Amazon Dream

Blue Sky is pleased to partner with ACEER on our Amazon Dream line of handmade jewelry. We are now offering this line of products produced by Shipibo artisans in the central Peruvian rainforest, where ACEER has been working since 2008. 

One of our favorite pieces in the collection, this bracelet is comprised of hand painted shicapa seeds that are sustainably gathered in the Amazon. The painting represents worms nurturing the soil of the Earth.

With each item purchased through Blue Sky, you are making a real difference in the lives of the Shipibo-Conibo peoples of Amazonia.  Each piece is unique, hand-made, and reflecting the sacred wisdom and symbols of these native peoples.  Every item represents a part of the rich traditions of the Shipibo that go back thousands of years, demonstrating in a powerful way that the culture and natural resources of the Amazon can be protected. Not only that, but the jewelry is super groovy!  Proceeds from your purchases will allow ACEER to supply badly needed educational materials for Amazonian children, essential teacher training in conservation education, and funds for sustainable community development projects.  Thank you for making a difference!

This gorgeous necklace is a staple in our wardrobe! Made out of acai seeds that are sustainably gathered and hand dyed by the Shipibo, the colors match almost everything and at 52" it is plenty long to wrap around your neck more than once.

We love to wrap the necklace around our wrist to get get that chunky bracelet look.

Save Some Energy!

We all heard growing up 'Turn off your lights when you leave the room," but aside from saving money on the electricity bill, there are other important reasons to be responsible with our energy consumption. Electricity comes from the burning of non-renewable fossil fuels. Not only does the burning of them emit harmful pollutants into our ozone and promote global warming, there is also no way to make more of these precious fossil fuels we rely on so heavily. It's so easy to forget how important it is to be conscious of our energy consumption, so we made a short list of easy ways to cut down on the amount of energy we are using on a daily basis.

Blue Sky homes are the most beautiful homes, especially when energy isn't being wasted! Click here to get the tapestry.

 1. Just like Mom said, turn off the lights when you leave a room! We get so blue when we walk into our happy home and no one is home, but the lights have been left on.
2. Unplug computer, camera, and phone chargers when they are not in use. Even when they aren't plugged into your device, they are still putting out the same amount of energy as if they were charging. What a shame!
3. Use low wattage and energy efficient light bulbs. There isn't a huge price increase, they last longer, and they use less energy. It's a win-win situation!

Click here to see all our groovy backpacks, including this one!

4. Make sure that your car is in good shape and not emitting excess pollutants into the environment. Emissions testing is mandatory in big cities but not in rural areas. If you live in a rural area, we encourage you to be proactive and ask your mechanic to make sure that your car is producing a healthy amount of emissions.
5. Use cold water to do your laundry. Not only will that help keep your colors brighter, it avoids the heating of water, in turn saving energy.

What? Did you think we had things other than tie-dye in our laundry? :)

By turning these 5 simple steps into habits, you are doing your part as a responsible energy user. Tell your friends too, they might not know how making a few changes can make a difference.

10 Easy Ways to Give Back to Your Community

Here at Blue Sky we are all about saving the planet. When we started out so long ago, we felt it was our responsibility to be conscious of the way our operation is run in every step of the process. We have always provided a peaceful work environment and fair wages for our employees; we are so proud to be a Fair Trade company! Our clothing is made by happy hands and filled with good energy, how groovy is that?
We also donate to organizations that we feel are really making a difference. There is nothing that gives us more of a sense of fulfillment than donating our time or money to help out those less fortunate. We know it's hard to find that extra time or money sometimes, so we have created a list of 10 easy ways to give back on a local level. Remember that it only takes 1 person to make a difference, and that person can be you!

1. Donate your groovy old clothes to Goodwill instead of throwing them out. Not only are you providing someone with affordable clothes that allow them to express themselves, but Goodwill uses the profits from their stores to help out your community directly.
2. Pick up trash off the ground and dispose of it properly. If you don't pick it up, a bird might!
3. Support your local farmers and buy your organic produce from the farmer's market. Not only will the food be more sustainable, fresh and delicious than imported produce, but you get to talk to the people growing the food that is providing your body with nourishment. What a beautiful thing!

