Etsy Love: Apache Moon

The Etsy shop Apache Moon has a wonderful mission: 100% of every sale goes to animal rescue and sanctuary.  Based out of Texas and owned by Verge and Nita, Apache Moon makes beautiful handcrafted jewelry, all to support rescued animals.  Once I found their shop, I knew I would find as many opportunities as possible to support their work.  I've already purchased this for myself:

Infinity Ring

And these for a couple of friends for Christmas:

Garnet Earrings

 

Baltic Amber Ring

Their tagline is "Jewelry for the joy of it! 100% to rescued animals" and I love that at the end of each listing, there is a picture of a sweet little cat.  Also, most of their materials are recycled! 

The couple explain in an excerpt from their shop site:

"100% of our profits benefit charity. For example, as members of Team EFA, Etsy for Animals, a portion of our profits get donated to animal charities such as WSPA in both Japan & Haiti, SPCA, World Wildlife, Sierra and the rest goes to support our own large family of rescues - currently 41 animals plus a feral cat colony which we spay, neuter and feed. We also donate to other charities such as the United Nations World Food Programme for Somalia."

Plus, the jewelry is just so lovely, it's hard to resist.

 White Sapphire Ring

Locket Ring

Flora and Fauna Pendant

Opalite Earrings

***Through December 30, all items are 12% off with the code SantaForgot***  Happy Shopping!

A Snowboarding Crow, and Other Such Tales

A new friend and I had a conversation not long ago about crows laughing.  This got me thinking about what crows (and other animals) might do for fun: here's what I found.

Snowboarding!

Lifting! (Watch for the surprise ending!)

Puzzles!

Play Ball!

 

 

And sometimes they just want to hang out and be loved on:)

 

Animal Kingdom

Our director for Scapin challenged us the other day by asking us to each pick an animal to base our characters on.  Usually this is not my thing: I tend to come from a more vocal than movement base in acting.  With this play, however, the choice seems to really work.  The goal of this production is to be truly funny and family friendly, and so basing characters on animals moves us closer to that goal.  So my friend David (also in Scapin) and I went to The Columbus Zoo yesterday to do some research.  We caught some amazing things on camera, including a wolf rolling around playfully and flamingos fighting.

My character tends to laugh a lot, and so naturally I gravitated towards the jovial hyena.

It's body movements and hang dog look, however, didn't suit my sensual gypsy character, so I'm now looking towards the sly fox for body movements, and keeping the hyena for vocalization.

Doesn't she look like she's smiling?  We saw two arctic foxes get into a brief play-fight yesterday, and it was over as soon as it started: it made me think of how quickly a summer storm blows through a sunny day.  

I was surprised how naturally the work came to me, as soon as I was open to it.  My body and instincts took over.  I'm looking forward to really playing with this technique and seeing where it takes me!  Have you ever done animal work in your acting?  Where did it take you?

(Photo from Woodland Park Zoo.)

Grieving

Yesterday in the large-windowed break room at work, I noticed a fallen bird out on the ledge.  The lovely little thing had a wreath of dead pine needles surrounding it supplied from a nearby row of trees.  At first I wondered if it had happened by accident, but I think that was only because I was so surprised by the sight.  I had never encountered a bird memorial before, but I now believe that's exactly what it was.  

I started looking into birds and grieving, and have found that it's a very common thing not just for birds, but all across the animal kingdom.  I came across some very touching stories about birds and their loved ones.  Many are variations about a bird not leaving a mate's side after their death.  Others tell about bird funerals, like this story found in Britain's Daily Mail online.  

It's always sad to see an animal like that, but how wonderful to know the feathered dear was loved.

Moses and Cassie

This video is amazing.  Cassie was an abandoned kitten that was adopted by Moses: he would even feed her out of his mouth!  A beautiful story of true friendship.