Family Traditions with Love

Family 

• What family traditions do you practice especially in Fall & Winter?  
• Have you started new ones as you have grown your family?
• What new ways are you sharing quality time with family this year?   

We started what became a tradition about 20 years ago.  Valentines Day dinner was planned ahead. We made a turkey from scratch with all the trimmings.  The dinner provided easy meals later and one in the summer on the deck with leftover turkey and stuffing with a glass of wine.  We did not know how much we would like to do this until we tried it.  no long wait and restaurant for not great food anymore for us.  

BLACK LIVES MATTER

 Free the People ROC is the group in Rochester, NY.  

 Free the People ROC

 

I believe in supporting my local community. As an ally I know we need to listen and show up to support local groups. Stand up and join local events, organizations and / or protests and learn about wheat is going on in your city. 

Buy Local & Shop Small

Why shop small?  For every $100 you spend at a local business,  $68 stay in the community

My Shop:  My Shop

Facebook:  PandaWire Facebook
Twitter:  Panda Wear Gems  
Instagram: Instagram 

 

This stunning statement necklace is made with a fund shell from North Carolina.  Always happy to work with found objects.

 picture by PIxel Wave

 

 

Support Local Business

How many friends do you know with a small business or a side gig? How do you help them grow? Do you want them to succeed? 

• Stand up & recommend them
• share their social media posts 
• write a recommendation

 

We all remember 2020.  We were reminded frequently to shop small & buy local. Small business need your support always.  In New York state we lost 25% of our small business during the pandemic.  That is 1 out of every 4 business closed their doors forever. 

 

Buy Local & Shop Small

My Shop:  My Shop

Facebook:  PandaWire Facebook
Twitter:  Panda Wear Gems  
Instagram: Instagram 

 

This stunning sterling silver piece is shown with a gemstone I personally cut.  

 

 

Why shop small?  For every $100 you spend at a local business,  $68 stay in the community

  

 

BLACK LIVES MATTER

 Free the People ROC is the group in Rochester, NY. 

 Free the People ROC

 

I believe in supporting my local community. As an ally I know we need to listen and show up to support local groups. Stand up and join local events or protests and learn about wheat is going on in your city.

 

 

Artists Feature

Monthly, I will feature a small women owned business.  I have been selling my work online and have a great TEAM of people whom I consider my second family. Here you will learn about the business and the creator of the idea.  This will focus on female members of my art family. 

 

Lilacs in Bloom

Happy to say my man is scheduled for his second Fauci ouchie today.  Sight delay because of the J & J delivery issues   He was originally scheduled for the J & J vaccine.   He decided to not wait & set up his appointments for another vaccine.  

Mother's Day has always been a different holiday for me.  It started out because of the way I was brought up.  My household was not the "normal " two loving kind parents I saw at my friends homes.  It was my reality.  I lost my father as a teenager and that has shaped my life.  For years I honored his mother on Mothers Day.  

She was an amazing women.  You may read more here:  Grandma

The Lilac Festival started this past weekend.  It was nice to see so many people enjoying the first outdoor festal of the season here.  I plan to visit Highland Park this week to smell the lilacs.  So happy to be able  to enjoy the fragrance of them.  For most of my life I needed allergy medicine 12 months of the year. . In 2014 I had a knee reconstruction which made me rethink how I was living.  I radically changed my life for the better.  One of the benefits was no longer needed allergy meds and the stupor of being on them. No this is not about taking other pills or special powders to strengthen my body.  organic healthy for is what I use.

Black Lives Matter

Free the People ROC is the group in Rochester, NY.  FB page  Free the People ROC

I invite everyone to stand up, listen to others, be kind and be ready to support our sisters and brouthers.  

#bekind

#blacklivesmatter 

#stopasianhate

#standup

#listen

Buy Local from the Maker

My shop:  Panda Wear Website
Facebook:  PandaWire Facebook
Twitter:  Panda Wear Gems  
Instagram: Instagram

Why shop small?  For every $100 you spend at a local business,  $68 stay in the community.

