FLORALEXIE x 1WS

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The beautiful Lexie Gonzales is a Californian based island kind of girl. This adventurous seeker lives a healthy driven life, filled with happiness and love. From beach trips to picnics and festivals, she styles her sarongs in a carefree and bohemian style exemplifying her natural beauty and state of wanderlust. 1 World Sarongs loves you! Find her on Instagram and check out her photo gallery.

Spring Cleaning + Conscious Living: How to Up-cycle Your Pre-Loved Sarongs

Spring is a wonderful time for new beginnings where flowers bloom and nature comes to life again. You can apply the same type of healing for your day to day life by clearing out your closet. We all know that we're guilty of owning more than we ever need and so comes Spring time, it's only natural and necessary for us to get rid of stuff that we no longer use and de-clutter. The state of our wardrobe and home reflect the states of mind and so here's a question: how does your closet look like right now?

As you're packing up unwanted clothing, don't throw out your sarongs just yet! Did you know that there are plenty of ways to up-cycle and reuse your sarongs? Be kind to Mother Nature by learning how to recycle your sarongs and we're here to help you out with this wonderful path of sustainable and mindful living. Need ideas? Here are 5 easy ways to up-cycle your old sarongs:

1) DIY Interior: Pillow Covers or Curtains

Source: Michelle de Baugy via Pinterest

Source: The 36th Avenue via Pinterest

Whether you enjoy sewing or otherwise, there are several ways to make use of your ripped or torn sarongs. You can resize them to fit your cushions or pillows to create a whole new mood at home. You can also cut them into strips and use them as new curtains. These are great home interior ideas for your special events or themed parties too!

2) Patchwork Project: Make a Blanket or Funky Kimono or Dress

Learn how to get this patchwork done here

Source: Wings Hawaii via Pinterest

Source: The Grau House via Pinterest

Make a colorful blanket or quilt by patching up a bunch of random designs from your old sarongs. More than a therapeutic project, you get to explore your sense of creativity using recycled fabrics and make sure you get to do your part to reduce wastage from your fashion collection.

3) New Fashion Accessory: Colorful Headbands or Sash Belt

Learn how to make this here

Learn how to make your very own belt here

Get this cute look by making your own colorful headbands! All you need to have are some scissors to cut up your old sarongs and a dash of creativity to resemble them into a new fashion accessory. You can either sew or braid the pieces of fabric together and use them for your hair piece to match with your outfits or simply turn them into a cool belt that no one else in town is ever going to own so you'll definitely stand out.

4) Rags for Cleanliness: Floor Mat or Table Cloth or Windows Wiper

If you're too lazy to get any sewing or patchwork project done, here's an alternative idea: You can turn your overused sarongs into rags that you can clean your house with. Whether you want to wipe your tables or keep your feet clean or dust up an old garage. Old sarong fabrics are great for this purpose before you decide to throw them away, think again!

5) Sew it Up: Recyclable Bags or Fabric Covered Books or Ironing Board Cover

Source

Sharpen your skills with your sewing machine by creating these cool items. From a brand new cover for your ironing board to shopping bags so you can avoid using plastic bags to a cute fabric covered book that make great gifts - you can experiment with practical ways to reuse your old sarongs. 

What are your thoughts on up-cycling your old sarongs? If you plan to try out any of these ideas, we'd love to hear your feedback. The gentler we can all be on Mother Earth, the better chance we have for our future generation to live in a better world that we'll leave behind. Every step to a sustainable path begins with awareness in our decisions. Our love for sarongs goes beyond creating new designs to bring you happiness, we also consider the many different ways to prolong the life span of our sarongs.

Style by Joules X 1WS

Picture yourself at your favorite resort in Hawaii, the sun is shining with breeze brushing through your skin. You're finally on a holiday with your loved one, just the both of you together with nothing else to worry about in this world. They say life is a bliss and bliss is essentially what you are able to feel physically, mentally, emotionally - some call it too happiness. What is your bliss?

The lovely Joules took some beautiful photos that got us day dreaming about Hawaii again, maybe it's time for another beach holiday? One can never have too much of Hawaii - from its enchanting culture, beautiful people and mesmerizing sunsets, it's like falling in love over and over again.

With a refreshing juice or cocktail in hand sun basking by the pool, you'll need the perfect sarong style to cover up, keep yourself protected from the sun and to match the mood. Plus quickly dry off by using your sarong as a pool towel after a swim!

