Blog Matters — matter news

Louisiana has been experiencing devastating flooding from an inland tropical depression, dropping 600% more than normal levels of rain since August 12. This is a .1 percent chance in happening, also known as a 1000 year rain. Southern Louisiana has received over 6.9 trillion gallons of rain and the rain still hasn't stopped. Some locations are still flooded and some are expected to re-flood.

We are part of a group of 12 New Orleans businesses that are using their shop & restaurant spaces as drop off spots for donations. Yesterday, we brought 3 carloads of flood relief supplies to a small donation & flood rescue center in New Iberia. 4 additional car/van loads were brought to Baton Rouge. We estimate that these donations helped 400 families. (see more below)

This does not end our collection and delivery. The following businesses are continuing to collect and deliver donations to remote locations in Acadiana. This will be to small towns, folks in rice and sugarcane fields, and crawfish workers as well. These people are in need and aren't receiving donations from the larger donation centers. It will take a long time for our neighbors to be back on their feet, thank you for your help.

Church Alley Coffee, The GOOD Shop, 1618 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd., Central City
Dryades Market, 8am-8pm, 1307 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd., Central City
Cane & Table, 5pm-12am, 1113 Decatur St., French Quarter
Solo Espresso, 8am-3pm, 1301 Poland Ave., Bywater (on vacation through Sept. 4)

We are currently collecting:

Cleanup Supplies & Detergent
Mops, Fans, Utility Knives, & Buckets
Feminine Hygiene Products
Diapers, Formula, & Baby Wipes
New Toothbrushes & Toothpaste
Towels, Pillows, & Sheets
Non Perishable Food
Water
Pet food, leashes

No Clothes - Except for men's tall, women's plus, and children's clothing

If you would like to make a direction cash donation, we are recommending the following groups:

For People: Blessings New Iberia, please donate to their Go Fund Me page. This money will be used to help low income families in New Iberia with home supplies and restoration of their homes. Also, United Way Acadiana & Southeast Louisiana.

For Pets: Angel Paws Animal Rescue - A no-kill shelter taking in all kinds of animals: Dogs, Cats, Goats, Horses, etc.

Additional resources & how to help:

New Orleans Moms Blog has a full list of donation groups & drop off spots.

Food donations:
Second Harvest Food Bank in partnership with Rouses, text LAFLOODS to 90999 to donate $10

Cafe Reconcile, help prepare meals and they are also requesting: Chicken, Beef, Fish, Mac & Cheese, Mashed Potatoes, Rice, Gumbo, Green Beans, Mixed Veggies, Corn, Red Beans, Black Eyed Peas, Bread and Cookie

Sylvain / Cavan / Barrelproof / Courtyard Brewery are accepting prepackaged bulk nonperishable food items, as well as hand sanitizing wipes, napkins, disposable utensils, and drinking water.

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Hugs & smiles from the wonderful folks at this church/flood rescue/donation center in New Iberia brought me some tears, as well as the generosity & quick reply from the New Orleans community to help our neighbors in need. One woman at the shelter has to boat from her home to town, her now watery front yard currently filled with swimming alligators & snakes. It's going to take a while ya'll, we'll need to bring them more soon. But, they are thrilled with everything that we brought them & asked them to keep us posted as to what they are needing. We will update this blog post with needs for the area. This is one church in one town, we know there are others that are still needing donations and that haven't received help yet. Thank you for making this happen!

We drove through some pretty bad storms, blaringly loud flash flood warnings, and when we saw helicopters above at one point, I had a moment of wondering if we would get stuck. But, we made it A-OK, all was fine, and we are happy to do it again and thrilled to have been able to bring so much.

I also learned a new term, one woman volunteering at the shelter said she had lived in New Orleans and had relocated to New Iberia after Katrina. She said, thanks for having our six, then explained that also meant got your back. But, the phrase was originally - got your six, we googled it later - It originated in WWI with fighter pilots, the back of your plane is known as the 6-o-clock position, thus people would say I got your 6.

Through our partnerships with local businesses, by Sunday we will have gotten 19 car loads of donations deep into impacted areas. It's hard to quantify how many people we have impacted or will be impacted by this effort. At the Church we went to yesterday, they said that in 3 hours they were able to service 80 families. So 3 car loads in 3 hours and 80 families. They were nowhere near done with the items we brought. I think it's safe to say these 3 cars will have helped at least 200 families. Drivers into Baton Rouge also had 3 carloads, that's another 200 families. 400 hundred families with about half of the items we collected in 4 days is a safe estimate.

Big thanks to all that are bringing donations and to the following businesses that participated in our initial partnership. Big love to you all & biggest thanks to Renée Blanchard for starting this collaboration with one post on facebook!!

Balance Yoga
Buff Beauty Bar
Cane & Table
Church Alley Coffee
Dashing Bicycles
Dancing Grounds
Dirty Coast
Dryades Public Market
Goods that Matter
Lionheart Prints
Rouler Cycling & Café
Solo Espresso
The GOOD Shop

We just got back from an awesome trip to Colorado, for our first time at the Firefly Market in Boulder. Firefly wrote the nicest feature about us on their blog too btw, thank you Firefly! My mom traveled from Virginia and helped me at the market, we also spent some time before and after the market on a mother/daughter vacay! 

