The funky boutique shop at the start of the Post Road -- Hazel Daze -- is about to celebrate its first-year anniversary.
"It's been a good year," owner Lib DeNure said.
A good year, and one that's brought a bit of change to the little shop.
"We've gone toward a lot more fair trade items," DeNure told Patch Thursday.
One of the newest fair trade lines the shop sells is called Beads for Learning -- bracelets made out of Zulu grass by Masai tribe members in Tanzania and Kenya.
The proceeds go toward teachers' salaries in rural Kenya -- one bracelet sale can help hundreds of students, DeNure said.
"I love to give back," DeNure said -- and helping the poor tribe members sell their wares in the US in a way that they benefit from the proceeds is one method of giving back.
DeNure actually met members of the Masai tribe on a mission trip through First Church Congregational a few years ago.
"It was an amazing experience," she said. She helped teach English and build water towers in Tanzania.
"That's when we learned about these loving, generous, beautiful people," she said. "It puts everything in perspective."
DeNure's "big dream" is to travel around the world and bring back similar fair trade items to benefit citizens from all over.
She recently visited her son Nick in China, where he teaches English, and brought back some owl-shaped bags and bracelets made by street vendors.
"I want to find these things made by real, local artisans and bring them back here."
For now, Hazel Daze has become a vendor through which local artists and jewelry makers sell their wares.
DeNure also takes care to sell products made from recycles items, like clocks made from vintage record albums, bags made from recycled juice boxes and rice sacks, and accessories made from old bike parts.
The boutique will celebrate its one-year anniversary on June 7 with an after-hours wine tasting -- details to come.
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