What have we been up to here at Mustard Seed?
Let’s have a re-cap, shall we?…
Cotton, Cotton, and More Cotton!
On September 21st and 22nd, I was asked to attend and speak at Mizzou’s Sustainable Cotton Summit about cotton and sustainability from the fair trade persepctive. I learned a great deal about cotton production and was also able to learn more about fair trade cotton.
The speakers pose together here!
Fashion Shows Galore! 
Stephens College purchased fair trade fabric from Mustard Seed to design ensembles in one of their Topics classes. The designs were in the Inside Columbia fashion show, Velocity on September 21st. The following Sunday, on September 25th the same designs and 10 additional ensembles from Mustard Seed were in the Freedom by Fashion fundraiser for the local Central Missouri Stop Human Trafficking Coalition!
The great photo to the right was taken by Jessica White of JW Photography. Jessica has volunteered her time for Mustard Seed and Coalition events in the past and it was great to have her work with us again! (This is a Stephens student design made with fair trade fabric from Guatemala)
Ceramics, Music, and Dancing, Oh My!
The following weekend we celebrated Artrageous Weekend in downtown Columbia! This extended version of Artrageous! Fridays takes place once a year in October. This was our most art-filled Artrageous weekend yet!
We hosted “Anamnesis” a collection by Renee Reed-Miller. Her collection explores external elements using organic cues from the natural world. Renee is a dear friend of mine and also the director of Vessels International. Vessels is a non profit organization we are collaborating with in the area of micro-finance and fair trade. We hope to carry products from Vessels partnerships in the store soon! 
We also had a great Flamenco performance by Liliana Morales. Liliana is a guest professor from the Stephens College Dance Deaprtment. Many moons ago (okay, not that many, but a good few!) she was my Flamenco professor! She is an amazing performer. It was a real treat to have her perform for us! And it attracted quite the crowd in our little store. 
On Saturday, Margaret Waddel joined us for a children’s music lesson. Margaret is a fabulous Early Childhood Music Specialy with Hummingbirdhouse Music Studio. She works with several fair trade instruments (many of them from our store)!
A Milestone for Mustard Seed
Last Friday, our fair trade fun culminated with our first ever fundraiser on October 15th! The ARTisan Show and Sell… the event went off perfectly. It was great to see people come out to support our mission and to learn more about Trama Textiles and Better Way Imports. We had great music from Brady Didion and delicious refreshments from Main Squeeze, Lakota, and Broadway Brewery! We can’t wait to share more pics with you and with Trama and Better Way!
What’s ahead? The busy holiday season!
We’ll be speaking to college classes and high school groups, hosting fair trade open houses, attending off-site events, and gift-wrapping presents! We kick off the holiday season in a few weeks with the Holiday Shop Hop and our first Holiday Open House! Save the date…November 5-6th.
In the meantime, we’ll enjoy the nice weather before it gets chilly!
Thanks for reading!
Jessica