Happy Hobby Hour Junior

25/09/2026

100 pieces. One packaging challenge. A lot of thinking. ♻️

Preparing 100 jewellery pieces for wholesale isn’t just about getting them into a box.

How do you:
→ protect 100 pieces in transit
→ reduce parcel size
→ use less packaging
→ keep postage and waste down
→ still give the customer a great experience?

This is where circular thinking can make sense for a small business.

And this is actually how Deals Colony evolved into a circular business model.

Selling in bulk pushed us to create a strict quality-check process — every piece inspected before it reaches the customer.

With 4,000+ reviews across multiple platforms, that process became more than quality control.

Some pieces were broken or simply not ready to sell.

Instead of sending them to waste, we started repurposing them through Happy Hobby Hour workshops, turning unwanted pieces into opportunities to create, learn and experiment.

Quality check → identify waste → repurpose → create new value.

That’s circular economy thinking in practice.

You don’t always need a huge sustainability project.

Sometimes it starts with 10 pieces, one packaging problem and a different way of thinking.

💡 Small/micro business: what is one thing you could reuse, reduce or redesign in your business this week?

If you’re looking for wholesale 50+ pieces, practical packaging ideas or circular business solutions, let’s connect.

25/09/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1F4ercBHMG/?mibextid=wwXIfr

🚨 School Holidays: E-Bike & E-Scooter Safety Reminder 🚨

With school holidays here and more young people out and about on e-bikes and e-scooters, now is a great time for parents and children to familiarise themselves with Queensland's updated laws.

✅ Always wear an approved helmet
✅ Follow speed limits and road rules
✅ Stay alert and avoid mobile phone use while riding
✅ Never ride under the influence of alcohol or drugs
✅ Be respectful of pedestrians and other path users

Parents, please take a few minutes to discuss these rules with your children before they head out. Understanding the law helps keep everyone safe and can help avoid significant fines.

Let's work together to ensure a safe and enjoyable school holiday period for all. 🛴🚲☀️

10/09/2026

R U OK? 💛
Today is a good reminder that sometimes people aren’t looking for another motivational quote.

They’re thinking:
“I wish someone could help me figure this out.”

Maybe you’re building something for yourself, your family, your community or the environment.

Maybe you have an idea but don’t have the right people, skills, resources or support around you yet.

That’s where Australia Circular Innovation Network™ can help.

Through our network, we can connect people, skills, ideas and resources to design a practical solution around where you are now — not 3 months or 1 year later.

💬 As part of our community innovation initiative, we’re offering:
40-minute FREE strategic conversations to explore what you’re building and what support could help.

And, where there’s a story worth sharing, we’ll also spotlight your journey through an article — helping others discover what’s possible.

Why?
Because not everyone is ready to invest their hard-earned money before they know what’s possible.

We believe in a gift-economy approach:
I contribute because it helps the community, not because I expect something back.

This is one way we’re creating more flexible career pathways, sharing opportunities and keeping the Zero Waste Movement moving — where no skill, story, resource or opportunity goes to waste.

And who knows?
Your idea might become the next Community Innovation Case Study that inspires someone else.

Our goal: 10,000 Community Innovation Case Studies before Brisbane 2032.
If you’re building something and thinking “I wish someone could help me with this…”

👉 Tell us your story.

Link in the comments.

04/09/2026

I’m on a pretty exciting journey right now — multiple projects are coming to life, and I’m loving how I’ve designed my business around circular economy and community innovation frameworks. 🌱♻️

Making my business fun, hands‑on, open to new opportunities, and meaningful has become the core of everything we build.

Last year, we co‑created an ESG + Sustainability Team Building Workshop with Happy Hobby Hour Junior, replacing the traditional Secret Santa with a hands‑on circular‑economy challenge.

Corporate teams didn’t just “learn about sustainability” — they practised it.

They explored ESG in action, circular gifting, and resource‑positive creativity, using repurposed garden waste and surplus materials to build new working prototypes. ♻️

Now we’re making the concept even easier for organisations to run.

