Making a difference

Last week I attended a production at my daughter's school about human trafficking. It was very well done, written and produced by the school drama teacher, who had been inspired by a speaker at a conference she had attended and acted out by some brave (older) teenage students.

The thought, to me, that there are still many slaves in our world in 2011 is not only abhorrent it is truly scary. But it is a sad fact for many innocent people (mostly women and children) and they are living in the worst conditions imaginable! Even worse they are often sold into slavery by their families or a trusted family friend!

So why am I telling you this?? I'm telling you about this because I felt truly moved and inspired to support a charity that is helping people in this position to escape and to start a new free life. Czarque has supported a few different charities in the past but this is one that we want to support indefinitely. 

One of the reasons we (Czarque) decided to make our shoes in Australia was so that there would be no doubt in our minds about the labour force involved in producing them, we wanted to be assured that there was no child/ no slave labour involved and the only way we knew that would be the case was to have our baby shoes made here. 

You know there are many things people can do to help with this cause not just donating money. You can choose to never buy "fake" designer labels because more often than not they have been produced by a slave labour force! You can be a more responsible global citizen and make wise purchasing decisions, before you buy that $5 t-shirt consider for a moment what the person who produced it has been paid? Considering what the cost to make a t-shirt in Australia is. It is our consumerist, western society that creates and drives this market for slaves. We crave more and more things at the cheapest possible price!

The charity that we have decided to support is called The A21 Campaign. We have decided to do this by donating $15 from the sale of any of our red baby shoes (Red Baby Loafers & Red Patent Baby Ballet Slippers) via our website www.czarque.com.au  to this charity, starting immediately.

"One person can make a difference and every person should try." JFK

Sydney Aquarium and Wildlife Park

Jelly Fish

During the last school holidays, which also happened to be my Darling's first school holidays, we decided to do a few fun outings including a visit to the Sydney Aquarium due to her love of the Octonauts show appearing on ABC2.

After chatting to a few people about our plans we also decided to visit the Wildlife Park which is right next door to the Aquarium.

In preparation for the day we bought a little backpack for her to carry her own things including a drink bottle and cardigan and it worked beautifully. I wasn't stuck lugging around a heavy bag all day!

Butterfly room

So we decided to have a big adventure including catching a train, which we caught to Town Hall station and then walked down to the Aquarium.

We spent the morning exploring the Aquarium then enjoyed a delicious lunch at the Pontoon Bar. It was surprisingly very kid friendly for lunch and the staff were exceptionally accommodating!

After lunch we visited the Wildlife Park. I thought it was excellent and was surprised at the diversity of the animals they had on display, including koalas and kangaroos, crocodiles and a range of insects like bees and spiders.

By the end of the day we were all quite tired so we decided to catch the monorail back to Town Hall station. It was a nice way to finish the day with a scenic tour of the city from above.


It was a fantastic day out, one that I'm sure we will all have fond memories of. Some of the highlights included these amazing looking jelly fish, the penguins, a bilby and the butterfly room... that was magical!

Baby Shoes - New banner

Just had to share our new banner, promoting Czarque baby shoes...

Family holiday in Gunnedah

I have been meaning to blog about this since Christmas, except things have been quite hectic around here lately... better late than never!


Less than a year ago my parents moved to Gunnedah from Yass for work. At Christmas we visited them and had a mini holiday in Gunnedah. Before my parents moved there the only things I knew about Gunnedah was that it was where the famous model Miranda Kerr had grown up and was not far from Tamworth.


So we took a road trip up through the Hunter to get there and I have to say the countryside on the way is just stunning. We drove through some well known country towns... Muswellbrook, Scone and some less known towns - well to me anyway! I was surprised by the number and size of the horse studs and was also intrigued by the town signs written in gold in the Upper Hunter.

We stopped at a lookout on the way called "Who'd a Thought It" in a little town called Quirindi. This lookout gives you a 360 degree view of the surrounding area, it is just gorgeous! The photo to the right was taken at the lookout.


When we arrived in Gunnedah we mostly just hung out as a family but we did do a couple of things; one of which was to tour the local streets in the evening to see all the Christmas lights (I think they were the best Christmas light displays I have seen) and the other was to visit Waterways Wildlife Park.

This park was fantastic, it was the first park I have ever visited where you can enter the Koala enclosure and actually pat the Koalas! These Koalas had been rescued as babies and hand-reared so they are as tame as Koalas can possibly be. They are such beautiful animals and they are as soft as they look. I never knew that Gunnedah was called the Koala capital of the world until this visit.


So if you ever visit Gunnedah I would highly recommend visiting this animal park... I think it is something I will remember for a long time! 

Below is a video of my Mum giving this Koala a pat... so cute.

Baby Shoes - Buy Australian Made

I always feel so excited when I find products that are made in Australia; as every time a business decides to manufacture "offshore" Australia loses many things. This can include the following; skills (which can be lost forever), jobs and as a result our economy loses money which means there is less money available for spending on retail... it is a vicious cycle!

It was interesting to attend a "boutique" Trade Show in Sydney this past week and ask some of the designers where their products were produced, sadly most responded that they were manufactured offshore. But there were a few surprises but not many! 

I have come to realise that I am actually quite passionate about Australian Made products and also like products from a few other countries too (e.g New Zealand, Germany, Italy to name some of my favourites) but really love products from Australia. Some of my favourites include; a quality baby shoes label - Czarque (hehe), I love, love Jurlique for skincare and have been using their products for around 10 years (they are the best in the world), Supre are great for basic clothes (some are made in Australia and some offshore - so check), De Lorenzo for hair care products... these are just a few that came to mind!

What really annoys me are companies that confuse consumers by promoting their business as designed/owned in Australia, which is really not much different to being designed/ owned offshore!

There are others that are passionate about Australian Made products just like I am and chose to manufacture in Australia but they are not always easy to find. Websites like http://www.australianmade.com.au and http://www.buyaustralianmade.com.au/  incl-ude Directories that do make it easier to find Australian Made products but not all Australian Made products are in their directories (such as Czarque) only because we haven't paid the fees to do so yet - it's on my to do list this year!

Shopping safely online with Paypal and Czarque

Today, it was reported in the news that the Lush website in Australia and New Zealand had been compromised and the credit card details of all their customers had been stolen. This comes after a similar incident, which was reported in January, for Lush in the UK!

I feel very sorry for the customers of Lush who have had their credit card information stolen. I know when I purchase online I generally assume with a large company such as Lush that my personal information is protected, especially my credit card details.

There is something to be said about the protection that Paypal offers customers when shopping online and this is one of the reasons that Czarque chooses to accept payments only via Paypal, ensuring that our customer's credit card information is protected to the highest level online.

Czarque does not keep any credit card details, the whole payment is completely processed by Paypal via their website. Customers do not need a Paypal account to pay via Paypal; Paypal accepts credit card payments without a Paypal account.

If you have any questions about shopping online with Czarque, please contact us.

enquiries@czarque.com.au

Baby Shoes - Review

We are reviewing everything for 2011... if you have any constructive feedback regarding our products or website, please email us:
review@czarque.com.au

Feedback that we find to be constructive and useful will be rewarded! :)