Stephanie

October 26, 2013May 23, 2023

Getting crafty for a cause

Last year, a lot of independent preschools and daycares in Arizona were hit hard with new fees from the state, including the not-for-profit preschool and kindergarten that my mom runs in Mesa.

To keep things afloat, Mom got crafty. She organized a craft fair fundraiser with handmade items, food, and products from local businesspeople. The school raised money from the entry fees and vendors were allowed to keep the profits from the items sold at their booths. Win-win.

It was such a hit, she’s doing it again!

For any Phoenix-area crafters/vendors who would like to participate, you can download the application PDF here. (Submit it by Novemeber 1st to avoid late registration fees.) Everyone else can come and shop on November 9.

I debuted my Bon Collage brand of handmade and upcycled gift items, including mini-journals, fancy bobby pins, gift tags, and a holiday spice mix. Admittedly, I have not done much with Bon Collage since then, but it will probably make another appearance. (And one of these days, I’ll be able to put more time into it.)

If you are out of state and would still like to help, you can make a donation by contacting Trinity Church.

October 23, 2013

3 Denver sites not to overlook

I reached out to bring in some fresh voices while I’m out of town this week and give you recommendations on what they think you should see if you visit the Denver area.

From Greg of MarketingPress:

Denver is one of our favorite cities to visit any time of year. As a music fan, Red Rocks (in Morrison 15 minutes out of the city limits) has to be a must on everyone’s list.

If God were to build an ampitheater, he would would model it after Red Rocks.

Blue Bear at Colorado Convention Center — Photo by JefferyTurner.

Jingjing, who we introduced to camping, recommends you make a friend on your trip:

If you plan to go to Denver, don’t forget to say “hi” to the big blue bear who is standing in front of the Colorado Convention Center and trying to peep at what’s happening inside. I want to let you know that the blue bear is 10,000 pounds and 40 feet high! So, go and catch him!

Mother Cabrini Shrine near Denver, Colorado — Photo by designsbykari.

Lori of Lavender Luz is a Denver-area local, who wanted to share this perfect moment from a visit to the Mother Cabrini Shrine:

I enjoy coming up here for clarity. I came once years ago with a group of spiritually seeking women on gloriously perfect late-summer Sunday and I reflected on myself as a once barren place, then flowing with new motherhood. The sky was so blue that day, the clearest blue imaginable. I could look out over my beautiful city in one direction, and into higher mountains in the other. Crisp colors of a perfect world.I had a moment of being anchored in something firm and everlasting.

You may also like to check out my earlier posts on the Denver Botanic Gardens and our Colorado Road Trip this summer.

October 19, 2013October 17, 2013

Making gift bags at Craft Hack

Showing my Craft Hack group how to make gift bags last month was a lot of fun! It turned out to be a collaborative experience (which I love!) with crafters coming up with their own techniques and helping each other out. A few even brought supplies to supplement what I had.

We started with regular paper lunch bags and used paper crafting techniques to make them gift worthy!

I always love the simplicity and down-to-earth look of brown paper. (I’ve even incorporated the look into my Bold Avenue branding.) It can be such a great backdrop to highlight colorful elements. But I’ve been on even more of a brown paper bag craft kick lately with this and the paper sack travel journals and a few other projects I’ve been wanting to make but haven’t squeezed in yet.

In addition to the classic brown lunch sacks, I brought red paper bags that I had picked up at Target. (If I remember correctly, they also sell blue, white, black, and maybe green ones, but it might depend on the time of year.) Red is such a great color for so many holidays – it can work with an autumn palette or go Christmasy.

I love how everyone drew inspiration from the tools and materials – deciding to stencil leaves, incorporate gold paper for a more festive look, cut out patterns from scrapbook paper, or create a collage.

I hope whatever gifts they place inside these bags will be a little more special because of the heart they put into the wrapping.

Top photo by Anne Watson Barber.

October 16, 2013October 17, 2013

When tourism brings exploitation

It’s easier to think about only the positive aspects of travel and ignore the negative impact tourism can sometimes bring. But ignoring it doesn’t make it go away.

Tourists tend to have money to spend, maybe even more than the local population. It’s not just restaurants and souvenir shops that look to profit from the influx of cash, people who exploit children also follow the tourism money. A larger event brings in more cash-flush visitors looking for a good time and more potential for human trafficking into the area.

Brazil is second only to Thailand in the number of underage prostitutes, an estimated 500,000. Tourism fuels this industry, and Brazil is a popular destination for many reasons, including Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. With the addition of two global-scale events – World Cup Soccer in 2014 and the Rio Olympics in 2016 – the problem could increase exponentially.

While the Brazilian government has been working to reduce underage prostitution in recent years, there is also a grassroots, primarily volunteer-run network of Brazilian non-governmental agencies, RENAS, which is working to fight sexual violence against minors. Their Bola Na Rede campaign is focused specifically on the World Cup.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsCGmkSs8vs

I heard about this from my friend Michel Duarte, who is moving his family back to his home country of Brazil to join this effort. He showed this video about RENAS and the Bola Na Rede campaign at my church. My heart broke when I learned how widespread the problem was and how such beautiful events, like the Olympics, can also bring opportunity for something as horrible as exploiting young girls and boys.

Since then, I’ve been thinking about what we can do, even if we’re not going to Brazil. Financial support is a good start.

Maybe it’s just my overdeveloped sense of responsibility, but I feel maybe there is more.

Cover of a guide to protecting children from sexual violence from the Bola Na Rede’s resources section.

We can stop ignoring the problem and raise awareness. If you know someone going to Brazil, you can let them know they can report human rights abuses, including suspected incidences of underage prostitution, by dialing 100 for a government hotline.

We can also resist the xenophobia that says people of other cultures are less smart, less important, more flawed than we are. When people make comments that stereotype or imply others are lesser beings, it’s easier to ignore the comment and move on. I’ve been guilty of this. Maybe that’s part of the problem, part of the thinking that allows us to believe that children and teens who live faraway are different than our neighbors, that they deserve less dignity than our sisters, daughters, nieces.

Maybe fighting for human rights abroad starts at home.

Visit the Duartes’ page to subscribe to their newsletter and learn more ways to get involved.

I’m participating in Blog Action Day ’13. Read more articles on Human Rights from bloggers around the world at blogactionday.org.

October 13, 2013October 13, 2013

Can you be too focused?

This past week I was swamped with putting out fires for Ignite. (Okay, yes, I hear the irony in that sentence now.) Just when I thought the hard stuff was done, several tasks that seemed straightforward ended up getting complicated to the point they seemed to take up most of my week.

The thing is I can get so locked into a project that I let almost everything else fall by the wayside. Instead of making progress on other projects or creative work, I want to wait until I can switch to that “mode” before I even think about them.

If (for example) I have 4 posts that are almost finished, I can get so focused on The Big Thing I am working on that I don’t just take a few minutes to get one posted (which may have something to do with my radio silence last week). This goes for other creative endeavors, as well. Instead of working on part of a craft project, it may just sit on the shelf until I feel like I have enough time (whatever that means) to work on it.

There are definitely times when I’m easily distracted and just flit from one thing to another. I counteract this tendency by going into tunnel vision mode when I’m really ready to get to work on something. The bigger/more urgent the project the more I am laser-focused on it – to the detriment of other things I need to do.

Finding some kind of balance would be good.

How do you focus without going into complete tunnel vision mode? Have you found a way to get things done in smaller increments without getting totally distracted from the major project(s) you’re working on?