esme

Another new event for us this year is the annual Renewables Fair at Ripley St Thomas Academy on Ashton Road. The event is this Saturday, 3 December, from midday till 3.30 pm. The following day we will be at a Craft & Gift Fair in Scorton Village Hall from 10 am to 2 pm. And at the same time, we will be at the Lancaster Steiner School Christmas Fair, from 11 am to 4 pm (admission 50p).

We will be taking along our dazzling recycled aluminium products, including photo frames, tea light holders, ornaments and tableware to all three events, along with our GeoPuzzle jigsaws and Crafty Kids puppet kits, which have been popular this year and are very keenly priced at £10 (lower than our normal online price), making them ideal Christmas gifts. There will also be stocking fillers a-plenty.

Our stock will vary from venue to venue, according to the nature of the event and the space available. We will take our smart re-usable steel drinking biottles to Ripley, and our Fairtrade and Organic Christmas bunting and other seasonal items to both schools, including the amazing Cards to Africa, and we will take some jewellery to both Sunday events. We'll also be taking some beautiful Fair Trade Nepalese Felt bags and purses (whose manufacture supports the livelihood and recovery of former victims of trafficking) to all events.

We will also be handing out information about other aspects of our business, which includes free local delivery of a wide range of environmentally friendly and fairly traded non-food products.

You might also like to visit our unit at Galgate Mill, where we are currently displaying a wide range of products with serious ethical gift potential. From Tuesday 6 December, we'll be setting out some lovely, but affordable, jewellery and other small gifts, from toiletries to trinkets. Opening hours until Christmas: Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 9 am to 5.30 pm, Tuesdays till 9 am to 7 pm. Saturdays (after 3 December) 10 am to 4 pm. Closed Thursdays.

We are looking forward to our first ever stall at the local Green Christmas Fair on Saturday 19 November. The event is open to visitors from 10 am to 4 pm. Adults pay an admission charge of 50p.

We will be taking along a wonderful selection of brightly coloured recycled aluminium products, some brightly coloured pants, some brightly coloured handmade cards from Rwanda, some amazing brightly coloured seasonal items — such as an organic cotton children's Christmas Apron — and a selection of other (brightly coloured) gifts for adults and children, including puppet kits, jigsaws, Fair Trade purses, and more besides.

We will also be handing out information about other aspects of our business, which includes free local delivery of a wide range of environmentally friendly and fairly traded non-food products.

You might also like to visit our unit at Galgate Mill, where we are currently displaying a collection of bags and baskets, with some seriously good deals on offer! From Tuesday 22 November, we'll be mounting a display of ethical Christmas decorations and seasonal and other gifts. Open on Tuesday (until Christmas) till 7 pm, Monday, Wednesday and Friday till 5.30 pm. Closed Thursdays.

We are delighted to be taking part for the first time in Cancer Help Preston's Charity Fair this Tuesday, 15 November, 2011. The event is open to visitors from 11 am to 4 pm.

We will be taking along a collection of recycled aluminium products, funky and fairly traded door stops, our fabulous Bobble Bags from Kathmandu and a selection of gifts for children, including craft kits, jigsaws and purses, and more besides.

You might also like to visit our unit at Galgate Mill, where we will be displaying a larger collection of bags and baskets, with some seriously good deals on offer! Open on Tuesday till 7 pm, Wednesday and Friday till 5.30 pm. Closed Thursday.

We will have a stall at the Toy and Gift Fair at Wellybobs, Davyfield Farm, Roman Road, Darwen, Lancashire BB3 3PJ next Sunbday, 13 November. The event is open to visitors from 10 am to 4.30 pm.

We will be taking along our eco-friendly toys for babies, toddlers and older children, including Geo Puzzle jigsaws, puppet kits, soft toys, trinket boxes, Bioviva games and construction kits and children's bags and purses.

Please see the fantastic Wellybobs website for directions and information about the farm. The Fair will be held indoors. We can't wait!

