Congratulations to the Recent Grads! Let the Gift Giving Begin!

This weekend kicked off a season of graduations! We're celebrating taking the next step in life with gifts of course! That's what make graduations so fun! But we're thinking ahead. We're thinking about classic styles that will be used every day with love and care. We're thinking about accessories that help our young Grads look and feel the part as they step into interviews, new jobs, travel around the world, and ultimately—making their dreams come true! Every little bit helps!! So here are our picks from the Alicia Klein Collection. We still remember our first brief cases, passport covers, wallets and purses that the Alicia Klein crew got from our loving family and friends. We hope these pieces last a life time too and carry our Graduates far!

The Ellen

The elegant, classic design includes padded zippered security pockets for electronics, protecting your MacBook Air or iPad. For the chic woman on the go!

Business Envelope

An elegant and perfect portfolio with pockets for business cards, pens, and anything else you need on hand while taking meetings, going on interviews and generally dressing to impress!

Colette

A beautiful bag in a classic style that will last forever and go with everything!

Purse Envelope

This perfect envelope purse makes for eclectic clutch or a keeper of your most precious keepsakes. Line up your collection on the bookshelf and mix and match colors for the perfect collection.

Tablet Wristlet

A gorgeous leather wristlet clutch that is padded to fit and protect a tablet but also doubles as an adorable clutch. The perfect travel accessory for traveling light.

The Cross Body E-Pouch

This is perfect for carrying your tablets and readers on a commute and even a longer journey. The perfect professional version of a vertical messenger.

The Phone Case Clutch

This piece was made for every occasion! You can use it with the strap as a cross body clutch. It fits a compact point and shoot camera. It makes a great wallet and, of course, the perfect phone case ready to clip onto to your bag or brief case. The Phone Case includes an adjustable shoulder strap in matching leather, an external, gusseted zipper pocket and an open internal pocket.

Tablet Sleeve in Black

Classic, beautiful and durable leather case padded for tablets. Perfect for looking professional every day! Great for Graduates on the go and making things happen!!

The Hollywood Tote

A touch of glamour and classic style makes this the perfect brief case for carrying everything from laptops to lipstick!  Perfect for work and travel with a dedicated tunnel pocket to secure it to your suitcase.

A Classic Card Case

This wallet in genuine ostrich leather is a timeless gesture and a beautiful piece to always carry. Simplicity is classic when it has everything you need.

The Vertical Brief

A brief case that doubles as a backpack. Perfect for work and travel with a dedicated tunnel pocket to secure it to your suitcase. Everything needed for a day in the office or a day out in the world.

Business Card Holders

Now that they're moving on in the world, it's the perfect time to think about Business Cards! These make a perfect gift for College and Grad School Graduates!

OWL Recycled® & Deb Eiseman Featured on TODAY with Kathie Lee and Hoda!

OWL Recycled® & Deb Eiseman featured on TODAY with Kathie Lee and Hoda!

Imagine our elation and surprise when we found out we were going to be part of the Green Week features on the TODAY Show with Kathie Lee and Hoda.

It feels great to see that our efforts and as the reasons behind them are getting attention and helping to build awareness that we're entering a whole new world of materials for fashion and accessories!
 
When we began our journey with OWL Recycled, our goal was to create products and develop practices that could open up healing opportunities for our beautiful planet.

Partnering with Deb Eiseman was the natural choice. Her work embodies healing. It sets the intention to focus on the positives, and embrace Peace, Love, Harmony and Play. Pairing Deb's artwork with our accessories reminds us to be present in our intention to Renew and Sustain our planet and ourselves. These pieces reflect our inner beauty and the natural self while highlighting the choices we are making to help create a bright and beautiful future for our planet.

We began making our Taxi Wallets with recycled leather and have been among the first to use 100% RECYCLED FABRICS for our OWL® collection.

100% post-consumer PET plastic is spun from yesterday's discarded containers and water bottles into clean new fibers for our FELT and POLYCANVAS textiles.

PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate), is a form of polyester used to make strong, lightweight, shatter-resistant bottles for soft drinks, water, juice and numerous other food or non-food products.

We have chosen to embrace these materials because it takes plastic in landfills 700 YEARS to decompose! Thirty-one million tons of plastic waste were generated in 2010, and nearly 14 million tons were potentially recyclable plastic containers and packaging. That's a lot of plastic! The more plastic we can divert from landfills and to creative reuse, the better. We believe our colorful and useful felt products, and our rugged polycanvas items, are a great way to recycle, renew and sustain!

TODAY SHOW Favorites!

The Foldover Tote

Kind to the planet, the Foldover Tote is colorful way to stay organized while on the go. This useful bag can be carried two different ways: by the handle as a roomy shopper tote, or folded over and slung cross-body like a messenger bag. One interior pocket big enough for a tablet computer. Use the Foldover Tote for just about anything, from farmers' market finds to yoga, to a trip to the beach. It's machine washable! Made from 100% recycled water bottles.

