Massive Summer bag & accessory sale is now on…

50% off all stock

please note: NO MINIMUM WHOLESALE ORDER

To celebrate Myakka’s 10th Birthday, our biggest ever summer sale from Friday 7th August, with between 10% and 60% off absolutely everything!   In addition, our warehouse clearance starts on Saturday 8th August.  We’ve got some amazing prices on customer returns and clearance furniture, available exclusively at our Warehouse Outlet in Wincanton, Somerset.  Doors open at 10am and it’s strictly first come, first served so arrive early for the best bargains!

Over the past ten years we have proved that doing business
ethically pays, especially in the last twelve months with the tougher
economic environment.  Myakka has grown into one of the UK’s leading
furniture and home accessories retailers. We follow Fair Trade
principles as a member of BAFTS the British Association of Fair Trade
Shops.

“We created Myakka 10 years ago and it has been an
exciting journey to where we are today. We are proud of what Myakka has
become and what it stands for.  Here’s to the next decade, Happy
Birthday Myakka!” commented Georgie Hopkins, Director.

Read more about the good work Myakka has done during their 10th Birthday year by selecting this link:  Myakka’s 10th Birthday Year 

It was
World Breastfeeding Week from 1^st
to 7^th
August 2009. Recent information released by the Office of National
Statistics has shown that breastfeeding is finally on the rise
increasing by 7% to 79%¹
of all newborns, and with a spate of celebrity mums expecting this
summer, Natracare is encouraging all new mums to try and breastfeed.

Many
breast feeding mothers are using protective nursing pads that are
made from materials derived from the petroleum industry, such as the
plastics; polypropylene, polyethylene and super absorbent gels, which
will taint baby’s milk as residual odour
from the plastics transfer to the nipples and then to the baby’s
mouth during breast feeding.

The
Natracare nursing pads not only make the breastfeeding experience
more comfortable, because they are extra soft and absorbent, but
also, because they are made from totally chlorine free, plastic free,
natural materials, they are biodegradable and compostable, meaning
that your child is not left with a plastic waste legacy as he or she
grows up.

Important
news for mums who are breastfeeding or planning to is that
Natracare’s New Mother Nursing Pads was recently awarded the
accolade of being the “Best Eco-Friendly Breast Pads” by the
independent TIPS organization managed by midwife, Sharon Trotter
(www.tipslimited.com) as well as having been awarded a string of
environmental and ethical awards of excellence including most
recently the Ethical Company Organisation.

Breastfeeding
benefits

• Breastfeeding
  is linked to more positive parenting

A
recent study of over 1,000 mothers has shown that mothers who
breastfeed their babies have a better bond with the child and boost
their educational development.

• Lungs
  boosted by breastfeeding

The
sheer physical effort involved in breastfeeding may leave babies with
stronger lungs well into childhood, researchers suggest.

• Other
  benefits

It
is also widely acknowledged that breastfeeding helps protect your
baby against ear
infections, gastro-intestinal infections, chest infections, urine
infections, childhood diabetes, eczema, obesity and asthma. In
addition it can protect mothers against ovarian cancer, breast cancer
and weak bones later in life as well as helping to shift baby weight.

Over
the last 20 years, Natracare has established a trusted reputation
amongst women seeking an organic and natural, chemical-free choice in
sanitary protection. Natracare offers a range of totally chlorine
free, plastic free, certified organic cotton tampons, organic and
natural sanitary pads and liners, organic cotton intimate wipes and
baby wipes, incontinence pads, nursing and maternity pads. The
Natracare New Mother Nursing Pads sell
at £2.15 for 25 and the Maternity Pads are £2.19 for 10.

Many
hygiene products available to women and babies are made from
materials and chemicals which have a negative impact on both women’s
health and the environment. The
entire Natracare range is made from high quality, natural and organic
ingredients, and are great value for money.

Natracare
is available nationwide in independent health stores, independent
pharmacies, and Waitrose.

1
ONS Infant feeding survey 2005

Wakispeepee.co.uk
is a new greetings card, posters, wallpaper and wrapping paper outfit.
Designs printed on 100% recycled card using vegetable based inks, even
the clear bags are compostable. Cards can be bought in any quantity
online. Shipping is free in the UK. Click here to shop at wakispeepee.co.uk

To view the whole newsletter click here

Our ranges of exceptional fair trade gifts are still growing at Fairwind. Here are the latest additions to arrive at the shop.

