Help a Heart Event

A week and a half ago was my little brother Corbin's birthday. I wrote a happy birthday post and told his story about the fight with heart disease. If you missed it, I really hope you go back and read that post as it sets the tone for today's part two post - what I'd consider the most important thing I've written on my blog thus far.

New heart-themed designs in the shop.

Part Two - The Help a Heart Event

As I mentioned in Part One, I am participating in the Heart Walk again this year, which benefits the American Heart Association (AHA). I typically send an e-mail to close relatives asking for donations and many of them have generously contributed over the years. This year, I thought hard about what I could do to step up my fundraising efforts and also express my appreciation for everyone who contributes to the fight against heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States. I decided to start the Help a Heart Event.

ALL revenue from my Etsy jewelry shops will be donated to the AHA from now until the Heart Walk. As an added incentive, I'm temporarily discounting everything in my main shop by 20%, so everyone wins! And I really do mean that I’m donating 100% of the purchase price, meaning if you pay $25 for a piece, the AHA will get $25. I am donating the materials, time and expertise in making the pieces, Etsy fees, and shipping cost. Help a Heart will be a combined effort from you and me. =)

I designed several heart-inspired pieces with the event in mind and I also included quite a few Halloween-themed designs to make things fun! I'll be adding lots of new items to the shop over the next few weeks.

You can participate in a several ways.

1.   Donate directly to the AHA on my page here (minimum online donation is $25). If you want to donate a smaller amount, contact me at kelsea@pinkwonderland.com! I'd love for you to also send me an e-mail so I can thank you personally. =)

2.   Buy anything in my etsy shops: cameo jewelry & boxes, polymer clay jewelry, gemstone jewelry. I'll then take the revenue and donate to the AHA every few purchases/days.

3.   Contact me to set up a purchase. E-mail me at kelsea@pinkwonderland.com letting me know what you’re interested in – the heart necklaces, a custom piece, etc. We can talk about the minimum donation amount for the piece you have in mind, and we can talk details.

4.   Donate products. Are you a vendor? If you’re interested in donating revenue from some of your own products, please contact me! It's for a great cause and I will do what I can to bring some exposure to your shop - possible vendor highlight posts, and at the very least, mentions on the HELP A HEART page + social media love.

5.   Share your story. If you have heart disease/heart problems or know someone who does and is comfortable telling their story, I would love to hear it and share it on my blog. Please contact me at kelsea@pinkwonderland.com.

6.   SPREAD THE WORD!! Please, please, please. Anything helps. A link on facebook. An e-mail to friends or family you think might be interested. A tweet. A blog post. Adding a badge to your page. Anything. I appreciate it so much – by all means tag me or let me know! I am also happy to do a guest post about Help a Heart on your blog – let me know! I may even send you a little thank you gift. ;) Also doing some limited giveaways to spread the word. You can link this post or the HELP A HEART page, which I set up for this event and will be updating regularly.

Basically, I want to make this as easy and rewarding for you as possible. I'll be putting up custom piece listings, which I will likely take down after this event. I will try to set up some grab bags for surprise items. I’m finishing up and finally posting tons of half-completed pieces in my studio. Whatever I can think of to make this fun and beneficial for everyone!

PLEASE CHECK THE HELP A HEART PAGE FOR UPDATES.
I’ll post new things available, links to donation grab bags in my supply shop, etc. I will also post updates & new items on my Pink Wonderland and Kelsea Echo facebook pages.

This event lasts until 5PM PST OCTOBER 19th. The earlier the better so I have time to get everyone’s donations in before the Heart Walk on the morning of October 20^th.

Please contact me if you have any questions, thoughts, ideas... anything! Thank you so much for reading this post and I really hope you participate, even if it’s just by spreading the word!

I have no idea how this will go, but I have high hopes! Let's see how much we can raise together. =)

Hike - Rattlesnake Ridge

Happy Labor Day to everyone in the U.S.!

I'll admit that I currently have a huge backlog of pictures that haven't made it to posts yet... but I'm working on it. So... these are from May. We spent the weekend packing. I thought a hiking post would be fitting for this holiday weekend!

A group of us decided to hike up Rattlesnake Ridge, which promised a gorgeous lake view as a reward. Off we went!

The trail offered us a little peek of the lake on the way up.

Zoe & Me

Love this view. It's so very Pacific Northwest - majestic evergreens and those perpetual snow-capped mountains in the distance.

At the top! The lake in all of its glory. Of course, my companions chose to tell me about the hiker who died this year falling off the ridge while we were hiking up. Definitely a place to exercise caution.

Me & Olivia

Me & JacobGood friends toast at the top!