Joules picked our rich and vibrant Hawaiian blue sarong together with a lush tropical green short sarong for her getaway. She's also used a coconut sarong tie to keep her short sarong in place and to give her sarong style a little excitement.

Talk about the perfect choice of colors to blend in a paradise like setting! Follow Style by Joules on Instagram or check out her blog for more style inspiration. Thanks for bringing our sarongs to beautiful Hawaii, Joules! <3

Amazing Wildlife Organizations You Need to Know

From volunteering to donation to pledging to adopting wild animals - there are so many ways for us to get involved to protect wildlife in their natural habitats. Beyond preservation, sometimes we sit at home dreaming and wondering about animals through our imagination. With the power of the internet these days, you can actually reach out and participate from wherever you are! In the spirit of #WorldWildlifeDay, here are 5 organizations we think you should know about:

1) Orang Hutan Republik Foundation

Our love for Indonesia goes a long way and we're well aware that one of the most magnificent creatures that relate to humanity are the Orang Utans. They are suffering from deforestation and threats driven by mankind's greed. From planting trees to diminishing palm oil consumption, find out how you can take actions to help keep them free and wild.

2) Wildlife Conservation Society

They are currently working to save the majestic whale species inhabiting the waters off New York because they are under serious threats. WCS 'saves wildlife and wild places worldwide through science, conservation action, education, and inspiring people to value nature'.

3) World Wildlife Fund

With an inspiring motto that says, 'SAVING A PLANET OF LIFE', this organization needs no introduction. A 50 year old initiative on a mission to protect the future of nature, WWF focuses on saving populations of the most ecologically, economically and culturally important species in the wild. They believe that 'by protecting species, we save this beautiful, vulnerable and utterly irreplaceable planet we call home'.

4) World Animal Foundation

Looking out for all animal's interests, did you know that you can actually adopt a wild animal? This all volunteer organization is dedicated to the preservation and protection of the planet 'through public education, research, investigations, animal rescue, legislation, special events, and direct action'.

5) Panthera

Are you a cat lover? From tigers, lions, jaguars, leopards and cheetahs, this organization is devoted exclusively to the conservation of the world’s 38 wild cat species and their ecosystems. They believe that the preservation of wild cats, our landscape guardians is another means of keeping our ecosystem healthy and intact.

6) WildEarth Guardians

Protecting and restoring the wildlife, wild places, wild rivers, and health of the American West, this organization is working on climate and energy programs to build a future that will be 100% powered by renewable energy by 2035.

 

We're always on a look out for organizations that work hard to conserve and preserve our beautiful wildlife and their natural habitats. As you know nature and animals have always inspired us in many ways through our collection of green sarongs, animal prints and patterns. We're happy to support organizations who share our mission in wanting to protect Mother Earth and so if you know of any campaigns or causes that we should get to know and give back to, please leave a comment below!

What is Zero Discrimination Day?

Did you know that March 1st is #ZeroDiscriminationDay? This campaign aims to promote awareness to end discrimination and celebrate diversity, tolerance and inclusion. We believe that everyone should be treated with respect, what about you?

The Natural Fashionista X 1WS

We love seeing how gorgeous Bloggers style our sarongs! Say hello to the beautiful fashion icon Kim from The Natural Fashionista showing us what Naturally Fashionable is all about. Make sure to go over the her blog and show her post some love! She styled everything beautifully and showed her viewers how versatile our sarongs really are and how beautiful and flattering they look on curvy bodies.

Jungle Brown Tie Dye Sarong

Red Smoked Sarong

Jungle Baby Blue Tie Dye Sarong

Got style tips to share and want to collaborate with 1WORLDSARONGS? We would love to hear from you. Whether you're a fashion enthusiast or sarong lover, drop us a message anytime here.

Goodbye 2016, Hello 2017!

So long to yet another amazing year of achievements and beautiful moments. Where do we even begin to talk about how great 2016 was? We took some time to reflect over the holidays, wrapped up in our sarongs laying under a palm tree with the cool breeze watching our children laugh and play in harmony. There's so much joy in life to celebrate and truly so much to be grateful for and we want to continue living by our mantra of spreading love and giving back where we can. As we transition into a brand new year, we're so excited to see what 2017 has in store for us. We've got a bunch of goals we'd like to fulfill this year and it starts off with our very first big trade show we signed up in February 2017 in Los Angeles. That's right! 1WorldSarongs will be making an appearance at one of Los Angeles biggest trade show. We'll fill you in with more details when the dates get closer!

