Ten Thousand Villages!

My sister moved to North Carolina a few summers ago. When I went to visit her, I found this wonderful store called Ten Thousand Villages.

The store features jewelry, art, baskets and other home goods, furniture, games, singing bowls, ornaments, and really too many items for me to list them all here.

The items are beautiful and colorful. My favorite thing about the store though is that its all fair trade.
Decent wages for artisans across the globe. None of the child labor in sweat shops to produce the plastic garbage sold at many chain retail stores.

I've listed some of my favorite picks from today's browsing through the online store.
They also have a sale going on right now... 20% off.  A decent deal for those early holiday shoppers out there.

20% off 1 regularly price item

I tend to procrastinate and wait for Cyber Monday, thus utilizing my Amazon Prime Membership and getting fantastic deals....  But each Christmas I try to get less and less commercial and more heart felt. Maybe this year will be exclusively from Ten Thousand Villages (with an exception here and there for special items for my son. I don't think I can get a punching bag through them.)

Here are just a few of my favorite items when recently visited the store....

• Sari Everyday Bag
• 
• Price: $19.50

• Colorful Lightweight Pins 'Flower Power Hair Pins'
• 
• Price: $7.50

• Shesham Wood Puzzle ''I Love You' Puzzle'
• 
• Price: $24.99

• 'Amazon Memories Earrings'
• 
• Price: $59.99

• 'Tree of Light Pendant'
• 
• Price: $175.00

• Silver Earrings 'Infinity Knot Earrings'
• 
• Price: $39.99

• Pearls & Silver Earrings 'Pearl Earrings'
• 
• Price: $29.00

 
If you feel inspired to visit the Ten Thousand Villages online store through one of my links and decide to purchase something from there, as an affiliate marketer I can receive a small commission (at no additional cost to you).  Thanks for your support!

Be Irish today!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The day where the population of Irish people suddenly doubles (or more).  Everywhere you see Kiss Me I'm Irish shirts or buttons, in bright orange against screaming green shirts.

Actually, I love St. Patrick's Day.  A day when I can revel in my Irish heritage. I have a red-headed friend who's birthday is on St. Patrick's Day, isn't that a wee bit of Irish irony. :)


There is a song I heard recently that impressed upon how everyone could have a wee bit of Irish in them, because we Irish are such scalliwags. :)

Now I don't go for the green beer.  As good beers are dark red or brown (Yeah Guinness!)
But I do love corned beef and cabbage. :)

One of my aspirations is to travel to Ireland, enjoying the sites and the history.

So in celebration of St. Patrick's day, some wee tips that are fun....
 If you have kids:
Read some Irish poetry/ fairy tales
Use green (easy to wash off paint) and put foot prints on the toilet seat
Use green dye and turn the toilet water green, hey a leprechaun's gotta go somewhere!

If you don't have kids....
Go out!
People watch if nothing else
mobs of drunken people can be amusing
keep your sense of humor
And just for giggles, watch Far and Away.

Surprisingly I don't have any Irish related photographs to insert (other than the Wikipedia one at the top)- Guess I need to work on that.

I did learn this week that if you need to save time, you can cook corned beef in a crock pot, and it taste just lovely.


Sláinte!