Saturday 27 September 2014

Stories of Nepal


SHARING IS CARING

"We only have one book so we sit together
 in class and
we take turns when reading"

Jay Poudal, the photographer behind
Stories Of Nepal met these
3 little fellas on one
of his trips traveling around
documenting life in
Nepal. 

Kids not having schoolbooks &
proper learning material

 is a major issue here in
Nepal. 


If you want to support the kids
at Maya Universe Academy
with  books,
staples or others things
they need, please
send an e-mail
to
abareness@abareness.com

One time a year we go there to
follow up on our

"Give Back"
project
We buy the material ourselves
& brings it to the school
 to make sure no money is wasted
on administration
or other things.

http://www.abareness.com/give-back

See more pics & stories

www.storiesofnepal.com

Friday 26 September 2014

...If you only IMAGINE...




We love streetart! 

Imagine, or Sneha Shrestha which is 
her real name, 
is one of the street artists here
 in Nepal and her art can
 be spotted 
on different walls all around
the Kathmandu valley. 

Her signature style is to write different words
 & 
messages in Devanagari using her signature 
calligraphy style. Love it! 

Devanagari is the 
 nepali and (hindu!) alphabet/script
which I know how
to read, all though VEEEEEERY
slooooowly,
 like a 6-year old learning to read 
for the very first time. Haha :) 

Check out more from Imagine
on her blog
her: 

https://snehashrestha.wordpress.com/tag/kathmandu-street-art/

and her FB- Page her: 
https://www.facebook.com/imagine876?fref=ts



Karoline x

Thursday 18 September 2014

CULTURAL DIVERSITY BY STYLE










When in Nepal, everyday & everywhere
 we go we see nepali women 
wearing beautiful jewellery which
is also a symbol of wealth. 
Each tribe has their own style 
so if you know what to look for you can tell
wich tribe they belong to by having 
a glimpse on the 
jewellery they are wearing. 

Yellow gold is
definitely the most popular precious metal, but
just recently we got to learn that 
there is actually one tribe down south that
only wears silver ( bottom pic ) 
Interesting. 
Have to look more into that later 
on. 
One thing all the tribes have in common, 
is a gold or silver amulet that is worn to 
to ward off evil spirits. 

The jewellery also reflects creativity 
and special skills of the artisans who 
have been crafting these ornaments
for generations.

Keeping these traditions alive 
is one of the main reasons we work
with handmade jewellery. 

Man over machine.

Slow Fashion Love from 
Karoline & Anne-Marthe

Wednesday 17 September 2014

We've been blogged!

Fashion By Norway is a concept blog
highlighting Norwegian fashion,
design and culture
and now they've been bloggin'
 about us!
See the full post here:

http://fashionbynorway.com/2014/09/16/abareness-timeless-and-conscious/

Friday 12 September 2014

★ Our Universe ★








Hey there! Don't forget
to follow us @abarenessfashion 
on Instagram, twitter & Pinterest
if you want to know more about
what is moving in the
 A/BARENESS
"Slow Fashion Universe"

If you have questions and/or
feedback feel free to 
write to us. 

Karoline & Anne-Marthe x


Saturday 6 September 2014

★ DREAMJOB ★ We are on Web TV ★




Catalysta is a newly launched Digizine

 that aims to collaborate & inspire
us to create a career 
driven by passion & benefit 
to the common good. 

Catalysta interviewed and collected 
footage from ours & 4 other international
"Slow Fashion" Fashionistas workday
on a monthly basis back in 2013, 
and
taaa daaaah: 
 The video series is here: 

http://catalysta.org/dream-job/

You can see 2 first episodes of "Dream Job"
now and the final 6 episodes will
 be launched weekly. 

A big thanks to Catalysta 
for letting us be a part
of this project-
We hope you'll find it inspiring too? 

Karoline & Anne-Marthe x







Thursday 4 September 2014

★ The Future is In Our Hands ★




Would you like to pay a bit 
more for your clothes than
 you do today?

Did you know that the price level of clothing
in Norway today is the same as in the 80's?

That basically means that the level of the salaries of
the workers in
the production countries basically has not
increased their salaries in any mentionable
 amount in decades.

Would you be satiesfied if your salary did not increase
at all for that long a time while the
living costs in your country is getting
 higher and higher?

No?

Neither do we and that is one of the reasons
 why we work with Slow Fashion
also why we have signed up
for the awareness campaign 
by
 "Fremtiden i vĂ¥re hender"
a Norwegian Environmental Organization, 
showing our will
to pay more for each garment. 

You can also take part by
clicking the link below to sign up-
It will only cost you max 20 sec of your time
to show that you care and that you also
think it is about time that
fashion becomes fair-
especially for the workers at
the production units!

Together we can make a better future!

Slow Fashion love
from Karoline & Anne-Marthe x



Monday 1 September 2014

♥ MOMENTS ♥

















When we went to Maya Universe 
Academy to make further plans for 
our "Give Back" project, I had
a nice morning moment with 
one of the families living next to
the spider- infested room in the mud house 
I was staying in. 
(Thank God I had a mosquito net
to protect me! Not that afraid of spiders, but 
fist size spiders 10 cm above the bed? 
Eeehem,no thanks ;) 

The last day I was there
it was Nepali mother's day 
 & I had some
fruits that I wanted to give the
neighbor family. 
The mother told me her husband died a few years back
so she was alone taking care of the 2 kids.
I let the kiddo borrow my camera
& he took plenty of pics of his mother.
When I had a look at the pictures after
I really think he captured different
emotions of what it's like
to be a mother & a single parent; 

 The responsibility- The concerns- 
The hard work, but then again- The joy!

Simply beautiful.  


 Next week we are meeting up with one of the 
founders of Maya Universe
 here in Kathmandu to make further plans for 
our project; 

Building
bio gas toilets for the students, teachers, 
the volunteers & all the 
other ones contributing at the
school- it's about
100 people using the 1 toilet they got-
EVERY DAY!! And the
closest water source is literally a 
10 minute
hike away as you have to climb a small
hilltop to get to the water tap.

Can you even imagine?  

You can read more about our project here: 

Karoline x