the sisters: January 2011

so the last few weeks of the year were a complete blur of long hours, exciting new stock coming in, and planning for the last of 2010!

a few very exciting things took place...let me share.

two of our dearest friends, stephanie and javed, got married! in the beautiful little land (and i truly mean 'land', hidden off the freeway, a place that looks like town folk just picked up and left..it was so pretty and untouched and the most perfect place for a declaration of love), called catherine hill bay. so we went up, spent 2 days setting up and making the place perfect, and then dashed to the wedding, only to drink, eat and have the most incredible time celebrating love!

{so i couldn't resist, i feel everyone needs to see how magical it was. enjoy}

the other thing that blew my mind at the ending of 2010, was the most memorable and life-altering trip, to uganda.

let me tell you how this came to be.

the beginning of the year, one of my dear friends, caitlin, was involved in a foundation setup by an incredibly talented athlete (and another dear, dear friend) eloise! and i was asked to be on board with a foundation.

the foundation started when eloise had an ongoing injury, she travelled to portland where she met fellow athlete, julius achon! what formed that day was an incredible friendship and and the beginnings of the love mercy foundation!

on one of his routine runs, julius found 11 orphans hiding in a bus shelter, these children, who had been effected by africa’s longest running war, were without food, clothing, housing or education, with some of the children unable to remember even their own names. from that day on, julius took the children on as his own family.

when eloise knew his incredible story, she knew that people back home would help!

and its love mercy's vision, to not only support the orphans (which of now over 30 are sponsored) but also work along side the women in uganda, with a seeds programme.

for every one off donation of $25, it provides a 10k lot of seeds to a woman in uganda, once the seeds have been planted, grow and are harvested, will yield approx 100kgs of seed, then the original gift of 10kgs is passed on to the next woman in need.

so as you can tell (re giving the whole history-and let me tell you i can talk all day about it!) i am so excited about what love mercy is doing!

soooo, i went over in november (dear es, help the fort up!) and visited all the beautiful orphans, we went to numerous villages where we hope to run the seeds project this year and explained it all to them and we went to the village where the first lot of seeds were distributed! and all i can say is that the trip was life changing, driving into the village, with these women, in their best dress to see us, singing on the top of their voice to welcome us, its a moment that will stay in my mind forever!

so goodbye 2010...thankyou for the wealth of knowledge you gave, for the joyous memories made in a little shop in engadine and mostly for ending the year with perspective that for so little, whether it be a donation for a woman in uganda, a smile to a walker-by, or the time of day and a helping hand for the people around us in the community...they are a all small step in making the world a better place!

my dear friends, who i was in uganda with, all of us are part of the love mercy team...(eloise and cait..please note the sweet love mercy t's)

caroline...mother of one, cook, and the most inspiring woman. just opened up her own little shop, selling clothes and all the things she sews... (women in business!! woo)