One of my commissions to raise funds for Women Build.  Please reach out if you want a pair of these.  a few are ready to ship.   

Women Build 2021

 We are happy for some rain for my flowers and vegetables for the spring season. we are below normal for rainfall.  newest transplant to the veggie garden is the broccoli yesterday.  Kale, collards and mustard doing well. had my second large harvest of about a quart of small tatsoi mustard as shown here full size. 

the flowers and perennials seems to be doing well this year.  We had several rabbits overwinter in my yard so we were not sure what spring would look like.  My blue fescue seem to be happy for the trim on their dead leaves by the bunnies.  

Working on some new pieces and a few commissions this month.  Hope to be able to showcase a new line for summer.  my copper pieces we well received.  Working on some for the Women Build project as part of my team, Calico Hammers.    this brooch was a special fundraising piece for Women Build several years ago.  For the rest of the month only they are available is Sterling and copper for $49   Perfect Mother's Day gift.  Please mention this promotion Limited Edition Mom Brooch when ordering your brooch. 

My Page for the Women Build 2021

Kim Habitat Women Build

Black Lives Matter

Free the People ROC is the group in my area.

 FB page  Free the People ROC

I invite everyone to stand up, listen to others, be kind and speak up.  

#bekind

#blacklivesmatter 

#stopasianhate

#standup

#speakup

#listen

Buy Local from the Maker

 
My shop:  Panda Wear Website
Facebook:  PandaWire Facebook
Twitter:  Panda Wear Gems  
Instagram: Instagram

 

Why shop small?  For every $100 you spend at a local business,  $68 stay in the community.

Mental Health Awareness

October is domestic Violence Awareness Month.  Willow Center is the place in my city Rochester, NY helping the community.  Step up and support them.  

 #withWillow    End Domestic Violence #EndDV Domestic Violence Awareness month #DVAM
https://willowcenterny.org/

 

When you #WalkWithWillow your support means emergency shelter, counseling, and housing
assistance for thousands of survivors each year. Please join the virtual MOVEment to help end domestic violence now. 

 

Register at   

http://bit.ly/WillowWalk 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reach out to your friends.  This pandemic has harmed us in ways we have not seen before.  staying home and sheltering in place is difficult for many and impossible for some.  Domestic violence is rising .  send a text or make a phone call to a friend you have not heard from recently.  

 

Help is here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Group in Syracue NY is Vera house.  I first learned about them many years ago at the NYS Fair by their t-shirt display at the fair.  I was moved by the incredible  shirts made by the survivors.verahouse

Their annual Gala is online this year.  link to help is below.  

 

 Vera House No Show GALA 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Buy Local from the Maker 

My shop:  Panda Wear Website
Facebook:  PandaWire Facebook
Twitter:  Panda Wear Gems  
Instagram: Instagram

For every $100 you spend at a local business,  $68 stay in the community. 

Remember Black Lives Matter!

We are in this together. Wear a Mask, Stay home, Stay safe, Flatten the curve, Facts Matter. 14 days until the election.  Please vote. I have.

Proverbial Monday - Hello September

Hello September

Yes it is Tuesday 9/8/20 but it feels like Monday, proverbial Monday to many of us.   The day after Labor Day in the USA has been the beginning of fall for many because of back to school children for years.  Schools and our lives are different this year because of the pandemic.  

Remember to Wear The Damn Mask!  Nobody enjoys it but it is a small sacrifice for the larger good of our nation.  Many you stay safe, practice social distancing and flatten the curve.    

No Justice No Peace

As many of you know, I reside in Rochester, NY.  We have been in the news recently.  

Black Lives Matter!  No Justice No Peace. Participate. Stand up. 

Wear A Mask. Stay Safe. Practice social distancing. 

 For Education  Search 
 I Can't Breathe
Black Lives Matter 
and read from fact checked news sources.  As a supporter I am speaking up.  Please join me. 

