9 posts tagged “art”

Well, the big fundraiser weekend is over and I’m sitting at my desk feeling rather amazed about the whole thing! 

I got off work Friday and went straight over to the church to get started wrapping up details.  I decorated sugar cookies and worked on displays in the fellowship hall.  There were a number of friends there working on pulling together the donations for a huge yard sale.  They worked until late and it was fun to have their company in the fellowship hall as we worked.  My in-laws arrived from Indiana and even though they looked quite tired, Hubby’s mom helped set out jewelry boxes and a variety of other things.  Hubby and his dad went off to bring us some ice cream and we sat for a while with the marvelous flavors they brought from a new ice cream shop in town.  Yummm...  I worked for a bit longer and then we sent the in-laws to my parent’s home for the night. 

Saturday morning I took my time getting going because I was tired from a long week of preparation.  Hubby’s mom arrived and started to help me finish up some chocolate and put together the last of the displays in the fellowship hall.  Hubby’s dad and hubby spent most of the day working on a few things around the house, including a new faucet in the bathroom and a new valve on the water heater and the window air conditioner installed.  Hubby and father-in-law went for Sub sandwiches for dinner and as we were finishing up my parents arrived with the fruit and vegetables.  The Mothers put out the chocolate as I showed them where it went and we put out all the other munchies as well.  As we were finishing up the food displays and lighting candles, the first guests started to arrive.  And at 7:00 when the fund raiser was officially starting, there were maybe 4 or 5 guests.  After a while though, the numbers started to swell and we had a crowd. 

A friend of mine is a professional violinist and she brought along a friend who plays harp and they played music for the event and really did a lovely job!  What a blessing they are and a beautiful addition to the evening!

At about 8:00 we showed the video that I made a while back giving some of our history in this journey toward parenthood.  I watched people watching the video and was blessed by how people allowed themselves to connect emotionally with it.  I think it is a lot to swallow in the five minutes of the video since it represents an often painful journey, but at least it is mercifully short.  I found myself comforting my friends who were moved by my story.  How’s that for a strange twist?!

The Art

I had small tables with a jewelry and artwork of a variety of media.  I also had a table where I had old jewelry that was significantly reduced in price.  The SALE table.  That may well have been the hit of the evening.  Most of the time there were ladies huddled around that table trying things on and giving each other feedback.  It was fun to interact with the people the same way I did when I had the gallery.  I could help them choose things that looked good on them, and make suggestions on things they should try on.  It was a very interesting evening and I really enjoyed interacting with “clientele” again.  And I saw quite a bit of that jewelry Sunday morning in church – which was a delightful surprise in some cases because I did not take care of the money so I had no idea who had purchased what.  I really enjoyed that.

The Chocolate

We had a whole table of just chocolate.  I had made twelve kinds of truffles and caramels and my Mom brought another three kinds in addition to the cookies that both of us made.  And because there were so many choices, people may have been a little overwhelmed.  So I found them gathered around the table making recommendations to each other on which ones “you just have to try!”  I heard special compliments on the lemon truffle and the marzipan which was a favorite of quite a few folks.  Surprisingly, the dark chocolate truffle with cinnamon, nutmeg and cayenne pepper was a favorite for quite a few people.  I was very surprised by that but it is a completely unique flavor to an American palette.  And of course the South American dulce de leche cashew was widely favored.  Yummmmm!   My very favorite truffle of them all (a Hazelnut crème) never actually made it to the table though we did use it in the assortments that we made.  And a friend of mine later remarked that the chocolate wasn’t like home-made chocolate, it was like a cute boutique chocolate – “you know, the good stuff.”  That was a really sweet compliment and it felt really good to hear that. 

Before the event we made plates that had one of each kind of chocolate.  We carefully wrapped them up and set them aside for people who had ordered via email.  I’ll be mailing these out this week to friends, plus we sent some via family members.  It will be fun to hear how these go over with those who receive them over the next few days or so.

At the end of “Art & Chocolate” I went to my dad who had been manning the check out station.  I asked him about the total and he had me guess.  My guess was low.  Hubby had a number in his mind that he was hoping for.  And when my Dad showed him the figure, it was double what hubby had hoped for!  Yeah, talk about dropping my chin to the floor.  My response was “holy cow!” but we quickly changed it to “hallelujah!”  It had been a small and very casual crowd, they were comfortable and enjoyed each other’s company.  And they blessed us WAY beyond our expectations!  I have not seen the checks, and I don’t know who gave what.  My dad took care of all of that.  But it really packs a bunch when you see a big figure and know it translates into being that much closer to bringing our children home.  What an amazing thing is unfolding in my life!

