Freelance: Trade As One

It has been another crazy week around here, with no end in site. I am planning a huge Block Party (aka Quilting Bee) in October for the ministry that I started called Safe Blankets. We are partnering with Willow Creek Community Church's North Shore Campus for a day in which they are asking their congregation to "Just Serve" the community around them. There will be about 10 different places that they can volunteer at and Safe Blankets is going to be one of them!

Of course life is never that easy, by having just 1 iron in the fire, I also have my freelance that has picked up tremendously (which I love), which includes businesses, brides and new mothers, plus my son just started preschool! And of course I have been asked about teaching in more than one venue the Spiritual Art Journaling class that I just taught at Believers' Fellowship.

But while I had a free moment I did what to share with you some of the freelance work that I have been working on over the past couple months. All of these items I did for Trade As One, a fair trade company. Their mission statement as it all: Our mission is to use fair trade to promote sustainable business and break cycles of poverty and dependency in the developing world. We all have a conscience. We want to make sure people get the chance to use it when they shop.

They are an amazing group of people with hearts so big! I have enjoyed every moment of working with them, and I don't intend to stop anytime time soon. If you a chance take a look at their website they have a store right there so you can buy online or you can become a Fair Trader which is an advocate for fair trade, where you can host a party and educate people about the importance of fair trade. There are many other ways to get involved too so check out their site and learn more about their passion.

Renegade Craft Fair and a Texas Sized Sleepover

This time last weekend Renegade Craft Fair was in full swing here in Chicago. As usual I was blown away by the amount of vendors as well the talent they possessed. If you have never been to it I highly recommend making the trip for it. It spans 6 CITY blocks (3/4 of a mile long), there are booths down the center facing both sides so by the time you walk around the whole thing - it's over 1.5 mile of walking! It was a great weekend, not just because of the show, but because I got to have an "sleepover" with some friends from Texas who were accepted into the Renegade Show and needed a place to crash. Cheyne from Cut Out and Collect and Brian and Lynnea from Squid Ink Kollective got to stay in our humble abode (my studio, aka the basement) and in their free time we bummed around Chicago showing them our fair city. They are amazing artists with unbelievable talent.

Cut Out and Collect shop features handbags, clutches, wallets and many other one of a kind pieces you are sure to want. A note on the embroidery: This is a technique Cheyne has been working with in which she uses her regular manual sewing machine and special thread to embroider. While it's faster that hand embroidery, it requires the same steady hand and patience and has some very unique, one-of-a-kind attributes. (and it's amazing) Don't see what you want, contact her for a custom piece!

Squid Ink Kollective focuses on screen-printed apparel and posters, as well as hand-sewn and printed housewares, clothes and accessories. Between Brian's amazing illustrations and Lynnea's self taught seamster skills there's no telling what these two will come up with, but it will be awesome.

Anyways if you get a chance check out their shops you won't be disappointed! And to you guys (Cheyne, Brain and Lynnea) we miss you already and hope you come back soon.

My Class

So last Tuesday I taught art journaling for the first time! I had such a blast with the wonderful women at Believers' Fellowship. I started the class with a demonstration on what they were going to be learning to do later on in the class and then gave a brief overview on what art journaling was and why it was important to their spiritual journey.

They jumped right in, when it came time to creating their own page. I had pre-cut 5x7 sheets of paper, markers and paints on the table for them as well as little baggies with magazine pictures, scraps of paper, ribbon, string, buttons (all things that they might find lying around their house. I wanted them to see that they didn't need to go out and buy anything special to start a journal. These women were amazing! They came up with some beautiful pages, which you see in this post. They only had about half hour to forty five minutes to create these! I am still blown away. Especially if you consider most do not consider themselves artistic or creative and it was their first time to work with these materials. Thanks again ladies for making my teaching debut a success!