Step It Up for Giving Tuesday


Silouxa

The Birthday Party Project
Our goal is to make every child feel known and loved. Your gift helps us reach children in your backyard, and all across the country. At our parties, every birthday child receives a birthday badge, individual birthday cake, and a birthday gift. All the kids and families enjoying the party participate in crafts, games, and activities and leave with cupcakes and party favors.

RAINN aka The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network
RAINN is the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization. RAINN created and operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline (800.656.HOPE, online.rainn.org y rainn.org/es) in partnership with more than 1,000 local sexual assault service providers across the country and operates the DoD Safe Helpline for the Department of Defense. RAINN also carries out programs to prevent sexual violence, help survivors, and ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice.

Donors Choose
Support a classroom. Build a future. Teachers and students all over the U.S. need your help to bring their classroom dreams to life. Get crayons, books, telescopes, field trips, and more for a classroom today.

The Sierra Club Foundation
The Sierra Club Foundation promotes climate solutions, conservation, and movement building through a powerful combination of strategic philanthropy and grassroots advocacy. The Foundation is the fiscal sponsor of Sierra Club’s charitable environmental programs.

Feeding America
The Feeding America network is the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, working to connect people with food and end hunger. Donors, staff, and volunteers all play an important role in our efforts to end hunger in the United States.

The Humane Society of the United States
With your help, we fight the big fights, working to end all forms of animal cruelty and achieve the vision behind our name: A humane society. (Or Google your local branch and donate directly!)

Big Brother Big Sisters of America
Big Brothers Big Sisters helps children realize their potential and build their futures. We nurture children and strengthen communities. And we couldn’t do any of it without you.

Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood is a trusted health care provider, an informed educator, a passionate advocate, and a global partner helping similar organizations around the world. Planned Parenthood delivers vital reproductive health care, sex education, and information to millions of women, men, and young people worldwide. (You can also directly donate or volunteer at your local branch!)

ACLU
Defending our rights in the courts, empowering communities across the U.S., and influencing public policy with a powerful voice.

Autism Speaks
Autism Speaks is dedicated to promoting solutions, across the spectrum and throughout the life span, for the needs of individuals with autism and their families through advocacy and support; increasing understanding and acceptance of people with autism spectrum disorder; and advancing research into causes and better interventions for autism spectrum disorder and related conditions. Autism Speaks enhances lives today and is accelerating a spectrum of solutions for tomorrow.

 

Pittsburgh-Specific

Animal Friends
Our full-service companion animal resource community serves our region by providing approximately 15,000 spay/neuter surgeries annually, and impacting more than 120,000 lives through humane education, pet behavior classes, pet therapy and our pet food bank each year. Animal Friends is proud to continue to save lives simply put, because it’s what we do.

Center for Victims
For more than 42 years, Center for Victims has provided effective and quality services to hundreds of thousands of victims of all crimes including: domestic violence, rape and sexual assault, child sexual assault and physical abuse, elder abuse, homicide, burglary and incidents of mass violence. CV’s staff provides critical crime victim support and training and education that meet the diverse needs of all people regardless of age, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical disability or socioeconomic status.

Coro Pittsburgh
Our mission is to advance ethical leaders and build leadership capacity in order to create a more connected and inclusive community where people of all backgrounds and circumstances participate in making their community more livable for everyone.

Day One
We work to end the cycle of poverty for single parent families by providing housing, education and career support, and community connections so that parents can achieve self-sufficiency and their children can succeed in school.

Girls Rock! Pittsburgh
Girls Rock! Pittsburgh is an empowerment program for female youths of all definitions, abilities, and backgrounds. Our program utilizes the process of making music to instill tools for the amplification of self-confidence, creative expression, independent thinking, mutual respect, and cooperation while cultivating a supportive and inclusive community of peers and mentors.

Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank
The mission of Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank is to feed people in need and mobilize our community to eliminate hunger. We work toward our mission daily, guided by commitments to nutrition, sustainability, inclusion and more.

Humane Animal Rescue
We strive to provide all aspects of care to abandoned, neglected, and injured animals; reunite lost pets with their caregivers or seek new families for them; educate the community on humane care and interactions with all animals with the goal of reducing pet overpopulation and negative relationships with native wildlife; reinforce a standard of living for animals and prevent cruelty; and provide assistance and medical care to injured, orphaned, or ill native Pennsylvania wildlife with a goal of returning them to their natural habitat. Our open door policy ensures that no animal is ever refused shelter.