Small Business

For every $100 you spend at a local business,  $68 stays in the community. Women use you buying power wisely.  

Many of my readers ask why does a small business speak about topics not about their industry?  As a business owner in Rochester, I join others is posting out the injustices I see.  We need to work together and VOTE in November.  Take America by the Ballot Box.  We as women have the power and we need to use it.  

Suffrage Centential August celebrations

 Herstory

15 Women Voted in Rochester, NY in 1872 and were arrested:  Susan B Anthony, Charlotte ("Lottie") B. Anthony, Mary S. Anthony, Ellen S. Baker, Nancy M. Chapman, Hannah M. Chatfield, Jane M. Cogswell, Rhoda DeGarmo, Mary S. Hebard, Susan M. Hough, Margaret Garrigues Leyden, Guelma Anthony McLean, Hannah Anthony Mosher, Mary E. Pulver, and Sarah Cole Truesdale.

Susan B Trial

Proud to live in one state to fully enfranchise women two years before the 19th amendment - 55 years later guaranteed to all with this:
Voting Rights Act of 1965

2020 Celebration

Proud to honor the Centennial of the 19th amendment this year.  Wish we could all join hands in the streets and celebrate this anniversary of such a huge milestone in our democracy.

This is a candid with  an organization whom came to Rochester at Susan B. Anthony Square to film for the 2020 Suffragist Parade. Thank you Women TIES.  Happy to be part of this celebration by women Business Owners in my city.  Many are entrepreneurs and the lady in charge of the group celebrate 25 years in business in 2020.





For every $100 you spend at a local business,  $68 stays in the community.

Social Justice

Black Lives Matter!  Flatten the curve. Wear A Mask. Stay Safe. No Justice No Peace. Participate. Stand up. Practice social distancing.

 For Education  Search 
 I Can't Breathe
Black Lives Matter
and read from fact checked news sources.  As a supporter I need to speak up.  Please join me.

Calico Hammers Women Build

I miss my time with my Women build team helping Habitat for Humanity build homes.  This pic is a few years old and is at the end of the day.  The group is a fun bunch of ladies to work with.   I am in the red shirt & purple hard hat on the right side of this pic. 

Flower City Habitat for Humanity (FCHH) is our local Habatat.

Want to know how easy it is to help build with us?  A little goes a long way.  

You can donate to help here:

Kim's Page

Calico Hammer will be back as a team in 2021.  We are helping in many ways this year as individuals.  

      Buy Local from the Maker 

My shop:  Panda Wear Website

Facebook:  PandaWire Facebook
Twitter:  Panda Wear Gems  
Pinterest: Pinterest 
Instagram: Instagram

For Education  Search 
 I Can't Breathe
Black Lives Matter
and read from fact checked news sources.  As a supporter I need to speak up.  Please join me. 

 Black Lives Matter!  Flatten the curve. Wear A Mask. Stay Safe. Practice social distancing.

Garden Sauna

My garden has turned into a virtual sauna with the rolling heat waves of the late spring & early summer.  It seems fitting to share some of my drought tolerant plants whom love the HEAT. This is an outdoor hardy cactus  called an opuntia .  We have them in both a pink as well as this yellow blooming variety. We recently gave them more sun by removing a few evergreens that were growing between them.  As these pictures show they are quite happy with the change.  

Another of our summer lovers is the Sago Palm below.  This pic is of the new fronds it is growing this season.  the plant is over 20 years old.  In out climate it come indoors in the winter.  The fellow gardener in my house collects cacti & succulents.  We have them outside in the summer and several hundred of them move indoors for the winter.

