Perfume Potential

This weekend I attended a student leadership conference.  I'm not a student.  I was there as a professional who works with, and brought, some student leaders.  It makes one feel very oddly old! At the same time it's fun to be around that much young energy, keen to impact the world in a positive way.  Plus the keynote speakers were generally at least slightly older than me so it gave me a sense that I still have a little time!!

The keynote speaker on Saturday morning was an east coast Canadian business woman named Barbara Stegemann who's company, The 7 Virtues, successfully gained funding on the Canadian version of the Dragons Den.  She spoke to students for an hour and a half so I'm not going to attempt to summarize but the students were captivated by her message of the virtues needed to be leaders, and individuals, who will positively impact their communities. 

Stegemann's Book which I've just started reading

We were all also taken with her business and its mission.  Stegemann had a good friend who was seriously injured in Afghanistan where he was serving with the Canadian military.  While he traveled the long road to recovery Stegemann felt strongly that she needed to take up his cause of helping to create peaceful and self-sustaining communities in Afghanistan.  Stegemann was unsure what she could do to help the country rebuild until she saw a news piece on a tribal leader who was attempting to help local farmers switch from growing illegal poppies (Afghanistan grows the poppies that provide something like 75% of the world's heroin) to legal crops like orange blossom.  Suddenly Stegemann had an idea.  She would buy Afghan orange blossom oil and use it to make high quality perfume. Her goal was that the farmers would make money, those who provided it to her would make money,  the retail businesses that sold the perfume would make money and her company would make money. 


Afghanistan Orange Blossom was The 7 Virtues first perfume. With the slogan, Make Perfume Not War, the company has so far created three more fragrances, Noble Rose of Afghanistan, Vetiver of Haiti and Middle East Peace.  Her perfume is sold online but also at The Bay across Canada, Lord and Taylor in New York and by air Canada's On Board Duty Free.

I haven't ready the book yet but will report back when I have.  Of the four scents, Middle East Peace, featuring Sweetie Grape Fruit from Israel and Lime from Iran is my favourite.  I love grape fruit in a perfume.  I have a bottle of Clinique Happy that Husband bought me because it makes me nostalgic for my high school days.  I like the Middle East Peace more!


The 7 Virtues also has a facebook page as well as their website.

Happy Heart Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone.  This post is not going to be a gushy, emotional letter to Husband.  Husband can't really cope with earnest. Seriously, I think it causes him physical pain. 

So instead I thought I'd use this day of love and romantic prettiness to talk about blood. One of my favourite things about this time of year is that the season of Hearts tends to bring with it numerous blood drives.  I don't know about where you're from but it seems pretty standard here in Canada that in February there are any number of opportunities to make a difference and help save a life by giving blood. 

Blood donation is a topic that is near and dear to our hearts (does that count as a pun?) since neither Husband or I can give blood.  Husband was a regular blood donor in the UK and would be able to give blood if we still lived there but Canada doesn't allow individuals who lived in Britain during certain periods of time to donate blood.  Certain things were more common in the UK so they screen for them whereas our system isn't set up to identify them.  So Husband can't give blood. 

I gave blood several times in my mid-20s before I moved to the UK.  When I moved back I went to give blood (the mid to late 2000s weren't a time they were concerned about) as before.  Was fine while giving blood, went to get my juice and cookies and fainted. This is highly uncommon but there are a few people out there who can't handle losing the small amount of blood that they take for donation.  I tried several months later and the same thing happened so the staff (who were awesome and spent crazy amounts of time putting my feet up and providing cold cloths and juice and such) told me I should find another way to support blood services. 

The majority of people are able to give blood and suffer nothing more than a little pin prick.  In return you get to know that someone dealing with a major health issue stands a better chance because you gave blood.  Before she eventually passed away my Grandmother was getting regular blood transfusions that helped to prolong and improve the quality of her life.  Plus you get free juice and cookies and other types of treats. 

To find out more about giving blood in Canada visit Canadian Blood Services.

Cutest Cupid

I've never been huge on Valentine's Day. I think it's largely due to how close Valentine's Day is to my birthday.  Red hearts tend to have taken over the stores by February 3rd.  Plus it always just seemed like it was designed to make everyone feel lonely and depressed.  I'm starting to see how it could be nice to have a reason to be romantic because, seriously, spontaneity really doesn't happen much these days. It's not that Husband doesn't do nice things for me. It's just that life is busy and, I don't know about where you live, but it's cold and dark here in Winter.

