the official grace & cello blog

i love this image:

hi all !

ya, so the world is panicking about money. argh. money sucks, especially money that doesn’t really exist but just pretends to exist so that we can someday cash it in and make some real money. in the meantime, we should probably turn to more serious matters, like art, love and music — not necessarily in that order, but not necessarily not in that order either! 

alright, i am feeling a little silly tonight, i’ll admit it. very tired, but also kind of excited about the music i have been listening to tonight (and for the past month and a half really). you see, cbc radio 2 has recently changed its format from predominantly classical music to a mix of all kinds of tunes. there is a pretty heavy dose of canadian music, but since canada has a great music scene (including folks like arcade fire, the besnard lakes and the new pornographers) you don’t need to worry about a thing.

one of the shows i am enjoying the most is rich terfry’s show, called drive, from 3pm to 6pm every evening (eastern time; but, you can stream online, and since there are like 5 time zones in canada, you can always pretty much find some rich to listen to in the evenings). rich is a kooky kind of guy. he is actually a hip-hop artist from the maritimes known as buck 65, but he has taken to the national broadcaster because he has always had a penchant for ‘radio’. who wouldn’t really? radio is community, open road getaways, and sitting around the hearth, with a coffee and whiskey, playing scrabble and laughing at hikes gone wrong in the rocky mountains of your youth (or something like that, anyway).

he is funny. he has this deep voice, and a measured way of speaking that might turn you off at first. don’t be deterred! he writes poetry to introduce artists; he tells tales of fateful tours across the great white north; and he ponders the existential matters of heart, mind and metaphor. i pretty much really enjoy the guy!

…and, whenever i imitate him in a deep rich baritone, saying: “you’re listening to radio 2 drive, with rich terfry”, my 10-month-old, lil’ guy cracks up like you wouldn’t believe! … it’s gotta be a good sign!

here it is, radio2. enjoy! … check around the site as there are concerts to be had, some video fun, and other interneterly sorts of fare. 

see ya soon,

c.

hi all,

yes! … we were on tv, and it was fun (i have to admit it).

and so was greenloop, one of the lovely boutiques that supports grace & cello.

check it out!

 c.

being the hip and fun folks i know you are, i am sure you have already visited bitstrips.com.

i just found out about it today (on today’s q, actually … i’ll out my source, i’m not proud!). anyway, i thought i would check it out. it is pretty fun … i was just fooling around with the software, and although it took me a bit to get the hang of it, i really had fun. (here is my first finished product … you can also visit it on the website and leave comments if you like (although go easy on me, it was my first go!)).

(click on image to enlarge)

give it a try! you can make your own characters, invite friends, make your settings and everything. animation for the whole family!

c.

alright, i am not sure that they have it in any sort of order, but we are number 5 so that’s cool !

check us out at grist’s list of green fashion must-haves here.

we are glad to see del forte made the list … an awesome eco-jean brand … the best out there in my opinion (so i am glad to see that grist is well-schooled in the world of eco-fashion).

what makes me exceptionally happy is that del forte made the list and levi’s made an ‘extra mention’. i like this because del forte is a small business run by dedicated and sincere individuals, whereas levi’s is … well, levi’s.

 happy new year !

hey all, busy-busy at grace & cello getting all of our goods shipped off to lovely boutiques near you!

a good mixed tape is needed at this time of year, so check this out! very good, indeed …

: )

c.

… was having a nice chat with our distributor / sales rep the other evening, and we started talking about the plight of the bees. did you know that the bees responsible for a very sizeable proportion of our agricultural pollination has been devastated by some unknown cause?

some people think it has to do with mircowaves from cell phones and their towers, others think it could be all the genetically-modified agricultural crops being produced in north america in combination with the residue from pesticides that coat agricultural landscapes, while others think they might just be tired of all the ‘work’ we have been asking them to do … !

anyway, i enjoyed the conversation because 1) who would have figured that people working the fashion industry in 2007 would be contemplating the plight of the pollinators while they should really be getting down to some serious business?! and 2) i really like pollinators!

what a wonderful thing, pollination. i think the reason i enjoy pollination as much as i do is because it isn’t just cool animals, but it’s about relationships ….

 yes! i do enjoy talking about relationships!

… but seriously. pollination is pretty much the epitome of what ecology is all about … paying attention to pieces, or elements, and trying to decipher or learn how they fit together, how they communicate, how they relate.

pollination is beautiful because it is all about how different beings come to rely on each other. it’s about how complicated life can become, without anyone really realizing how …

pollinators are typically a pretty great group of animals too: butterflies, of course, are everyone’s favourites … but there are also the bees (which are very important pollinators, and account for a very large amount of the work that farmers depend upon to make a living), beetles, birds (including but not limited to hummingbirds), flies, and in some places fruit-eating bats!

alright … i know i shouldn’t talk about bats here, even vegetarian ones …. not popular. i’ve always had a soft spot for flying foxes, however … the only animal i ‘had’ to see when i was in indonesia.

anyway, i know this is random. i am tired. but, i feel somehow recharged remembering how much i like pollinators. if you are curious about why, or would like to read some beautiful (and easy to read) writing about pollination and all its beauty, check the forgotten pollinators … one of my heros gary paul nabhan co-authored … and if you are interested in learning about nature, he is your best bet.

so that’s it. off to do some more work so we can ship the first of our fall goods tomorrow to our favourite boutiques! the complex relationships between a small, fair-trade company and the progressive boutiques that support it could also be written up in some natural history of socially-responsible business, but i really don’t feel like going into it right now!!

it is probably enough to say that we feel very lucky to have the wonderful support we do, and we are very eager to provide more conscious consumers with the fashion they need …

okay: sleep.

nighty-night.

c. 

i am so excited about some of the leads i have stumbled across the last few days.

as i mentioned last week, grace & cello has always been as concerned with social responsibility as it has been with being environmentally friendly, but it isn’t always easy to find third-party verified fabrics and contractors … not in north america anyway.

well it seems things are starting to change. the other day we were in 10,000 villages on st.denis, and we came across a couple of really neat companies. the first one is lilidom, which makes a few t-shirts and onesies for babies. they are simple, but really cute, and everything has a good message (to impress all the other 12 month old babies who can read your kids shirt!). the best part is the cotton used to make the pieces is certified fair-trade, and organic! this is definitely a pretty new development, because we’ve been looking and never managed to find such a thing.

right next to the baby clothes was some information about fibrethik, which is the distributor that sources and sells the cotton. anyway, very cool and exciting to say the least.

another lead i had the other day was from a friend who is currently in senegal with the united nations, doing some work for his doctorate. he is right now at this rural outpost where the local community is looking to fair-trade and organic production as a means to foster sustainable development in the area and create meaningful livelihoods for locals. 

all this to say that with more and more opportunities out there to make commerce more humane and neighbourly, grace & cello will have an easier time bringing you beautiful clothes 100% free of shame.

c.

…i feel soOo sorry for them!

 :)

hey all, we made the grist yesterday! that’s fun!

c.