2011!

Happy New Year to you! A lot of us are busy making New Year's Resolutions for the year. With a new calendar comes a fresh start to be better versions of ourselves. We want to give you a few ways Zimbags can help with your resolutions.

Here are 11 ways Zimbags can help in the New Year....

1. Get in shape. Use a ZIMtote or ZIMblack tote to carry your workout clothes, yoga mat, running shoes, and water bottle to the gym.

2. Keep working out! Wear your ZIMshirt out on your run or walk.... get a good workout and show off your rocking style and body. Or take your ZIMchalk bag to the climbing gym to show people how you can hang from a rock by one finger.... and in style while helping women half-way around the world.

3. Do what matters, spend time with family. Spend more time with your baby cuddled up in his or her cute ZIMonsie! Or make dinner with your honey and serve it on a ZIMtablecloth. Or cuddle up on the couch and admire your beautiful, new ZIMwall hanging. Or pack lunches with the little ones the night before school in their ZIMlunch mini (napkin notes with lots of hearts are especially fun!).

4. Spend time with friends. Bring dinner and wine from the market to your friends in the spacious ZIMshopper. Send a faraway friend a note on a ZIMbag card to let them know you are thinking of them.

5. Eat better. Pack your ZIMmarket mini full of yummy veggies and fruits. And then carry them all home in your ZIMfolding shopper.

6. Learn something new. Pull your glasses out of your ZIMpouch mini and read the news (and Zimblog). There is always something new to learn. And each Zimbags product comes with the story of one of the women artists...it's always great to read someone else's story, especially if you are helping them.

7. Get organized. Write your lists in a ZIMjournal, keep a ZIMfolding shopper in your purse so you don't forget your reusable bags, and keep your coupons tidy in a ZIMpouch mini.

8. Save money. Use any of your reusable Zimbags to get discounts a discount at the grocery store, Target, IKEA, or many other stores. Choose to reuse and not use plastic and you are bringing down prices in the long run. If we get rid of the need for plastic bags, stores won't have to buy them.

9. Do something good for the planet. We work hard to bring you products that not only help you reduce the need for plastic and trash, but we work hard to keep our process environmentally friendly. All of our bags are made from recycled fibers or plastics or are organic. The paper we print our tags, invoices, and information on is made from recycled paper bags and can be recycled when you are done with it. Each bag gives you the opportunity to say no to plastic bags. And if you give gifts in Zimbags, you reduce the amount of trash being produced. We believe every small step is important. So we try to focus on not only the big things, but the small things we can do to help. Find out more here.

10. Give great gifts. This year, make sure to give great gifts to those you love. Zimbags not only make wonderful gifts, they make meaningful gifts. And not just for the person you are giving them to, but to the women artists who make the beautiful artwork. Share Zimbags this year. And if you are shopping for one of your hard-to-shop-for friends, give a Zimbags gift certificate! There is something for everyone in our webstore.

11. Do something good for others. Share the Zimbags story with your friends and families. Each bag features the artwork of women artists in Zimbabwe and all of the proceeds go directly back to them. The women in Zimbabwe face extreme poverty, low life expectancies, and hardships that most of us can barely even imagine .... every purchase you make is a help in the lives of these women and their families. And we are always looking for volunteers and donations to help. If your resolution is to help others, you're in the right place!

Here's a beautiful song for you today:

Happy New Years!

-The Happy Bag Elves

Fresh Start: Pedals & Pennies

It is a rainy Monday morning here in the Seattle area and I need apples. That means a bike ride to the grocery store. Recently, I’ve been trying to use my own power to get places. This means I’ve been walking to the store and biking to the post office and library – or trying. Sometimes it’s hard to motivate myself when using the car would be so much easier, especially now that fall (and rain) has settled in here in Washington. So I try to talk myself into it. That’s right …. I talk to myself. I tell myself about all the benefits of using my own power to travel: exercise, relieving the environment of some carbon emissions, saving money on gas, and enjoying the scenery. Plus I get to use my bike with the basket.

Here’s the view from my bike, complete with a Zimshopper in the basket:

And here’s some of the scenery I enjoy on my bike ride to town:

For the other Happy Bag Elf’s birthday I got her a tricycle. Yep, she’s a grown woman and I got her a tricycle. She can put the Little Lady in the basket in the back and bike to the park for some playing. It’s Zimbags green with a white basket. And her name is Myrtle – slow, but steady. Keep chec

Here’s a picture of the Happy Bag Elf and her Little Lady enjoying some pedal power (aren’t they the cutest?):

Keep checking back, I think the Myrtle adventures are going to be fun!

In other news, I got a happy little thrill the other day I went to Target and handed the cashier my Zimbag for my few items. She said, “And for bringing your own bag, you get 5 cents off,” she scanned a little barcode taped to the counter and like magic, 5 cents came off my total.

Now, 5 cents isn’t that much. When I was in elementary school that would have bought me a tootsie roll, but that was a long time ago. But if I get 5 cents off every time I went to Target, that would probably be about $2.60 a year. (Yes, I go to Target about once a week – it’s a bad habit.) And then if I add in the discounts from the grocery stores and other stores I visit …. the bag pays for itself in about a year. And it saves a lot of plastic bags. Plus the handles on my Zimbags never break and they don’t rip and spill my stuff all over the floor. And it’s cute to boot.

But one of my favorite things about using my Zimbags at the store is that I get to tell the story of our women artists. People often comment on how much they like my bag and ask where I got it. That gives me a chance to tell them (quickly, because there is usually a line) about the women artists and Zimbags. It always makes me smile when I get to talk about Siphiwe, Ntando, Alice, Caroline, and Nomvula. It is the best motivation for using my Zimbags at the store.

Sometimes it’s the small things that make big a difference. A 2 mile bike ride to the store gives me time to enjoy the scenery and toting my Zimbags around gives me a chance to tell someone about the beautiful painting done by women half a world away.

xo,
The Happy Bag Elves