The crowd thinned out and I started packing up the artwork and jewelry.  And the Mothers worked on the leftover chocolates, putting them out on plates in nice assortments and my Father-in-law carefully wrapped each one in plastic wrap.  We had 25 or so of these assortments prepared after the event.  So we gained permission and made a quick announcement in church Sunday morning that they would be available in the fellowship hall.  Well after the service let out, Hubby’s Mom and I quickly sold those plates to the crowd of people that were sucked in like magnets.  As people shoved cash my direction and wrote checks, it was another overwhelming moment for the weekend.  Some dear folks were just too late and it was gone.  People wrote checks for more than the chocolate, and some wrote checks without even taking any chocolate.  A friend looked me in the eye and asked me how I was doing.  I told her I was going to go home and bawl because I was overwhelmed.  She hugged me tight as I tried to pull myself together. 

After church, and after the chocolate blitz we went to my favorite place for lunch.  And then home where I folded my tired bod into my bed and vanished from consciousness until someone gently shook me and said it was time.  The in-laws, hubby and I drove up to my parents home, planted ourselves around the kitchen table and enjoyed leftovers from the event.  Fresh fruit (including kumquats – which I really like) and fresh vegetables.  We popped some of the lady finger popcorn that my in-laws buy and yes… we shared a plate of chocolates.  Yummm!  Still good!  We talked and played Rook (an ethnic Mennonite card game) into the night.

I’m humbled and amazed.  Really!  I’m trying to take lots of photographs and write it all down.  I can’t trust my memory to keep it.  Our children need to know how much anticipation and generosity went into bringing them home.  If they can understand the miracle that brings them to us at some point in their lives... well, that will indeed be a beautiful thing!  For now I’m struggling to get my own mind around it.  Humbled.  And Amazed.

Chocolate Photo Guide

It looks like most of the chocolate for our Adoption fund raiser Saturday night is finished.  My mom has made/is making a few other kinds also so they are not on here.  Looks yummy, right?  Oh yeah!

Well, I love creating big events.  I really enjoy the challenge of creating a celebration that people will enjoy.  I haven’t done this since the Katrina Benefit concert and I’m feeling all kinds of insecurities with this one.  I don’t mind raising money for any good cause – but when the money goes to benefit me, (well, our adoption) suddenly I’m all bashful.  I’ve been just thinking of these events as a way to share the joy of this adoption with our friends and family, I just have to stay focused on that.

I’ve really been through the ringer with this event though, so many fears and insecurities have really been playing leap frog through my head.  What if the (name of family from church) family shows up with their (I can’t remember how many) unfettered children?  They’d make short work of a bunch of dainty chocolate, those kids have skills!  And there is that dear sweet man that puts away a whole huge portion of desert in the time it takes him to walk from the buffet back to his table.  Then it’s time to go back and fill that empty plate.  Suddenly I’m frightened of a grown man and little grabby children!?!  THEY should be afraid of ME!  LOL!

On the flip side, I’m terrified that my mother may be right.  Oh, she says I’ve made waaaay too much.  And she doesn’t like the flavors I made and on and on.  Hubby thinks people may treat the truffles like M&M’s.  I even fear that there is a chance that we went to all this trouble for a very small crowd.  But I’ve made flavors that I think are really really good, so if there are lots and lots of leftovers I’ll just pretend I’m a member of the above mentioned family.  And then I’ll pack up a bunch up to give away to people I like.

The in-laws are coming, the in-laws are coming.  Yeah, the same father-in-law who wants to ask the owner of the gallery why that painting isn’t $8 instead of $4000.  He’s an adorable sweet little man, but “Art & Chocolate” isn’t exactly his thing.  And Hubby’s Mom will be a big help with food and clean up.  And when the event is over, I’ll be vanishing to nap for a nice long while and leaving the in-laws for Hubby to entertain.  That will be lovely.

