Huge New Year Sale

For 2 days only (until New Year's Day), get a WILD 40% off everything in our store.
Just enter new year sale into the discount code box at check out and you will receive 40% off your whole order!

How about stocking up for all those little occasions that come up throughout the year? SHONA makes a great, meaningful gift to have on hand. Or what about a African pillow or table runner to bring a fresh new look to your home in this new year.

In the end, nothing beats starting the new year by helping another person. Your purchases at this time of the year, make a huge difference to these amazing women. Your purchases make it possible for them to continue to work, support their families, and change their worlds. How about starting the new year with that?

"Married to Amazement"

I found this poem on Everyday Epiphanies
and am taking the liberty of stealing it in honor of the new year.

Who doesn't want to start the new year by stealing something good?

In the past year, I have settled my feet on the ground in NY, after 3 years in Congo. For my husband and I, coming back to this country, in the midst of an "economic downturn" with no money under our belts and no jobs lined up, was not exactly a prudent move. Let's just say the health insurance debates, and unemployment statistics, were very real to us.

But this year I have been amazed.

Somehow, in the midst of it all, I have been able to continue working with the SHONA women. And they have astounded me with their strength and commitment. For over a year, they have plugged away, month after month, making good decisions when bad ones would have been so much easier. Being reliable, despite the fact that nothing in Congo is reliable.

I have been amazed at my students and friends here in the US, adults who dearly want to learn English, and who daily count this country as a blessing. Too many of them celebrate Christmas far from their own families, and unable to visit. They work in the back of restaurants on Christmas Eve and ride bicycles in the midst of a blizzard to deliver food. They are an honor to teach and to live beside.

And I shake my head.
At the inexplicable blessings on my own table.
And how quickly I grow accustomed to them.

As this poem says,
I want to live my life "married to amazement",
because truly this life calls for it.


When Death Comes
by Mary Oliver

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;

when death comes
like the measles-pox;

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,

and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth
tending as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it is over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.

I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.

What are you giving this holidays season?

How about the gift of cloth?

Holiday Specials!

SHONA is a great gift to give this holiday season. Our fabrics are brilliantly colored. Our designs are handcrafted with care. And the women behind this work are unforgettable.

Not sure what to give?

How about a gift of hope?

Now you can make a special donation to the SHONA women in the name of a friend.

We'll put their names on our "Wall of Thankfulness" and you'll receive a special SHONA notecard to put under the tree. Or if you prefer, you can download an electronic version of our notecard, and print it out right away.

100% of your donation will be used to buy cloth for the SHONA women to sew in this new year. There is no greater gift you can give these talented and determined women than to put cloth in their hands. That cloth triples in value as they sew it into beautiful crafts. It puts food on the table of families which are desperately poor. It builds houses for refugees. It sends children to school.

But most of all, it turns the table. It puts the power to create this change into the hands of these talented young women living in the midst of incredible obstacles. It celebrates their dignity and hope.

With your cloth they can sew a better future, for themselves, for their families and for their community. This holiday season consider giving this gift of hope.

How about a gift of hope?

Now you can make a special donation to the SHONA women in the name of a friend.

We'll put their names on our "Wall of Thankfulness" and you'll receive a special SHONA notecard to put under the tree. Or if you prefer, you can download an electronic version of our notecard, and print it out right away.

100% of your donation will be used to buy cloth for the SHONA women to sew in this new year. There is no greater gift you can give these talented and determined women than to put cloth in their hands. That cloth triples in value as they sew it into beautiful crafts. It puts food on the table of families which are desperately poor. It builds houses for refugees. It sends children to school.

But most of all, it turns the table. It puts the power to create this change into the hands of these talented young women living in the midst of incredible obstacles. It celebrates their dignity and hope.

With your cloth they can sew a better future, for themselves, for their families and for their community. This holiday season consider giving this gift of hope.

How about a gift of hope?

Now you can make a special donation to the SHONA women in the name of a friend.

We'll put their names on our "Wall of Thankfulness" and you'll receive a special SHONA notecard to put under the tree. Or if you prefer, you can download an electronic version of our notecard, and print it out right away.

100% of your donation will be used to buy cloth for the SHONA women to sew in this new year. There is no greater gift you can give these talented and determined women than to put cloth in their hands. That cloth triples in value as they sew it into beautiful crafts. It puts food on the table of families which are desperately poor. It builds houses for refugees. It sends children to school.

But most of all, it turns the table. It puts the power to create this change into the hands of these talented young women living in the midst of incredible obstacles. It celebrates their dignity and hope.