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scott's blog
Happy Valentine's Day from Fa La Lo!!!!!!!!!
Happy Valentine's Day from Fa La Lo of Portsmouth!!
Thanksgiving Weekend
Whew!
We made it through the weekend!
And what an amazing weekend it was!
First of all, it was long. After we closed Fa La Lo on Wednesday, we had a fabulous family dinner. Then Thursday, we ate all day long. First, Liz’s special scrambled eggs and (soy) bacon. Then snacks of cheese and crackers while Liz and her mom went down to the shop so Liz’s mom could have some private shopping! Then dinner of tofurky and the fixings. Then dessert at friends. Then Black Friday and Small Business Saturday.
We were hopping on those days, and we are grateful to everyone who recognizes the many benefits of shopping at small businesses. We are also grateful to American Express for running such a successful campaign, and for giving people who used their charge card a $25 credit for shopping at small businesses!
But now we’re gearing up for December. New items are coming in everyday. Our Wild Woolies, a fair trade product from Nepal, have been extraordinarily popular. People have been wanting them after seeing them on our tree at the Festival of Trees two weekends ago. We’ll be getting new handbags in any day now; Liz says people will love them.
So we hope to see you. If you need anything, we’re happy to do our best to help you out.
Fa La Lo at the Urban Forestry Center
As anyone who has read the Fa La Lo blogs before, I have tried to be loyal to writing blogs regularly—and I have failed miserably. Recently, though, I met a woman who gave me tips on how to write regularly, and once again, I’m going to try.
The conversation came up when I was having dinner at a friend’s house and was telling another of my friend’s friends about Fa La Lo. She was fascinated by our mission to provide fair trade and local products to consumers, and our goal of maintaining a sense of humor as we share why it is so important to buy fair trade and local. She told me I should have a blog, to which I told her about my failures! She encouraged me to write about what is happening in the shop, especially since SO much is happening these days!
So here goes: This weekend, Fa La Lo will be at the Festival of Trees at the Urban Forestry Center November 18-20. We were there two years ago, and had great fun decorating our tree with all kinds of ornaments from the shop. Then, we had a tree outdoors, and this time we’re having an indoor tree, and once again it will be covered with beautiful Christmas ornaments from Fa La Lo.
We’ve had a major discussion, though, about what kind of tree to have. The obvious answer is to get a local tree from one of the fabulous local tree farms. I, however, have a strong liking for the American grown (but not too local) Norfolk Pines. Our living room is full of Norfolk Pines from Christmases past; the oldest one is pushing 25. While these trees still serve as our family Christmas trees, they’re not quite full and gorgeous enough for the Festival of Trees. So what to do?
The options were to get a tree from a tree farm, as we did two years ago, and then find a family who could use the tree for their Christmas tree. Or to use our artificial tree, the one was bought at Goodwill Industries three years ago and people still think it’s a real tree (at first glance, that is). Or to get another Norfolk Pine.
Well, the latter won.
So look for our living Charlie Brown Christmas Tree at the Festival of Trees—and vote for ours, full of sustainable Christmas decorations and on a tree that will (hopefully) be around another 25 years.
Holiday Gift Ideas from Fa La Lo
The Holidays are a time of giving and of giving THANKS for everything and everyone we have in our lives past, present, and future. When you buy holiday gifts at Fa La Lo of Portsmouth, you are giving gifts that keep on giving whether you are buying a gift made in Bali or in Rochester, NH. A customer at Fa La Lo is no ordinary customer. By choosing to spend your dollar as a Socially Conscious Shopper you are partnering with us to Change the World for the better.
Holiday Gift Ideas
Fair Trade chocolate - The premium Fair Trade Certified organic cacao in Equal Exchange’s chocolate bars is grown by small farmers organized into co-operatives in the Dominican Republic, Panama and Peru. The organic sugar and organic vanilla are both Fair Trade Certified. The sugar comes from small farmer co-operatives in Paraguay and Costa Rica, while the vanilla is grown by a farmer association in Madagascar. The finished product is produced in Switzerland for Equal Exchange. And because their chocolate is grown sustainably, you also get healthy food that won’t harm the planet.