Come to think of it, I have conservative Mennonite family members who may feel a little uncomfortable with this event.  I make my living selling things like jewelry – which is something they don’t wear because of their scriptural convictions.  And their church doesn’t allow musical instruments and we’ll have a violin and harp duo there.  I am free to create my work outside their realm, indeed I feel that I have a scriptural mandate to release the beauty of God in the earth.  I happen to do that through jewelry and I have no apologies for anyone on that.

So even with all my insecurities and fears, I am going to make it through this event.  It was great to read R.G. Ryan’s post this morning and it really helped me to kick in some perspective.  I AM GOING (pant!) to MAKE IT (pant pant!) through (pant, pant!) this event!  It’s Art & Chocolate – what’s not to love?!  And if it is horrible, I’ll go home and take a pain pill and go to bed.  And then it really will be sweet.

With a nod to R.G. Ryan’s “Toxic Thought” post this morning, here is a fresh perspective.  You see, the truth of this event is simple.  I’m an artistically gifted individual.  Don’t worry – that’s not as arrogant as it sounds.  Cause I know that this gift did not come from me so I can’t take the credit.  We ARE ALL GIFTED in some way or another as God chooses.  I happen to be able to create art and people don’t seem to have any problem buying it up.  I happen to love sharing really marvelous chocolate, and I know that sometimes people really don’t mind buying that either.  (At least I don’t mind shelling out big bucks for the good stuff.)  And when it came time to celebrate the fact that it seems that God is FINALLY going to allow us to become a family – well – what better way to celebrate than to share a bit of who we are with our friends and family?  So yeah, I’ve had a real time of it with this event.  I’ve been very insecure and afraid at times.  But that doesn’t change the pure and simple truth of the purpose of the evening.  We are going to be who we are and share ourselves with our friends and family as they share in the process of bringing home our children.  And I think that’s cool.  No matter how freaked out I am about it. 

I’m working on fund raising events for April, May and June here in Virginia.  There will be one in July in Indiana as well.  We chose to do three because I love planning events, we think bringing home our kids is a really big deal, (LOL!) and it gives people options for their calendar and interests.

Plans for the “Art & Chocolate” event are coming along. 

We’ll be serving chocolate, fruits and vegetables and Colombian coffee at the event so come prepared to enjoy an array of flavors.  I’ve been working on some formulas for truffles and chocolates.  I stumbled across some “dulce de leche” which is a South American milk based caramel.  I’ll pair that with cashews and chocolate.  Another is a vanilla truffle that starts with steeping a vanilla bean in heavy cream for a while until the flavor develops.  The cream is used in a ganache that becomes the filling of a decadent truffle.  While imitation vanilla can be overbearing and overly sweet, the real thing is delicate and earthy and I love it!  Earl Grey is my favorite tea and I’ve been exploring a way to make an Earl Grey truffle that I think will be quite good.  I’m going to try a blueberry truffle idea later on today if I get the time.  And the marzipan that a friend made is divine!  I tried a bit of the marzipan with some of the chocolate that it will be dipped in and I nearly melted on the spot.  It was sooo good.  I’m also in love with the chocolate cinnamon, nutmeg and cayenne pepper truffle that I made.  I haven’t found anyone else that likes the idea yet, so I may be the only one eating those.  I guess I’d better make a big batch then.  LOL!  I’ve been enjoying the creative process of exploring flavor, texture and color combinations.  It’s outside my usual media but I love it.  And since I got pretty good at making chocolate years ago in the family business, I have the skills.  Chocolate and art are a few of our favorite things and this April 19^th event is our opportunity to share them with you.

I’m also working at putting together a collection of artwork that will be for sale at the event.  I’m planning to share a variety of media and proceeds from all purchases will benefit our adoption fund. 

• First and foremost there will be jewelry.  Lots of jewelry.  Mostly pearls, natural stones, Swarovski crystals, sterling silver and seed beads.  There will also be some hand made polymer clay beads in the collection.  This is all hand made artisan one-of-a-kind jewelry.
• I’d designed a line of cards from my watercolor and mixed media work.  These cards double as a display for a pair of matching earrings.  The combination of a pretty card, a fragment of poetry and a pair of earrings in an envelope make a beautiful gift for a friend.
• I’ll bring a collection of soaps.  Again, it is outside my usual media but it has been fun to toy with the combination of color, texture and fragrance.  And it’s great fun to have an exotic soap in the bath each morning plus they make marvelous little gifts any time you need a small token of appreciation.
• Recently I’ve explored a photography project in Staunton, Virginia.  I’ve taken photographs of local architecture with a specific focus on the letters of the alphabet.  These black and white photographs can then be arranged in words for a creative accent to the home.  I have about 100 photographs in the architectural series as well as a home series that were all taken inside my home, mostly in my kitchen.  I will bring examples of each letter to the event and guests can place orders for the letter combinations they would like. 
• Some of you have seen my line of watercolors with poems that I’ve written over the years and I’ll be offering this collection for sale at the event as well.  They are colorful, vibrant and heart felt.
• And if I get some time, I’ll package up some hand made polymer clay beads I’ve made and offer them for sale as well.