🌱 ESG Kits — available to order

How it works

1️⃣ Tell us what you want your team to achieve

2️⃣ We design a personalised ESG activity kit around your theme

3️⃣ We send you the exact number of kits you need, matched to your budget, with simple step‑by‑step instructions for your facilitator and guests

4️⃣ Your team learns, creates, collaborates, and explores what’s possible when we design out waste

Your theme could be:
- Garden waste & composting
- Repair & reuse
- Sustainable packaging
- New product design
- Team collaboration
- Creativity & problem solving
- Sustainability learning
- Circular economy

You choose the outcome. We build the activity.
Impact Beyond the Workshop

Every kit purchased helps us fuel community innovation and create more meaningful opportunities across Australia’s Circular Innovation Network, as we work towards our goal of building 10,000 Community Innovation Case Studies before Brisbane 2032.

Ready to replace another forgettable “team activity” with something people actually learn from, build together, and keep talking about long after it’s done?

👉 Build your next team activity with us — DIY, or we can come to you!

04/09/2026

We all want to create more social value and community impact. But when you’re already busy running a business, the question is: HOW?

How do you actually turn sustainability, circular economy and “doing good” into something practical — without taking your whole team away for a full day?

This is exactly the kind of practical community impact through circular thinking that Deals Colony is passionate about

So we had to share it with our network. ♻️

We first connected with Sarah Woolmington from Impact Dragonfly through a Circular Economy module launch hosted by the Business Chamber Queensland, and this is exactly the kind of practical idea and collaboration we love to see, share and support.

We saw Sarah do an amazing job hosting the panel at the Pine Rivers Chamber of Commerce Brisbane 2032 Ready Breakfast Forum, and now she’s involved in another exciting initiative through The Goods.

FROM WASTE TO WATTS 🔋

The Goods x PowerWells Community Impact Workshop

The Goods brings together purpose-driven, B Corp Certified businesses working towards positive social and environmental outcomes.

PowerWells turns repurposed batteries into affordable, clean energy and light — powering homes, schools and futures.

Together, they’re hosting an open Community Impact Workshop where you can learn by doing.

In just a few hours you can:

🔋 Build your own PowerBank from scratch and take it home.

☀️ Work in a small team to build a PowerWell using repurposed batteries, recycled plastic, solar panels and LED lights.

❤️ Every PowerWell built on the day will be donated to communities in Far North Queensland.

🤝 Meet like-minded businesses.

💡 See what practical community impact can actually look like.

Your reward stays with you.

Your impact goes further.

And who knows?

One idea. One connection. One collaboration.

Could change what’s possible.

This is exactly why Deals Colony loves finding, sharing and supporting practical examples like this as part of our journey towards 10,000 Circular Innovation Case Studies before Brisbane 2032 through Australia’s Circular Innovation Network™.

📅 Friday, 11 September | 9:30am–12pm AEST

📍 Level 1, 100 Creek Street, Brisbane City

👉 The Goods x PowerWells Community Impact Workshop: Book your spot before registration closes

https://events.humanitix.com/the-goods-x-powerwells-community-impact-workshop

If circular economy, social value and practical community impact are on your radar, this is one to check out.

27/08/2026

GM HHHJ Community 👋

I thought I’d reshare this Pine Rivers Chamber of Commerce event because there are a few reasons it may be useful for our parents, grandparents, educators, small/micro-business owners and young people exploring business.

While the event isn't specifically for young people, every ticket sold helps support The Youth Development Foundation Limited (YDF) and their work creating employment, training and education pathways for young Queenslanders. ❤️

If you’re running a business, starting one, preparing for procurement or tender opportunities, or simply wanting to understand what you need to protect as you grow, this practical session covers:

🔐 AI & cyber security risks
🛡️ Privacy, data security & compliance considerations
💼 What successful businesses are doing differently in 2026
📑 Insights that can help as your business grows towards procurement opportunities
🤝 Networking and a live Q&A with industry experts

And if you're a parent, grandparent or educator supporting a young person with a business idea, these are useful conversations to understand early too.

