International Charm Day

This sweet charm and really sweet package is from artist Mandy McDonald. She's a long-time favorite of mine and her charms are really amazing. This bird charm was featured in a post on the International Charm Day blog by artist and swap-creator extraordinaire, Amber Dawn. The copper wire nest is topped by a sweet Humblebeads bird...wow, I wish I had gotten one of these!

International Charm Day? What's that? Well, it's a charm holiday. Yes, it is a 'made up' holiday, but so is Mother's Day and most of the other holidays we enjoy.

I like to celebrate Charm Day by hiding hand-made charms around Raleigh as I go about my errands that day. In the past I have hidden charms at the library, the grocery store and even at my favorite hardware store! I package my charms with a note telling the recipient who I am and why I hid the charm. It's not too late for you to celebrate International Charm Day...go get inspired at the blog!

Here are a few charm inspiration ideas for you:
a stamped spoon charm
a collaged crystal 
a bird on a nest
a silhouette charm

*and YES, we will have another charm swap here at Ornamentea...soon, soon, I promise!

February's Round Up Charity

Project Linus

This month's round-up charity is Project Linus . This is a real crafter's charity; the organization makes and distributes blankets to children in times of trouble. In 2010, the Raleigh chapter made and donated 2226 blankets to children at area hospitals, homeless shelters and service organizations. Those blankets were sewn, knitted, crocheted and knotted by hands like yours. We'll donate all the money placed in our Round Up Jar on the counter in February to Project Linus-oh, and as always we match your donation 100%. 

If you want to help Project Linus by making a blanket you can visit their blogclick here to learn more.  to learn more about events like the Make A Blanket Day coming up on February 26th at Marbles Children's Museum. Volunteers will meet to knot, knit and stitch blankets in a one-day fun day of giving. You can participate,

Donor's Choose-we raised $130!

Our January Charity was Donor's Choose, an organization that allows donors to fund specific projects in classrooms around the country. Our customers placed $65 in our Round Up Jar in the store and we matched it 100%. With the $130 raised we fully funded a project with Mrs. P's classroom in Wilmington, North Carolina. The 68 students in grades 3-5 have limited access to art materials because of budget shortfalls. The funds will go to purchasing paper and pigments so that the children can experiment with mixing primary colors into secondary colors and make marbled papers. We even had a bit left over from our donation to Mrs. P's classroom and we donated $34 to Mrs. V in Albemarle to use toward purchasing colored paper for use in her sixth grade language arts classroom. 

If you'd like to learn more about Donor's Choose or find your own project to support, please visit this link.

To learn more about our Charity Round Up program please click here.

To read previous blog posts about our donations click here. 

Donor's Choose

Our store has a Charity Round Up program for in-store purchases. Anyone at our store can pop some change in the jar and customers who are making purchases use the jar to 'round up' their dollar amount and get the next-larger punch on their beadfreak card. We match all donations in the jar 100% and send the money to the selected charity at the end of the month. We love being able to give something to a local charity that will help them with their mission and contribute to the quality of life in the Triangle.

This month we are planning on giving to Donor's Choose. This organization connects classroom teachers with donors who can make their project goals a reality. Through the website, donorschoose.org, you can select a classroom project in any of the 50 states and fund it partially or completely. The projects range from counter-top science to museum field trips. You can choose the field of study and the geographic location of the classroom. I especially love being able to choose a project in an art classroom here in North Carolina. You may have a different preference, visit donorschoose.org to find out for yourself.

Every time you are in our store I invite you to drop your pocket change in the Round Up Jar located at the sales counter. We'll match that change you drop in 100% and send it off to a local charity. This month, we're hoping to fund an art program at a high-poverty school in Central North Carolina. They need crazy things like paper, and markers, and crayons so that their students can make art.

How do we choose a charity?
In some cases our customers suggest charities by emailing us at donations @ ornamentea . com. In some cases our staff let us know about charities they think are worthwhile. Generally, our focus in on locally-based charities who have active work in the Triangle area. We don't usually support organizations engaged in good works, missions, outreach and other activities in far-flung, global locations. We are a local store, we want to support our local folks.

How much do we donate monthly?
Our monthly Round Up Jar donations depend on the generosity of our customers. We have donated as much as $300 in one month but more often we donate around $150 to the selected charity. This is one of the main reasons we do not give to large, global charities. We want our small donations to be seen and noticed by the charities that receive them.

