Sweet Dreams Project

So after being away for about a month at camp I came back to some wonderful news. We have an order of 500 pillows from NFTE (Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship). So right now we’re trying to bust out 250 pillows by Labor Day, and we’re doing great. In about a month we’ve sewn 500 cases, filled about 300, and hand finished 236 pillows. How’s that for dedication?

So aside from our huge order of 500 pillows we also have good and bad news. Lets start with the bad news. Our  lovely Orisa F. will no longer be part of our co-op because she is off to the world of college. But on a brighter note I will be able to stay for another 5 months because my schedule just happens to be awesome that way.

On a sillier note today my sister Mariluz and I decided to lighten up the mood in the co-op by wearing kigurumis which are basically costume pajamas.  I dressed up as a cow and my sister dressed up like the spiritual character Kappa.  So yup, that pretty much sums up our day/weeks/months, you get what I mean.

OK so since we do have to bust out 250 pillows by Sept. 5th I have to get my cow self over to the pillows.

Atten-TION! All boot campers report to your sewing machines immediately.

Well that was a small insight to my mind as to what I think of our new members to the co-op. They were part of our sewing boot camp for the past 4 weeks and have now been promoted to Sweet Dreamers. Oh but all good things have a bittersweet side. Because of college and what not I am sad to announce that as soon as college starts I will have to leave the co-op. But on the bright side we have new members to keep the orders flowing.

We have five new girls; Aida, Samantha L.,  Susana, Paula, and Stephanie. All of them were part of our boot camp program which as I said before consisted of four intense weeks where they learned how to sew, cut fabric, and get a machine going.

And a sweet almost congrats for college we’re going on a field trip to either Fort Funston or Lake Merced. With some picnic style lunches, this will be the nicest “party” I will have been to this summer.

So we didn’t necessarily work on orders today but we did improve on some basic skills. Maybe not so basic when you’re talking about those industrial machines and most people think about the industrial machine as a sweatshop instrument, but not here.

One of our recent works in progress is a vinyl every purpose bag. Now these aren’t regular vinyl bags, these are recycled vinyl bags like from the billboards you see when you’re driving down the highway while blasting some Katy Perry or The Beatles. Now when everyone sees these in the store they don’t really think about what kind of work was put into it and I am going to tell you that this was probably one of the hardest things I have had to work on. Mostly because the industrial machines compared to a regular machine speed wise is like a cheetah compared to a human. Yeah that’s how fast it is. These will be on sale soon hopefully, oh by the way they’re water proof.

Finally we worked on lavender, and oooh weeee, that is some powerful lavender. I have the biggest headache right now but we have to think on the bright side, at least we have more lavender for our eye pillows and neck pillows, which by the way are also in production.

Well that’s it for today and until next week.

Hey there!

Just got to the studio after a long day at a rope course. Like Orisa said we’re going to have a new exclusive pillow for Valentine’s Day. Get them while you can. Etsy will be updated soon, but get them while they’re available because once they’re gone they’re gone. Also keep posted for our exclusive online offer, get two lovely pillows ; one for yourself and one for that special someone, all for $30 (includes shipping + handling.)

Anyways! Is there any suggestions? Leave us a comment.

Follow us on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sweet-Dreams-Cooperative/104047321160

- Melissa

So today Verenice and i went on an adventure to interview Global Exchange’s Assistant manager, Ariel . As soon as i entered the store I felt like i entered some sort of different world where traditional clashed harmoniously with modern art. There were so many artifacts that brought back the old days in el mercado.

Q: What is global exchange as a business about? What does fair trade mean? Why is fair trade important to you?
A: Global exchange is a non profit business that aims for economic & social justice. We aim for social equity, we try to make things for equal for other workers. Fair trade is doing commerce that is more equitable by purchasing their products to help them with their economical status. We also create a long lasting relationship so that they see that the work is improving the economic situation. We also make sure that they have safe work conditions, no child labor, they are able to have breaks and eat their snacks and lunches. Women can also work from their homes by taking the materials that they need and making them in the comfort of their homes and then selling it. This makes things much more flexible for the workers as opposed to the to mega stores which have their workers work all day with hardly any breaks.
Fair trade is important to me because it is fighting poverty, and helping them improve their economical situation. I also like that we keep things traditional and fair trade encourages traditional art. Like block printing, even though you can get mass amounts of that done by machine it doesn’t have that beauty that some with it if someone made it by hand. I also like that traditional art clashes harmoniously with modern art.

Q: What do you do here at the store? Have you worked in retail before? How long have you worked here? Do you like it?Why?
A: I am the assistant manager of global exchange and i check prices, check merchandise, and the boss decides what we sell. I have been working at global exchange for two years. I started wotking in retail since my freshmen year in college. Which means I’ve worked in retail for 7-10 yrs. I love working here because this isn’t a job where I have to sit in front a computer and work for hours. I get to interact with the costumers a lot.

Q: How do you decide what products to carry?
A: We decide which products by the things that we know are going to sell. Also by how, who (story), made it. What will sit next to like something that will match the vibe.

Q: How long have sweet dreams lavender eye pillows been at global exchange?
A: About two years.

Q: Why did you to choose to carry our products?
A: We’ve always been carrying eye pillows but we liked the story behind you products so that is why we chose your products.

Q: Do the pillows sell well? Who are the people (in general) who buy our eye pillows? What do you think the people like about the eye pilows? Is there a time of year that the pillows sell better?
A: Of course they sell well. We sell more during christmas for gifts. The people like how it relaxes them, they also tend to buy things such as incence and oils when they buy the eye pillow.

Q: If you were to buy and use a pillow how would you use the pillow? For what activity? And what fabric would you choose?
A: Well I already have one and I use it to relax. I have a black one. I also like purple and greens.

Q: We hand craft and sell other products-Dream pillows, zip cases, yoga mat bags,. Please look at these-are you interested in any of these? So why or why not?
A: The zip pouches are cute and modern, and the yoga mat bags add variety to the ones that we’re already selling.

Thanks so much! Sweet Dreams!

So who said that photo shoots are only for models? Well Orisa and I are certainly not models. The photo shoot took us from our studio to the streets. I guess my picture taking skills came in handy. Though unlike my camera, I couldn’t find the setting that makes the background all blurry and it makes the main object pop out. Orisa was my model for the yoga mat bags and as all you know they are quite sexy.

Orisa was also in charge of setting the scene for the sweet dreams  products. They almost looked professional and I mean, pro is like beyond an eight month experience. When Orisa was posing outside the temperature felt like it dropped 3 degrees. So poor Orisa was freezing with only her tank top and sweats on.

Cameras and lighting, not the best thing for the unexperienced.

Aside from the fact that it was cold, rainy, gloomy, and windy; Bazaar Bizarre was stupendous! We met some really cool people at the event; from other sellers to some really cool buyers. Yes even though it was super bad weather we had a great time at the event, the people (well most) were really interested in our products. I guess people want to relax a lot, you know the city stress.

From singing to ourselves to encouraging people to buy our products to selling our products it was all a real blast. As young adults we love to feel super independent and that is how we felt at Bazaar Bizarre. The other sellers were really friendly too, the y had really cool items for sale; like the one across from where we were, were selling toys and among those toys was a really cool octopus. (I decided to call him Mr. Octopus) There was also a stand where they were selling some really cool hats and necklaces. Oh yeah really cool hats indeed.

People also said, “I heard you guys on the radio.” Which was really really nice to hear!

At the end of the day we ended up selling $ 600 worth of merchandise! Now that is a lot of moola if you know what I mean!