A Gift Guide To The Small Businesses I Love

The Crunchy Boutique is a black women owned business that promotes sustainable living. While they specialize in natural products for babies and children, they carry items for the entire family. For those who love natural scents, you can order naturally scented items for the hone and bath. If you know someone who loves cloth diapering, you can order diapers or a “Cloth Diapering is Dope” t-shirt. For sustainable living gifts, you can shop their beeswax wrap and bamboo cutlery sets. For little ones, the options are endless! My favorites are wooden toys and puzzles. If you’re located in the DFW, you can visit their physical location in Arlington, TX. Tell Lauren & Keema hello if you get the chance to stop by!

This mama run company makes shirts that remind us to keep it real when we talk about motherhood. Yes, we should raise kind humans. But when keeping it real, let’s get more specific – Don’t Raise a Bully! These shirts remind us that our mental health matters, and that in the postpartum period, we have to be gentle with ourselves. Not only should we be kind to ourselves, but we have to remember to be kind to our little ones, because they may be little, but their big emotions matter, too.

The innovations that are taking place with sustainable fashion are exciting to witness. It is also amazing to see fashion slowing down. Quantity is going down, and quality is going up. Beya Made is a company that is showing up in all ways for sustainable fashion for kids. Owner and designer, Laurel, used to work for a well-known kids’ brand. When her daughter Beya was born, she wanted to stop creating disposable fashion. She took the sewing lessons her mother taught her and started creating clothes that would last kids years instead of a few months. It’s a lot of fun to watch my child grow while still being able to wear his Beya Made romper!

Tiny Yellow Bungalow is a shop that started out as a blog by a fellow sustainable living enthusiast, Jessie. You can read the Tiny Yellow Bungalow blog for her day to day tips about leading a zero waste and plant based lifestyle. For gifts, visit the Tiny Yellow Bungalow shop. I’m currently testing out the Zero Waste Dish Soap as my first dish soap block. Y’all know I love my safety razor (affectionally called “the last razor I’ll every buy”), and the TYB shop sells them here – Double Edge Safety Razor. Last, but not least, Jessie created a cookbook that helps make vegan cooking zero waste! The Zero Waste Vegan Cookbook was released this year, and is sustainable in it’s own right. If you buy it as a gift for a friend, it is digital, so there will be no wait time for shipping, and no large carbon footprint that comes along with that.

BLK + GRN is a curated marketplace that carries products made by black-owned wellness brands. They carry products for beauty, wellness, the home, and even gift sets, all by black creators. Unless you’ve lived the experience, you don’t know what its like to try a popular product only to find it was never made to work for your hair or your skin. I’m grateful for this collective that focuses on living more sustainably and naturally while being black. I feel seen, respected, and loved. I hope that sharing these products with those you love will create the same emotions for them, too.

You can use referral code ‘oldworldnew’ to let them know that I sent you, and discount code ‘BLKGRN_88074‘ to save 10% at BLK + GRN!

Just gotta say upfront, this company isn’t only for “the bros.” The Beard Place is, however, another reason that my husband now actually likes to go to the Farmers Market for himself! He loves the beard oils, and I love how they smell! They are quite nourishing, as well, and it is apparent on my end just looking at my husband’s beard. I love their soaps and trying a new scent each time we need new soap and see them at the market. Pictured here: my husband’s ’82 Vintage scented beard oil and balm by The Beard Place.

I don’t like beef jerky, but I love SAAP Lao Kitchen beef jerky. Beef jerky has always been a weird snack to me. Regular store brands were dry and tough, so I determined early in life that beef jerky just wasn’t for me. One day, my family was at the Grand Prairie Farmers Market and we saw the SAAP Lao Kitchen table. My husband loves jerky, so he tried it out. After that, he wanted to actually go the the Farmers Market more! So thank you, SAAP! Now, I like beef jerky.