Once this Art & Chocolate event is over, I’ll be working full tilt on the Benefit Concert that we have scheduled for one month later.  I’m hoping that the details can come together in the short amount of time I’ll have to focus on it.  It will be a casual evening of music and entertainment that will be very diverse and interesting.

Our June fund raiser will be a Silent Auction.  This will be my chance to get out a bunch of odds and ends in my collection of artwork.  I’ve pieced many quilt tops over the years and Hubby’s Mom and Grandma’s are working very hard to see that some of these quilts are assembled and hand quilted in time for this auction.  These quilts are each in a variety of wall hanging sizes.  I’m really looking forward to seeing how they turn out.  I’ll also be bringing out oil paintings, pen and ink drawings, pencil drawings as well as leftovers from my season of working in art glass.  And of course there will be more jewelry and possibly some beads.  It is hard to tell what all else will turn up for this auction, but the evening will be very interesting. 

Would you like to help with our Silent Auction?  If you have something of value that you no longer need (no clothing please) please let us know.  I’m really curious to see how this event goes.  I’ve seen these done in the past and they can be very interesting and fun. 

Well, that about does it for my update.  I’ve got some work to do so I’d better get back at it.  It will be a very busy three or four months with these fund raisers, working at the adoption paper work, working and our various commitments.  It’s going to be fun.  Thanks all! 

Yesterday Mom and I both had some time off work so we went shopping for chocolate and ingredients for the chocolate for our “Art & Chocolate” fund raiser.  “Art & Chocolate” is a fund raiser we are planning for our adoption process of bringing home our children from Colombia.  It was good to have her along and I was surprised how supportive she was and interested in brainstorming for other chocolate formula ideas.  She is an expert at this and it’s good to have her as a resource.  It will be interesting to see how all these formulas come together.  I have more testing to do.  I have so many pounds of excellent quality chocolate at my house…  it must be close to heaven.  Maybe after the pressing projects of this week are done I can start in with the first stages of prep.  Now that is going to be fun!

My parents were not going to come to the “Art & Chocolate” fund raiser because of a scheduling conflict with their small group and seeing friends they haven’t seen in a long time.  But when she heard that hubby’s parents were coming in from Indiana for the event, it really turned the tide for her.  I think she pretty much decided on the spot that they wouldn’t be able to go to their small group thing after all.  It’s hard to want to be in two places at once and I knew the choice was hard for them.  However, I just got a call that they are coming and bringing the whole small group to the event.  Yay!  Some of those folks are loaded – so it will be lovely to have them there from a financial perspective.  They are close friends of my parents, so that means there will be the emotional connection.  They are generous and good people.  And they have a tradition of making chocolate together each Christmas.  So the event is perfect for them.  I am delighted!

I’m working on three fund raiser ideas for adoption fund raisers.  I have three ideas that I’m working on. 

First, Art & Chocolate which would be my chance to pull out all my gallery merchandise and set it up for people to purchase whatever they could possibly want.  We’d make up a bunch of chocolates and chocolate deserts (plus some healthy stuff) for snacks for the evening.  People can eat and browse and hopefully find good reasons to part with their hard earned money.  I can certainly price things at attractive price points.

Second, it seems like it would be fun to do a Prairie Home Companion kind of evening and invite all my musical and creative friends to come and sing/play and perform with me for the fun of it.  I could pretend I was Garrison Keeler for one evening.  At first I was thinking it would be the entertainment for a meal, but the focus would be more on the meal.  But after I thought about it I’m wondering if we shouldn’t put the emphasis on the performance and have light refreshments afterward for guests to hang around and enjoy each other.  Sounds fun, right?  Sounds fun to me and hubby would certainly be busy running sound for the event.  It’s both of us in our element – me on stage and him at the sound board - so why not?!