We will have a stall at the Craft and Gift Fair in Garstang next Saturday, 22 October. The event is open to visitors from 10 am to 2 pm. Admission is free and refreshments will be available.

We will be presenting a selection of fairly traded gifts, in particular our fabulous range of enamelled recycled aluminium tableware and trinkets and a selection of fairly traded bags, accessories and toys. We'll have spooky-themed puppet kits too! Come along and find our more about Esme, including our free local deliveries of household goods, toiletries and natural skincare products. Hope to see you there!

We will be returning to Windermere again this Sunday for this year's Big Green Event, organised by the South Lakes transition network TACT, in the Ladyholme Centre and Goodly Dale School Field (our stall will be indoors). Last year's event was hugely enjoyable and very well attended despite the rain. We will be selling our spectacular recycled aluminium tableware, as well a range of fair trade and eco-friendly bags, toys and other gifts, and we'll also be promoting our mail delivery service and the full breadth of our product range.

The event is open to the public from 10.30 am to 4.30 pm. There is more information on the TACT website.

We will have a stall at the Craft and Gift Fair in Scorton Village Hall, Factory Brow, Scorton PR3 1AS , this Sunday, 4 September. The fair is open to the visitors from 10 am to 2 pm. Admission is free and refreshments will be available.

We will be presenting a selection of fairly traded gifts, in particular our fabulous new range of enamelled recycled aluminium tableware and vases, together with a selection of fairly traded bags and accessories and eco-friendly toys. Come along and find our more about Esme, including our free local deliveries of household goods. See you there!

We are delighted to be involved in this public event highlighting the environmental costs of our over-dependence on plastics. The event will feature films, artworks and actvities, including making useful objects from waste packaging, a water tasting challenge (can you tell tap from bottled?) and an artistic display of rubbish gathered on a recent Morecambe Bay beach clean (which you can take part in). Various local environmental protection groups will be in attendance and disseminating information.

As well as Esme, there will also be a stall promoting reusable nappies, and a new local business marketing recylced material craft kits. Our stall will feature our whole range of safe, stylish reusable steel drinking bottles, Michael's Farm ethically manufactured and organically grown natural cleaning aids, Natracare plastic-free feminine hygiene and maternity products, toothbrushes with replaceable heads, and some new biodegradable bamboo toothbrushes too! We will also plastic-free cotton buds, biodegradable natural latex rubber gloves, and a selection of toys, bags and baskets. As ever, if there are particular things you would like us to bring along, just let us know.

Time and Venue: The Storey Creative Industries Centre (formerly Storey Institute), Meeting House Lane, Lancaster, Saturday 18 June, 11 am to 3 pm.

Organised by the Lancaster District Sutainability Partnership, you can read more about the event here and view the offical flyer for the event here. For more information about the Beach Clean on 11 June, click here.

We are delighted to be attending our first Lancaster Steiner School Spring Fair in May. We will have a seasonal selection of fabulous eco-friendly and fairly traded items, many at bargain prices. Our range will include sun care products, flip flops, toys and craft kits, baby clothes, jewellery and basketware.

We will also be promoting our free weekly local delivery service for all our products, including our growing range of fabulous household cleaning products, toiletries and natural skin care, and talking about our future plans for the business. We hope to see you there!

You can read more information about the event here

Esme will have a sizeable stall at the Eco Fair, open from 10 am to 4 pm, which we will divide into contrasting sections: on the one side we will have a range of eco-friendly everyday items for the home, such as cleaning fluids and equipment, aluminium and BPA-free drinking bottles, bamboo toothbrushes (if we have any left by then!) and bio-degradable cycle oil. On our other table we will be showcasing some rather fancy recycled aluminium tableware, new to our range, and some beautiful and practical bags in organic cotton - many of them one-offs.