We had the best time meeting folks and spending time in Denver, Boulder, Rocky Mountain National Park, and Fort Collins. I also visited with a dear friend of mine Lori Lou who I hadn't seen in 15 years and met her two teenage sons! We also happened upon Robbie and Tricia Vitrano who are working in Boulder for several months - what a treat!

My mom & I are both beer fans and we found lots of delicious beer made in Colorado, we visited a few breweries in Denver: we loved Renegade, Breckenridge, and Prost.

When we went to Fort Collins, we also popped into rain in FC's pretty downtown. It was wonderful to see Kristin again, she has carried our BirdSoaps since 2011! We also met several people at the Firefly Market who had purchased our Birdies from rain over the years which was so cool. Her shop is beautiful, don't miss it if in Fort Collins.

And, I can't forget to mention two wonderful Museums in Denver! Both are absolutely beautiful, the Denver Art Museum, whose new building is designed by Daniel Liebeskind and the Clyfford Still Museum, whose architect is Brad Cloepfil.

Go to both, they are right next door to one another, you will be inspired. My mom & I especially loved the Women in Abstract Expressionist exhibit at the Denver museum and we loved everything about the Clyfford Still Museum, a wonderfully peaceful spot.

I couldn't be more delighted to be 1 of 3 featured makers across the country in West Elm LOCAL's new city guides! Check out our Bike Tour of New Orleans, featuring some of our favorite: friends and makers, inspiration, and spots in the city!

My BFF Tonto also gets a cameo pretty early on, which makes my heart happy : )

Check out some of the featured spots & let me know what you think!

I also give my biggest thanks to the team at West Elm, they are always such a pleasure to work with. I was a little nervous about being featured in a video since I can make some pretty wacky faces & am not the most fond of being photographed. Their video team made me feel totally comfortable and it was really fun - Thank You!

See their blogpost here, it was a magical weekend spent touring the city together.

They also just recently introduced our BirdProject Soaps in their Summer Catalog & on their online store in addition to being included in their LOCAL collection on Magazine Street. Exciting!

This also led to this Fast Company Design article (one of my favorite publications) on West Elm's unexpected role as an Incubator for small design businesses. I'm so thrilled to be a part of. Check out the whole article discussing why we decided to work with West Elm although we had decided against working with large companies in the past.

Our amazing building-mate Renée Blanchard of Church Alley Coffee was included on this awesome list of things to do in Central City in the New York Times article 'Where to go in New Orleans'! You can see our lovely handpainted sign pretty clear in the background, yippee!

Check out the full list here & come to see us Wed. - Sat., 10-4. Also check out our newest shop partner, Bonfolk Collective! They're an awesome sock company, for every pair of socks purchased, they donate a pair to local shelters. Socks are one of the most needed and least donated items for shelters btw. Come on by & see us, we're right upstairs from Church Alley, who also have our favorite bagels in town btw.

Name & direction change.

We know that we just recently did a name change (Goods that Matter) and it is pretty soon after, but we've decided to change our name & direction, we hope that you are as excited about this as we are! Tonto Matters. We're thrilled to announce that our new name is Tonto Matters. Our new mission is to give pizza to hungry pugs around the world. We hope that you are as excited as we are, especially Tonto.

Special April 1 - April 5, 30% discount!

To celebrate our new mission, please use code 'tontomatters' for an extra special 30% off to help us clear out our current inventory for new eco-friendly pug + pizza themed goods. Ps - today is the last day to ship out Rabbits in time for easter (this paragraph is 100% true). In pugs we trust, Tippy

Bonjour!

It's a cold & grey day here, but the scent of SMOKE perfume & BirdProject Soap is making it a little brighter here in the studio! I'm delighted to share with you a special collaboration with fellow New Orleans creative entrepreneur (& good friend Kathleen) at SMOKE Perfume! A Smoke Perfume Gift Set + Lovebird edition of BirdProject Soap for $55 (full retail value of $72) for a limited time. More about SMOKE:  The Smoke Gift Box includes an array of carefully hand-selected items for a complete Smoke Perfume Immersion.  Allow the aromatherapeutic, vetiver based scent of your candle to envelop you, dab the all-natural Smoke Perfume Oil on pulse points for the sensual lift of citrus and jasmine, and light your palo santo stick in the Smoke candle to clear your space and complete your ritual. Contains: 2 oz soy candle with a 10 hour burn time 5ml Smoke perfume roll-on foil-printed matches laser etched stick of palo santo All lovingly hand-selected, hand-poured, and hand-filled in a nest of sustainable wood wool from American aspen trees.

'Lovely Red' Warm Hugs, now available.

Made to Order! Order by this Friday, Feb. 6 in order to get a new, 'Lovely Red' Warm hug for your sweetie. These are available in both Adult Throw & Child/Baby sizes, oohlala! So soft, so cozy, and they give back to disaster relief (Images below).