JJ, Olivia, & Jacob

And, of course, they check out the vast expanse of greenery.

Steve & Jacob

What did you do for Labor Day weekend? Did you go camping or hiking?

Balloon Photoshoot - The Silly Side!

If you were here from the start or read back to The Beginning, then you saw the balloon photoshoot Zoe and I did for my blog launch. It was a crazy hectic day, some of which you can read about here. Anyway, all of the excitement, adrenaline, exhaustion, and the sheer ridiculousness of wearing a fancy Betsey Johnson party dress and carrying black, white, silver, and pink balloons around random places in Portland led to some serious pictures, some weird pictures, and some crazy silly pictures! It was interesting - we got some weird looks, a lot of smiles, and some sweet comments from passersby.

Once Zoe figured out it was her opportunity to tell me what to do and have me actually listen, she started thinking up some fun ideas. And then some funny ideas.

Fight those balloons!!

It was randomly windy at times. Ever tried to control a giant bunch of balloons? Yeah, it's more the other way around.

Somehow we stuffed all of those balloons into her car. Along with her snowboard and all sorts of things she stores in there... We went to several different locations, so we had to keep carefully stuffing the balloons in and taking them back out of the car. Oh, and Zoe was smart enough to remember to crack a window for the balloons, lest they pop and die!

Somehow, amidst all of the crazy photoshoot poses we were thinking up, we started talking about tae kwon do (which I did for three years in junior high and high school). I think it was something like this:

Zoe: "LOOK POWERFUL!"

Me: How? Hehe... Like the tae kwon do power stance?

Zoe: HAH yeah. Oooh you should totally do an intense kick!

Doing tae kwon do on railroad tracks in heels is hard work. Sometimes a reward nap is necessary. Which then turns into "try to look like you're dead!"

So much fun. Thanks again for the amazing photos Zoe!!

Fireworks Galore!

The evening of July 4th, we went to downtown Spokane and watched the fireworks. I found out I had a "fireworks" setting on my camera... very cool!

We heard that at a San Diego firework show, the fireworks somehow misfired and all went off at once instead of being carefully timed to last fifteen minutes. That would be one intense show! And several cities in states with wildfire problems this summer banned fireworks (the kind you use at home).

For anyone in America on the Fourth, did you go out and watch the fireworks?

Turning 25. Things to do before 26.

Today I turn 25. You may have known my birthday was coming up if you read my wish list post from a few weeks ago.

When my brother, Corbin, and I were young, my parents implemented a savings incentive plan. They offered to match a certain percentage of any money we contributed to our savings accounts, with the caveat that we could not withdraw any funds until we turned 18. Eighteen. That sounded like such a monumental number to us... something that was forever away. Of course, it was the first major milestone. 18 - legal adult. Then 21 - real adult. Even 23, deemed by my friend Olivia, to be the ideal age. That passed too.

So who wants to make me this cake? Anyone?

Of course, I realize that 25 is really just like 24. But then, 24 is a lot like 23, which is a lot like 22... I have not had any big epiphanies about my new age. It is what it is. But it is fun to celebrate birthdays - especially when two of your best friends drive up three hours to visit you! (Thamires and Carolyn - you rock!)

I will also happily accept cake batter cinnamon buns. Or really anything with cake batter in it.

Adding one year to my age may not make a huge difference to me, but I can use it to set myself some more goals and deadlines (I work best with deadlines). This year, I am making a list of things I want to do before I turn 26. This is different from my New Years Resolutions, which I am happy to say I have kept up with thus far. For my resolutions, I picked things I felt I should and needed to do to work toward my goals and become a better person. For my birthday list, I am choosing things I want to do. It's the fun list! So without further ado, here they are.

1.) Get a tattoo. No, I am not worried about regretting it later. I am not inclined to regret things anyway. I first wanted a tattoo three years ago, when I studied abroad in Prague. I got my navel pierced there (it hurts), and saw some amazing tattoos at the shop. I have several tattoo ideas - general design and location, but nothing is set yet. Someday maybe I will get all of them.

2.) Make at least five DIY projects and two recipes I see on other blogs. I am dying to try these projects: Jenny's Summertime Traveling Art Kit, Elsie's Pretty Lace Flower Pots for my windowsill cactus garden, Jordan's Vintage Marquee, and Naomi's String Map Art + Heart... a Portland or Seattle version. This recipe looks so scrumptious: Kelly's Watermelon Ice Pops.

