Symbolic Themes - from Malayna Dawn

Feeling Award-Winning!

 

I recently found out that a book I contributed to has won an award, and this is on the heels of the THREE awards that Garments Without Guilt has won!

The Daily OM book won Best in Print in the Conscious Living/Self Help Book category from the Coalition of Visionary Resources. 

The first inspiring article in the book was written by me, as were several others, though the story ideas were all by the lovely Madisyn Taylor, DailyOM's editor and co-owner. 

The blogs I write for the Garments Without Guilt campaign have been a contributing factor in our winning three awards: in 2008 we won The WPPED CREAM Gold in New York and the Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards in Macau.  Then in  2009 we won an award in the Oscars of Advertising -- The Global Effies -- making us the first in Asia to win the global award.

So I'm feeling pretty groovy about the work I'm doing, because not only do I get to help people improve themselves and the world, I know we're all getting recognition for our work, which makes it even more rewarding.

 

Symbols of Spirituality: Clothes

Life is like changing clothes. You have the power to change your life by changing your thoughts.

It doesn’t mean the outside world or other people change, it is our approach and our point of view that changes, and that makes all the difference.

Actually, there's a lot more to clothes. "Clothes make the man," they say and popular shows like "What Not to Wear" show the power between how we feel about ourselves, and how we show ourselves to the world. 

Check out www.GarmentsWithoutGuilt.com/blogSelect.cfm for even more info about fell-good, guilt-free clothing that is organic, ethically made, and sustainable!

Colombo Fashion Week, Triumphant!

After the Tamil Tigers tried to crash our party with their very rude air raid, it wasn’t just the Sri Lankans who were resilient—Bangladeshis, Indians and Pakistanis all bonded with Sri Lankans and representatives from a variety of nations in the hope for PEACE.

Just like the irritation of an oyster becomes a pearl, the interruption of Colombo Fashion Week ’09 only made everyone feel more strongly and celebrate more emphatically.

Bibi Russell, whose show was meant to be the finale on the previous night, started the show with her collection called “Design for Life”. What a celebration!  With bright colors and dancing models all exuding life and the pure joy of being—including a few in red with hand woven red AIDS awareness ribbons. 

Of course, all of her designs are handwoven and handmade, using natural materials sourced in her home country of Bangladesh, where her goal of Fashion for Development continues to inspire me, years after I learned about her while working for Young Asia Television.  And this year, I got to work closely with her and see how much she truly embodies her ideals. When she had a chance to speak after her show, she spoke only of positive concepts and working together for the good of all.

The next collection to continue the previous night’s interrupted show was “Spiritual” by Shobhaa De.  Beautiful music shifted the mood to a magically meditative one, with a voice over which I suspect was Shobhaa De herself, reading from one of her novels. Lotus flowers, candles, all complementing the simple and elegant clothing also made from natural materials. She took the stage afterwards and also spoke of resilience and strength, peace and hope.

The rest of the night continued the celebration at such a pitch, a second intermission had to be added. The music was rockin’ and kept the tempo moving, (well done Aviva Bidapa!), the designs impressed and the crowd, at full capacity from two nights worth of audiences coming together, reveled in it all.    

If terror was what the air raid was meant to evoke, they failed miserably. They seem to have ended up inspiring and bringing people together instead. Which is why Colombo Fashion Week 2009 ended TRIUMPHANTLY!

GOOD flying creatures -- like me & my pilot hubby :)

Because of my recent flights to and across the U.S., I decided to look into carbon offsets.  I wrote an article about them for one of the Garments Without Guilt blogs. Here's the link to the story and here are some highlights:

For those who need more help in reducing their footprint, companies like Carbonfund.org can help. They help to calculate your current carbon footprint and then help you offset it by investing in renewable energy, energy efficiency, reforestation or a combination of the three. They even offer ways to offset the carbon created by shipping. In a global economy where our products are made in one country and shipped to another, it’s an important consideration.

Terrapass.com

and Be Green Now.com are other similar sites that offer a variety of offsets for individuals and businesses.  Be Green Now offers packages for frequent fliers that you can put on your luggage to let others know you’re flying carbon neutral.

Guess what my airline pilot hubby is getting for his birthday? "Look honey! You're carbon neutral!" (I'll get him something fun too, don't worry.)

Speaking of my flyboy, according to a Flight Global magazine blog , airline pilots rank as the sexiest job. Score one for me! I landed me one of them! Of course, I guess I should consider that the source may be biased.

So though I'll certainly get myself one of those frequent flier carbon offsets so I can  fly guilt free (Wheeee!), another Flight Global article said it might be greener to fly sub-orbital. I'll wait for that one, but I'm really waiting for someone to invent that Star Trek technology so I can just say "beam me up!" or over, or some other prepositional phrase. Will they need pilots for that? Maybe I should stick with sub-orbital so my hubby can continue to have a job and he'll get to fly in space! And I will be kept in the manner to which I have become accustomed. ;)