Stunning jewellery from South Africa and Zimbabwe

Funky chunky bracelets     

 from £9.50

Spiky shell rhodium jewellery  

from £22  

Freshwater pearl jewellery

£12                                                         

This
gorgeous jewellery is made by Yakanaka, a fair trade organisation
that seeks to support economically disadvantaged members of
marginalised communities in South Africa and Zimbabwe through the
provision of sustainable employment opportunities. Yakanaka has to deal
with some serious challenges, especially in Zimbabwe where the
inflation rate is in the millions, there are daily power and water
cuts, dirty municipal water and there is no diesel or fuel; the list is
endless!

Yvonne has been busy with the media in recent weeks

RADIO
Yvonne did a radio tour last week on healthier eating for safer driving – she appeared on Radio Stations from Moray Firth in Inverness in the north  down to Southampton and Portsmouth – literally coast to coast

BBC
Yvonne appears in one of the later episodes of the current BBC series on bad parenting “Young, dumb and living off mum” – excruciatingly bad masochistic viewing for any parent.

ITV
Yvonne was also recruited to contribute to a Grenada
series on celebrities – each week they take a female celebrity and
politely pull her life apart and put it under a magnifying glass to
dispel the myth that success is just a question of being in the right
place at the right time and a look at the pressures of society on
appearance.

MAGAZINES
Yvonne will be appearing in a
number of magazines in the coming months. Harpers Bazaar are running an
article on the UK’s top therapists that Yvonne features in.

INTERNET
Yvonne
is booked to make a number of guest appearances on high profile
interactive websites as part of a series of webchats on fertility and
parenting.

Other Projects
Yvonne is also part of the talented team on the Fat Attack programme  – www.fatattack.co.uk

Foods for Life www.foodsforlife.org.uk – Tel 08712884642

Two of our best combinations we have created this week
     1. 100% cashmere Bra Dress for House of Cashmere. Burlington 
          Arcade, London
     2. A golden, sparkly sleeveless Bra Dress for T4 presenter

FURTHER NEWS:

• Our debut collection for online retailer ASOS will be launched at the end of this month

• Goodone will be exhibiting again at Estethica during London Fashion Week Spring Summer 2010

• Andwe are currently being followedby a Japanese film crew ‘NHK’ documenting our Goodlife!

• Lastly there will bea studio sample sale happening in the next couple
  of weeks! The perfect time to pick up a bargin, and the opportunity to
  pick out your own colour combination for whatever design you
  like…watch this space.

 www.goodone.co.uk

Every now and then I come across a book that just grabs me and won’t let me go until I’ve finished it.  It’s not always obvious at first and I have to confess that I was unsure what I was in for when I opened John-Paul Flintoff’s new title.  But once I started I was hooked.

The author is a journalist and a committed environmentalist  who delights in all things that are away from the mainstream.  You know that ‘game’ where you decide on people’s personalities based on the Winnie the Pooh characters?  Well, John-Paul is most definitely Tigger….  In the book he throws himself into a dizzying array of different situations getting largely enthused by much of what he comes across in his search for a new purpose in his life.

The cast list in the book includes an eclectic mix including Richard Gere, Jeremy Clarkson, Rob Hopkins and Prince Charles’ tailor.  Add in posthumous contributions from the Buddha, Mahatma Ghandi, Aldous Huxley, Adam Smith and John Ruskin and you begin to see the breadth of material covered.

The subjects John-Paul looks into range from religion and peak oil to sweatshops and consumerism.  But central to it all is the matter of clothing, how it’s made, who makes it, who profits, who is exploited and who decides what you wear.  J-P experiments with crocheting, knitting, treadle sewing machines and making yarn out of nettles, plastic bags and the wool of a blue faced Leicester.

I found Through the Eye of a Needle an inspiring read.  It conveys an infectious joy in all of us taking individual actions in our lives to address the calamities we see all around us.  As J-P says when a dinner guest rubbishes what he is up to on the basis that people can’t do anything meaningful “Like many people, this woman was paralysed by the scale of the problems facing us, combined with the urgency.  She should relax: we can’t do everything at once.  We can, make a great deal of change incrementally.  And there’s nothing we can do except as individuals.”

Taking his own advice John-Paul makes himself a pair of underpants……

Take my advice and read this book – you’ll feel all the better for it.  If you don’t I’ll eat my hat (so long as it’s made from nettles of course).

‘Through the Eye of a Needle’ is published by the wonderfully sustainable Permanent Publications for a miserly £7.95.

Two years after the last shop closed, the 1,000 residents of two small villages near Bath now have a purpose-built, community-owned shop and café, developed with financial support from Co-operative & Community Finance and the Village CORE Programme.  The brand new Galleries Shop & Café, owned by the Freshford and Limpley Stoke Community Association, will open for business on Tuesday 4 August 2009.

