Blue Windows

Years ago I was inter­view­ing some­one for a job at Blue Windows and asked her the ques­tion “who do you admire most and why?”  Her response was Zana Briski, the founder of Kids With Cameras. I was imme­di­ately impressed by her answer and wanted to find out more about what she had told me. Anchal, the girl who ulti­mately got the job, ended up work­ing for me for sevaral years and I find it incred­i­ble that after all these years I chose the orga­ni­za­tion she orig­i­nally made me aware of.

Kids With Cameras Mission Statement:

“Kids with Cameras is a non-profit orga­ni­za­tion that teaches the art of pho­tog­ra­phy to mar­gin­al­ized chil­dren in com­mu­ni­ties around the world. We use pho­tog­ra­phy to cap­ture the imag­i­na­tions of chil­dren, to empower them, build­ing con­fi­dence, self-esteem and hope. We share their vision and voices with the world through exhi­bi­tions, books, web­sites and film. By link­ing with local orga­ni­za­tions, we work to strengthen the children’s edu­ca­tion and gen­eral well-being, pro­vid­ing finan­cial sup­port through sales of their prints or by devel­op­ing our own homes with a focus on lead­er­ship and the arts.”

“Kids with Cameras was founded in 2002 by pho­tog­ra­pher Zana Briski out of her work teach­ing pho­tog­ra­phy to chil­dren in Calcutta’s red-light dis­trict. We believe that pho­tog­ra­phy is an effec­tive tool in ignit­ing children’s imag­i­na­tion and build­ing self-esteem. We believe in the power of art to trans­form lives, for both the artist and the viewer.”

This month 5% of Blue Windows prof­its will go towards this orga­ni­za­tion. I believe in these chil­dren and believe they deserve oppor­tu­nites to be more than the envi­ron­ment they were born into. Please visit their web­site http://www.kids-with-cameras.org for more infor­ma­tion. The pho­tographs taken by the kids are for sale and the pro­ceeds go directly to their education.

June always feels like the begin­ning of sum­mer for us at Blue Windows and that is why, this month, we chose to fea­ture Friends Of Colorado Lagoon as our char­ity. The Colorado Lagoon is an urban wet­land open to the pub­lic year-round, how­ever it is most pop­u­lar in the sum­mer­time and serves as a much needed and loved oasis to Long Beach locals and vis­i­tors. Friends Of Colorado Lagoon is a non-profit orga­ni­za­tion that pro­vides free nature edu­ca­tion pro­grams that con­sist of hands-on instruc­tion, events, and ser­vice learn­ing. All events and classes are free to the com­mu­nity and open to the gen­eral pub­lic and school classes of all lev­els. All classes, events, and nature walks are guar­an­teed to be fun and filled with infor­ma­tion about the lagoon. Another aspect of Friends Of Colorado Lagoon is in restor­ing the lagoon. The restora­tion involves weekly beach clean-ups, the re-planting of native plants, main­te­nance of safe water qual­ity lev­els, as well as advo­cat­ing the major restora­tion of the lagoon. The major restora­tion of the lagoon is the open­ing up of the lagoon to flow freely into the bay. This will allow improved water flow which is bet­ter for the water qual­ity and for the native ani­mals and plants that sur­vive off the habi­tat of the wet­land. Check out this video that really explains what they do for the Colorado Lagoon.

This month 10% of all children’s sales will be donated to Friends Of Colorado Lagoon. We hope to help out this won­der­ful orga­ni­za­tion so that they can con­tinue to pro­vide free nature edu­ca­tion pro­grams to the com­mu­nity, gen­eral pub­lic, and neigh­bor­ing schools.

May has been a busy month and although it’s almost over I don’t want to over­look our char­ity choice for this month. Children Today is an orga­ni­za­tion based in Long Beach that focuses on the needs of home­less chil­dren in our com­mu­nity. This month 10% of our prof­its in jew­elry sales will be donated. “The goal of Children Today is sim­ple – to increase the safety, sta­bil­ity and con­fi­dence of chil­dren fac­ing home­less­ness and pro­vide qual­ity early care and edu­ca­tion pro­grams absolutely free of charge.” In the process of choos­ing char­i­ties or orga­ni­za­tions I have come to real­ize how impor­tant it is to see what is hap­pen­ing in our own back­yard. Instead of ignor­ing the imme­di­ate needs in our own city that we choose to live in we need to embrace and sup­port the peo­ple that have put their heart and soul into mak­ing these orga­ni­za­tions come to life. I have per­son­ally vis­ited Children Today and what they pro­vide for chil­dren is an amaz­ing sense of secu­rity and love. Please check out their web­site for fur­ther infor­ma­tion @ www.childrentoday.org.

