Our first creative collaborator, Kathryn is a quilter champion, medical doctor and so much more. Kathryn looks to champion women through her creativity. Kathryn is currently in New York City celebrating #IWD2020 with Gloria Steinem. You can follow Kathryn’s award quilting escapades here and we know you will be impressed.
A beloved co-founder of Harris Kuipers, our very own Laura is most known for her beautiful paintings. Laura is busy gearing up for her next painting retreat in Tofino, and you can catch her next weekend in Whistler at the exhibit Women in the Spotlight, featuring her latest paintings with HK fabric ends incorporated. And yes there’ll be an HK trunk show too! Fab art, HK clothing, amazing women and wine – what could be better?! See you there next weekend.
Manager of Smoking Lily, that produces unique screen printed clothing made from an incredible range of sustainable materials, incorporating deadstock (leftover stock from larger companies) and vintage fabrics found on their designers’ travels. Check out what’s new https://smokinglily.com/collections/featured, and plan to visit this spring.
Co-founder of Harris Kuipers, Shelley has ambitions to change many things. What she would really like for all of you is to activate and signup at The51, to stay in the know. An organisation that is looking to advance women’s value creation through women investing in women. While their events are only in Calgary right now, they are looking to expand to Edmonton and the coast. Stay tuned for more news including the announcement of their inaugural summit.
The creative behind Buttata Ceramics, beautiful everyday ceramics, tablewear designed and handmade on Vancouver Island, and inspired by the natural beauty of the west coast. Buttata is to die for, please check it out here Buttata Ceramics.
Founder and CEO of The Upside, a marketplace for luxury clothing sellers and buyers, Lauryn is looking to reinvent your closet by making it easy to sell and buy, and reimagining how we might access fashion, and perhaps imagine a digital ‘upside’ closet in your future. Check out Lauryn and her venture The Upside and do a little spring cleaning now!
Artist, photographer, illustrator, Deb just recently shot this recipe for Eat Magazine, and well we’ve made it ourselves and it’s delish! We are prompting you here https://eatmagazine.ca/spinachandherbpesto/, and dare you to try it too. Also, take a peek at Deb’s original artwork for sale https://www.debgarlick.com/original-paintings-available, and in the spirit of IWD, we have our eye on the Teeny Girl https://www.debgarlick.com/original-paintings-available/teeny-girl-6-x-6
We had the chance to catch up with Marcie at the recent YW fundraiser in Calgary, it was a huge success thanks to supporters like Marcie. What we learned was that Marcie’s focus is now with Canadian Equality Consulting, where she consults large organisations and companies on diversity strategies and best practices. If your organisation or company needs help, reach out to Marcie, she would love to hear from you. And for some cool merch – Marci is also the co-founder of Madame Premier – an organisation that looks to advance women’s participation in politics. This is our fav item right now https://madamepremier.ca/collections/all-collections/products/a-womans-place-is-in-tote-bag - grab one!
Well, since we last spoke with Cecilia, there’s some BIG news! Cecilia and her husband welcomed a baby girl, Emma Yi Sheng Cheng Chen on January 26! Emma has her mother’s last name, and Cecilia said it was ‘thank you to her feminist husband’. We’ve managed to get a lunch booked in with this busy mom and will hopefully peek at some photos of beautiful Emma. Congratulations Cecilia! Contact Ceclia at SmartBe Wealth to learn more about ETF investing, though she is on maternity leave right now J
Julie’s feminist e-commerce mission continues, The Helm is making great gains in their awareness and were recently just promoted in the latest edition of In Style where Kerry Washington said The Helm a lifestyle brand that supports female entrepreneurs, was named her favourite place to shop. Given that the ‘virus’ has kept some of us at home, shopping from our laptop in pjs, sounds pretty damn good.
Kids Living, Kathleen’s UK based charitable organisation is hosting first annual event this week with the Duke of Westminster recognising 15 outstanding community charities or people. These people have been nominated across the boroughs of Chelsea and Westminster and chosen because they are actively working to change mental health and wellness with primary school children, their families, and communities. They help make the school’s job easier. Please give generously to her cause.
Ofir has been busy, as her charity Colombo Alliance for Development, recently received a significant donation to advance her mission and cause in Colombia. The Charity volunteers in Colombia have just recently delivered school and gym supplies to the students attending Santo Tomas de Aquino in Cali, Colombia. Check out the video produced by Colombo Alliance for Development, which showcases the kids in Colombia that are benefitting from their support. Please contact Ofir to learn more on how you can help.
Nancy and her travel company, Luxe Travel, which have been ensuring that their travelers know the difference between facts and misinformation of the coronavirus. Nancy recently published some advice on called “Should you travel during the COVID-19 Outbreak” and there is some valuable information here, read up and plan accordingly. In the meantime, our suitcases are at the door, ready to go when this all blows over.
Yvette has just returned from a trip to Cuba, and we can’t wait to catch up and find out more about her travels! But we are even more excited to announce that Yvette will be participating in our upcoming trunk show/pop up in Calgary. Our friend Alison Pidskalny, one of Calgary’s most committed community builders and philanthropists, has offered to host and we can’t wait to showcase HK, and Yvette’s bespoke jewelry designs – they do look fantastic with HK. Stay tuned for an invite #yyc ladies.
Jan is off on a much-deserved vacation to Mexico following an extremely successful fundraiser – YWhisper event this week where she played host to Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey – New York Times reporters who broke the Harvey Weinstein story. And if you don’t own the book ‘She Said’ – well get at it. The YW Calgary successfully raised a substantial amount of money for women and children for their showcase initiative, Her Champion. We are still cheering after Wednesday night and Jana Taylor has reminded us that Benevity is matching all funds – you have until the 8th to get your donation in and matched.
Laura is the champion of important causes given her own personal experience. We learned a lot from Laura about living each day like it’s your last, and about a little known auto-immune disease called Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC). If you are interested in donating to a fundraising group that gives out research grants every year to promising research, here is the link https://pscpartners.org/donate/. Since publishing Laura’s story, we have had readers come forward and share their PSC stories too. Thank you, Laura for raising awareness that an opt-out organ donation system would be a game-changer. An “opt-out” system means that everyone is considered an organ donor unless they “opt-out”.
Carolyn is one of our fab HK creative collaborators. She took scraps of fabric, made them into an awesome, chunky ‘yarn’ and knitted gorgeous items with them. She talked with us about the importance of creative practice, not trying to please everyone and the great love of her life. She’s dreaming up her next HK project, so stay tuned for that one. There was mention of a little black bag and more scarves – sweet! Drop-in and see Carolyn at kitchen store Penna & Co or take one of her yoga classes at Ma Studio, in Victoria.
