Art for Animals

S.A.V.E. animal rescue is holding its first ever art auction to raise much-needed funds for their non-profit, grassroots mission to save animals from harm and suffering.

ALOF and its CEO/Founder Christine Ziegler is proud to be one of more than a dozen fabulous artists who have donated their work!

If you are an artist who would like to donate a piece of work please contact them: Savepetny@aol.com or by phone 212-989-3456

This event will take place on December 3, 2010
7:00pm - 9:00pm at:
The Lerner Auditorium @ The LGBT Center
208 West 13th Street (Between 7th and 8th Ave)
New York, NY

Other contributing artists include: Kelly Haigh, Nina Friday, Ric Frane, Joanna Ebenstein, Lou (Art & Ghosts), Scott Cohn, Joel Peter Witkin, Mary Governalli-Garcia and many more!

So many animals need our help -- Please help us help them!

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ABOUT S.A.V.E.
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S.A.V.E Animal Rescue, is a non- profit, all volunteer run animal rescue. Our mission is to rescue homeless and abandoned animals.

We do not have a shelter facility. Rescued animals reside in veterinary offices, boarding facilities or foster homes until we are able to adopt them into the loving homes they need and deserve.

S.A.V.E additionally helps various communities by educating and advising people on proper animal care, assisting with spaying and neutering, and providing TNR services for feral cats.

We rely on the kindness and generosity of our supporters & animal lovers alike who open their hearts & homes through donation, fostering, sponsoring & adopting.

www.saveanimalrescue.org

Recycling is an art - Part II

The family of creatures made from 100% trash and hot glue has grown considerably in the past week. I had several pipettes with a few residual drops of aromatic oils in them and scented the garden scrap portions of these miniature sculptures, so they are wonderful smelling too! All are going to new homes for Samhain!

Recycling is an art

The creatures in the pictures are sculptures that I recently created. They remind my roommate of Skeksis from the Dark Crystal. I concur, finding them to be a more of a sparrow like relative of the Skeksis. I've made these two so far. They were each made from recycled materials including mussel shells (kitchen scraps), dried canna flower parts (garden scraps), copper trimmings and pieces of silk (scraps from other art projects).

With a little imagination, recycling can be not only good for the environment, but it can also be fun and artistic, which is good for the psyche and soul! These are great little trinkets to make and give to my friends for Halloween!

Recycling for a future! Artesanìas La Hormiga

Today we present to you the story behind the handmade paper gift box that we are using as part of some gift sets this holiday season. Made exclusively for CZ LUXE by Artesanìas La Hormiga, here is the wonderful story of how recycling is helping a group of librarians in Honduras build better lives for their community:

Our paper making business was created to ensure the sustainability of our community’s library. The funds generated by the business helps the librarians provide more enriching activities for the youth through the purchase of didactic materials such as paint, construction paper, crayons, and table games.

Our business has also served as a recycling program for our community. The recycled paper we make comes from used paper from the local high school and kindergarten as well as the library. Instead of burning great amounts of paper on a regular basis, we now turn what was once trash into beautiful works of art.

The name of our business is Artesanìas La Hormiga because of the ant’s reputation as hard-working and persevering. It is our hope that the youth of our community will one day exemplify these qualities.

We thank you for your purchase and the opportunities it provides for our children and the entire community. - Artesanìas La Hormiga

Making it our business to build better communities

One of the things I strongly believe is that my business can impact many lives in wonderful ways and that it is my responsibility as a business owner to make choices that improve our world and our communities!

This holiday season we are offering our customers the opportunity to directly help build better communities around the globe with their holiday gift purchases.

Over the course of the next couple of weeks I will post here about each of A Little Ol'Factory's
& CZ Luxe's Fair Trade items, ingredients and the community projects that are directly benefit from our purchases of their materials and artistic creations.

**Added note .. since several folks have contacted me and asked .. the youngling in the image is the child of a rose picker I met in Isparta, Turkey. They were waiting at the weigh station to get the day's haul of rose petals logged in. They are paid a good (by local standards), living wage for their labor, as it should be!

This woman's junkmail is also her company's packing material and soap wrappers

At least 98% of the packing material that we use here at A Little Ol'Factory is recycled through re-use. We re-use every piece of packing foam, bubble wrap and Styrofoam that comes through our door. We also shred every piece of junk mail that we can and use it as packing material for our shipments.

In addition to using almost all recycled box packing materials, we are also using more and more recycled packaging for our line!

Our brand new new soap wrappers (to be unveiled on the new site in time for the holidays) are handmade in the US, from 100% recycled paper (such as junk mail), natural botanicals and contain embedded seeds such as Italian Basil and Columbine Flowers - so not only are they recycled and recyclable, but they are also reusable! They can be planted in your garden or a flower pot and grow a lovely decorative or edible plant that you and your family can enjoy!

We are very happy to have announced earlier this year the phasing in of 100% Post Consumer Recycled Plastic ( PCR ) PET bottles. One of ours goal is to, by next year, have all of our items that require bottling in plastic to be in PCR PET bottles. Click here to see these bottles that are more than just aesthetically pleasing.

These are but a few very simple implementations that save us (the company) money, saves us (the growing US population) a LOT of landfill space and saves us (the entire human race) valuable resources that would otherwise be squandered.

According to the Center for the New American Dream in Maryland:

* 5.6 million tons of catalogs and other direct mail advertisements end up in U.S. landfills annually.

* The average American household receives unsolicited junk mail equal to 1.5 trees every year—more than 100 million trees for all U.S. households combined.

* 44 percent of junk mail is thrown away unopened, but only half that much junk mail (22 percent) is recycled.

* Americans pay $370 million annually to dispose of junk mail that doesn’t get recycled.

* On average, Americans spend 8 months opening junk mail in the course of their lives.

With little effort, you can be a big part of the solution, both personally and with your pocketbook.

If you don't have a way to recycle and reuse your own junk mail, you can stop if from coming to you in the first place! Check out http://junkbusters.com/ for more info on how.

Support businesses that support recycling efforts. Contact businesses that don't currently use recycled materials and tell them you'd like them to. When consumers talk, business listens!

Have a wonderful week and remember, it only takes a spark (and a little bit of junk mail ;) to get a fire going!