For the Trees

So far this silly season has been pretty crazy! I’ve been super busy keeping up with online orders and keeping my Pop Ups fully stocked. My final market for the year (Thorndon Fair) was last Sunday and well it was an interesting day to say the least. The forecast was always for strong winds, but we had the added bonus of a pretty heavy downpour, Thorndon is an outdoor fair so it’s a battle to try keep everything safe and dry. Luckily the rain passed and people still came out in their thousands to enjoy the fair. Markets make up a huge percentage of my income so I’m always super grateful when people choose to purchase from me at a market. A bad market can really affect my entire year or a good one can make my life a whole lot better!

I love markets, they are such a great way to meet and support local makers, and you save money on postage as well as reduce packaging. I always ship my orders in recycled and recyclable board sealed with paper tape, but it’s always nice to interact with customers and hear what they think about my birds. Most people are nice!

In my business everything I make is sustainable and is created with as little wastage as possible, I use recycled paper in all my printing and my stationery is printed very locally so it doesn’t have to travel far. Even (most of) my packaging is compostable. But the reality of running a small business that relies on posting purchases to buyers is that I am creating emissions in some ways. So to offset this I’ve started donating a portion from every online order ($1 from orders over $20 and 50c from orders under $20) to an organisation called Trees That Count. They are on a mission to make NZ a greener place and I hope that by funding the planting of these trees this counteracts some of the negative impacts of running my little business.

Trees are so important for the future of our world and our wildlife relies on them in so many ways. I’m always working on planting native trees around my home. I have big plans to spend time planting in the garden over the holidays! I’ve just got one more major event - Just Good Stuff, which I’m super excited about. It really is just a whole lot of good stuff. JGS is in Thistle Hall on Cuba St, Wellington and runs for 6 days, it starts on the 17th - less than 2 weeks away! I’ll post when I’m going to be in the shop so if you want to pop in and say hi feel free!