📅 9 September
🍷 Drinks + nibbles + networking + practical learning

I’m sharing it because building stronger businesses while supporting better opportunities for young people is something worth getting behind.

👉 Check the original Pine Rivers Chamber of Commerce post for details and bookings.

Since 2014, YDF has supported over 8,000 young Queenslanders — helping almost 3,000 into employment and 500 back into education or further study.

Their support covers everything from accredited training, job readiness, and workplace traineeships, through to resume and interview prep, mentoring, and NDIS support — all designed to meet young people where they are and help them take their next step.

They also work closely with local employers, training organisations, and community services to create genuine pathways and opportunities for young people within the local community.

On the 9th of September, we are hosting our Future Ready: AI, Cyber Security & the Modern Business Forum, proudly sponsored by the team at CyberGuru.

Our business community is coming together to get across everything AI and cybersecurity mean for the modern business and every ticket makes a difference, with proceeds split between YDF and Chameleon Housing, supporting young people right here in our own community.

Learning for your business. Opportunity for our young people.

Make sure you are in the room!

https://cciqpinerivers.com.au/futureready/

23/08/2026

Behind these beautiful smiles and the banner we’re proudly posing with - is a story of last‑minute collaboration, community capability and people showing up when it matters.

What does Community Innovation actually look like behind the scenes?

Sometimes, it starts with a simple conversation, a real need and the right people willing to help.

At the recent Pine Rivers Chamber of Commerce (PRCC) Brisbane 2032 Ready Breakfast Forum, I was proud to stand beside our Australia Circular Innovation Network™ (CIN) banner.

But getting that banner there is actually a small example of what we’re building through CIN.

We’re creating a collaborative ecosystem around real needs, real projects and real capabilities.

CIN is about helping you explore what fits and connects the right people, skills and resources around it.

A huge shout‑out to Jo Pollard from Samford Design & Print for helping us bring our banner to life at the last minute while I was rushing around for school pickup. 🙏

Within 30 minutes, Jo understood our need, refined the message and graphics, and turned around the banner within 24 hours.

I met Jo through PRCC at one of the socials, and what a journey. Jo understood the community context, quickly translated our requirements into something practical, and delivered exactly when we needed it. This is the kind of external capability we love sharing with our CIN members — responsive, skilled and community‑minded.

That’s community innovation to me:
expertise + responsiveness + collaboration = something useful delivered when it matters.

A simple collaboration solved a real problem and created another Community Innovation case study in the process.

This is the kind of experience we want CIN members to have — a collaborative ecosystem built around real needs, not just networking.

And CIN is evolving with every project we work on together. Each collaboration helps us understand what our communities need, refine the model and build better pathways for the next person, business or organisation.

Sometimes the biggest barrier isn’t the lack of talent, ideas or resources, it’s simply not knowing whom to talk.

If you’re wondering whether there’s a pathway for your idea, skills, business, community project or career, let’s have a coffee and explore what might fit.

That’s the ecosystem we’re building through the Australia Circular Innovation Network™.

Grateful smiles — Also, thank you all for these beautiful smiles and poses with me. ❤️

14/08/2026

🚀 Big dreams start somewhere — Ruhaan once dreamed of interviewing the Prime Minister. Now he's turning screen time into skill time.

🎥 Watch the full interview: link in the 1st comment. | 💡 Have an idea worth spreading? Submit it for September school holidays.

13/08/2026

🚀 He started with just 50 kids and a big dream — interviewing the Prime Minister! 😂

Ruhaan didn't know how far HHHJ would go. He just started. 🎥 Full interview: link in the 1st comment. | 💡 Got an idea worth spreading? Submit it for September.

12/08/2026

💙 Sometimes young people don't need an immediate answer. They need someone to listen.

Ruhaan shares what he learned from facing bullying, media pressure and online challenges himself. 🎧 Full interview: link in the 1st comment. | 💡 Have an idea worth spreading? Submit it for September.