Thank you for your con­tin­ued sup­port in Blue Windows,

Heather

Me and Jeanine Payer

So the day finally came…Jeanine Payer came to Blue Windows.

Petra, Kazu , Jeanine & Heather

One of a kind jew­elry by Jeanine Payer

Alyson, Anchal & Petra Me & Holli

Me & Petra

And then she was gone…

When I first heard Jeanine Payer was com­ing to the store I imme­di­ately began think­ing art project. I wanted to some­how rep­re­sent the 10 years we have been sell­ing her jew­elry. I rum­maged through old line sheets, press, post­cards of past trunk shows, pho­tos of past dis­plays, jew­elry that I had pur­chased over the years and all of a sud­den I knew I had to cre­ate some­thing with all these mate­ri­als. In the process of cre­at­ing the col­lage I relived the past of every­thing I had kept for so long. Jeanine Payer’s jew­elry has always been a line I have put my heart and soul into. I always took care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion on how to dis­play her amaz­ing jew­elry prop­erly. I often took inspi­ra­tion from the jew­elry itself and com­bined it with my own cre­ative vision.

A Collection of Poetry

A col­lec­tion of poetry…                      Line sheets from 2001-present…                                past display…

Jeanine Payer’s philosophy…

“We believe every piece of Jeanine Payer’s jew­elry has two sto­ries–the one that brought it into being (ours) and the one that brings it to life (yours).”

“We believe in nam­ing things you make by hand after peo­ple you love.”

“We believe it’s never too late to start a tra­di­tion or cre­ate an heir­loom.”

“We believe every­one needs a muse, a lucky charm, and a cre­ative outlet.”

“We believe in good word of mouth”

“We believe in cel­e­brat­ing achieve­ments, mark­ing mile­stones, and immor­tal­iz­ing moments.”

I believe in Jeanine’s phi­los­o­phy and I’m pretty sure the peo­ple who wear her jew­elry do too.

Heather

There was a time when I knew every poem on every piece of Jeanine Payer’s jew­elry. That was of course when her col­lec­tion was quite a bit smaller. Blue Windows would not be the same with­out her jew­elry. For the past 10 years I have been inspired by the poetry, cre­at­ing dis­plays and watch­ing in awe of her vision. I am so excited that she will be com­ing to the store on May 7th dur­ing Mother’s Day week­end. Of course I am scram­bling to make the store look the best it can be for this spe­cial event. My brain tends to go on over­load with ideas and plan­ning. I am cre­at­ing a col­lage from the past 10 years and it is bring­ing back a ton of mem­o­ries. Like when I was man­ag­ing the store and couldn’t afford to buy her jew­elry. I des­per­ately wanted one and even­tu­ally bought the “stella” ring. “Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story” was the per­fect poem for just grad­u­at­ing with a music degree. Over the years I have col­lected many of her pieces but always made a promise to myself that each piece I pur­chase would have a mean­ing to it. A mem­ory built in. When I first bought Blue Windows I pur­chased the “Faye” to always remind me “I want to be for­ever the me that greets change with open arms and heart”. I was about to embark on quite a change in my life and I knew I had to greet this change with con­fi­dence. When the store cel­e­brated it’s 10 Year Anniversary I pur­chased the “Dale” neck­lace with “Nothing is impos­si­ble to a will­ing heart” on the front and “Blue Windows 10 year anniver­sary” on the back. I do have many other pieces that sig­nify moments, tri­umphs in my life or just a day when a poem spoke to me at that time in my life. Honestly that is why I am so drawn to Jeanine’s jew­elry. Each piece speaks dif­fer­ently to every­one. Sometimes I will have read a cer­tain poem over and over and then a cus­tomer will come in and give me a whole new per­spec­tive on what it means to them. I look for­ward to this event and to many more years of Jeanine Payer in my store!

