December 14, 2009

If this were the 14^th century, you might be saving the feathers from the geese you plucked for more than a year to make yourself a duvet, which you would then pass down through many generations of your family.

In Europe, many people sleep only between 2 duvets, eliminating the need for sheets and blankets, and the bother of making the bed! When I heard this, I tried it myself and I loved it!

Winter is the duvet’s signature season, evoking moods for snuggling in mounds of warm, poofy down with hot tea or chocolate, and a good book while the winter season moves and stills outside. The winter holiday times have long been the most popular time to gift a duvet to someone, indeed it’s the time of year to give in to the occasional desire to stay in bed a bit longer than usual, so give permission to indulge and lounge!

Fun Duvet Facts:

Name for duvets around the world:

¨ Scandinavian: “Dyne”

¨ Pakistan: “Ralli Quilts”

¨ France: Duvet (origin of the word)

¨ Germany: “Federbeden”

In the U.K. and other European countries, when employees take a personal day off from work, it’s called a “duvet day”.

In Europe, sleeping under duvets is so popular, that many couples have refined it to an art of adaptability: they put two twin duvets on a full or queen-sized bed so that they may each enjoy their own preferred thickness!

Duvets are coming into style with the younger generation now. The gothic clothing store Hot Topic has a new duvet set based on the popular vampire television series “Twilight”.

So indulge yourself, cozy up to the season, and have a dreamy duvet day…

~Carrie and the Raksha Bella team

Monday, December 07, 2009

Holiday Loveliness

Remember my Design*Sponge post about these? Well, this is what they look like come the holidays.

Lots of loveliness from the talented designers + curators of TRUNKSHOW. Their stuff is beyond words. Da eco-luxe bomb. My client’s guests were shopping WELL into the night + I think I saw some drool coming out of one lady’s mouth. Napkin please. Check out their awesomeness here. I’ve already got my wish list for Christmas.

And hello? My partner in crime, this cool cat, created the most killer sweets table EVER. The guests were gushing over her cuppies + her creative display of snow whites + winter greens. It is now a future staple at all bash-TRUNKSHOW events. I could not ask for a better collaborator in design. Kelly + I share a brain and her execution of this table was beyond!

I’m so beyond grateful for collaborating with such brilliant people. I truly believe you are only as good as your team, + these ladies make me better at what I do. My hats off to you + you.

Posted by Paige Appel at 5:31 PM

A bee stung Eros on the nose
While he was smelling on a rose
“Mother Venus,  ay,ay,ay
Please help me or I’ll die
What a terrible disgrace
A dragon bit me on my face”!
Venus comforts first her son
then speaks to him with mocking fun:
The little bee’s tiny sting
Is for you an earnest thing
But more painful and real hard
are your stings in human’s heart.

A. Dürer, 1514: Eros, Venus and the bees

November 9, 2009

Humans have long had a symbiotic relationship with honeybees. We provide them with shelter and care, and in return, they not only provide us with honey and bee pollen for our health and pleasure, they pollinate 35% of our food crops! Our lives are inextricably intertwined with the lives of bees. Honeybees are behind every cheerful bloom of spring flowers, and every abundant harvest on the Thanksgiving table.

Many honeybees in recent years are disappearing due to Colony Collapse Disorder. We at Raksha Bella choose to see this as an opportunity for transformation. By calling our attention to the need for healthy change, the plight of bees all over the world is a gentle call, reminding us of the interconnectedness of life on the planet, and of how our choices today will resonate into the future lives of all beings on Earth.

Although no conclusive evidence has been drawn as to the exact causes of CCD, many of the studies point to conventional farming practices as at least partly responsible: the use of multiple toxic pesticides and fertilizers, genetically modified crops, and monoculture have all led to a loss of biodiversity. Biodiversity is essential for all life on earth to grow healthy and abundant. The interconnectedness between organic farming and saving the bees is indisputable. Conventional and Monoculture farming is responsible for poisons in our soil and bodies, the destruction of ancient human agricultural traditions all over the globe, and global food shortages. Conventional cotton crops use 25% of the entire world’s pesticides! Ouch! In contrast, organic farming promotes biodiversity, blesses us with higher crop yields and more nutrient-rich foods, promotes fair labor practices, and reduces the toxic load on our depleted soils. This is why we choose to use all certified organic cotton for Raksha Bella products.

Spread the beauty and harmony of nature into homes and hearts all over the globe. Believe that healthy, abundant food for all people is beautiful; believe that the cycles of the seasons are beautiful; that harmony between people, plants, and creatures is beautiful, and that organic products we touch and sleep in, with limited impact on our ecosystem are beautiful!