We will also be offering some fantastic organic cotton items at bargain prices, such as Pants to Poverty designer underwear at half price, Ethletic sneakers (similar to Converse All Star but made from fairly traded natural latex and organic cotton) and some great quality men's shirts and even a few single bedsheets. Having decided no longer to sell clothing for the time being, we need to clear our stocks and free up storage space and resources to develop the business further, so come and get yourself an ethical bargain!

We will also have some samples of of other products which we sell, such as natural skincare, jewellery and baby clothing. We hope to talk people about Esme and in particular about our free weekly delivery service. If you have wondered what Esme can do for you, now is your chance to find out!

You can read more information about the event here

PLEASE NOTE: THIS TEMPORARY OFFER IS NO LONGER VALID. PLEASE READ OUR CURRENT DELIVERY RATES

Although keen to retain and develop our local identity and direct customer focus, Esme also needs to introduce mail delivery and enable its website with eCommerce. As a step towards this, we have decided to celebrate Fairtrade Fortnight by introducing a limited mail delivery service for baby clothing and soft toys only. The range of goods will be expanded in due course. As an introductory offer, we will waive the delivery charge on orders worth at least £15. Otherwise, we will apply a charge of £2.95 for postage and packing. See our terms and conditions for more details.

This will be Esme's first appearance at this annual event, which visits a different town in the area each year. We will focus on ethically produced and fairly traded bags and baskets, underwear, jewellery and baby gear. Plenty of unusual and inexpensive gifts. Open from 11am till 5pm, the address is: St Chad's Chruch Hall, Vicargage Road, Poulton-le-Fylde FY6 7BE.

This Sunday, Esme will be taking part in Baby Maze's third Baby & Toddler Show at the Platform in Morecambe, from 10 am till 3 pm (admission free). As well as a fabulous range of organic cotton baby clothes, we will have toys for babies and toddlers and we will also have puzzles, craft kits and kites for slightly older children. 10 per cent discount on presentation of our goody bag voucher. We hope to see you there!

This Sunday we will be holding a stall in Windermere at the Big Green Event in the Ladyholme Centre and Goodly Dale School Field (our stall will be indoors). This is a little outside our usual patch, but we fancied a day in the Lakes, and it promises to be a fun occasion. The event is open to the public from 10.30 am to 4.30 pm. There is a bit more information about the event here.

This week, Esme has entered into its first school link-up. Under the scheme, if any staff or parents at Ellel St John's School ask for their goods to be delivered to the school, the school will receive a credit voucher as a proportion of sales. We will also run occasional special promotions via the school, and will seek to support the school's sustainability and fair trade agenda. After an initial trial period, we hope to roll this scheme out to other schools in the district. Please let us know if your own school or college might be interested.

This Wednesday, 8 September, we will have a promotional stand at the Fresh Start Expo in the former Adams store in St Nicholas' Arcade. The event is open to the public from 10am to 3pm. Along with other new local businesses, we will be chatting to visitors about what we have to offer — and talking about our plans for the future. We will be contributing a complete eco-friendly washing up kit to the event's main raffle, and also offering an Esme voucher in a free draw on our own stand. We will have a range of skincare product testers with us, so if there is something on our website you have been curious about, do come along and take a look.

Due to summer holidays, there will be no regular delivery on Thursday 12 August. There will be deliveries on Thursday 5 and Thursday 19 August and we will be open for customer collection and neighbourhood deliveries until Friday 6 and from Monday 16 August.

Esme will be holding a stall in Lancaster on Wednesday 8 September at an all-day promotional event for local traders (open to the public from 10 am). We will have products on display and for sale, so do come and see us! The event will be held in the former Adams shop, next to Argos, in St Nicholas Arcade. We will also be holding a stall in Windermere on Sunday, 19 September. More details will be posted soon.

We have finally put up the first of our background pages discussing 'ethics and issues' (that's one down and four to go — we will try and up the rate a bit now!). This one is on textiles, with particular attention to everybody's favourite (including ours) — cotton. Is organic cotton really just an eccentricity? We think not.
STOP PRESS: We have now also served up an initial chunk of information on the page 'What do all the labels mean?'

