Bag Race Anyone? (from 4/4/08)

As our bio suggests, we love to shop for a bargain and find new uses forseemingly useless things. In Ann Arbor, Michigan there is a fun andunique store called The Scrap Box. It is just what its name suggests. They have tons of'scraps'--anything that would have otherwise been thrown away bybusinesses and consumer households. They receive donations and thepublic can then go in and buy these items for use in any way theirimagination can dream up.

Last year we wereexcited to find decorator fabric sample books. We were sure we couldput the beautiful, albeit tiny pieces of fabric to good use. Some ofour small pouches on Etsy are made of the fabric from those sample books!

Wehave made yet another discovery at this fabulous store. Karen took theplunge and bought 26 very large burlap coffee bean bags. Some of thebags still contained raw coffee beans! Our plan? Why, stylishreusable shopping bags, of course! Unfortunately, there is not ashopping-bag-making fairy. Taking these bags from The Scrap Box barrelto stylish carry-all is quite a feat. In fact, we are finding thatthis process is, of course, longer than we expected.

Here is a peek into a day in the life of Karen:

'Itook all 26 burlap bags to the laundromat and washed and dried them. They had the whole place smelling like wet burlap! I got a few curiouslooks from people as I was hauling them from place to place. Finally,one brave soul ventured over to ask the question burning in everyone'smind. . .'What are you going to do with those?' I told her they weregoing to be transformed into shopping bags--'green' shopping bags. Shewas satisfied with my answer, I guess. She said, 'Well, yes, that willwork.''

Once we finalized our designs werealized we would need to find a supplier of burlap coffee bean bags. Karen contacted a local Ann Arbor coffee roaster and specialty foodscompany called Zingermans. They graciously offered their supply of burlap coffee bean bags to help get us started.

Andthat is just the beginning of the coffee bean bag to stylish shoppingbag process. We are that committed to creating unique bags you willlove to carry. Each of us at Diengie has started carrying our own'green' bags everywhere. We use our 'green' bags as a purse, tote andreusable shopping bag. Gone are the days of stockpiling mounds ofearth-polluting plastic shopping bags. Many retail stores are jumpingon the 'green' bandwagon with their own reusable shopping bags, but whowants to carry boring, generic shopping bags? We are excited to soonrelease our own 'Green Bean' collection--great bags in two differentdesigns! With an earthy feel on the outside and unexpected linings,our original designs are not only functional but attractive. With sucha fashionable bag you won't be limited to carrying it in and out of thestore. Our 'Green Bean' bag can easily be an all-purpose carry-all. The possibilities are endless. It may just become your bag of choice.

View and purchase our products at http://diengiedesigns.etsy.com

Our 'Green Bean' collection will be released soon! We will notify you by email when they are available for purchase.