Pauley Perrette

OK, so we met Pauley at an HUMC event we did about 3 years ago. Here's how it went:

We had been invited by our dear friend, Rae Sowell, to set up a table in the fellowship hall in the back of the church and sell our Laga bags. It was to be an "alternative" Christmas boutique as it was held sometime in October. It was pretty cool because, during the service, Reverend Kathy introduced us and requested the congregation to be sure and visit us in the back after the service.

Anyway, people were coming in and browsing through our bags and we were telling everyone the story behind how we got started. Most people were buying our smaller handbags and wallets. But then this girl came over and started oohing and aahing over our bags. She was picking up three or four of our bigger bags and asking her friend what she thought of them. I didn't really think she was gonna buy all the bags she was holding but lo and behold, she came over and said, "I'll take these." She must have had about 6 bags and two were the large travelers. Nice sale, I thought!

As I was taking her information, I looked at her driver's license and it didn't have an address. I always make sure to get all the information and asked her why she didn't have an address on her DL. She just casually stated, "I'm a public person, I never give out my address, for security reasons." I thought to myself, "what the heck is a public person?" but of course didn't say anything out loud. I just thought it a bit odd.

Anyway, her friend came over to buy two more bags and just to make conversation, I asked her what she did for a living. She pointed to the first girl and said, "I'm her personal assistant." Hmmmmm.... At the risk of sounding really stupid, I asked her, "who is she?" And she answered, "she's Pauley Perrette, she plays Abby on NCIS."

OK, by this point I should have known who she was but unfortunately I never watched that show. :(

My husband was standing behind me and I heard him blurt out, "I KNEW IT!"

Anyway, to make a long story short, Pauley was buying our bags to give out as Christmas presents to her family. We asked if we could take a few pictures with her and she was very kind to agree.



We've done the event at HUMC twice after this and each time Pauley has been so supportive... the following year my husband Roy wanted to be in the picture with her:

She has become one of Laga's staunch supporters, as is Rae and Rev. Kathy and Angela and many others at HUMC. We thank them heartily for giving us the opportunity to share our mission with them and for always being so kind to invite us to be a part of their HUMC family!

Finally an update from Laga!

So, it's been just waaaay too long since I started this blog and I'm feeling a little guilty about that. But in fairness, I've been absolutely crazy busy with the business of Laga! Knowing that blogging is an important part of getting the Laga story out to everyone, I am now committed to spending the time I need to do a lot more here.

Gosh, where to start is a daunting thing. Soooo much has happened since we started Laga. And the last post was from back in 2008... wow! It's hard to believe I let this sit for so long! OK, enough of the guilts... I'm back!

We finished 2008 with about 50 home show consultants. This is the way we started our business: through home parties. This was an amazing way to start... it gave us a platform to tell the Laga story, sharing the stories of the people who were so devastatingly affected by the 2004 earthquake and tsunami that literally rocked the world! We just were so blessed to be involved with such a "giving back" kind of project.

It was also in 2008 that we started participating in the wholesale trade show circuit. We began with Accessories The Show in Las Vegas, and then we grew into Accessories The Show in New York, Dallas Market Center, AmericasMart in Atlanta, San Francisco Gift Show, LA Mart and the New York International Gift Show. We got the attention of retailers all over the United States, as well as some outside the US such as Japan, Great Britain, Australia, Canada and Puerto Rico.

To quickly bring you up-to-date, we have now been selling our Laga bags in close to 400 retailer shops and we have almost 80 home show consultants. Can you believe it? When I look back, it's even difficult for me to believe what we've done in such a short amount of time.

In 2010, we have been blessed to have been exposed to yet another segment of society: celebrities.

To date, we have had enthusiastic endorsements from:

Pauley Perrette (actress, "Abby" of NCIS)

Mikalah Gordon (singer, season 4 finalist of American Idol)










Jimmy Palumbo (comedian, and his wife Stephanie, who is one of our Laga Consultants)

Amy Grant (singer, married to Vince Gill)

and Whitney Houston! (unfortunately, we were unable to take a picture with her but we'll be meeting with her again soon and be sure to check the celebrity magazines as she is sporting our large Laga Harapan handbag!)

What a wonderful response we have received to our Laga handbags, a traditional artform handmade in the area of Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia. We are the first to bring this amazing artwork, indigenous to the Aceh area, to light in a major way here in the United States. And we are proud that we have been able to play a part in history having started with a small factory of 12 and now being able to help nearly 300 people with sustainable incomes.

The Laga Saga will continue. This I promise you...

http://www.laga-handbags.com/