Encouraging a little bit of whimsy, but ethically
Hi I'm Barbara from Dunedin, New Zealand. I'm in my fifth year of running a small business venture Whimsy, which started out as a pop-up shop in my brick single garage (hence the website name).
Now my focus is on offering a selection of gift ideas that are unique and lovingly made by me, or made in NZ. I do have a dry sense of humour and Whimsy offers me the chance to bring joy by providing colourful, whimsical, unique gifts which will brighten your mood. I'm no hippy but the products I make and sell have to be ethically sound in an effort to negate this "throw away society" we find ourselves in.
Repurposing helps the environment by reducing the amount of waste that is
put into landfills, while also reducing the amount of virgin materials that are
used to make new items.
I enjoy crafting Little Golden Book notebooks out of pre-loved books I source from charity shops. I've always loved children's book illustrations so what better way to preserve a little bit of nostalgia from a simpler time. For Whimsy it had to be 100% recycled paper for the pages and I chose not to buy new books but rather to re-purpose old ones. And yes I do find myself looking at the pictures. My favourite Little Golden Book illustrators are Richard Scarry, Tibor Gergely, Mary Blair and Eloise Wilkin.
In an effort to use all my expanding book collection, worn soft cover books have been made into the book page buntings with the covers used as the spine. The card sets are made from pre-loved soft cover editions as well. And if I think the hard cover edition is too good to cut up then these are for sale intact here too.