Behind the scenes with Terry and Deby Sherry setting up a mock up booth for our Los Angeles market trade show. Get more information here.

As you know, nothing makes us happier than to build a relationship with our customers and what more getting to connect in person. Our warehouse sale in 2016 gave us the chance to meet our customers and have real conversations. We feel so blessed to have the support from a bunch of great people we get to call our customers. It gives us the drive and motivation to carry on with our mission as a beach fashion apparel company that is conscious about the environment and humanity. As a sustainable focused fashion company, we do our best to be mindful about our decisions and take meaningful actions where we can. Looking back at what we've accomplished, we're happy to announce that we were able to expand our contribution to the following charities:

• Future for Children Munti Gunung (Check out how we've collaborated with them!)
• Bali Street Kids Project
• The Amanda Foundation
• The Orangutan Republic
• American Red Cross
• Surf Rider
• Solemen Indonesia
• Union of Concerned Scientist
• The Amazon Aid Foundation
• Oceana
• Rotary International
• Habilitat

From caring about our children who are the future generation to animal rights to aid for disasters to Mother Nature and beyond, our interest in humanity goes a long way. We highly recommend that you get to know more about these organizations and their cause. They are doing wonderful things to assist in making the world a better place. If you don't know yet, we make sure that a percentage of our profits go to those who needs them the most and so we'd like to thank our customers for helping us make this possible. They say that change should begin one's self and so little by little we hope to be the change we want to see in the world. If you know of any charities or organizations that we should collaborate with, please get in touch with us. Together we can work together towards a positive change. Every action matters and so please join us in our mission. Have a beautiful January!

Earth Friendly Gifts: Empowering the 'Munti Gunung' Community

Journey to one of the driest parts of Bali, Indonesia

Living between Bali and California is truly a blessing where we get to enjoy the best of both worlds. Opening our eyes to different communities has only taught us to be humble and motivate our desire to give back to society. One of the latest project collaboration is one we are proud of because it echoes with our values and mission in supporting and empowering communities who needs it the most. 

1 World Family trekking with the locals for an excursion to Munti Gunung

We partnered up with the beautiful people of Munti Gunung after visiting their village tucked away in the North of Bali, Indonesia. These poor and malnourished families are working under a social enterprise that aims to 'create employment opportunities & improved quality of life for disadvantaged families, the program has also secured a clean & sustainable water supply, as well as access to healthcare & education'. We wanted to learn more about their project and so we signed up for a trek organized by the community themselves. This really helped us to understand their difficulty in getting access to water and seeing the harsh reality of an 8 months dry season. Can you imagine what life would be like without access to water?

A big lake tucked between the Balinese hills, the only source of water for the Munti Gunung community.

The legendary Mount Batur surroundings.

Seeing is believing and through the trekking experience, we learned how the women used to trek for 4-5 hours from their homes to the nearest Lake Batur to collect as much water as they can carry and then trek back the same path to get to their families. Thanks to the 'Future of Children' project they have managed to built water tanks to collect rain water to sustain themselves without having to travel a far and long time to attain water. With a quota of 25 liters per family per day, we trekked through the panoramic sights with our thoughtful minds, imagining what it's like to have to do this everyday not for leisure but for survival.

Our pathfinder aka. guide from the village. She woke up at 4am to get a head start of the trek in order to meet us at 6am. 

Serene sights of the hilly slopes of North Bali along the way giving us a tranquil mind to fully absorb the experience.

Our elderly guide walked on strong and calm, smiling at the younger ones as they struggled to keep up with her pace.

Needless to say, it was an empowering experience both physically and mentally. Upon arrival to the village, we were introduced to a lovely group of women who were hand weaving baskets with their adorable children cuddled in their arms and they fulfilled their motherly duties while hand making baskets in order to earn a living. Their genuine smiling faces melted our hearts and we were so happy to get to know the amazing artisans who would weave our gift baskets.

These women use to be prone to begging with their children on the streets in the urban side of Bali. They now have a means of income to feed their families.

With dedication and talent, the women were taught the art of weaving, spending a few hours in their day to fulfill their job responsibilities.

We learned so much from this expedition and we're glad that we get to share this story. You get the opportunity to help out in making a positive change with the simplest gesture. These gift packs are more than just a gift box, it transcends the stories of a group of women who survive on these jobs in order to sustain their everyday lives. Hand weaving 'lontar baskets' was one of the means of activities in generating income for these women. These organic gift boxes are made from naturally sourced local tall fan palms that is traditionally known for its high yielding and sustainable hard wood and sweet sap.