Fair Trade & organic coffee and tea – We offer Fair Trade and Organic coffee and teas from Equal Exchange.
Coffee— Teas—
Organic French Roast Earl Grey
Breakfast Blend Darjeeling Black
Mind Body and Soul Wild Rooibos-Caff. Free
Colombian Irish & English Breakfast
Jewelry made in NH—We offer beautiful sterling silver earrings made with beach stones, sea shells, several colors of sea glass, stacked sea glass, stacked beach stones, or recycled broken china.
Mini Table Lamps—We offer mini table lamps made from fossilized butterfly tree leaves with a wrought iron frame.
Recycled pull tab bag made in Brazil— Pop Top bag made in Brazil. Functional as a day bag or an elegant evening bag. You will get more comments on this accessory than on anything else that you own. This bag is hand crocheted with over 700 post-consumer recycled pop tops. Lightweight and supple aluminum shell. Fully lined with beautiful fabric interior.
Jewelry made in Bali, Indonesia—We offer beautiful jewelry from Bali,Indonesia. All earrings are made from Sterling Silver, real semi-precious stones or coral which is not endangered.
Modern Nativity statue made in Philippines--Fair Trade handmade ash statue of Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus. Made by survivors of the 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo, this nativity statue was created from volcanic ash. This nativity makes a perfect and unique gift! Size 5”h.
Clocks Made in NH—These clocks are Made in NH by an expert craftsman. We have handcrafted wave clocks, and multiple angle clocks. Each clock is made from beautiful hardwoods.
To find these beautiful holiday gifts you can visit our store at 7 Commercial Alley in Portsmouth, NH or visit our website at: www.falalo.com. You can also Join our email list on our website to receive our monthly newsletter.
Happy Fair Trading,
Scott Segee
Fa La Lo of Portsmouth Spring News
Welcome to Fa La Lo of Portsmouth!!! THINK SPRING!!!
In the U.S., the official first day of SPRING occurs Saturday March 20th at around midnight.
Come in and check out our new products and more in the future as we expand our product lines.
If you haven’t signed up for our newsletter, click on: www.falalo.com and sign up for our mailing list. We take our customer’s privacy and security very seriously at Fa La Lo of Portsmouth. We will never share any customer information.
The 17th Annual Seacoast Home & Garden Flower Show
March 26-27th, Fa La Lo will be an exhibitor in Booth #25 selling our products on the Concourse at The 17th Annual Seacoast Home & Garden Flower Show at the UNH Whittemore Arena. We encourage everyone to go to this show as it will lift your spirits, get you into a SPRING mood, educate you on new green technologies and green products, and make you smile and have fun.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!! We would like to wish our great customers a Happy St. Patrick’s Day.
Remember, we are always looking for feedback from our customers in order to better serve you. So, if you have any comments or suggestions on how we can improve our product offerings, or products you would like us to carry just click on our website: www.falalo.com and click on either feedback on the blue bar or click on contact us and send us an email with your comments or suggestions.
Fair Trade products or Locally NH made products can be found on our website at:
www.falalo.com or in our store at: 51 Ceres Street in Portsmouth, NH 03801.
From our website, you can join our email list and receive our monthly newsletter, leave feedback, contact us, or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
Happy Fair Trading
Scott
President’s Day Blog
Happy President’s Day. President’s Day celebrates George Washington and today also Abraham Lincoln birthdays on the 3rd Monday in February which this year is 2/21/11.
George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799) was the 1st President of the United States and the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799.
Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln was an outspoken opponent of the expansion of slavery in the United States, which he deftly articulated in his campaign debates and speeches. He issued his Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, and promoted the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, abolishing slavery.
George Washington and Abraham Lincoln both lived at a time when Human Slavery was accepted and Washington owned slaves himself. Slavery stills exists today and at
Fa La Lo of Portsmouth, we are trying to abolish it around the World by selling products from skilled craftspeople some of which were victims of Human Trafficking.