THRIVE Southwest PA
THRIVE envisions educational communities where students, educators, and families can celebrate, learn about, and thrive in diversity of gender identity, expression, and sexual orientation. Their mission is to nurture and empower educational communities where students, educators, and families create and sustain LGBTQ-inclusive environments in which everyone reaches their full potential.

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BEEcosystem

 

If you didn’t know, honeybees are sort of in crisis mode right now, they’re declining in record numbers due to a phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder. With an aim to educate people about the importance of pollination, eco-driven designers Dustin Betz and Mike Zaengle created BEEcosystem, a modular observation beehive. The BEEcosystem is a honeybee hive designed to make pollinator education more accessible to everyone, from hobbyists to agri/ecotourism and institutional educators. It’s indoor/outdoor wall-mountable and modular, and can grow along with your colony inside.

 

 

 

 

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ABLE Winter 2017 Collection

Rosario Flutter Sleeve Jumpsuit

FashionABLE, a lifestyle brand I’ve long supported and even collaborated with on product design, is now ABLE. They’re still focused on ending generational poverty by working with women who have overcome extraordinary circumstances. And still manufacturing directly in the communities they wish to impact, both locally and globally, creating jobs, and ending the cycle of charity dependency.

ABLE just released their latest collection, right on time for all of those holiday events you’re sure to attend and chock full of perfect gifts to give too. I recently picked up a cropped sweatshirt, loafers, a backpack, and a pair of statement earrings to help round out my winter wardrobe. Most pieces are available in several colors and everything is right on trend. In fact, I might have an eye on a few more things for my Christmas list!

 

Alem Weekender

 

Contempo Earrings

 

Gabriella Bell Sleeve Pullover

 

Mayte Backpack

 

Tatiana Loafer

 

Chelsie Statement Necklace

 

Elsi Pouch

 

Samantha Cropped Sweatshirt

 

Mirella Circle Bag

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Silk Diaries

 

I’m 100% behind what Silk Diaries is creating, especially during these harrowing times. They’re hand-dyeing silk as a self-soother for stress and anxiety to empower women in the workplace. Their most recent collection, Good Intentions, is 100% Habotai silk that’s botanically dyed with various plants, fruits, vegetables, tree barks, and cochineal (a tiny bug on the cactus flower, once thought to be as valuable as gold!). Silk Diaries is continuing to move the brand towards more sustainable practices.

Shop Silk Diaries

 

 

 

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Sseko Fall/Winter 2017 Collection

 

If you recall, I’m acting as a Sole Sister for Sseko this entire year! As a Sseko Sole Sister I’ve been connected to one university-bound woman on Sseko’s team in Uganda to help her reach her educational goals –  and with every purchase made through our shared link sales will go towards her university scholarship.

Sseko recently launched their fall/winter 2017 collection and I wanted to share it with you. There are so many great staples to get you sartorially through the next few months, quite a few I’m eyeing to give as gifts this holiday season. First off, Sseko has launched an apparel line! Highly curated, the first season includes shawls, dusters, kimonos, and scarves.

 

 

 

They’ve also expanded their beautiful bags into the realm of travel. Four styles of varying size have all the space you need to make it through an overnight or a long weekend, and if you’re a light packer (or the weather is warm) you may even be able to fit a week’s worth.

 

 

 

Of course there are also some seasonal additions to Sseko’s already impressive collection of leather bags. Mulberry is shaping up to be this fall’s hot color and they made sure to include it – I’ve been carrying around the bucket bag below during errands for a few weeks and have received so many compliments.

 

 

 

 

The Fall/Winter 2017 Collection is a celebration of strength and resiliency. We are women who know that a dream without a plan, without action is merely a wish. We fall and fail because we are done playing small. We do hard things because we see the gap between the way things could be. We stand in the gap, we face the darkness and know that when we emerge we will be stronger and more resilient versions of who we are created to be. We do not just survive, but thrive.

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Ashley Cecil

 

Our Pittsburgh Maker Profile series has been on extended hiatus for awhile now. This area is so rife with creativity that I feel I’ve been doing it a disservice, simply highlighting one maker a month really isn’t enough. So this September I’ll be highlighting a few dozen instead! You’ll know it’s a Pittsburgh creator by the little seal above that will mark each post.

Shop Ashley Cecil’s work

 

 

I first became aware of the flora-meets-fauna art of Ashley Cecil last spring when she created a line of scarves that sold at the Carnegie Museum of Art. She paints from live observation at renowned institutions, and marrying realism with abstract modern backgrounds is her signature style. Those two things alone garner loads of interest for me, but what makes it all work so well together is Ashley’s innate understanding of color and the way she knows when to keep it reigned it or go all out. She’s also working to save birdlife with an innovative window film that helps birds see the surface rather than fly into it injuring, or even worse killing, themselves.

