BUY IT: Bold, graphic appliqued pillow covers made from traditional kuba cloth — woven raffia with natural dyes — are more than striking accents. They also help feed families left nearly destitute by the violent civil war that still rages in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Elgin-based Haba Na Haba, an Internet company founded to sell decorative textiles and other goods to provide job training and a livelihood for young adults orphaned by AIDS in Tanzania, is offering the pillows for $125 and $150, plus shipping and handling at www.habanahaba.com.
Congolese women bring the cloth, woven in traditional patterns that are unique to clans, to sell at the Tanzanian border. Workers at Haba Na Haba partner companies — small businesses owned mostly by women — convert them to pillows. Since the Web site began selling earlier this year, profits have been either donated to non-profit organizations that help AIDS orphans or reinvested to create more jobs. “What everybody wants is work and jobs and opportunities to sell their goods,” says founder Beth Peterson. The workers are teenagers and older, never children.
Peterson, who owns a marketing company, became aware of the lack of livelihood for Tanzanian AIDS orphans in 2001 when she visited as a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity.
After deciding that a job-creating business was a better way to help than a grant-seeking non-profit, she sold her house in Oak Park and moved to Elgin in part to finance the startup. She and volunteers are running the Web site without compensation.
Peterson says she is happy to show the pillows in Elgin by appointment; call 888-439-9375 or e-mail info@habanahaba.com. The Web site also sells batiked and other textiles as pillow covers and tablecloths ($27.95 to $46).
In Swahili, “haba na haba” means “Little by little fills the pot.”
— Beth Botts
BUY IT: Could be some sort of alien elephant. Could be part of the exhaust system of a car. Could be we’re dead wrong. This other-worldly-looking contraption (with the trunklike extension) is, in fact, a hand-held vacuum cleaner — meant for quick, small-scale cleanups in the house, car, etc. It’s the latest thing from Dyson, the British-based company known for vacs that work differently than most. (Dysons use centrifugal force — and neither a bag nor a filter in the air chamber — to spin dirt and fine dust out of the air. The idea, according to the folks at Dyson, is that their vacs don’t lose suction because there’s no filtering device to get clogged.) Dyson applied the same “cyclone” technology to this bagless hand vac, dubbed the Dyson Root 6 ($150). The rechargeable vac, which weighs 3.3 pounds, comes with a crevice accessory and a lifetime washable filter.
Filter? We asked about that too. It’s a secondary one, not located in the air chamber. It’s there to catch only the tiniest of particles, such as those that make up cigarette smoke.
Sold at www.target.com (if you order now, it will arrive in two to six weeks); www.bestbuy.com; and www.dyson.com. Available Monday at Target and Best Buy stores.
— Karen Klages
READ IT: The 39th edition of “Kovels’ Antiques & Collectibles Price List 2007” (Random House Reference, 900 pages, $19.95) has arrived in bookstores. Compiled and written by Ralph and Terry Kovel, the new edition offers a few new things. For one, there’s more content than ever before — about 45,000 prices for antiques and collectibles bought and sold in the American market. The price guide has been redesigned with tabs on the right-hand corner of pages for easier reference, Terry Kovel says. The price list has included Halloween collectibles for a few years; this year, however, there are more of them starting on Page 426, as the holiday inches up as the second most popular after Christmas. A reminder from Kovel: If you visit the Web site, www.kovels.com and register, you can have free access to the last five years of prices. “When the new book comes out, we put the old book on,” she says.
— Mary Daniels
VISIT IT: The team behind the Workroom Couture Home showroom, Joel Klaff and John Diekmann, invites the public to take a step back into the days of vintage Hollywood glamor as they premiere the latest offering for home during “Bachelor Pad Chic” from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday. They have used the finest wool and cashmere textiles in creating tailored draperies and custom bedding. Contemporary versions of Midcentury Modern furniture and accessories also will be shown. Workroom Couture Home is at 1906 W. Belmont Ave., 773-472-2140, www.workroominc.com.
–M.D.
SURF IT: Jayson Home and Garden (known for its urban chic home furnishings and its floral and garden center) has added an e-commerce site (www.jaysonhomeandgarden.com), which is great news for shoppers who can’t handle the not-so-chic urban traffic on Clybourn Avenue. The site, which recently went live, includes furniture, lighting, accessories and floral arrangements. Most of the items are stocked goods, but shoppers/surfers also will find one-of-a-kind pieces in the Rare Finds category.
–K.K.
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ebotts@tribune.com, kklages@tribune.com, mdaniels@tribune.com
