When is a skirt not a skirt? When it’s an important gesture and a thoughtful example of women deciding to make a difference in other women’s lives.

It starts with you, women out there, choosing to purchase your next kicky summer skirt, or comfy headband or brightly colored belt from Open Arms.  And it’s you, the women founders of Open Arms, employing resettled refugee women from war-torn countries and choosing to pay them a living wage. And it’s you, the women working at Open Arms, transforming donated recycled t-shirts into those items and in the process finding safety, comfort and community.

Men, by all means feel free to join in. Donate a load of t-shirts, volunteer at the production facility, read the stories, spread the word, or simply take the opportunity to support the process with a purchase. Arms are open!

Mother-daughter team, Lisa and Andi set out to create a paint line for children’s rooms that was not only beautiful and cohesive, but consisted of paints that eliminated the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), odorless and contributed to better indoor air quality.

Lisa (mother, co-founder and lead designer) has more than 25 years of industry experience working with color and designing beautiful spaces. After realizing how much she enjoyed working on spaces for children, Lisa started Quiet Home Paints with her daughter Andi. The concept started off with the Quiet Nursery Collection and later expanded to the Quiet Home Collection.

“We wanted to suggest to the consumer that it is possible to create a beautiful space that feels “quiet” not so much in terms of noise, but in all else,” Andi (daughter, co-founder and marketing and product manager) is the driving force behind making Quiet Home Paints a reality says. “Our paint is gentle on both people and the earth.”

Explore the various paint colors Quiet Home Paints has to offer. The Play palette is Lisa’s favorite, while Andi is drawn to Caladon, Pond, Ballgown and Truss. Discover your favorite hue at quiethomepaints.com.

We live in a world where nothing is perfect. Sometimes we celebrate imperfections, but more often than not, we simply discard things we consider to be broken. When things break, we usually ask ourselves how badly is it broken and can it be fixed? Well, what would happen if we didn’t fix it?

We Predict…

your chair with the missing leg or antique dinner plate that is in 50 pieces won’t be thrown away easily. Artists such as Makiko Nakamura and Schlomit Bauman are celebrating imperfections. If you really want your things fixed, check out Lonely Parts, a website that connects people in the UK with ways to repair their broken items.—Minh Dang 

Lonely Parts

Ran Out Collection by Schlomite Bauman

Tableware by Makiko Nakamura