When the flood happened in Nashville earlier this month,  I immediately thought of my friends who live in the area.  Were they safe?  Homes ok?  Thankfully they were.  Teresa (aka the Green Bag Lady) lives in Nashville and she sent me a link to this video.  Watch it.  Now.

I was in tears by the end.  What could I do to help?  Well, Teresa was feeling the same way and in true Green Bag Lady form, she decided to get involved - with bags!  She contacted me and a few others to request a donation of fabric for a fund raiser for Nashville flood relief.  Normally Teresa doesn't sell her bags she gives them away but for this emergency she is donating the bags in hopes of raising money to rebuild Nashville.  Of course, my answer was YES!  So I sent her a roll of our 100% organic light green twill and with the help of volunteers (including several other professors at Belmont University where Teresa works) 500 bags have been sewn and are available for purchase/donation from The Cool People Care site.

Teresa was featured yesterday on Fox channel 17 in Nashville.  I am proud and honored to be a small part of the "cool people who care".  

I spent all of last week in Texas.  It was a fabulous trip full of lots of fun with a little business thrown in too.  One of the highlights was spending time with Harmony Art's very first customer, Michelle of Cotton Monkey. 

Cotton Monkey will always hold a space in Harmony Art's history, but Michelle (the founder) also has a personal place in my heart.  She is funny, talented, kind, thoughtful and just plain fun to be around.  I think there needs to be a new word added to the dictionary that means friend + customer.  Any suggestions?

Michelle is AMAZING!  In addition to Cotton Monkey she also is a mom to an adorable 5 year old and manages an eco-event location in downtown Dallas called Hickory Street Annex.  The space is beautiful.  You can get a real idea for it on the Hickory Street web site.  I however, was fascinated with the art/recycled glass wall outside the building.  Michelle tells me I am the first person she knows of to take pictures from the "back" side.  Somehow learning I view things backwards from everyone else didn't surprise me.  

Elephant Power! My dear friend Mary (also mother of little Harmony) is an elephant lover/collector so when I came across Maiden Love, I knew I had to have a Harmony Art organic elephant made for her/little Harmony. Check out this adorable set using Vein and Fields of Honey. I am loving them so much I am having a hard time parting with them... maybe I will wait until Harmony's birthday in November....

On the subject of Elephants, I have recently become enamored with Ganesh, the destroyer of all obstacles. My current go-to CD is titled Elephant Power by MC Yogi.

UPDATE: I began writing this entry on March 12th and discovered MC Yogi was playing in Pt. Reyes Station the very next day! We drove the 2 hours to the show and had a BLAST! I will definitely be making it a point to catch more MC Yogi shows. If he is in your area, I highly recommend checking him out!

We headed up the coast to meet Stardove the founder and creator of the Hamakua Homegrown apparel line at Symbiosis. Stardove has been using Harmony Art fabrics in her line since ... well a long time. Those first few customers will always hold a special spot in my heart. When we found out a year ago we were going to Hawaii, the question became, "which island?". I have to admit that Stardove's being on the big island definitely had a lot to do with our decision. We were not disappointed in the island OR meeting Stardove. She is as charming in person as she is in cyberspace. I wore my Hamakua Homegrown skirt for the occasion. What fun it was to tell her about seeing her dress in the window of Moonsprout the day before.

I feel SOOOOOOO lucky/blessed/grateful to have such an amazing group of customers/friends/supporters. Life is indeed very good. I promised Stardove I would work on a Hawaii inspired design... so stay tuned!

Today, we went into Hilo to see the much raved about farmers market. On the walk from the car to the market, this was in the VERY FIRST window we passed! What a fabulous and fun surprise to see Garden on display at the adorable and lovely Moonsprout store. Geana (the owner) was there and we had a great time meeting her and looking at all of the Harmony Art products she had in her store. We saw things from Hamakua Homegrown, Rogelito's Closet, and New Native. I felt like a proud mama myself.

If you ever get to Hilo I highly recommend a stop at Moonsprout and be sure to give Geana a big hug from me!

I spent the last week in Albany, NY getting to know my sweet little name- sake: Harmony Grace. (In case you were wondering, my middle name is Joy.) I am in love. She is such a sweet, alert, fun baby! She is pictured here wearing a hooded towel from Itty Bitty Spitty. A gift made by the incredibly talented Green Bag Lady.