As our business card says-‘Fa La Lo is a store with a serious mission and a sense of humor’. We sell Fair Trade and Locally made products. When you buy our Fair Trade products you are helping mostly women and children around the world escape and stay out of poverty or human trafficking.
The Fair Trade serious side of our store deals with the future abolition of Human Trafficking around the World. When you are a customer of Fa La Lo, you get beautiful, high quality, hand made products but you are also helping thousands of mostly Women and Children escape Human Trafficking and start their own future of making handcrafted products that we can then provide a market and provide them with a future sustainable income.
Human trafficking is the illegal trade in human beings for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor, a modern-day form of slavery.
Trafficking is a lucrative industry. It is now the fastest growing criminal industry in the world. Globally, it is tied with the illegal arms trade, as the second largest criminal activity, following the drug trade. Human trafficking usually affects women and children
The total annual revenue for trafficking in persons is estimated to be between USD$5 billion and $9 billion. The Council of Europe states, "People trafficking has reached epidemic proportions over the past decade, with a global annual market of about $42.5 billion." The United Nations estimates nearly 2.5 million people from 127 different countries are being trafficked around the world.
Bonded labor, or debt bondage, is probably the least known form of labor trafficking today, and yet it is the most widely used method of enslaving people. Victims become bonded laborers when their labor is demanded as a means of repayment for a loan or service in which its terms and conditions have not been defined or in which the value of the victims’ services as reasonably assessed is not applied toward the liquidation of the debt. The value of their work is greater than the original sum of money "borrowed."
Forced labor is a situation in which victims are forced to work against their own will, under the threat of violence or some other form of punishment, their freedom is restricted and a degree of ownership is exerted. Men are at risk of being trafficked for unskilled work, which globally generates $31bn according to the International Labor Organization. Forms of forced labor can include domestic servitude; agricultural labor; sweatshop factory labor; janitorial, food service and other service industry labor; and begging.
Sex trafficking victims are generally found in dire circumstances and easily targeted by traffickers. Individuals, circumstances, and situations vulnerable to traffickers include homeless individuals, runaway teens, displaced homemakers, refugees, and drug addicts. While it may seem like trafficked people are the most vulnerable and powerless minorities in a region, victims are consistently exploited from any ethnic and social background.
Traffickers, also known as pimps or madams, exploit vulnerabilities and lack of opportunities, while offering promises of marriage, employment, education, and/or an overall better life. However, in the end, traffickers force the victims to become prostitutes or work in the sex industry. Various work in the sex industry includes prostitution, dancing in strip clubs, performing in pornographic films and pornography, and other forms of involuntary servitude.
Women are lured to accompany traffickers based on promises of lucrative opportunities unachievable in their native country. However, once they reach their destination, the women discover that they have been deceived and learn the true nature of the work that they will be expected to do. Most have been told lies regarding the financial arrangements and conditions of their employment and find themselves in coercive or abusive situations from which escape is both difficult and dangerous. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, there were 1,229 human trafficking incidents in the United States from January 2007- September 2008. Of these, 83 percent were sex trafficking cases.
Child labor is a form of work that is likely to be hazardous to the physical, mental, spiritual, moral, or social development of children and can interfere with their education. The International Labor Organization estimates worldwide that there are 246 million exploited children aged between 5 and 17 involved in debt bondage, forced recruitment for armed conflict, prostitution, pornography, the illegal drug trade, the illegal arms trade, and other illicit activities around the world.
Trafficking in children
Trafficking of children is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of children for the purpose of exploitation.
Trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of children can take many forms and include forcing a child into prostitution or other forms of sexual activity or child pornography. Child exploitation can also include forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude, the removal of organs, illicit international adoption, trafficking for early marriage, recruitment as child soldiers, for use in begging or as athletes (such as child camel jockeys or football players), or for recruitment for cults.
Trafficking in children often involves exploitation of the parents' extreme poverty. Parents may sell children to traffickers in order to pay off debts or gain income, or they may be deceived concerning the prospects of training and a better life for their children. They may sell their children for labor, sex trafficking, or illegal adoptions.
Fair Trade products from victims of Human Trafficking are on our website at: www.falalo.com or in our store at: 51 Ceres Street in Portsmouth, NH 03801.
