00.000-08:00

Bella doing blue steel
Bella doing a great job
mel and james hard at work..........oh and of course Bella.
thanks to Mel James and the beautiful Bella for our fantastic photo shoot today. We'll keep you updated on the website that will be up and running in the next couple of weeks.

Also some great news that Beej will have one of our garments featured in Peppermint Magazine this March so keep a look out for that one.

a new year

2009-01-04T20:21:00.000-08:00

well here we are 2009 i can't believe where last year has gone but it has.

wow what a year.

beej has now officially been going for 1 year now and what a year it has been.

2 amazing productive trips to beautiful india,

great feed back about the clothes,

so far a beautiful and supportive shop and shop owner in Carol of Aurora at Bangalow in northern nsw

a very successful showing at the fairtrade xmas market in brisbane, thanks nat for getting me there

and the women are still continuing to work and we have now added other artisians to our list.

i look forward to 2009 as the year that will truly launch beej to the world and am excited about the future.

love and light to you all and may all your dreams come true

xoxox

meg

2008-07-09T22:29:00.000-07:00

here are some photos of the clothes for you all to look at

with their lovely new beej swing tags. (thanks jodie)

getting ready for the young blood designers market application

and to tour the retail shops for orders to be made

wish me luck!

and the bags

dolly looking very stylish. ready to take on the world

2008-06-14T21:05:00.000-07:00

Hey all, well finally the swing tags are finished and in my hot little hands. So no excuses now. Savar is here in Australia at the moment which is great and so i have been doing all the tourist things with him. We will head down to Sydney on a road trip on Wednesday for 5 days. Weather or not we will go to see shops to try and get orders remains to be seen, but i will be doing research while i am there. i will be applying to do the young blood designers market which is in sydney in august and hopefully will get in to do that i will also be making some jewellery to sell with the beads that i got on my previous trip to india this will hopefully make me enough money to buy my next plane ticket back to india for the end of august. I will also be posting my new range on etsy.com as soon a possible. i am trying all avenues to get the orders and to get the garments out there for all to see, and so we can get the women working. will keep you posted.

2008-05-26T04:00:00.000-07:00

the women start with 10 days payed training where they learn the designs and the stitches required to create the garments.

2008-05-26T02:55:00.000-07:00

Well here it is my first ever blog. I thought what a great way to get some of my ideas and designs out there and a great place for people to see what's going on with Beej.

Beej is a business i set up with my boyfriend Savar on a my last trip to India. it has been my dream for about 19 years to have a fair trade business and to be able to be creative and change peoples lives at the same time. I was first inspired to do this when I worked for the body shop and Anita Ruddock had started to do fair trade with paper makers in Nepal. We watched a video at work and saw the small village she had transformed from a village with 1 free standing building to a village with a hospital a school and everyone who lived there owning their own homes. i thought wow that's the only way to do business, when you are changing the lives of people who really need and appreciate the change.

So 19 years later after a huge life change i decided to start my own fair trade business. so Beej was born.

Beej means seed in Rajasthani what we do is go into small rural villages in Rajasthan and train women how to do hand embroidery and then they do embroidery I have designed on clothes i have designed. it is so great to work with these women they are so excited about learning and really want to do well.

At the moment I am back in Australia, missing India like crazy and trying to launch Beej here, and looking for retailers to sell the garment so i can keep these wonderful women in work.

So that's it for the moment and I will try to update this blog as often as possible so you can all come on this wonderful journey with me.

peace to you all

meg