Anyway, all of that was as poor lead in to the fact that our local animal shelter is doing the cutest thing as a fundraiser for Valentine's Day designed to make people feel loved and whatever the opposite of depressed is.  It's called Cupid for a Cause and the way it works is that you order a "cat" or "dog" themed gift basket for someone and on Valentine's Day it is delivered to them by this year's adorable cupid, Murphy the Wonderdog (with a human helper).

Isn't that too cute? Check them out on facebook.

Tiny's Ties

If you're new to the blog you may not have heard of my fascination with a cat named Tiny. Last Winter folks at the Fredericton SPCA found a box on their doorstep in the morning. They thought it contained office supplies until it started meowing.  Inside the box they found two cats, one was Tiny who weighed over 30 pounds at the time. 

Tiny now lives with a foster Mom and foster cat and at his last Tuesday weigh in was under 18 pounds.  Tiny is always sporting snazzy ties for his weigh ins and public appearances and now sells Tiny's Ties to raise funds for his friends in the shelter. I got our boys Christmas Ties both because they'd look adorable and because we like to support those kitties who haven't been lucky enough to find homes yet.

Aren't they handsome? Spock is pretty easy going so after staring at it for awhile he posed for photos for me... then proceeded to chew on it a bit.

Dobby had a bit of a fit when he first got his tie on.  He kept trying to back out of it.  Was absolutely hilarious... poor boy.  After distraction with some treats he kind of forgot it was there and let me get some photos.

That nose is still on the mend. He took awhile to learn the lessons Trilly was teaching him

Tinys Ties can be shipped all over the place if you think your feline friend would look as adorable as ours. 

BBBS

Big Brothers Big Sisters Saint John (our local group) is celebrating their 40th Anniversary this year.  We are a relatively small city with a high percentage of children growing up in the "at risk" category so 40 years of making a difference for those kids is pretty impressive.

I worked for BBBS one summer when I was a student.  I ran their summer programing for children who didn't have a "Big".  They didn't have a Big Brother or a Big Sister.  They were still waiting.  BBBS tries to help those kids too.  I wound up with a Little Brother who then became my parents' Little when I moved to the UK.  He's now halfway through high school which is mind boggling.

Anyway, I'm very much looking forward to helping out a bit taking tickets and such at the event and then celebrating their accomplishments.

Girls Night Out

This Saturday was our first annual Canadian Progress Club Ignite Girls Night Out fundraiser.  It was 3 or 4 months in the making and was a great success... though I don't have exact numbers yet.  We learned A LOT for next year.  We had a great time Saturday night.  But I definitely think we all need some time to recovery and are happy to get back to volunteering for awhile... oh and having a Christmas social of course.

Here's a little bit of the excitement and activity from Saturday set up and the event itself. We had drinks and food and vendors (including one selling the best brownies I have ever tasted) and free hand massages and dancing and photo booth and prizes and a silent auction.

Silent Auction Item

Prizes

Gift Bags

The Fire Fighters Local 771 manned the coat check, sold balloons and posed in the photo booth

Girls Night Out

I've mentioned previously that I'm a member of the Canadian Progress Club.  Our local chapter is called Ignite and has members from Saint John as well as the surrounding area.  Anyway, we're a group dedicated to volunteer work and service for things that benefit women and children.  We're holding our very first fundraiser next Saturday which we plan on making a super awesome annual event- Girls Night Out.

Girls Night Out has fabulous everything.  It's in support of a fabulous organisation in Saint John called First Steps without which young pregnant women and young mother's with no where to go.  The work First Steps does is just mind blowing.  We have a fabulous location at the Market Square Atrium. We have a fabulous DJ and Emcee.  We have fabulous prizes and silent auction items donated by really fabulous companies. We have fabulous vendors and entertainment.  We have fabulous food coming from the Ale House and drinks being provided by Grannans. We have fabulous sponsors. We have fabulous ladies planning the event.  Oh... and we have cute fire fighters. 

So basically it's going to be amazing.Who doesn't want an excuse to dress up with your girl friends and have some fun for a good cause?

I have tickets and am happy to get them to you if you want in on this fabulous event!

Touch a Truck

Saturday morning Husband and I were up bright and early for a busy day.  We had signed up to volunteer with a fund raiser in town called Touch a Truck along with some other folks from the Canadian Progress Club Ignite.  Part of the harbour wharf area of Saint John was absolutely filled with vehicles- different types of fire trucks, garbage trucks, military vehicles, ambulances, police cars, RVs- over 90 vehicles.  There was even a trailer that's been converted into a boys' night dream with space for 20 people to play video games in luxury at the same time. 