Dimensions: 16.25" wide x 14" high x 3.5" deep. Handles have a 6" drop. Removable and adjustable shoulder strap.

Felt+Cork Vertical Messenger Bag

Light as air and perfect for work and play, our vertical messenger is both practical and pretty. It's perfect for when we hit the trail, bike to work, or just need a great all purpose bag.  The front is embroidered with Deb Eiseman's artwork to bring beauty and inspiration to every day!
Dimensions: 10”W x 11.5”H x 2.75”D

Felt+Cork Vertical Messenger Bag Features:

• Attractive sustainable cork fabric details on felt made from 100% recycled water bottles
• Secure Velcro closure for front flap
• Adjustable nylon webbing long strap allows the bag to be carried comfortably over the shoulder or cross-body
• Top grab handle for easy and comfortable carrying by hand
• Large main compartment
• Interior secure tablet pocket with velcro closure
• Two smaller interior pockets
• Two pen loops

iPad Case

Even your beloved iPad can go OWL!  Protective and colorful, with inspiring Deb Eiseman artwork, our recycled felt cover adds virtually no weight to your tablet. We placed zippered pocket on back for i-accessories, made it machine washable, and just to right size to fit all generations of full-size iPads.  We want this cover to last forever!

Dimensions: 11.5" wide x 9.25" high x 1.5" deep

Zip-Top Pouch

Weightless zipper pouch featuring fresh and positive Deb Eiseman artwork! Colorful, WASHABLE, it'll keep everything from extra computer cords to makeup all neat and organized. And it will keep some plastic bottles out of the landfill, too! Fits beautifully in an OWL Felt tote!

Dimensions: 9.25" wide x 6" high x 1.25" deep

Win A Gift Certificate for OWL Recycled by Alicia Klein!

When we started OWL Recycled by Alicia Klein, every day became Earth Day! It was the beginning of us making deep changes in how we approached design and the materials we use to manifest our beautiful visions!

The OWL® collection of recycled leather and recycled nylon accessories was conceptualized around using 100% recycled materials. Yesterday's discarded water bottles and food containers have been spun into clean new fibers. Post industrial scrap leather has been diverted from landfills and made into beautifully and safely finished recycled leather. The more we recycle, the less we waste and the more land is saved for green space!

To Enter, all you have to do is one or all of the following:

1. Sign Up for the Alicia Klein Mailing List in the form below. Don't worry, we only send out mail when we have special gifts and goodies and amazing discounts.
2. Tweet about your favorite eco accessories with the hashtag #OwlRecycledGreenWeek.
3. Repin Images from our Green Week Giveaway Board on Pinterest with Owl Recycled Green Week Giveaway in the description area.
4. Stop by our Facebook Page and Comment on our Owl Recycled Green Week Giveaway album and cover photo (just click on the page banner to get to the comment box).

The more you enter, the better your chances of winning!

Our Green Week Giveaway closes on Wednesday, May 5th, 2013 at 9:00 am PST. Ten winners will be picked and notified by May 12th, 2013.

Thank to all of you for being a part of our journey into a beautiful future!

We Have A Green Dream and Dreams Can Come True!

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Time to Get Organized, Energized and Say “Hello Spring”!

Did you know that the Solar New Year—what we call January 1st—is a relatively recent time to turn over the yearly calendar and call for a fresh start. For thousands of years many cultures have looked towards the Lunar New Year—what we think of as Chinese New Year—to embrace renewal and rejuvenation! This has always made so much sense to us! Over the last twenty years, we've spent a lot of time traveling in Asia and have really gotten into the habit of seeing spring as the beginning of our year. So much of the last three months has been dedicated to finishing up the loose ends of 2012, and now we're ready to plant seeds and watch them grow!

Spring is in full force. The air is full of cherry blossoms chasing any and every breeze. We're swimming in April showers, and everything from poppies to jasmine to tulips are blooming in abundance. All this yummy energy and green-ness is making us want to stretch our limbs, burst into color and get ready to grow.

Right now ideas are sparking left and right as we start to thaw out a little and embrace these longer days! Lists are a must! We like to rock the digital and analog, so we're already filling up Padfolios left and “write.” We carry a Padfolio with us everywhere so we can sketch designs, jot down blog ideas and be ready take notes in impromptu meetings. We love the organic and tactile process of writing by hand because it takes us to such an artistic space! But we always transfer our ideas and lists into our Google Calendar and Docs so we can schedule reminders and sync up with the team. It's always easier to make meet our goals and stay on schedule with a little helping hand, and that, friends, is why the internet made Google.

