September 21, 2020
One of our favourite places to adventure to and work within is undoubtedly Kenya. Kenya is located in East Africa and has coastline along the Indian Ocean. The Kenyan capital, and largest city, is Nairobi and the country has a population of approximately 51 million. Kenya has a varied climate; it is tropical on the coastline, cooler in the savannah grasslands and features permanent snow on its tallest peaks. Agriculture is the predominant industry and employs 75% of the workforce. Typically, Kenyan cuisine features very few processed foods and instead mainly consists of inexpensive but filling foods ...
Continue Reading
September 01, 2020
Yellow is the most luminous of all the colours of the spectrum. It’s the colour that captures our attention more than any other colour, and it's definitely been having it's moment in fashion and interior design over the past year or so, and we think it's here to stay! In almost every culture yellow represents sunshine, happiness, and warmth and so styling your home with yellow can help instantly uplift a space and completely change the feeling of a room. Even though the sunshine may be slowly disappearing, it is easy to incorporate little pockets of sunshine yellow into your home to always provide that feeling of long, happy summer days. So join us as we learn all about the meaning of the colour yellow and explore ways you can incorporate this beautiful colour in your home!
Continue Reading
August 24, 2020
Europe’s largest street festival Notting Hill Carnival was due to take place across the bank holiday weekend from 29 to 31 August, however the physical event has been cancelled due to Covid-19 and will instead be going digital for the first time in the events history. The carnival is renowned world wide for being a huge a cross-cultural celebration that has defied racial tensions for decades. Notting Hill Carnival has taken place every year in the Notting Hill area of Kensignton, London since 1966. Attended by well over 1 million people each year, we wanted to take a dive into the rich history of Notting Hill Carnival and share what makes it so special to so many people all around the world.
Continue Reading
August 18, 2020
I first met Julious in 2016 when he was working for a weaving group that Bee had discovered on a prior trip to Kenya. The night before our meeting there had been a huge thunderstorm. The dogs and hyraxes were going crazy outside as the wind lashed through the tropical vegetation surrounding my guest house in Karen (a leafy suburb on the outskirts of Nairobi). I found myself wide awake at 3am and started scribbling down ideas by the light of my phone. The next morning I awoke surrounded by sharpies and sheets of paper and decided to take one of them to show the new weaver I was meeting that day.
Continue Reading
August 08, 2020
Hands up who is loving all this sunshine?! We know we certainly are, and one of our favourite ways to enjoy the beautiful summer weather is to put together a picnic! With current social distancing guidelines, a summer picnic is also a great way to meet with friends whilst staying safe. However, picnics, although lots of fun, can sometimes cause a lot of unnecessary waste as we often buy pre-packaged foods, disposable cups, plates and cutlery which are often made of single use plastics. But an ethical, sustainable picnic may be much more easily achieved than you think! With a little bit of preparation, there is no need for excessive waste or nasty disposable plastics, and you can have a beautiful, guilt-free picnic instead!
Continue Reading
July 30, 2020
To celebrate International Friendship Day I wanted to chat to Bee and Amy about their friendship and adventures together so far, so here's a chat we had this week!
Continue Reading
July 09, 2020
Did you know that there is a whole month dedicated to independent businesses just like ours? July marks independent retailer month, a campaign that runs annually throughout July to highlight the important role smaller, local, independent retailers play in the communities they serve, the local economy they contribute to, and in the retail sector as a whole. We think buying from small, local and independent businesses is truly just magical! Here at Artisans & Adventurers we pour love and care into each and every product you find on our shop shelves and we like to think that's obvious to you, our customers, when you pay us a visit or make a purchase. It's true what they say, "when you buy from a small business, an actual person does a little happy dance!" So to mark Independent Retailer Month, we wanted to tell you a little bit more about this amazing campaign and how you can get involved.
Continue Reading
July 07, 2020
July really is a month packed full of wonderful events we can't help but get behind! Not only is it the month of Plastic Free July & Independent Retailer Month (both of which you can read more about in our previous journal posts!) but it is also World Chocolate Day! How fabulous is that? Like most people, we love chocolate, but it is important to us to know that our favourite sweet treat is ethically sourced and produced. Unfortunately, many of our favourite chocolate bars that grace supermarket shelves are not ethically produced, and the people who grow the cocoa are treated very poorly. In fact, child labour and slave labour is all too common in the production of chocolate and the growing practise can also be incredibly harmful for the environment. If you want to learn more, we recommend watching the short 2010 documentary The Dark Side of Chocolate which provides a heart-wrenching insight into the business of chocolate. However, that doesn't mean all chocolate is bad, in fact there are some wonderful companies producing delicious, ethical chocolate that you can enjoy guilt free.
Continue Reading
June 17, 2020
It may already feel like summer is in full swing, however the astronomical season doesn’t officially begin until Saturday 20 June this year. Saturday marks the summer solstice, otherwise known as midsummer or the longest day of the year, meaning longer days and brighter evenings are quickly approaching - great news for BBQ lovers and beach goers! But how do people around the world celebrate the summer solstice? Why is Stonehenge so significant? And how can you celebrate the solstice this year during covid-19? Read on if you want to learn all this and more!
Continue Reading
June 16, 2020
Carrying on the pride celebrations this month, we wanted to sit down with and celebrate some members of the LGBTQ+ community who often get overlooked; parents! We all know parenting is often a tough but incredibly rewarding job so we decided to find out what parenthood is like for first time mothers Lucy and Stacey.
Continue Reading