You could climb in pretty much everything and honk the horn and make the sirens go off.  The folks in charge of the vehicles would make the cement mixer turn or the crane move or the remote control sewer camera drive around (that was really cool actually).  The aquarium also brought out a little dump truck and the local basketball team- The Millrats- set up an area for shooting hoops.  Baxters dairy was handing out chocolate milk and there were chocolate bars going to everyone. 

 Unfortunately it rained... it down poured.... our job for the first couple of hours was taking tickets at the gate and we got SOAKED.  The thing was that people came anyway.  Little kids had the most amazing rain gear and adorable umbrellas and they didn't care about the rain.  They were going to get put into a fire truck by a fireman in full gear and they were so excited.  It was adorable.


The organisation we were raising funds for deserves at least an entire post to talk about all of the amazing things they do.  First Steps has a home for young pregnant women and new mothers who have no where else to go.  They help with life skills and education and so many other things.  The group who put together the event did such an amazing job.  They had food and face painting and sold t-shirts and rubber ducks (fitting for the weather). 

With the weather there was great concern about how it would impact the fund raising but I understand they made at least $12 000.  Imagine what it could be like if the weather behaves next year!

Take Back the Night

This weekend I participated in our little cities second annual Take Back the Night walk. It was fairly cool and threatening to rain (had been raining earlier and then rained after but we had a break in the weather) so it was impressive that over 50 women showed up as well as some men. 

Take Back the Night has been around since the 70s.  The idea is to bring light to the issue of sexual assault against women and children which most often occurs at night- both in the home and in "public" places. Women should not have to live in fear of being assaulted and the conversation around assault needs to stop blaming the victim for where she was, what she wore and what she consumed.

Earlier this week Husband shared this image from Take Back the Night which I love

The thing is, I took part in my first Walk Against Violence Against Women and Children (not that we were for violence against men either though) when I was 15.  I took part in some Take Back the Night walks in my early 20s.  I'm now 31.  We're still walking.  We're still having the same conversations.  We girls still looked at each other and asked where the others had parked to make sure no one had to walk back through some slightly dodgy (and we have  way too many of those) parts of Saint John by themselves.

For our daughters and granddaughters and nieces but also for our sons and grandsons and nephews we need society to get better at portraying healthy relationships and shaping the conversation.  Don't let another generation hear the phrase "legitimate rape".

Heart & Stroke

It's been ages now since I featured the lovely Heather and her glass bead jewelery company called Gully Beads.  Heather is one of those people I'm lucky enough to know in real life though our paths haven't crossed enough with a busy Summer and rather crazy Fall. 

Heather and Gully

Anyway, this time of year Heather does something really awesome.  She fund raises for Heart and Stroke as part of a team that then rides around on this insanely big bike.  She explains it better over on her blog. As part of her fundraising she does this very generous Give & Get program.  You donate to Heart and Stroke on her fundraising page and she gives you a piece of her jewelery as a gift.

Head over to the Gully Beads Blog where Heather explains it all so much better and you can choose your gift.  You'll probably be seeing #13 on the blog sometime soon because they're on their way to me. 

Dogs Walking for Dogs

Yesterday was a gorgeous, warm, sunny day here in New Brunswick, Canada.  It was the perfect day for Sadie to participate in the Purina Walk for Dog Guides.  I mentioned the event in Friday's post but in case you missed it this is a national event held by the Lions Foundation Canada and all of the funds raised go to their Dog Guide program.  They raise and train assistance dogs for Canadians who will receive their service dog free of charge.

Registration Site

Sadie and Husband

There were some gorgeous dogs out to enjoy the beautiful day and do their part to help out.  They were also very sweet and good tempered.  Sadie gets nervous around high energy, pushy dogs who try to jump on her.  So she loved this crowd.

It wasn't a large gathering but it was a well organized, very well done event. The Lions Club got everyone registered and the money counted in no time at all.  They had hot dogs, chips and cake for the humans and treats for the dogs (Sadie loved those cub scouts with the treats).

The dog parade

Sadie gets her thank you and her goody bag

Sadie looked so proud of herself in that bandana

The real star of the day was the hearing dog guide, Echo who was on hand with her family.

The little Hampton, NB event raised over $4000 which is pretty impressive.  I look forward to it next year.  Hopefully some of you will come out and join us.  A big thank you to the friends, family, coworkers and neighbours who helped with Sadie's fundraising.  We managed to raise $400!

Linking up with Finding Beauty in the Ordinary for Cup Half Full.