Gloss Addiction

Once I had a legion of followers, my secret hope was to turn my blog into a platform for raising awareness around important causes.  Now that I know that blog popularity is harder to achieve than it looks, I'll start by reaching out to the handful of you who read me :)

January 12 marks the year anniversary of the devastating 7.0 earthquake that left Haiti in ruins.  The outpouring of help following the quake was unprecedented, but has since tapered off.  Haiti can still use all the help it can get to rebuild and Macys.com is bringing you a new opportunity to reach out.  Heart of Haiti is a collection of handmade home goods and jewelry created from recycled materials by Haitian artists.  You can view the collection on macys.com here.  Some of my favorite pieces include:

When you purchase an item from the collection, 22% of the retail price for each item goes directly to the artist who created it.  Heart of Haiti gives Haitian artists a chance to share their beautiful work with the rest of the world and gain income to feed their families, get access to health care and improve their education.   Heart of Haiti is helping the country through trade, not aid, and in many ways, that's more uplifting than a blind donation.  For more information on the Heart of Haiti founder and Fairwinds Trading CEO Willa Shalit, check out her Wikipedia entry.

I love it when my dollar stands for something more than just a pretty new item I own, and I know I'm not alone on that, so help me spread the word!