After drying the Lontar leaves, they use a compressor machine  to flatten the material.

Natural material ready to be stripped for weaving.

They use the thinner strips to start weaving into various shapes.

It's the most wonderful time of the year to give and we would like to encourage you to support our path towards a more sustainable focused life. Check out our beautiful hand woven gift boxes made by the wonderful people of Munti Gunung and know that with every purchase you can work with us towards helping others and creating hope for humanity.

The product outcome of the Munti Gunung hand weaving skills that are beautiful and practical, be it for gifts or storage.

Thanksgiving: 10 Things We Are Grateful For This Year

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we made a list to celebrate gratitude. We're in our 16th year in business and we're so blessed to be able to say, it's been an amazing journey! Here are 10 things we are grateful for this year:

1)We had the means to sponsor several animal charities 

We love nature and animals so we want to give back where we can. We got the opportunity to work with The Amanda Foundation and Orangutan Republic. If you know of any organizations or charity that we should work with, please point us to the right direction.

2) We were able to revamp our warehouse and corporate offices

We did a makeover of 1 World Sarongs Southern California location where we set up a new photo studio so we can explore our creativity and take better photos of all our collection

3) We cut out Palm Oil and we recycle within in our offices

Our mission is to assimilate the art of sustainability in our business practices and so we're trying to be more aware with our actions.

4) Family time

Where would I be without my wife and kids? Says owner Terry Sherry. We couldn't agree more. There's nothing more important than quality time with the people we love the most.

5) Faith in God and humanity

We maintain peace in our state of being and keep our core beliefs strong.

6) Great Customers both wholesale and retail

Loyal and supportive, nothing makes us happier than a happy customer! We are driven by what we do to bring happiness to all our customers. 

7) Support and synergy within 1 World Family Team 

More than just work colleagues, we are a family! We got a strong foundation of great people we work with both new and old.

8) Beautiful New Designs 

Thanks to our amazing team of artisans we work with in Bali, we launched a range of floral and colorful sarongs plus clothing. With fresh prints and patterns in our new arrivals, we take our passion for art seriously and hope to continue hand making beautiful designs inspired by Mother Nature and our travel adventures. We also launched a new line for kids sarongs, added more plus size and men sarong styles. 

9) We redesigned our e-store and launched our new website

That's right, we finally got a makeover after a long time and it was a big step for us! We needed to take it slow and made sure we worked out the kinks so we can continue to keep our customers happy. One of the common feedback from our customers when they shop with us at 1 World Sarongs is that they wanted better features and categorization for all our products so they can browse at ease. You can now have a great shopping experience on our updated website plus enjoy other features like product reviews and create wishlists. What else do you like about our new site?

10) Beautiful office locations in both South California and Bali

We get to work and live in two amazing destinations both California, USA and Bali, Indonesia. Living the dream!

Have you ever tried this little activity? It's great practice to remind ourselves about the simple things that matter and how important it is to be thankful in order to live a purposeful live. Through this list of gratitude, you get to take a step back and evaluate what you've accomplished for the year and continue to make the best out of the remaining days of 2016 and aspire for bigger dreams in 2017. It's an act of mindfulness to help with clarity of the mind and to allow ourselves to reconnect with the self and our surroundings. Here's what you need to do to create a 'gratitude list':

1) Free up a couple of hours and find a safe space. This could be anywhere, be it at home or at a park or by the beach. Wherever the location may be, it's important that you feel safe where you are.

2) You will need a paper and pen, maybe a diary or journal. Avoid using computers or phones, the idea is to unplug from distractions.

3) When you're ready, sit still and close your eyes. Take deep breaths and continue to breathe for 5 minutes. 

4) Once 5 minutes is up or whenever you feel at ease, open your eyes again and start writing. Every sentence should begin with - "I am thankful for........................"

5) Write from no.1 until no.10 whether you have less or more points, feel free to shorten or expand. What is key is that you continue to write without getting distracted and allow yourself to feel every memory and thought.

6) Take 30 minutes for this exercise. Take your time to write, do not force or rush the process. Once 30 minutes is up, take a step back. Then re-read your list again. You will be amazed by what you've written and you will start to think about the people in your life that you've given thanks to.

Try it out and tell us what you think! How did it feel? We would love to hear from you. Leave us a comment below.