Raising Money for the Banff Community Greenhouse

On Wednesday we held a fundraiser for the Banff Community Greenhouse. I am on the committee and this fundraiser was the culmination of many meetings and lots of effort. And it was flawless! It was held at the Banff Legion. The weather was AMAZING and all the hot mamas in town showed up in their little sundresses. There was Crazy Larry, our local balloon animal guy and kid favorite. There was tons of food from tons of local restaurants, for $5 a plate, along with organic beef burgers on the patio for $2 each. There were many generous silent auction donations from 12 cupcakes from Cozy Cave Bakehouse to a gorgeous mosaic entitled "I Chose to Grow" by my amazing friend, Cindy Gibson, to a four person VIP ski day at Mount Norquay to a 3 day $5,000 heliskiing package from CMH (if I had a list of everything I would mention it all). There was a drawing for one of the greenhouse spaces. And a worm composting demonstration for adults, along with one for kids that involved gummy worms, oreo cookie dirt, and chopsticks. There was a garden talk by a local arborist. There were tunes spun by a local DJ. And there was me, at the craft table, over seeing tons of kiddos designing, cutting, gluing, and coloring everything from terracotta pots to collages to garden themed coloring sheets. And did I mention, there were balloons! And that at last count we had made more than $8,000!! For more on the greenhouse, I will include all the details after our next meeting...

Come One, Come All to the Fundraiser for the Banff Community Greenhouse

I am on the committee to try to bring a community greenhouse to Banff. Tomorrow we will be having a fundraiser for our cause...

"Spring is in the air and the Banff Community Greenhouse Committee wants you to get growing!

Join us at the Banff Legion on April 21st, 2010 from 3:30-9:30. Family activities are planned from 3:30-6:30. Come and plant a seed, get green thumb tips, paint a pot, bid on amazing auction items (CMH heli-hiking trip), listen to music, eat, drink and help get this building off the ground!

For more information about the event or to make a financial donation please contact Community Greenhouse project contact, Nancy Lewis at 403-762-1254 or email at banffcommunitygreenhouse@gmail.com".

You can access the event invite on Facebook here. Please come out and show your support if you can. I will post a report and more info in the weeks to come.

Victory for Victory!!

I received an AWESOME email today from my friend, Maureen, who works for the Victory Thrift Shop in Canmore. I give 10% of my Etsy sales to their Jacket Frost Fund which supplies winter clothing to children in the area who are in need. We live in a very expensive part of Canada and many service workers who live and work in the area find it very hard to make ends meet. I recently brought a check to the fund and on Saturday there was a fundraiser in the community during which they raised $6,320!!! That is AMAZING! I contributed only a small part to that but I am so thrilled at how much was raised!! Just thinking of all those cozy kiddos gives me the warm fuzzies :)

Hanging Art

I made this mixed media piece for the Hanging Art Show which is an annual part of the Canmore Arts Weekend, which is in mid June. It is a fundraiser for the local Lamphouse Arts Centre. The participants are local artists who can go to one of three locations and pick up an 8x8" Masonite board, upon which their art is made. The only "rule" is to use this board. Each piece is hung from a clothesline for the sale. All pieces are $75 regardless of materials or who the artist is. The piece can not be signed on the front so that the buyer has no idea who created it until they buy it. They only hang so many pieces at a time, and the buyer pays and then takes their chances as to what is on the line when it is their turn to pick. I have taken part in lots of art fundraisers in the past, and I had actually made a deal with myself not to do anymore where I was not at least paid back for materials, because artists seem to always be asked to donate their work, with no regard for their costs or time. It isn't really fair, of course it is up to the artist whether they say yes or no, but I prefer fundraisers where the art is purchased from the artist at a fair price and then sold at a price that brings a profit to the fundraiser. But, it is a local festival so I decided to participate.

I am pretty happy with the piece that I made but I would make a few changes if I could have it back... Originally, I had the masonite board as the border for the collage. I like the way it was heathered looking but when I asked my husband for his opinion he didn't like it. I decided to add the paper border, and because I forgot that I was not supposed to sign the piece (which I had done under the transfer) I put a paper border there, too. I tried to tie it into the rest of the piece by adding an acrylic paint wash, but it didn't quite do the job. It bugs me that you can see where the paper comes together at the corners, which may just be because I do know how to cut mats and this is a very basic version of a mat. In the end, I was happy to experiment and have decided to do a series with my transfers and different origami pieces. I like the 3-D effect. And I think that I will use beeswax and maybe even encaustic paints to pull it all together and to soften the look around the transfer.