From our website, you can join our email list and receive our monthly newsletter or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
10 Holiday Gift Ideas
The Holidays are a time of giving and of giving THANKS for everything and everyone we have in our lives past, present, and future. When you buy holiday gifts at Fa La Lo of Portsmouth, you are giving gifts that keep on giving whether you are buying a gift made in Bali, Indonesia or in Rochester, NH. A customer at Fa La Lo is no ordinary customer. By choosing to spend your dollar as a Socially Conscious Shopper you are partnering with us to Change the World for the better.
1 Fair Trade chocolate - The premium Fair Trade Certified organic cacao in Equal Exchange’s chocolate bars is grown by small farmers organized into co-operatives in the Dominican Republic, Panama and Peru. The organic sugar and organic vanilla are both Fair Trade Certified. The sugar comes from small farmer co-operatives in Paraguay and Costa Rica, while the vanilla is grown by a farmer association in Madagascar. The finished product is produced in Switzerland for Equal Exchange. And because their chocolate is grown sustainably, you also get healthy food that won’t harm the planet.
2 Fair Trade & organic coffee and tea – We offer Fair Trade and Organic coffee and teas from Equal Exchange.
Coffee— Teas—
Organic French Roast Earl Grey
Breakfast Blend Darjeeling Black
Mind Body and Soul Wild Rooibos-Caff. Free
Colombian Irish & English Breakfast
3 Jewelry made in NH—We offer beautiful earrings made with sterling silver wire such as beach stones, sea shells, several colors of sea glass, stacked sea glass, stacked beach stones, and recycled broken china. We also have sterling silver polished seaglass bracelets with breast cancer charms, sea glass bracelets, heart shaped beach stone necklace with sterling silver chain and necklaces made from recycled broken china.
4 Lobster Line Doormats made in ME.—We offer doormats made from recycled Lobster Rope in Maine. By choosing this mat you are working with lobstermen to protect one of the world’s most endangered species: the North Atlantic Right Whale. Reducing entanglement with floating groundline is one way to help protect them. Each handwoven mat is unique, made with two or more colors of used floating groundline in a long-lasting, rugged doormat recommended for outdoor use. Mats are mildew resistant and easily cleaned with a hose.
5 Recycled pull tab wristlet purses made in Brazil—Soda Pop Top Wristlet Purses made in Brazil. Wristlet purses with extra room to carry essentials for a night out. The purse is hand crocheted with over 300 post consumer recycled pop tops. Lightweight and supple aluminum shell. Fully lined with beautiful fabric interior.
6 Earth-friendly Tree of Life – Haitian artisans recycle 55-gallon metal drums into this lustrous brown wall hanging. Detailed hammered cutwork celebrates the natural world.
7 Bags made of Grasses from Cambodia—We sellSaraye "Tatami Style" Fair Trade Purses from Bags of Cambodia. "Saraye" is a beautiful sounding word that translates as "woman" in Khmer. These bags are made of hand-dyed and woven grasses from the fertile Mekong River Delta in Cambodia.
8 Jewelry made in Bali, Indonesia—We offer beautiful jewelry from Bali,Indonesia. All earrings are made from Sterling Silver, real semi-precious stones and coral which is not endangered.
9 Modern Nativity statue made in Philippines--Handmade ash statue from the Philippines. Made by survivors of the 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo, this nativity statue was created from lahar – volcanic ash. The artisans of the Pinatubo Ash Art Ware Project have been able to create new hope from this natural disaster through their artwork. This nativity makes a perfect and unique gift! Size 5”h.
10 Clocks Made in NH—These clocks are Made in NH by an expert craftsman. We have handcrafted A-Frame clocks, balancing clocks, wave clocks, and multiple angle clocks. Each clock is made from beautiful hardwoods.
To find these beautiful holiday gifts you can visit our store on 51 Ceres Street in Portsmouth, NH or visit our website at: www.falalo.com. You can also Join our email list on our website to receive our monthly newsletter.
Happy Fair Trading,
Scott Segee
7 Commercial Alley