Show Updates! Equine Advocates

The show went well yesterday; again, much of the proceeds went to help nationally acclaimed horse activist group, Equine Advocates. I was introduced to the two founders of the organization, incredible sisters Susan and Karen. They were two of the nicest people I've ever met and you could tell how passionate they are about what they're doing for these animals. They brought a heartbreaking video about their safe haven for horses, which you can learn about on their web site above. The before and after images of the creatures they rescued are just tear-jerking and I'm so happy that these horses were given a better life. Below are the pieces I made specifically for the show to donate proceeds to the Advocates.

I wish I had gotten a better photograph of this...

I donated these two hand-made, hand-painted ornaments to the Equine Advocates. I hope they sold! The show went much later into the evening than I could stay, so I'm not sure how the rest of it turned out. It was pretty quiet while I was there.


Again, the group is a wonderful one. Any donation is tax-deductible, of course, and it goes to help animals who have suffered cruelty at the hands of horrible people. Some of the animals that this organization has rescued were literally snatched off the butcher's block. Really terrible to think about.

Do you have a cause that is near and dear to your heart? I'd love to hear about it,

along with ways that I can help. Together, we can make a difference!

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Earth Hour

Image from NASA*

Tonight at 8:30 PM, wherever you are, is Earth Hour. People all over the planet are encouraged to turn out their lights for at least 60 minutes in order to preserve power, to commit to greener ways of living, and to help spread environmental awareness. You can find more information about Earth Hour at its official web site.

We'll be turning off all our lights and enjoying a movie (classic sci-fi film Metropolis, to be precise) in the dark tonight. I know it's still using some electricity, but it's drastically cutting our normal usage. Our computers will also be going off. (Gasp gaspeth!)

So please join millions of us in turning off the light switches tonight for our beautiful blue planet.

* Image is from NASA's Visible Earth and is free to use.

Earth Song - Michael Jackson

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Birthday celebrations 2011

But first, just a quick reminder: my birthday bracelet giveaway ends in less than 24 hours! Go to the post and leave a comment if you want a chance to win. :3

We had the brunt of our celebration today. I wanted to go down into Niagara Falls to a bead store and go to the Niagara Aquarium for my birthday. Things didn't turn out quite as we'd expected, but it was a lot of fun!

After a rather fruitless search, we discovered that the bead store I'd found online doesn't actually sell beads anymore. This happens from time to time, and it was a little disappointing, but I knew that we were still going to the aquarium and the day was not ruined! We just had a laugh at it and continued our journey.

Although the Niagara Aquarium is a small one, it has a lot of great exhibits.

Aren't his scales simply gorgeous?


















In fact, I really enjoyed all the colors and textures throughout the museum.

I'm just like a little kid, you know. XD Give me cute things or shiny things, and I am happy as heck! These turtles were adorable.

 We love crabs. :D

 
Although it was very dark in the tank, we could see how beautifully this guy could move. So graceful. And that rich red color!

An unexpected but very pleasant surprise was the tiny poison-dart frog exhibit. I love these little guys, so I spent a lot of time walking around and around the tank. They are colored just like jewels...






There was a great little exhibit on West Coast Amerindians.

Look, scrimshaw!

Speaking of scrimshaw, this section was devoted to the unfortunate effects of hunting sea animals for their meat and body parts. Here was a display on turtle hunting. Very beautiful things in there, but very sad.

 As we were leaving, I saw this huge bin of tumbled stones. Like I said, I'm just like a kid and can't resist shiny things. XD I grabbed a little baggy full and intend to wire-wrap these in the near future. My favorite are the spotted stones. They look just like the poison dart frogs, don't they??

Then my fiance took me to a winery on the Niagara Wine Trail to make up for the bead store. :3 However, I'll post those pictures tomorrow because this post is already pretty long. Hope you're all having a great weekend, too! <3

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Cheaper and greener ways to display: Necklaces

In my research on jewelry display and tips on doing craft shows, I came across a lot of brilliant resources. One of the things I've been concerned about is display. This is because, on etsy, you can pretty much just lay your jewelry on a piece of construction paper and click! You're done. Not so for craft shows, it takes a lot more to make your jewelry appeal to a live audience. You also want to present yourself in certain ways that don't easily transfer from screen to table. I learned this from my first show experience, too, which was at a craft show/garage sale at our summer camp. I was woefully underprepared for that, and sometime later I will share a list of lessons learned. But today, today I'd really like to show you some amazing necklace display ideas that other crafters in the wide world have come up with to solve their display challenges.

* All of these particular projects were found  on the Home Jewelry Business Success Tips website by Rena Klingenberg. Simply click on the crafter's name or the picture to be directed to the tutorial pages.

This first one is simple and classic. It was created by a crafter named Bea Graansma. She shows us how to make a very chic and professional-looking display that anyone on the other side of the table would think is store-bought.

Next is a simpler display, but it too is charming. It also provides many ways to utilize recycled materials, making it a very green option. Rebecca Compton is responsible for this stroke of genius.

The last, and by far the fanciest, idea for necklace display was created by jewelry-maker/artist named Carolina Gonzalez. If you are also an artist, or you have an artist friend that you can request a favor from, this is a fantastic way to display jewelry!

I hope that some of these ideas might come in handy; I definitely found them useful and will be employing one or two of them in my table layout for sure! It's also nice to know that you don't have to spend a fortune on good displays and can help save the environment at the same time by choosing greener options.


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