What is my goal?

I'm excited about the possibilities for Darn Yarn Needles and Thread. Each week brings ups and downs. But slowly, people are hearing about DYNT. It's been, and will continue to be, difficult to decide where to spend my advertising budget. (Which BTW is very very small.) I know what my target market is, but it's a tough market to reach with the current outlets available to me.

I was surprised earlier this week, when I had to explain to someone, again, what Fair-Trade meant. And when I mentioned that the other yarns are all US made/spun, she asked if "being green" was my goal. I wasn't' sure how to answer her.

I didn't know that being concerned about where something was made, made you "green". I truly believe that God gave us this planet to tend and keep, that includes taking care of the people on it. Which, to me, means doing what I can to know where things are made. And being as I live in the US and am a US citizen, I'd like to support US people first. I'd also like to know, if possible, that the international people I'm supporting are able to survive on their wages. Call me crazy, call me a hippie, you wouldn't be the first. But in the end, I hope you call me fair.

I also recently read a blog from one of my suppliers that was very open and frank. I'm sure it must have been hard for her to lay it all out there for all of us to read. But in the end, it made me think, "see that's why I want to buy local, to support people like her."

So I will continue to support local and US made stuff, I may branch out a bit to offer some other things as needed. But in the long run, I hope the local community can grasp the bigger picture, even though it's a smaller focus, and that they too will understand why I buy as many local/US made products as I can.