Olivia Bouler, 11 years old, wrote the Audubon Society a letter offering to sell paintings of birds to raise money to help clean up the oil spill. Word spread and she has now raised over $100,000. What an inspiration! Stories such as hers overwhelm me with how one person really does have the ability to make a difference. Olivia has reached her limit of 500 original paintings and is now selling prints. To read her full story, see her work and learn how you can make a donation, click here. Be sure to watch the video. She’s such a sweet girl. And of course, help spread the word by becoming a fan on Facebook.
Archive for the ‘Charity’ Category
Amazing Olivia
Thursday, June 17th, 2010Unwanted Yarn Can Clean Up Oil Spill
Thursday, May 13th, 2010
We shampoo our hair because it collects oil. This principle is the reason why hair can be used to clean up oil spills. Matter of Trust is an organization collecting hair to create booms–nylons filled with hair to act as sponges. Watch this video to see how it works. Crazy, huh? Here’s where you can help.
Send in any of your unwanted roving or yarn made from natural hair, such as wool, alpaca, etc. They’re also collecting nylons, even if they have small runs in them, and human hair. Over 300,000 pounds of hair are cut each day in the US, so ask you local hair salon and pet groomer to start collecting the hair they cut to send in. Details here.
Open House to benefit JDRF
Monday, April 26th, 2010Come to a party with a purpose…
Friday, April 30th 5:30 – 8:00pm (open house)
Studio Four, Carmel, CA
Located on Mission St. between 4th and 5th
Sip wine, nibble on delicious appetizers and shop for Jordana Paige handbags and jewelry by Silpada Designs
What could be better?
A percentage of your purchases will be donated to Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (www.jdrf.org)
RSVP or Questions: Kimberly Kent (831-332-6934)
PLEASE RSVP SO THAT WE CAN GET AN ACCURATE COUNT FOR FOOD AND WINE
$15,150 Raised for Doctors Without Borders
Thursday, January 28th, 2010I am overwhelmed, shocked and so grateful. I don’t even know how to express my gratitude other than a truly sincere, heartfelt “THANK YOU”. This fundraiser would not have been successful without your support. In just one week you told your friends about the sale and then showed up at 8am sharp to buy a bag, most of you buying more than one. Your enthusiasm for our bags, even the imperfect ones, is awesome. Your love for people you’ve never met–absolutely beautiful.
I’ve been smiling all day and I don’t think it’s going to wear off anytime soon.
$15,150 will be donated to Doctors Without Borders Haiti relief. Amazing. Thank you.
Available Bags & Hint #3
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010Tomorrow is the big sale!! I am sooo excited. I hope you are too. We won’t be announcing what time each style/color will go on sale, but here’s a list of the bags that will be available at some point tomorrow:
Rio in Red Garnet, Green Olive and Eggplant
The Knitter’s Satchel in Deep Red, Grape, Graphite, Cappuccino, Cypress Green, Pink and Ocean Blue
Bella in Bronze and Black Licorice
The Knitter’s Messenger Bag in Pink/Black Tweed, Deep Red/Cypress Green, Navy Blue/Black and Camel/Brown
Here’s Hint #3 to getting the bag you’re hoping for: I just created a “fan” page on Facebook. Just like with Twitter, we’ll be announcing the next available color in our status. Become a fan and the announcement will show up in your Facebook feed.
In case you missed them, here’s Hint #1 and Hint #2. Just visit our website tomorrow and we’ll direct you to the page with the sale.
Handbags Help Haiti
Thursday, January 21st, 2010Even if you don’t plan on purchasing a bag, spreading the word is a huge help. Post this image and/or video to your blog, tweet it, talk about it on Ravelry…post it on all the social networking sites you can think of. RSVP “attending” to this Facebook invite, so it will get published to your feed. Then invite your friends to do the same. Thank you for your support! Remember, you don’t have to be a knitter to love these bags, so tell everyone.
Link to: http://www.jordanapaige.com/blog/labels/Haiti.html
JP Sale and Love for Haiti
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
I’ve been avoiding the news since last Tuesday. I absolutely hate the feeling of helplessness when disasters happen. But avoiding the news isn’t going to erase the huge need in Haiti. I know I’m not alone in having a great desire to do something, but have to realize that for most of us, we can’t fly over to Haiti to give comfort, hold children and hand out food.
Giving money just never seems like enough. I always want to give more and wish I had a product that I could donate to help with relief. Handbags just aren’t going to save a life. I’ve been thinking a lot on this and have come up with a way, with your help, that handbags can make a difference.