4. After you go out to dinner downtown, give your leftovers to the homeless. Provide someone in your community with a healthy meal who may not have the money to buy it themselves.
5. Adopt a pet from the Humane Society in lieu of going to a breeder. There are so many homeless pets who need a loving owner like you to take care of them. Don't support the inbreeding of man's best friend!
6.  Pick up cigarette butts off the ground and dispose of them properly. We see cigarette butts everywhere, and we get so upset thinking about a precious little critter swallowing a filter that can swell up in their stomach and cause major issues. If you're worried about the cleanliness of picking them up, then carry around some hand sanitizer to keep you germ free.
7. Shop at locally owned businesses. When you shop at a mom and pop boutique you are providing a little girl with ballet lessons, when you shop at a huge corporation you are providing a CEO with a third vacation home. By being conscious of who you are giving your money to, you can make a huge difference!
8. Plant some flowers! You'll release oxygen into the environment and have the pleasure of watching a product of your creation blossom; gardening is proven to cure depression! Eckhart Tolle claims that birds, crystals and flowers are the 3 most fantastic things found on Earth.

9. Walk to local shops instead of driving. You'll get exercise, and be emitting less pollutants into the air; it's a win-win situation!
10. Teach a valuable skill of yours to those who don't have access to it. We like to volunteer at the YMCA's 'Loop It Up' program that teaches less fortunate children how to make art. Watching how proud the kids are of the art they produced is magical!

We encourage you to give back to your human family and spread your love and kind soul unto those who need it.

How to make an item of clothing instantly more groovy!

Ever have a piece of clothing you got hand me down that fit well, but just wasn't funky enough to match the rest of your wardrobe? We had this pair of pair of shorts with an elastic waistband, how awesome! But quickly after we got them, we had a hole on the butt, and frankly we like things to be a little more groovy. We went to a thrift store to look for some cool fabric to maybe add a bit of detail onto the shorts. We were ecstatic when we found a groovy trim to sew onto the bottom edges of the shorts.

We began to pin the trim around the leg opening of the shorts for a much more fun, summer look.

We sewed along the bottom edge of the trim with an overcasting stitch and a bright green thread.

After we finished doing that, we sewed along the top edge of the trim to really secure it onto the shorts well. Then we repeated that process on the other side. We grabbed a groovy patch we had been holding onto for years, waiting for the right item of clothing to put it on.

And we went from drab to fab in an hour! We paired our new shorts with our Seersucker Patch Tank and we couldn't be happier!

From Egg Carton to Jewelry organizer in a few simple steps!

We love recycling everyday items into new, more exciting everyday items! This easy and fun tutorial shows you how to turn an old egg carton into a groovy jewelry holder. All you need is an egg carton of any size, paint of whatever color you like best, a paintbrush and some super funky jewels. Don't have any awesome jewelry? Check out our Seeds of Change line, a portion of proceeds goes to benefit the Amazon Rain Forest...how awesome is that?!

Start with a regular old egg carton.

Remove the top of the carton and the flap used to secure the top closed, leaving just the bottom tray where the eggs sit.

We picked a metallic gold paint and a fairly small brush to paint with, but the color is all up to you.

Cover the carton in a layer of paint, making sure to get into all the crevasses of the egg carton.

Let your carton dry and after that you can load it up with all your favorite jewelry, utilizing the support system built for the transporting of delicate eggs.

Love the tablecloth we used? It's our Special Wall Hanging! <3

Make your own Prayer Flags out of recycled clothes!

We love to donate our old clothes to charity because it makes us feel so good! But every once in a while there's a textile that we love so much we can't say goodbye. While spring cleaning we found this old Blue Sky skirt that's just too big for us, but we weren't quite ready to get rid of it yet.

So we're looking at it and trying to think about how to utilize the five colors, and it hits us...prayer flags! We've been wanting to make prayer flags with our own hands so they're just that much more special and this skirt seemed like the perfect item to up-cycle. This tutorial doesn't involve a sewing machine, all you need is an old garment, a seam ripper, a ruler, scissors, hot glue and hot glue gun, and some string. Find a woven cotton garment that you want to use, any colors and patterns you're drawn to will work. The only thing we recommend is no stretchy fabrics, so tee-shirts are out. Please note that it is possible to work with knits, but it's going to require a LOT more work, so we'd stick with a woven. The most time consuming part of this project is deconstructing your garment, we watched movies while we removed our seams over a couple days so it wasn't as overwhelming as doing it in one sitting. 