What types of charities do we choose?
As I mentioned before, we generally choose locally-based charities. To us, 'local' is North Carolina. We also will only choose registered 501-3C charities. We love art education, children, the environment, seniors, feeding people, needy pets and family support. We take many suggestions at the email address listed above and they are reviewed by staff to determine the best fit with our business. Please do not take it personally if your favorite charity is not chosen. We have 25+ suggestions for every year and we often support the same charities multiple times in a year if we feel they have sufficient needs to warrant the support.

Do we do any other types of giving?
Ornamentea often donates items for auctions and events at local charities. Please understand that we cannot say yes to every request. We apply the same criteria to our in-kind donations as we do to the Round Up Jar program and the contact email is the same.

Read more about our Round Up Jar program here
Read more about the beadfreak card here

Read more about the January, 2011 Charity, Donor's Choose, here.

Tour Raleigh Chicken Coops!

Okay, as you probably know, I have some pet hens. Rosey, Honeysuckle and Sleepyhead to be exact. I also live in what could easily be described as an 'urban' neighborhood. You know, small lots, neighbors very close by, no garage, not much of a driveway. We can walk to the library, the grocery, the coffee shop and yes, the chicken coop. Our three hens live a life of chicken-luxury in a backyard garden coop. They are fussed over by our daughters, smiled at by neighbors and way too spoiled I am sure. Don't you want some?

The Henside the Beltline Tour de Coop is a garden coop tour that features 20 urban coops in and around downtown Raleigh. There are coops that would make Martha Stewart jealous and coops that were knocked up using salvaged wood scraps and borrowed hack saws. Our coop is somewhere in between, but we are happy to show it off. Keeping chickens is one of those weird hobbies that enthusiasts just can't help talking about...a lot. Come on the tour and you'll see gardens of all kinds, fancy chickens with pedigrees and mutt-hens who just lay eggs for a living. You'll see one of the best-kept secrets of this fair capital city; chicken coops blocks from the Governor's Mansion, the State House and (gasp!) even very close to North Hills Mall.

This tour is not all fun and games, though. We do it not just for the chicken fame, but to raise funds and groceries for Urban Ministries of Wake County. This very-deserving charity works to provide some of life's basic necessities to those most in need. Founded by a group with diverse faiths, they serve every needy member of the community. Their food pantry distributes over 270 tons of food every year to families, much of it in the summers. The tour maps are available at five sites in Raleigh (Ornamentea is one of them!) and we request that you make a generous donation of non-perishable foods or money when you get your map.

Click here to visit the Coop Tour blog. Don't miss the part about Chicken Keeping 101 classes coming up soon...

Do you love chickens? Join the City Chickens of Raleigh Facebook group!

Learn more about Urban Ministries here.

Charity Round Up Jar

Every month we collect change for a different local (Raleigh, NC) charity in our store. We offer our customers the chance to 'round up' their beadfreak cards for all in-store purchases by putting the difference between their actual sale and the next punch amount into the jar. This money is matched 100% by my husband and myself (the store owners) and we donate the total to the local charity. We often support charities focused on work with children, animals or hungry people and we take charity suggestions from our customers. Our dollar amounts are often small-less than $500 a month-so we want to choose a charity that will really notice that donation amount.

Are you a beadfreak card member? if you are, please think about tossing some change in the Roundup Jar this month.

Read more about the Roundup Jar and this month's charity here.

Extra Beads?

Do you have extra beads? Well, that is kind of a silly question. What I meant to say was do you have beads you aren't going to use any time soon that could go do some good work elsewhere? I just found out about Beads Of Courage and think this charity is a great place for all crafty folks to consider when they are clearing out their stash. These fine folks work with seriously ill children and their family members to offer a bit of fun and creative enjoyment in the hospitals or hospice locations where the children are receiving treatment.
Go, read about their programs here.

Win a semi-precious stone globe...

Help stop hunger in North Carolina today-

We are raffling off this semi-precious stone globe to benefit The Food Bank of Eastern and Central North Carolina. A $2 raffle ticket will help feed a child for a day, 100% of the ticket sales will go to the Food Bank. While the Food Bank gets lots of donations of non-perishable goods (especially at this time of year!) they always need money to fill in the gaps.

Come see the globe in person at Panopolie; you can buy a ticket at either store. We will draw the name on December 30th and if you win you can spend New Year's Eve gazing at a sea of lapis.

The Food Bank is a favored charity of mine, they put almost every cent they raise into programming, not fancy charity balls and high-paid administrators. So many volunteer hours go into collecting and distributing the food to needy people in our area and the Food Bank is always filled with cheerful faces. This globe is beautiful, maybe it would be just the thing for your home or office or maybe it would make a nice late holiday gift for a globe trotter you know. Come buy a few tickets today.