We still have a few misfits left!

If you didn't catch them last week, we still have some BirdSoaps, Totes, Notebooks, & Tees left - see them all here. Also, we have a new instagram account, please stay in touch, and give follow us at goodsthatmatter! Tag us too in your pics or posts using #goodsthatmatter , merci beaucoup!

Buongiorno!

Happy New Year! I hope that you had a wonderful, restful holiday and are feeling good about the great, new year ahead! This Saturday, 12-5pm, if you're in NOLA come to our Misfit Sample Sale along with our friends Tchoup Industries & DVRA at their lovely French Quarter Studio! - Come & SAVE some $ on these handmade goods that went just a little wonky! All the details here at the Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/857044147680308

We'll have these Misfit Birdies available!

Looking into the New Year ahead, I'd love to hear from you! Please let me know what Matter has done well, what we haven't done well, or the things in between - I'd love to learn from our mistakes to do better in the future. Last but not least, to celebrate 2015, please use the discount code 'HAPPY' for 20% off any Matter item on our webshop! Cheers to a wonderful new year & happy 12th night! 

Bonjour from New Orleans!

The Softest, Coziest Eco Throw Blanket.

*New & now available, our 100% Egyptian Cotton Throw Blanket! The adult sized Warm Hug is here! This is the softest, most snuggly blanket that I know of, it's a double knit, made to order with love in North Carolina. It's lightweight yet warm, machine washable (wash cold, dry medium), & is available in four colors: cozy green, warm brown, fuchsia, and indigo (shown in the pic above)! 10% of profits are donated to Architecture for Humanity, who thoughtfully rebuild communities around the world in need of disaster relief. Currently, our donations are made to Hurricane Sandy rebuilding projects. A customized version is also available, include your desired initials or name in the notes section during checkout. *Orders placed by this Friday, Dec. 12 will arrive in time for the holidays!

A lovely story.

Last Tuesday we part of the Art of Giving Holiday event for Southern Artists at the Ogden. One of the women who came by was interested in our Birds & then asked about the linens. As I began describing how the linens folded into a Rabbit, a funny look which I couldn't quite interpret spread across her face. After a few moments she said, "On my first date with my husband it wasn't going so well. I wasn't going to go out with him again, but towards the end of the date he took his napkin and folded into a rabbit, he made me laugh so much with his rabbit antics that I fell in love and we called each other Bunny for ages. We've now been together for 28 years." She took our Rabbit set home & I can't wait to hear from her to see what her Bunny thought, it gave me goosebumps!

Market dates in New Orleans!

Today, Sunday, Dec. - 7, 11.30 - 4.30 | Popping up at West Elm w/ Flying Fox! Saturday, Dec. 13, 12 - 4pm | the Freret Market with Birthmark Sunday, Dec. 14, 12 - 4pm | New Orleans Holiday Bazaar at Creole Gardens Saturday, Dec. 20, 12 - 4pm | OCH Art Market Sunday, Dec. 21, 11.30-4pm | Pop-up shop at West Elm w/ Tchoup Industries!

Free Shipping Code good until Dec. 15 & Holiday Shipping Dates!

Use code 'GivingGifts' - good only until Dec. 15 for free shipping on orders over $25! The last day to ship in time to arrive for the holidays is Dec. 20. We will be closed for the holidays from Dec.22 - Jan. 5 to visit family in Virginnie, with shipping to resume on Jan. 6! Sending you all my best & big warm hugs from New Orleans! Tippy, Chief Eternal Optimist, Matter

I hope that you and yours had great times & delicious dinners over the holiday! In New Orleans, many of us head to the Horse Track for opening day, which I happily was able to make this year. It is always a treat to put on a big hat and get dressed up - My friends and I bet on the underdogs but had no winnings, ah well, maybe next year!

Cyber Monday & Fair Tuesday specials through this Thursday!

Your Choice! Either 20% off with code 'Merci!' -or- Free Shipping on orders over $25 with code 'GivingGifts' at checkout through Thursday at midnight.

Art of Giving at the Ogden, Dec. 2 & New Orleans Holiday Bazaar, Dec. 14.

If in New Orleans, come and see us at the Ogden for their annual Art of Giving event! Tuesday (Dec.2) 6-8pm at the Ogden, members receive 10% off of all purchases & a free drink. It's free admission for all, come and support Southern Art! Also, don't miss the New Orleans Holiday Bazaar, Dec. 14, 1-6 pm at the lovely Creole Gardens on Prytania.

Featured in National Geographic Traveler & Everygirl's Gift Guides.

If you didn't happen to see it, I'm delighted for our Lovebirds to have been featured in National Geographic Traveler's World Market Holiday Gift Guide! BirdProject is proud to represent New Orleans in this gift guide, by putting a bird IN it! Also, we're honored to be included in Everygirl's Comprehensive Holiday Gift Guide! Find us in the Gift's for Mom section.

Have a wonderful week & all my best, Tippy, Chief Eternal Optimist, Matter