“Dale”

“Wolfgang”

I am now into the fourth month of my char­i­ties and am begin­ning to real­ize that I may not be the best at keep­ing up with the jour­nal aspect. April is about to become May and I haven’t even writ­ten about my April char­ity. This month I chose Precious Lamb, a preschool that pro­vides “free christ-centered edu­ca­tion and care” for chil­dren in Long Beach. Parents can also receive the help they need to get back on their feet through par­ent edu­ca­tion classes spon­sored by Precious Lamb at local shel­ters in the com­mu­nity. Please visit their web­site at www.preciouslamb.org for more infor­ma­tion. I can’t wait to visit the school and see first hand what the vol­un­teers pro­vide for these chil­dren. Buy any­thing from our kids sec­tion and 10% of the sale will go to this amaz­ing organization.

Heather

Music has always been such a big part of who I am. Before I started work­ing for Blue Windows I was con­sid­er­ing a career in clas­si­cal singing. I was just sup­posed to take a small break before head­ing to grad­u­ate school…never hap­pened. Although I never pur­sued a career in singing I will never regret the time spent invest­ing in music. I started when I was in 7th grade and con­tin­ued until I received my degree in music from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 1999. This month I chose to donate to music pro­grams in our local schools. More specif­i­cally, Rogers mid­dle school and Stanford mid­dle school (where I first began). I won­der some­times what my life would have been like if I hadn’t had music in my life at such an early age. Music is an escape for so many young peo­ple and can con­tribute to build­ing con­fi­dence in who they are. I hope that schools never take away this oppor­tu­nity for young stu­dents and that’s why I am choos­ing to sup­port them in any way I can. I think out of all the char­i­ties and orga­ni­za­tions I have cho­sen or will choose this one is the most per­sonal to me and my life.

“Sing in me, muse, and through me tell the story” ~Homer

Heather

Today I feel espe­cially lucky to own Blue Windows. I am con­tin­u­ally reminded why God gave me this incred­i­ble oppor­tu­nity. Yesterday I met the face of Hearts Without Boundaries, my char­ity for February. I knew I would be affected by this process but I never imag­ined I would have the oppor­tu­nity to come face to face with a lit­tle girl from Cambodia because of it. Socheat, 3 years old, is hav­ing heart surgery next week and I was blessed to meet her yes­ter­day. Another great sur­prise was meet­ing Davik, 11 years old, who had heart surgery two years ago. Both of these girls had this oppor­tu­nity because of the heart of Peter Chhun, founder of Hearts Without Boundaries. He came along with oth­ers who work for the orga­ni­za­tion and fam­ily mem­bers of Socheat. It was quite a sight. Cameras every­where! I have to say I was a bit over­whelmed by the expe­ri­ence. This lit­tle girl is get­ting a surgery she would never have been able to get if it weren’t for Hearts Without Boundaries. I encour­age peo­ple to get involved in some small way whether it’s through this orga­ni­za­tion or another. Believe me you will get moments that you never expected to have in your life. I came into work on Wednesday morn­ing, got a phone call that they would be vis­it­ing and then by the end of my shift I was meet­ing Socheat from Cambodia! Crazy turn of events in one day! The best part is I could share it with my Blue Windows crew. Petra (my man­ager) and Alyson were both there for the expe­ri­ence. I have to give a big thanks to Petra for find­ing this orga­ni­za­tion in the first place. I have a great team and I hope as we con­tinue this jour­ney we will have more incred­i­ble sto­ries to expe­ri­ence and share.

I am Blessed, Heather

…1 down and 11 to go. February’s char­ity is Hearts Without Boundaries. This orga­ni­za­tion, based in Long Beach, pro­vide human­i­tar­ian ser­vices such as vol­un­teer med­ical teams, med­ical sup­plies and clin­ics, as well as human­i­tar­ian aid and live­stock to those in need, mainly in Cambodia and other areas in Southeast Asia. I chose this par­tic­u­lar orga­ni­za­tion because it allows chil­dren a sec­ond chance that they nor­mally would not receive. I think it’s impor­tant to reach out to the imme­di­ate com­mu­nity but I also believe our com­mu­nity can be world­wide as well. However large the world may seem it is rel­a­tively small when it comes to the needs of chil­dren. This month 10% of all jew­elry sales will be donated to Hearts Without Boundaries. I thought it was appro­pri­ate con­sid­er­ing Valentine’s Day.

Heather