For Education  Search 
 I Can't Breathe
Black Lives Matter
and read from fact checked news sources.  As a supporter I need to speak

Sago Palm

up.  Please join me.

remember Stay home Wear A Mask Stay Safe Flatten the Curve

I am thankful for dear friends & family at this time to help keep us on track during this pandemic.  I have a weekly artist chat on zoom I host to allow a safe space for us to speak & share how we are coping.  Some weeks there is new art to look at while other weeks we are happy to have the group to discuss important topics.  Yes I am told there are FB groups but this is so remote and distant to me. this more personal and helpful to  us artists.  Keeping my schedule as regular as possible in the new world we live in has bolstered my creativity and I am now able to make some new pieces.  They will be added to my website and will be featured on Instagram first. 

Larimar in Sterling Silver

For every $100 you spend at a local business,  $68 stay in the community.  We are in this together.

       Buy Local from the Maker 

My shop:  Panda Wear Website

Facebook:  PandaWire Facebook
Twitter:  Panda Wear Gems  
Pinterest: Pinterest 
Instagram: Instagram

Almost April as a Women Business Owner

For all the new readers & followers of this blog,  I am an avid gardener and lapidary.  Most of my inspiration comes from nature as can be seen in my work.  Whether it is the arch of a branch, the stem of a bush or the pattern of moss.  As a lapidary, when I am cutting a stone my design became the feature I find in the natural stone.  Moss on a Lava rock in my backyard garden.  


Expanding the gemstone/rock side of my business.  I sell rocks! Do you know a jewelry designer or small local Jewelry store?  Being a lapidary, I custom cut my own stones into one of a kind cabochons. Retail & wholesale options for you to buy the gems.  Please feel free to contact me if you have a friend with a shop who uses one of a kind gemstones.

Today March 31 is National Equal Pay Day.  
We had a local rally scheduled to bring more visibility to the fact that Minorities & Women are drastically paid less than men.

learn more here:  Pay Equality Coalition
  
Another way to support women is the ERA now ratified by the 38th state.  I a a proud bard member of Rochester NOW 
NOW Rocheter NY




What does it mean to be a Lapidary?  Definition: The art of cutting, polishing & engraving precious stones.  

To the left is a slice of the Unakite I found as a rough rock in St. Lawrence county NY.  It has been sliced into this slab of rough gemstone.  Below is the finished polished cabochon showing the beauty in this stone.  
details of the process here:  
Lapidary process




As a small business owner I know how difficult it is at this time in NY state and around the US.  As a women owner business it is more difficult to generate the income necessary to keep the business going.  We are counting on the local community to remember to support all local business.  For every $100 you spend at a local business $68 stay in the community.  We are in this together.

I will end with a quote from my favorite president, Barak Obama. 

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek".   


Buy Local  from the maker

My shops:  Panda Wear Website
                   Cabochons and Beads

Facebook:  PandaWire Facebook
Twitter:  Panda Wear Gems  
Pinterest: Pinterest 
Instagram: Instagram
Habitat:  My Page Women Build

Happy growing and enjoy your week.  

New Normal and Garden Update

Spring Garden Update

Patience is a virtue .  We are reminded of the importance of this virtue in the month of March . My garden is asking for my patience for my snow peas to sprout.   My bulbs are not waiting for April to show us it is spring. Thanks to the climate crisis the bulbs are earlier every year.  I have mini daffodils opening their blooms in my backyard garden.   Seeing the blooms at the same time as snowdrops lets me know the flowers are confused.

Plan to transplant some of my mustard into the ground next week.  need the ground to dry some before cultivation.



New Normal

This has been a difficult blog to write at this time in our nation .

 With the pandemic taking its toll on the world as well as the huge impact on my state of NY I struggled. Should I share my quandary and show how an artist reacts to this or stay silent?  This was my quandary this week.

common terms this spring new normal, pandemic, stay home flattenthecurve.  Not comfortable with this but surviving with my focus on the positive.  Creating art is not a daily occurrence.  Working to get back to my lapidary creations.    

The upside is the ability to appreciate things we used to take for granted.  A walk along the canal path with my sweetheart earlier this week & I have this beautiful pic of the sky.  we small business owners are hit hard by the changes we have all had to make.