We welcome your feedback and, in particular, if you spot any typos or other mistakes, please let us know.

Come and visit our stall at the Graduate College summer fete this Saturday! We will be selling sports balls, flip flops, jigsaws, baby and toddler toys, kids' sun hats, jewellery, insect repellent, tea towels, baskets, bags and more besides. If you would like to us to bring anything else along, just ask.

The fete takes place from noon till 5pm, and the attractions include face painting, henna tattoos, a bouncy castle, a bagel bar and ice cream. The event is being held near Graduate Collge bar, on Lancaster University's South Campus (Alexandra Park). This will be followed by a music event in the evening.

All sections of our catalogue have been updated in recent weeks. Some highlights amongst our new stock include some sensational new colours and designs from Pants to Poverty, a new range of skincare products from Faith in Nature and a fabulous eco-friendly cuddly bear for under £10 in our toy section.

This is the last time new products will be featured in our pdf catalogue. From some time in July, new products will appear on web pages which you can look at without waiting to download. And we will link to these from Twitter too, so why not start following us there to avoid missing out.

It's now possible to connect with Esme's Facebook page by clicking on the button at the top of the sidebar on the left. If you cannot yet see this button, try pressing the refresh button in your browser.

We will soon add a button to connect with our Twitter stream too, but we will wait until we have a few more tweets on our Twitter page. If you don't want to wait, then you can go straight to http://twitter.com/EsmeEthical. Please follow us when you get there if you are a fellow tweeter!

We have added lots of new products, particularly in our baby and toddler section and a new range of fairly traded baskets from Romania. We have some handloom cotton clothes, organic and fairtrade certified, and some really cute toys made from sustainable materials. And for the first time, we have introduced a range of baby care and maternity products, all high on quality and low on toxicity!

We know that our pdf catalogues are not ideal, especially as our range grows and the files get larger, and we will now turn our attention to developing a web shop to make everything quicker and easier. And there will be news very soon of how you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Esme will be taking part in Baby Maze's second Baby & Toddler Show on Bank Holiday Sunday. We will be displaying a much larger range of fabulous, ethically produced, organic cotton baby and toddler wear than we have had in our catalogue up to now. We will also be presenting a number of eco-friendly wooden and soft toys, made from organic cotton, sustainable rubberwood and recycled polyester fibre fillings.

Don't miss our new range of baby care and maternity products, and of course our fantastic Baby Laundry Soap from Earth Friendly.

The show is open from 10 am to 3 pm. Admission is FREE. Hope to see you there!

Our first public outing since launching our website was at the excellent Transition City Lancaster launch event at the Storey on Saturday 17 April. We would like to thank everyone who showed an interest in our stall and Transition City Lancaster for allowing us to take part.

Esme's website went live today after six months of deliberately low-tech trading. Having gained valuable experience with a small customer base and a network of committed and much appreciated friends, Esme is now ready to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the internet to extend our marketing reach and meet people's expectations of how a modern business should operate. Over the coming weeks and months this website will be filled with useful information about the products we sell and about the issues that matter when making ethical shopping choices.

We are not becoming just another 'e-tailer', however. We will retain our local focus and our commitment to personal service. Our sample baskets will continue to play a role in our marketing. Indeed we hope they will become an icon in offices throughout the district.

More is to follow: look out for Twitter, Facebook and a blog right here on our website in the near future.

We want to help customers recycle household items which cannot be left at the kerbside for collection by the Council. When we deliver your order, we will be pleased to take the following items from you and ensure they get into the recycling stream or pass them on for re-use. We are starting with the following items and will add more in due course.

• Household batteries
• Brita water cartridges (both styles, but ONLY Brita)
• Wine corks — but only straight ones (not champagne corks) and not plastic ones. These will be used by a local craftsperson.

Please note: this service is for household items only — we are not authorised to deal with commercial waste.