Remember “List Making” is not only a great excuse to capture those fleeting moments of perfect creativity and get organized for implementation, it's a great excuse to throw out old ideas as well. Before we make our master “To Do” list for optimizing all this great spring energy, we take a morning to meditate for 30 minutes to an hour and then review our resolutions, our goals and our action plan for reaching them. Sometimes it's hard, but we try to be super honest about what’s working, where we might be stalled and where we need to go back to the drawing board. Staying flexible is the best way to extend ourselves farther than we've gone before and grow from seedlings to giant trees.

Lighten Up and Embrace Spring Cleaning Fever! It's time to get rid of clutter inside and out! We have a clear head from taking all our great ideas and putting them our sketch book, so the next step is to take advantage of all this great energy.

This year we have a slightly different approach to cleaning house because we've become obsessed with Upcycling. We are putting extra time and attention towards finding homes for items that are still perfectly usable. Craigslist is a great resource for helping things go to a nice new home. There are so many local artisans recycling textiles, reupholstering furniture, and finding creative ways to renew household objects. So one of our lists is full of items we are posting in the “free” section of Craigslist. We will also be making our yearly donation to Wardrobe for Opportunity. This is a great destination for nice clothes that, realistically, you might have worn once and will never wear again. We're making room in our closet and hopefully helping someone dress for success in a great job.

After we've gotten rid of the old, it's time to add a little sparkle and fill our home and office with freshness.

There is nothing like feeling wild to fuel creativity! And there is nothing like going natural to help us feel a little wild!

Fill your house with green goodness! Go seed crazy and collect cuttings! We have a whole table of basil and rosemary and heirloom treats from our neighbor. They're great for bringing brightness to any space, and we actually prefer them to cut flowers because they keep on living!

This year we're going essential:  We've been gradually looking at the products we use and seeing how they can be more natural.

1. Lavender Essential Oil is a must. It's really healing and can be used as cologne (strangers literally stop and tell me how good I smell).
2. Eucalyptus, Clove, Rosemary, Tea Tree, Neem, and Peppermint (which is amazing for headaches) are great essential oils to keep around the house.
3. Tea Tree Oil and Neem are amazing antiseptics and Neem can also be used in mulch to fortify plants susceptible to mites and mold.
4. Rosemary can be mixed with water as a countertop cleaner (it's a key ingredient to Mrs Myers) and you can use the essential oil in fresh lemon and lime peels when you wash your hands.

Here is a great little guide to read before diving into essential oils.

Whole Foods has a great selection for household experimentation, but for personal use we love Floracopeia. They are pretty much the Chanel of the botanical world.

(photo from Dolce & Gabbana Spring 2013 collection)

So now that our world is bright and beautiful and we smell bright and beautiful, we can dive into color and look bright and beautiful!

And since one of the of the reasons we have to spring clean is to make room for new goodies, we have a great excuse to go shopping and indulge in some of the botanical collections designers have grown for our pleasure.

The only thing better than getting flowers is wearing them. Wearing bright colors lifts the spirit. A little light blue is like touching the sky. Wearing a bag in pink makes us feel like a fresh bloom. So not only will we be bringing ourselves outside for more time in the garden, we're going to be cultivating a wardrobe that celebrates color. From Stella McCartney to Dolce & Gabbana, bright colors and floral flare are making for a super fresh spring season!

Phone Case Giveaway!

To celebrate our wonderful Alicia Klein community, we're giving away a Limited Edition Phone Case in Licorice or Toffee color to 5 lucky Facebook friends. These classic colors go with every outfit and are a perfect fit for day in day out use.  

The Phone Case is one of our most divisible pieces. You can use it with the strap as a cross body clutch. It fits a compact point and shoot camera. It makes a great wallet and, of course, the perfect phone case ready to clip onto to your bag or brief case.  The Phone Case includes an adjustable shoulder strap in matching leather, an external, gusseted zipper pocket and an open internal pocket. Fully lined with bright, contrasting ultrasuede.  We're giving away 5 cases in Licorice or Toffee, but the Phone Case also comes in Apple Red, Plum, Tangerine, and Winter White.

We're excited to give back to all of our wonderful friends out there.  After all, there is no Alicia Klein without you, and we are so grateful for your continued support.

Want up to 4 chances to win? All you have to do is one or all of the following:

1. Sign Up for the Alicia Klein Mailing List in the form below. Don't worry—we only send out mail when we have special gifts and goodies and amazing discounts.
2. Tweet about it with the hashtag #AliciaKleinPhoneCase.
3. Pin the image on Pinterest with Alicia Klein Phone Case Giveaway in the description area.
4. Stop by our Facebook and Comment on our Phone Case Giveaway cover photo (just click on the page banner to get to the comment box).

We will pick 5 winners at random on Friday, April 5th 2013 at 9:00 am PST.

Thanks again for being the best community ever!

Enter to Win!

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