After you've got your garment deconstructed your next step is to iron the heck out of your fabric. You want it to be as flat as possible. Once it's ironed, you can cut out 5" by 5" squares of your fabrics. We did 8 of each color and are going to put them in color order to more closely resemble traditional prayer flags, but there is room for creativity. We love the idea of each square being a different print with no rhyme or reason too. Go with the flow, work with what you already have and something beautiful is sure to follow.

We have a hard time working in a space that isn't organized, so we like to set everything out and make it a little easier on ourselves. Grab 5 flags and lay them out in a straight line. Use a ruler to make sure everything is in order. We like the look of about a 1/2 an inch between flags. Next pick a yarn or string to use to connect your flags. We used an 8/2 cotton thread. Give yourself about a yard of slack before you start. This gives you a bit of leeway when you're hanging up your pretty new flags.

With your yard of slack hanging out to the left of your first flag, squirt a dot of hot glue onto the left corner and press the thread to the left and to the right of the glue so that the thread is smushed in there securely without you ever having to touch the hot glue. Continue to do this in the middle of the square as well as the right side of the square, so that each flag is connected to the string in 3 places. Make sure that from each dot of glue to the next that your string is taut. This will help your flags to lay beautifully once they're hung.

Continue all the way down the line. Once you glue the last flag of that row, move them to left and start another row and continue the process until all of your squares are gone.

Hang with thumbtacks wherever you please and enjoy your good fortune. To get this look, pair with a Blue Sky tapestry. And yes, that IS a print of Fishman playing a vacuum cleaner on the right. :)

Easy 'How To' on making a bandana into a tank top

It started with a Grateful Dead bandana and a will to wear it...
For this very simple tutorial for a beginner you'll need a bandana, 3 strips of fabric that are 2 inches wide, one 44" long and the other 2 are 28" long, scissors, a sewing machine, thread, a few pins, and an iron.

First you want to finish the edges of your bandana. Fold the edges over and iron.

Secure corners with pins until you sew.

We like to use a zigzag stich and really bright thread.

Look how clean it looks already!! :)

Take your 44" long strip of fabric and sew the long end together.

Attach a safety pin through one side of the tube.

Insert the safety pin into the tube to turn it inside out.

Once the tube is turned inside out with the seam on the inside, iron it.

Attach the safety pin back to the strip and thread through the top of the shirt.

That's going to be your neck tie. Repeat the process of sewing and turning inside out the fabric on the 2 strips that are left.

Attach each of the straps about 8" down from the top of the bandana.

Enjoy your fun new homemade bandana shirt!

Recycled Toilet Paper Art

Here's a fun DIY art project made from recycling toilet paper and paper towel rolls. We don't like being wasteful, and this fun project helps up to make something beautiful out of items we would normally just toss. Start by simply putting a box with a note asking bathroom users to please place their toilet paper rolls in the box for a recycled art project. We collected rolls for 4 months for our sculpture, so our finished project is pretty big, but there is no requirement for how many you need to start. If you're not pleased with the amount you collected initially, you can always add on more as more rolls are collected. 

What You'll Need:

Toilet paper rolls

Hot glue gun

Hot glue sticks

Scissors 

Spray paint in a color of your choice, we used metallic silver

First thing to do is take your collected rolls and cut them into about 1" strips.

 While you're cutting is a great time to remove any excess toilet paper that is stuck on the rolls.

 Next, you will put a line of hot glue along the folded edge of the toilet paper roll.

Quickly while the glue is still hot, you will attach another piece of roll.

 Continue gluing and adding rolls until you have 6 rolls together that make a star shape, which is your first row to build upon.

Continue the same process, building off the first row. Be careful not to squish any pieces in there too hard, you want each roll to sit gently between rolls, not shoved in forcefully.

Keep building until it gets bigger and bigger.

Once it gets to a size you are pleased with, you can begin to spray paint it. Getting inside the rolls can be difficult, but we think that  a little brown showing through looks just fine.

After your piece drys, hang on a wall and enjoy your recycled toilet paper wall art. :)