I will be selling all the imperfect handbags in my warehouse for $50 and will donate 100% of each sale to Doctors Without Borders Haiti relief.
My warehouse holds a mix of discontinued bags, including The Knitter’s Satchel in Deep Red and Rio in Red Garnet, as well as current styles and colors. The “imperfect” bags don’t meet our quality standards. Some have scratches on the fabric, broken zippers, missing removable pouches or upside-down labels. Majority of the “imperfect” bags have very minor problems.
The sale will start next Wednesday, January 27th at 8am PST. Every hour, on the hour, a new color will be made available. All sales will be final. The inside of the bags will be stamped with “final sale” in a hidden location. Due to the high volume of sales that I am expecting, I will not be able to personally identify what is imperfect about each bag. All bags are functional. We wouldn’t sell something with a missing handle or hole in the bottom.
Some other details; we will only be accepting orders with USA delivery addresses. I’m sorry, but I just don’t have the man-power to ship a huge number of orders internationally. Lastly, I will be charging for shipping. The cost of shipping will not be going to Doctors Without Borders, but to cover the cost of shipping your bag to you. California residents will be charged sales tax.
Please, please, please, share this with friends, post it on your blog, tweet it, Facebook it, you know, the works. Snag the image, spread the word! Together we can make an impact.
Beanies of Hope
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009Last night I invited some friends over to the loft at JP Headquarters to teach them how to knit. There were lots of us so I was grateful to have my sister there to help teach. Even guys showed up. Way to go guys! I got them started on beanies which will be donated to “Beanies of Hope.” It’s a project to provide beanies to young adults who are homeless in Santa Cruz. The winter months are cold and a beanie is such a simple, quick project to make a difference.
Speaking of cold, we were very. As you can tell from the pictures of everyone bundled up, the loft is cold. I have a few space heaters, but blew a fuse early in the evening so we were only able to have one on. Plus, the warehouse is too big to heat the entire space and the walls aren’t insulated. Everyone was a trooper though, despite their cold hands.
If you’d like to donate some beanies to Beanies of Hope, you can mail them to PO Box 1361, Santa Cruz, CA, 95061. They’re being collected until February.
Beanies are a great project for using up random yarn from your stash. Below is a pattern for a basic garter stitch beanie. I wrote it so that you can use whatever yarn you’ve got lying around. This pattern is knit flat because I was keeping it simple for brand new knitters, but it certainly makes more sense to knit it in the round. Just be sure that instead of knitting every round you alternate between knit and purl rounds.
Basic Garter Stitch Beanie
MATERIALS
• Depends on the weight of the yarn, but around 150 yards
• Needles
• Darning needle
FINISHED MEASUREMENTS
Circumference: 21 inches
Length: 9.5 inches
INSTRUCTIONS
Knit a swatch to determine gauge. Multiply your gauge stitch for one inch by 21. Round up or down to the nearest ten. Cast on this number of stitches.
Knit all sts until piece measures 7 inches.
SHAPE CROWN
To shape the crown you’ll be evenly decreasing 10 sts on every odd numbered row. In the example below there are 90 sts to begin with. Decrease in this manner until 10 sts remain.
Row 1: K2, k2tog, *k7, k2tog, repeat from * to last 5 sts, k5. (80 sts)
Row 2 and all alt rows: Knit all sts.
Row 3: K2, k2tog, *k6, k2tog, repeat from * to last 4 sts, k4. (70 sts)
Row 5: K2, k2tog, *k5, k2tog, repeat from * to last 3 sts, k3. (60 sts)
Row 7: K2, k2tog, *k4, k2tog, repeat from * to last 2 sts, k2. (50 sts)
Row 9: K2, k2tog, *k3, k2tog, repeat from * to last 1 sts, k1. (40 sts)
Row 11: *K2, k2tog, repeat from * to end. (30 sts)
Row 13: *K1, k2tog, repeat from * to end. (20 sts)
Row 15: *K2tog, repeat from * to end. (10 sts)
FINISHING
Cut yarn leaving a tail approx. 20 inches long. Using a darning needle, thread the yarn through the stitches on needle. Slide stitches off needle and pull tight. Fold beanie in half. Sew seam and secure. Weave in loose ends.
oh happy day happy spring
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
Santa Cruz has been blazing hot the past couple days. It’s had me thinking of sweet flower-print dresses, lemonade and bike rides along the beach. It also made me realize it was time to switch my bags from the deep warm colors of winter to the light and cheery colors of spring. Here are my favorites this season: Bella in Pearl, The Knitter’s Satchel in Pink (10% of the retail price is donated to the fight against breast cancer) and Rio in Green Olive.
