"What? Seriously? That is so cool!"

Do you recognize this house? Probably not. It could be anybody's. But in this case, not just anybody's. This is the home of Amy Grant and Vince Gill.

Why am I posting this? Let me explain.


Chris Fekete, owner of Think Happy Stuff , was one of our vendor neighbors at the Dallas Market Center last year and we became fast friends. She was so taken by our story and loved our bags so much that she suggested she try and bring one to some people in Nashville who may be interested. And, since we are always interested in promoting our Laga bags wherever possible, of course we gave her one.

Well, what she told us next was that one of the main investors in her company is Amy Grant! "What? Seriously? That is so cool!" I gasped. "Wouldn't it be great if she really liked our Laga bag?"

Well, after becoming Facebook friends with Chris and chatting every now and again, I received an email from her saying that she had indeed given our bag to Amy. So guess what? SHE LOVED IT! And get this: she wanted to meet us! "What? Seriously? That is so cool!" I gasped again. "Wouldn't it be great if we could actually make that happen?"

Well, needless to say, we started brainstorming as to how we COULD make that happen. Our next show was to be in Houston, Texas and, after making sure the timing would work out, we made arrangements to fly over to Nashville right after.

Thanks to Chris' intervention, we were so graciously invited by her friends Chip & Jen Nietfeld to come and stay in the guest room over their garage in Franklin for our first-ever trip to Tennessee... "What? Seriously? That is so cool!" I gasped for a third time. We were so excited to have another opportunity to see Chris, to actually meet her family (that is a whole other story I'll have to share with you another time!), friends and hometown which we had heard so much about.


We had an amazing time in Franklin. If you ever get the chance to visit, we highly recommend it! What a beautiful, quaint little town! We met Chris' family and friends. Roy was invited to play his guitar at Kimbro's Pickin' Parlor with Chip and their other musician friends... "What? Seriously? That is so cool!" They had a blast!


The following day, Chris drove us out to Nashville to meet with Amy Grant at her home (now, that should explain the reason I posted the first picture).

Amy met us at the door and welcomed us with a big hug. She offered us something to drink and then went into the kitchen to make us a cup of coffee. As we were waiting, Vince Gill came into the room... "What? Seriously? That is so cool!" He couldn't stay long because they had just finished building a recording studio in their home and he was doing their first recording there and he had a bunch of people waiting for him. But he did stay long enough for me to take a picture of he and Amy together.


We are so blessed for the opportunity to share our Laga story with Amy. She was so impressed with what we were doing for the people of Aceh. She asked a lot of questions, made a few great suggestions for us and asked how she could help. "What? Seriously? That is so cool!" Now it's just up to us to figure out what she can help us that would have the most impact!



"What? Seriously? That is so cool!"

Thanks, Chris! You are the best! And we encourage you all to check out Chris' website: www.thinkhappystuff.com. She has some really amazing products that will make your day!

Oh, and we'll make sure to let you know what comes of this great opportunity with Amy...

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/