The closure of the two village shops, in 2004 and 2007, meant that the residents of Freshford and Limpley Stoke had to travel over three miles to reach the nearest small shop and five miles to the nearest supermarket, and so in 2006 they took it upon themselves to develop and execute a plan to open a new community shop and café, which would soon become the hub of the community of two villages. 

After much deliberation about location, it was agreed that a
new timber-framed building would be constructed immediately adjacent to
Freshford Village Hall which is centrally located for both villages, to
ensure easy access on foot, or by bus, also benefitting from ample
parking.  At the request of the villagers, the new store was designed
to incorporate a range of energy-saving features.  As well as a small
indoor café and outdoor patio area, the building will house a
comprehensive village shop stocking a wide-range of goods, with
emphasis on local sources, healthy living, and minimising waste.  It
will also offer services including dry-cleaning, key-cutting and a
two-mornings-a-week Post Office.

Speaking about the impact the
new village store project has had on the community, Gitte Dawson, Chair
and Secretary of the community association says: “Even before opening,
our shop-to-be has re-vitalised the community and we are sure that the
Galleries Shop and Café will soon be a key social focal point for our
villages.  It offers a support network for those unable to travel to
remote shops or even leave their homes, and promises to unite residents
in one common purpose.  Many have donated generously to the project or
helped in practical ways with shelf-building and DIY.  Over 50
residents have agreed to volunteer in the shop and 100 families have
committed to a certain amount of spending per month.”

The
Galleries Shop & Café is one of over 200 community-owned shops in
the UK, about a quarter of which have been supported by the Village
CORE Programme – a partnership by Co-operative & Community Finance,
the Plunkett Foundation and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.  The main
goal of the Village CORE Programme is to provide financial start-up
packages and advice for communities, and help them to establish
community co-operatives to prevent the closure of their local shops or
set up new ones to offer vital services to the community.

The
loan finance for the new village shop came from the Avon & Bristol
Community Finance (ABCF) fund which is managed by Co-operative &
Community Finance.  ABCF’s primary objective is to support
co-operatives in Bristol, Bath, North Somerset and South
Gloucestershire by financing business start-ups, new ventures and
offering ethical loans.  Co-operative & Community Finance is
responsible for managing several community development funds throughout
the UK including the Co-operative Loan Fund.  It believes that offering
accessible loan finance to co-operatives gives them a financial boost
which ultimately allows them to make their project a reality.

Ian
Rothwell of Co-operative & Community Finance says: “This is an
excellent example of a community coming together to open a new shop and
café to not only provide vital services for local people, but also a
place to meet up, socialise and help create cohesion among the two
village communities.  It’s great that the local community felt it was
important to have an energy efficient building and Co-operative &
Community Finance is pleased that we have been able to support this
through the ABCF fund that we manage.”

EcoChic collection-Short Film
 
Short and sweet, but we were delighted with our first short film recently shown at the Sussex Innovation Awards, discussing ethical and fair trade fashion, which we will launch shortly online to you.

EcoChic Collection & the Green Party

We were
thrilled to be asked to collaborate recently to launch a campaign for
Brighton to become an ethical centre for jewellery. Our campaign was
featured  this week in the Sussex Argus Newspaper

   
“Congratulations to the Green Party for spearheading such an important
campaign for Brighton. EcoChic Collection is delighted to be
collaborating on this vital issue and supports the work of the work of
ARM (Association For Responsible Mining) who alongside CRED jewellery
have worked tirelessly to promote this issue.”

Read more here: A Green Collaboration

EcoChic Collection live on Brighton Radio 

Much
fun was had alongside Alex Phillips from the Green Party at radio
reverb this week when we discussed the possibility of  an ethical
jewellery centre for Brighton.

EcoChic Collection partners with Ethical Weddings

And
finally, we’re delighted to announce that we are now official partners
with the inspirational Ethical Weddings. We’ll be working together to
spread the word about ethical weddings and eco chic style far and wide.
Look out for joint special offers and promotions coming soon.

Latest Offers
Win 1 of 4 pieces of La jewellery worth over £20.00 including cufflinks and earrings.
 
Enter the draw to win one of four jewellery pieces by La Jewellery, previously presented to HRH Camilla. Just spend over £40.00 (to include jewellery) and we’ll enter you in the draw.
 
These beautiful pieces have been kindly donated by our friends at La Jewellery. La design and handcraft their exceptional jewellery range in Wales by local silversmiths who use responsibly sourced silver. The La social business model is also an inspiration with valuable charity work and enabling their employees to work from home, promoting the work-life balance.
 
La Jewellery is inspired by nature and is truly unique and beautiful.
 
View our La range here: EcoChic Collection La Range
 
This offer is being promoted on The Prize Finder