Shop Ashley Cecil’s work

 

 

 

 

 

 

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ABLE Denim

The Jacket – Merly Wash

One of my favorite brands – fashionABLE – just released its first line of denim! I’m pumped to say the least, because I know ABLE denim will serve to create more job opportunities for women while remaining ethically sound. They’re starting with ten denim staples in a few different washes that are full of comfort, quality, and style and the line will expand from there. I can’t wait to see what’s next because this is an amazing start! (Free shipping today and tomorrow in celebration!)

 

The High Rise – Elvira Wash

 

The Skinny – Angie Wash

 

The Western Shirt – Rita Wash

 

The Kick – Susanna Wash

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Sseko Sole Sisters + Giveaway

 

Sseko Designs is an ethical brand that’s using fashion and design to help bright, brave young women in East Africa attend university. To date they’ve enabled 86 women in Uganda go to college to pursue their dreams and become change makers in their communities!

At the beginning of February I first connected with Sseko Designs founder Liz Forkin Bohannon, thanks to a mutual friend we met up and when she reached out about being a 2017 Sseko Sole Sister I was in 500%.

 

 

 

As a Sseko Sole Sister I’ve been connected to one university-bound woman on Sseko’s team in Uganda – meet Shakira! She lives with her mother and three siblings and loves wearing bold prints in simple designs, reading for fun, and spending time with her friends. Shakira seeks out happy moments, loves horror films and chili-flavored snacks, adventure and exploring new places, and hopes to one day get to Switzerland to see the sights and learn more about its neutral and stable history. She looks up to her mother and the strength she has shown in every situation. When things get tough, Shakira likes to remind herself that, “for every successful man, there are very many unsuccessful years.”

She reminded me a lot of myself and so the deal was sealed! (And that dress! Style for days.)

In school Shakira’s favorite subjects are literature and geography, and she hopes to go on to study art at the university level – specifically design. “One thing that makes me love art – I love nature,” she explains. “I love everything about nature. So maybe if I can put it toward design, something can come out of it.”

 

 

 

The fifteen women in this year’s Sole Sister class won’t be making beautiful sandals, bags, and accessories forever – they’re destined for more and deserve the chance to pursue their dreams. The Sseko community wants them to know we’re here, rooting for them and cheering them on the entire way.

And with every single purchase made through mine and Shakira’s link, sales will go towards earning her an additional scholarship towards university!

 

 

 

To kickoff the start of my year as Shakira’s Sole Sister and to get you outfitted for spring in some super stylish ethically made goods, we’re giving away $100! Choose from their incredible selection of handmade sandals, leather bags, and accessories – I’ve already picked up the Brave necklace with a few charms and a pair of camel Rue sandals or myself.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

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International Women’s Day / A Day Without A Woman

Photo: Ace Hotel

I’ve gone back and forth in my head for days over whether or not I would actively participate in International Women’s Day and #DayWithoutAWoman. I’m a feminist, I believe in equal rights, I fight for equal wages and so much more, but something about the marked day felt… privileged? The idea of opting out of my normal Wednesday work duties when so many women (so many people!) cannot afford to take a day off felt… wrong?

And that’s the reason I decided to take part, actually. In support of gender-oppressed people who want better lives, who work their asses off just to make ends meet, who deserve to be treated as equally as you, me, and our so-called president.

I won’t be posting and if I do any shopping it will be with small, women- and minority-owned businesses. If you’re not able to take the day off from work but still want to participate you can show your support by wearing red. To learn more about the day, and the efforts behind it, check out the Women’s March page.

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Nevertheless, She Persisted Tees!

 

LET’S TAKE THIS ONE STEP FURTHER. After our hugely successful post full of printable #resistance postcards some of you reached out about the possibility of selling my design as a t-shirt. My gears immediately started turning, because why hadn’t I thought of that??

I submitted my design to Cotton Bureau (a favorite business right here in Pittsburgh) and as of today you have two weeks to purchase it on their site! The shirt is being offered in white, maroon, and vintage black in both men’s and women’s sizes for you to rock on your hot little bods. (Note: None of the shirts are pre-washed, but should only shrink *maybe* half an inch if washed in cold water.)

Half of all proceeds are headed straight to the ACLU! So buy it, wear it, and stand up for what you believe in.

 

 

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