Source

3.) Read the Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. I know, it seems like reading three books in one year would be a piece of cake. Well, here's the sad thing: I have zero time for reading. I barely have time to sleep five hours a night, let alone to sit down and give my full attention to a good book. I have about six months of magazines piled up because I don't even have time to finish those. Hopefully things will slow down a little after this crazy summer, and I can find some time to read. I used to devour books as a child. Read constantly - any genre, really, but I loved series set in fantasy worlds. Corbin and I used to recommend books to each other and then talk about them afterward. That was mostly before I left for college. He recommended this trilogy to me a few months ago. I bought it and I can't wait to find time to read and discuss the series with him.

4.) Learn to cook vegetarian gumbo. This may involve some recipe invention/experimentation. Totally random, I know. As a side note, I fell in love with okra when I first tried gumbo. Okra is a rare ingredient in the Pacific Northwest, so I never learned how to cook with it. Granted, it will probably be frozen (never seen it fresh), but hey, I do what I can with what I have. I love soups and soupy dishes so, so much, and I would like to expand my repertoire. On that note, if anyone has a good vegetarian gumbo recipe, or heck... any good gumbo recipe (I am not afraid to substitute), please share/post a link!

Source

5.) Get at least 10 pieces of artwork framed. In the past few years, I have been systematically collecting artwork prints. One thing I never got around to is framing, because of the price and hassle. If anyone knows of a good place to get ornate or colorful but inexpensive frames, let me know! I don't necessarily need super fancy frames - just pretty ones. And I love colors, so it is hard for me to imagine buying plain frames. I do really love fancy carved frames, but they make those in plastic too now, right? Heh.

6.) Learn to make cake pops. I had a 40% off one item coupon at Jo-Ann, so I picked up Bakerella's "Cake Pops: Tips, Tricks, and Recipes for More Than 40 Irresistible Mini Treats" book. You can also find it here. Shortly after, as luck would have it, Jacob's mom sent us a delicious Easter treat basket, including cake mix, a cake pop pan, and lollipop/cake pop sticks! I went back to Jo-Ann and picked up some candy melts for the coating. So now I have all of the ingredients - all I need now is to find some time!

Isn't this Easter basket amazing? This doesn't even include the cake pop pans since they didn't fit in the bakset!!

7.) Improve my Adobe Illustrator skills. I drew the artwork for my upcoming jewelry collection (likely launching in August) first in pencil, then outlined in black pen. Zoe helped me fix up and add color to my images using Illustrator. I have had the program for years, but honestly never took the time to learn how to use it before last year. Time to hit the books!

8.) Write important letters. This year, I began to feel that there are some people that I really need to write to. Without delving into the details, I know that this is something that I need to do - something that will both help my personal growth and hopefully also be a positive thing to the recipients. 25 is about time to take the mature route, right? This may not sound like the most fun thing, but honestly, I think I will actually really enjoy writing these (surprise, coming from a blogger).

Do you have any fun goals / birthday goals you are working on?

Happy Independence Day, America!

It's that time of year again, here in the USA... where the red, white and blue starts popping up everywhere. Like so many American families, I used to go down to the waterfront with my parents and two brothers to watch the fireworks. This year, I am in Eastern Washington visiting Jacob's family, so I guess it will be something new (for me). Happy Independence Day, America - and here's a little tribute to you!

Red, white, and blue bundt cake with sprinkles? Yes, please!

Yeah, more cake. You can never have too much, right? This delicious flag cake looks almost too good to eat! Almost. =)

Metallic Independence Day nails. So cool and a little superhero-like.

Fun Independence Day Strawberries!

Trust Katy Perry to take the flag and wear it as a latex dress! Hehe.

Fun craft - starry paper lanterns.

And... a little preview of a jewelry collection I will be launching later this year! Modeled by Bree Vargas. Isn't her Jessica Louise sailor dress so perfect for July 4?

Visit my Pinterest board for more fun Independence Day inspiration! For my U.S. readers... do you have any fun July 4 plans?

Hike - Little Si (Mount Si)

On a beautiful Sunday in late April, four of us (three human, one dog) hiked Little Si, a short but steep trail up Mount Si, about a 45 minutes drive east from Seattle.

I will be the first to admit that I am out of shape (in full contrast to my dear friend Olivia and her energetic dog, Jas), which is one reason Jacob and I made the goal to hike every other weekend. We went twice in May. Since then, the weather and our schedules have not cooperated, but hopefully we will find time and a nice day to start back up soon.

Jas

Olivia practices yoga on the move! =)

Olivia

We may have a ton of rain, but this is one reason to live in the Pacific Northwest. Greenery and mountains everywhere.

Little Si Summit!

Jas, Olivia, Me

Yeah that's right, I totally wear tennis skirts to go hiking. Acceptable attire.

Me, Jacob

Olivia, Jacob

Gotta love the Northwest. <3