I’ve been making things my whole life. When I was a wee lass I drew and colored birthday cards for friends of family. It was simply a sheet of notebook paper folded into quarters and drawn on, and colored in, with crayons. Then my mom would write a sentiment inside (I think I was five or six years old) and I would proudly give the birthday person my handmade card.

I remember being pretty proud of those cards and thinking that the birthday cake I drew on the outside (it was always a big, layered cake with candles) of the card was pretty good.

The very first thing I remember making and selling was a HUGE cross stitch project. It was for a friend to give her mother for her birthday. I worked for MONTHS on that project (I had two little boys at the time) and I really didn’t want to give it away in the end. I had invested too much work in it and I loved the finished piece. It was hard to hand it over.

There is something about the things we do as women that make me feel connected to other women. Whether it was child birth, my recent bout with breast cancer or creating things with my hands, I often think of women in other places and times who have done or gone through these things too. I wonder what their life is like and how they cope with daily challenges.

That is why when I was asked to write a bit about the Heart of Haiti work with Macy’s on my blog I agreed. I thought of other women doing what many of us do. Bearing children, working hard to raise them to be the best people they can be, and coming up with the money to keep things together however we can.

As part of this project I was sent a set of 4 Erzulie Cocktail Napkins (retail value price of $50) from Macys.com/Haiti. I love handling them and thinking of the working women on the other side of the world who stitched them up. I love thinking that by buying fair traded products like this that I am giving back in some way that will help another woman. The fabric is beautiful to handle and the stitching is perfect. I hope the woman who stitched this knows how much I love the finished napkins.

A few facts about Embroidery in Haiti

• Traditional embroidery is a popular handicraft in Haiti; it’s been passed down among women from generation to generation.
• Nobody is sure when embroidery originally was popularized, but many believe the technique was brought over by early French nuns when Haiti was a French colony.
• Your napkins were made by women in the Fond des Blancs region of Haiti.
• Fond des Blanc is a remote area south of Haiti in dire need of income and employment. This need only got greater as a result of the devastating earthquake in 2010.
• To put things in perspective, there is no running water, electricity or paved roads in this area. The women who embroidered your napkins are all part of a cooperative called Haiti Projects.
• The cooperative employs nearly 100 women at Fair Trade wages.
• In the Fond des Blancs region, women specialize in Passé Plat or Flat Stitch embroidery. The napkins shown here are hand embroidered with nothing but needle, thread and the talent of the women artisans.

Haiti Projects and the sale of items at Macy’s is making a huge difference in these women’s lives like Derismé Pompé Clodia pictured at the top of this post. Derismé is a Haitian embroider who works with the Haiti Projects and the Macy’s Heart of Haiti Line. Before working, only 17% of women could afford to send their children to school. Now 100% of the women in Haiti Projects can and do send their children to school. Those are just a few of the statistics but truly how can you measure dignity that a job brings, or the joy of watching your child attend school? How do you quantify the opportunity to buy a home, determine how many children you can afford or purchase livestock to raise for added income for your family?

Disclosure: I received product in exchange for my thoughts about the Heart of Haiti campaign. All opinions are 100% honest and my own.