News

As we have been so busy during the summer (see our last post Out and About With Fair and Fabulous) we haven’t had time to tell you much about achieving our BAFTS membership, or about our new project working with Fair Trade chums – Liz Beasley from Ananuca and Martha Musonza Holman and Dave Holman from Love Zimbabwe. Over the years we have met some amazing, passionate people within the Fair Trade world. Liz, Martha and Dave are such people. We are all committed campaigners for Fair Trade and are also keen to promote our businesses. If we are successful then the people who...

Well summer has flown by and autumn is already here. I’m not sure we can look back at very many balmy sunny days lazing at the beach and eating ice-cream. But we do have great memories of our summer of events. Since we have our shop in lovely Newcastle Emlyn, why would we want to leave it behind sometimes and hit the road? I’ll admit there have been times hefting boxes and putting up shop tents in the pouring rain when we have asked ourselves the same question!   By far our biggest event of the year is Shrewsbury Folk Festival,...

In order to write this blog I have had to read extracts from bridal magazines, and that has been quite painful. Even when I was planning my own big day I found the excessive consumerism on display a bit nauseating. Animated cakes? A wedding video shot to movie-level standards (a snap at £5000)? Apparently this year’s top trends are personalisation, metallics and abundant florals. I was mostly concerned with not getting my sleeves in the soup or coming out of the toilet with my dress tucked into my knickers! With so much to think of, is it any surprise that...

This week Newcastle Emlyn will be celebrating its annual Urdd Carnival week. So it seemed like a good time to reflect on the Welsh culture, community and language that we are so lucky to be part of. Newcastle Emlyn and the surrounding beautiful Teifi Valley area are in the Welsh speaking heartland of Wales. It is part of what gives our area its distinctive feel. After all, Newcastle Emlyn is the resting place of the last Welsh dragon. But it is something that can make native English speakers like myself and Jill quite nervous. We strive very hard to be...

Now here is a campaign that really resonated with me, the Marine Conservation Society’s ‘Plastic Challenge’. They are asking people to give up single use plastic during the month of June. Realistically MSC says it is unlikely, in this day and age, to be totally plastic free but there is scope for massive reduction. So do you think you could last a day, a week or a whole month in giving up plastic? Back in 2005 I was so incensed about the amount of plastic litter I was seeing in our hedgerows and coastline that I decided, in my own...