Finally, I thought of a silent auction.  I’ve got all sorts of stuff I’ve made that someone else might be interested in – if we could find the right someone’s.  And I could hit up my artist friends for donations.  Everyone else hits up artists when it’s time to raise money… so maybe pegging that one frustration of this line of work might not really be appreciated – I don’t know.  But I always look at those kinds of donation requests as a chance to unload something I hate that didn’t sell for me but still has some value.  We could also invite in all the people we know who do Pampered Chef, Tupperware and whatever else people are selling these days.  They can donate whatever they want from their sales to our adoption fund.  I think this idea could work. 

We’re working with the dates of April 20^th, June 14^th and May 24^th.  It was hard to find dates that would work for us just because of my work schedule and wedding cakes that are always scheduled on weekends.  Some of the weekends this summer are going to be pretty intense for me in the bakery.  I’m hoping I’ve got what it takes physically to do that and these fund raisers.

Just wondering if this will actually work or not...

But I wrote a few poems a while back and made artwork to go along with them and made a whole line of them - there are over thirty of these.  I just posted a number of them on my etsy store, so surf over and check them out.  I'd love to get some feedback on these.

Thanks!

Thanks everyone for these thoughtful replies to part one!  I think the points about tolerance and being accepting of other opinions is perhaps one of the biggest issues.  When I had the shop open a variety of people came though and I could enjoy the company of a darling liberal democrat ranting and raving about some pet issue, followed by a woman with great wealth who knew Jackie-O and talked about the evils of society and how people are so uninformed yet God still works everything for our good.  I was able to listen – and agree in places and be engaged with them, even though they each represented something remarkably different.  I guess that is the element I don't want to lose.  I found myself on the listening side of most of those conversations.  I'm ok with that.  It went with the territory.  (One woman joked that I was her therapy - which is kinda sad - she could have had three shrinks for what she spent in my shop.)  Now that I've closed that business I've had more time to think about the way I did business there.  And I want to find my voice in the midst of all this.  The past months I have been out of the public eye, squirreled away in my quiet monastic studio working long hours and goofing off now and then and watching the construction workers in the alley outside my window every chance I get.  Life is good.

I’ve been in overtly Christian shops that come off so kitchy and ticky tacky that it makes me want to hurl.  I was in a darling little place in Dunlap, Indiana recently called “The Refinery” and I fell in love.  It was a beautifully decorated café, I found it hip and tasteful, and I think there was a verse painted on a wall somewhere that I recognized.  It was beautifully done and I was pleasantly surprised.  I hate it when bad taste and Christianity collide and give birth to the kind of artless kitch that can be purchased at “Family Christian Bookstores” where the franchise owners don’t have much say in what they carry and most of the work has Bible verses emblazoned on it somewhere.  Artwork that has to be identified with a verse to be “Christian…”  Honey, that’s not art – that’s propaganda.  But I digress.  I stayed with a friend on a recent trip, and her big new expensive house is full of that kind of wordy “artwork” and it was so strange to me.  Not in my house!  (See how superior I am because I have a decent art collection?  Joking!)  But hey, we’ve established that I’m a little weird.  LOL!

And to the handsome RG…  I think the things I’m most passionate about come from an internal place, perhaps in part as a reaction to the things that I hear from a variety of media outlets.  Certainly yes, I am a product of my surroundings and shaped by my generation, its systems and cultural biases.  I also grew up as part of a sub culture in this country, as a member of a group that (at one time) made much of not participating in the world's systems.  I still hold values that the mainstream culture likes to ridicule on a regular basis.  So what is new?  That doesn’t make me a victim of anything necessarily; it does make me able to hold counter cultural values in spite of the endless commercial efforts at conformity that come with living in America.  Mostly I’m struck by the contrast between what I think I’m seeing in the eyes of a homeless man from Nazareth, and the arrogance, materialism, and militarism I see in some people who speak His name with great ease.  The angst (to some degree or other) I get from that is internal.  I have a growing desire to make that point with at least a modicum of finesse and some respect for anyone's right to disagree. 