We Artists are creating art - look for it.  Please make an extra effort to buy from local business especially artists to support small biz in your area.

Pond resident, Ferdinan announcing it is spring.  His winter nap is over and he is happy to sun himself in the top of this pot.

Buy Local  from the maker

My shops:  Panda Wear Website
                   Cabochons and Beads

Facebook:  PandaWire Facebook
Twitter:  Panda Wear Gems  
Pinterest: Pinterest 
Instagram: Instagram
Habitat:  My Page Women Build

February Family Memories

I welcome the end of this month because spring is in March.  As many of you know, I am an avid gardener.  Another annual event is remembering my Father & his Mother both of whom have birthdays the end of the month.  They both showed me strong family, love & tolerance for all. This year the month adds another family memory, the passing of my father's middle brother, Russell.  My Uncle Russell passed away & his service was Saturday, 2/22.

My Grandmother loved gardening and her flowers were a show of her dedication to nature.  This was obvious at her home in the NE area is the city of Rochester & the summer home her husband build in the 1000 Islands in St Lawrence county. One of my favorite flowers in her garden was the Peonies.  She had both the pink & the white flowering plants.This is the pink flowering type in my backyard garden.  When they first bloomed here my only thought when I inhaled the intoxicating aroma was of Grandma.



As I enjoy the sprouts of my tomatoes & bell peppers, I think of my family and the fantastic gardens at Grandma & Grandpa's house when I was a child. The Blackberries & Red Raspberries were always harvested by my sister & I.  Amazing that any of the fruits made it into the house by the color of our hands from the harvest of the super juicy berries.This is the view from the dock at the summer place several years ago.  The water lilies are wild there and helped me to have my own backyard pond.  the sound of the water takes me back to the cottage in the 1000 islands and many summer weekends with my father when I was a child.

Habitat for Humanity Women Build 2013

Buy Local  from the maker

My shops:  Panda Wear Website
                   Cabochons and Beads

Facebook:  PandaWire Facebook
Twitter:  Panda Wear Gems  
Pinterest: Pinterest 
Instagram: Instagram
Habitat:  My Page Women Build

Summer Fun in the Sun

Fun in the summer sunshine. 

Schweinfurth Art Center Auburn, NY

Summer is moving by quickly  - Hello end of July..  The garden is growing well & we celebrate the bounty we have..  Harvested many veggies:  lettuce, snow peas, swiss chard, kale, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, chives, thyme, oregano, sage, tomatilloes, beans, celery, mustard.  Waiting to enjoy radishes, beefsteak tomatoes, zucchini, Parsnips, leeks, cucumbers & fennel.

Susan B Anthony Square Rochester NY

It has been the spring & summer of celebrations.  In several cites:  Seneca Falls, Auburn, St Michaels, MD as well as home in Rochester this summer.  Women are a focus this year with the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage in New York State.  My favorite part of the travel has been sharing stories and finding "sisters"  who have the same goals I do.  Family is more than blood ...as many have experienced in their lives.

My feet have not stopped since the Right to Run 19k 5k in Seneca Falls NY on 5/13/17. Happy to share my travel  & stories later this summer. A few of my trips  at the end of this post.

Genny from Charlotte in Sterling Silver

My shops:  Panda Wear Website
                   Cabochons and Beads

Facebook:  PandaWire Facebook
Twitter:  Panda Wear Gems  
Pinterest: Pinterest 
Instagram: Instagram

Enjoy your journey creating memories with your family through this beautiful season.

• Right to Run 19k 5k Seneca Falls NY fundraiser for the National Women's' Hall of Fame by  renovation ot the Seneca Knitting Mill.
• Hand delivered a huge wedding order to St. Michaels MD and joined the celebration.  
• 4th of July weekend spent with my man and hiking in Letchworth Sate park
• Convention Days Seneca Falls NY 
• Votilla - Seneca Falls to Rochester via the canals and Suffragist City Parade