Ally yourself with beauty! Gratitude to the honeybees!

Wishing you blessings of health, bounty and beauty this autumn

~Carrie and the Raksha Bella team

We are thrilled to see the ever-expanding selection of environmentally-friendly lifestyle products, the enthusiasm of our retailers and ultimately, their customers. Once a vision of the future, we sleep well knowing that the demand for greener home products is quickly becoming a way of life. Stop by, say hello and check out their unique and fabulous assortment of inspiring products!

Store display featuring Raksha Bella bedding

Visit Spring Home online at: www.springhome.com

Pictured below is the lovely set up.

You may visit Emily Joubert Home and Garden online at http://emilyjoubert.com/

Our family at Raksha Bella believes that every day is Earth Day! This is one of the reasons that we pledge certified organic, environmentally low-impact production of our textiles. We would like to help shrink the global footprint that we have all created in order for future sons and daughters to live happy, healthy lives in a world more beautiful than we left it. In the meantime, we try to live what we believe while helping others live it too.

Check out bedding for our newest additions to the earth! Pictured is one of Raksha Bella’s Organic baby blankets in elephant print in milky blue with reverseable camel print in tangerine and piping in sweet clover print in dried tobacco.

Stay tuned for exciting new additions to the website including new organic loungewear and new bedding! We hope your Earth Day was fantastic and spent with those you love. 

Happy Valentines Day!

Did you ever wonder where the real Valentines day began and why?  Similar to Halloween, it began as a pagan holiday rooted in celebration and festivities.  Originally called Lupercalia, it was held every year on February 15, and the annual party involved, well, shall we say wild raucousing involving stripping, fertility celebrations, and wine…

Well if your not up for such a wild time, or, if you are, enjoy our Valentine’s Day sale on all our duvets in our lovely Indian Rose print in Dusty Cedar.  30% off, sale ends Monday February 16.

Imagine for a moment a world where all women were happily employed, treated fairly, and also had the freedom to raise their children in the best way they can with ample opportunities for a sound education.  What if all women in the world who have enough savvy and a good education spent just a few hours a week helping uplift other women out of poverty and abuse, without imposing their cultural or religious beliefs on them?  

One example of this is the brilliance of microfinance and microlending for the poor, also known as the Grameen Banking System, developed by Dr. Muhahammad Yunus (http://www.grameen-info.org).  Microfinance helps people, mostly women, transcend poverty by giving them collateral-free loans to generate new businesses.  The money is then paid off and gets redistributed back to the other applicants as loans, therefore getting reallocated.

Raksha Bella produces our products through a cut and sew facility in Pune, India who employs up to 300 independent contractors that have risen out of poverty through the microfinance system.  All of the contractors are women, and many of them work as well as take care of their families and household duties.  A large percentage of these women have experienced domestic violence and or ill treatment.  Many women in the region of Maharashtra have lost their husbands, who were once farmers, to suicide due to heavy debts from crop failure.

The premise for developing such a business as ours is based in trust and the desire to empower people.  The problems of poverty in these regions and across the world have been soothed by efforts from the microfinance system.  

For me, working with a business model that not only produces a beautiful line of bedding with ancient artisan crafts and organic cotton, but at the heart of it believes that sustainability includes a framework for healing poverty is imperative.  Sustainability has to include not only solutions for the planet, but those who walk on the planet that are capable of healing it in masse.  This in turn creates a cultural model for new generations to start early in their upbringing by incorporating their sustainable values in everything they do.    It is simply not enough to apply a band-aid to a deep wound that actually needs further intervention. Not only are the children of the women who do our cut and sew beginning a life with fresh and progressive ideas based on long term sustainability, but my daughter and her generation are exposed as well, and hopefully our customer’s children, and so on.

Our company’s name is also its creed- Raksha, pronounced (ra-k-shaw), meaning protection in Sanskrit, and Bella, the Latin classic for beautiful. Appropriately, Raksha Bella’s philosophy is to protect what is beautiful with our devotion to hand-made organic textiles made by women with dignity .  We hope our products conjure more than just a stylish essential for any room in the home, but perhaps also a blissful slumber or a bucolic siesta hour, and that their lineage and craftsmanship helps beckon a new era; wholeness of body, mind, spirit integrated with practical and exquisite solutions for a better planet.


Cheers,

Carrie

Owner, Raksha Bella Organic Textiles