Well, I started this vox account to talk about politics.  I’ve often had the feeling that if people really knew about my political thoughts they would think I’m really weird.  Of course the truth is that I think I am weird.  And other people have often happily confirmed that impression.  For example: I’m a pacifist in a world that was all gung ho about invading Iraq only a few short years ago.  I won’t bother with any sort of “I told you so” because at the time with all the fever pitch media reporting I didn’t utter a peep other than around close friends and family.  Who wants to be the lone voice saying “oh leave him alone” when the world is crying “crucify!  Crucify!”  I still remember an interview with Saddam Hussein that I saw briefly before the invasion.  He said there were no weapons of mass destruction and chuckled at reports that there were.  What kind of strange irony proves that man to be the truthful one?  Yeah, and things went down hill from there, big surprise.

The thing is, I’m a business woman and I don’t want my business to suffer because of my unpopular opinions.  So I’m uncertain about where to draw the line.  I once had a group of women in my gallery and each one in the group had picked out a piece of jewelry with a price tag of around $100.  Someone in the group complemented a painting of a group of donkeys under a tree.  It was an excellent art piece, very well done and beautifully framed by Elaine Hurst who is an excellent pastel artist.  Well, I made some passing comment about that piece being a reflection of my politics, and every single one of those republican women put down the jewelry that they were carrying around and walked out without spending a dime.  It took me a moment to realize what had just happened.  I was absolutely shocked.  If I had kept my mouth shut I could have made somewhere around $600 from that group.  But I got nada!  My car with two political bumper stickers was always parked near the entrance of my gallery.  The one says “War is a failure of imagination” and the other says “I didn’t vote for his daddy either.”  I’ll never know if those two bumper stickers lost me money or not, but there were times when people mentioned them when they came inside and we would talk about politics for a while.  I guess there is a chance the people who share my perspectives might purchase my work out of solidarity.  I don’t think my work really needs a sympathy purchase, I generally thing it is valid in its own right, but hey, a sale is a sale. 

I actually find myself envying people who have an unusual perspective who really put themselves and their opinions out there.  However ill considered they are from time to time.  I actually heard a woman once argue that we didn’t need to keep the Sabbath because between the time of Jesus and our time someone certainly got it mixed up on which day was actually Saturday.  Hey, I thought that was one of the strangest things I’d ever heard, but she was very audacious with it.  There are charming little shops all over the place with a full tilt witchy vibe, run by women in overtly spiritualistic attire and jewelry.  They are audacious about their beliefs and apparently they don’t mind that there is a whole segment of the population who would not make a purchase from them on religious grounds and would also cross themselves after leaving a shop like that.  LOL!  I do find it very interesting what people are willing to be evangelists for.  Yet I’ve been pretty low key about the things I believe and I’m not entirely sure why.

Maybe I’ve become a wimp.  I don’t mind shocking people and enjoying an interesting argument as a result, but I don’t always have the energy for that.  I’d probably put my own perspective out there more if I weren’t such a wimp.  And with close friends we discuss politics, religion, art and deeper things at length (but most of my friends are as weird as me or weirder.)  I think it’s hard enough to get through life some days which some of my own unique quirks, why not be a little choosy about my battles?  Is it disingenuous to withhold information to avoid an argument?  I love peace, I love quiet, and I love to create and sell my artwork.  I basically want to be left alone.  But I also am finding that I really want to speak out about issues that are really important to me as well.  Not because I think I’ll change anyone’s mind, but more because I want to know I tried and was successful at effective communication on a number of important issues.

What about becoming more of an integrated person?  What if I didn’t segment off these little parts of my life?  What if I put my political opinions and my artwork on the same website and allowing people to know the artist and the work, side by side?  On the web that is different than it is in a bricks and mortar type store where you are actually risking overt rejection.  So maybe this is the time to try this on for size and see what happens.  I don’t know.  Is it even safe?  Is it a bad idea to have my name and phone number out there where people can put my politics and my artwork together with a phone number fairly easily?  I once got a call from an old boyfriend, one who had excelled in cruelty.  It was very easy to google my unique name and arrive at a phone number.  Oy!  Is it even safe to have one’s work, political views and contact information so readily accessible on the net?

How about you?  Do you make purchases at stores who show a specific political agenda or spiritual bent in the way they present their corporate image?  Would you ever avoid purchasing something from a place that had a different perspective on an issue that is important to you?  Have you ever purchased an item out of solidarity with the person who was selling it, especially something you would not have otherwise purchased?