Pro life centers YBL Your Baby Lives

I dream of establishing a non-profit that would build/set upYBL Alternative Choice Centers (Your Baby Lives) near abortion clinics around the United States.


I'm thinking of non-denominational places where women could go for free contraception (the 'pill' and 'rubbers'/contraceptive creams) and/or natural family planning advice; free medical services; emotional, job and financial counseling; adoption services and free housing through the term of their pregnancies, if that is what they need. I dream of a one-stop place that would support women, and fulfill all their needs so they have a real alternative to abortion.


In how many places near abortion clinics do such YBL places already exist?


What are the statistics that indicate the top five or ten reasons a woman chooses abortion over life? Financial, job, medical or a myriad of other reasons, I'm sure. I'd like to know what the top needs of a woman would be - what are the most important services to offer so that life would be a feasible option in more instances?

January art - inspiration from the cold?

Minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit! Is it possible to draw artistic inspiration from the cold weather? In North Dakota we try not to let the temperature restrict our activities too much. We go to work, shop and some people play outside...cross country ski, hockey, skate. I'll do my daily walk outside if the wind chill temperature is zero or above. Otherwise I head to the fitness center.

But what kind of inspiration can I or my young students or others with artistic leanings draw from the icebox that we live in? Everything is white - the ground, the roofs, the trees, the sky, the exhaust coming from our constantly running furnaces, the breath we exhale. Snow beneath our feet crunches and squeaks as we step on it. We hear the beep, beep of snowplows in reverse, or the grinding of our neighbors' cars or snowblowers trying to start. We keep our hands covered as everything outside is too cold to touch. The only smells are of gas and exhaust. There is little else to jolt our senses, to stimulate our creative juices. We need to draw from deep within - like Frederick the mouse in the children's story - to remember colors, sights, sounds and smells that we want to convey in our art. These will warm our heART until spring comes to the north...and it will, just not very soon!

Happy New Year!

Our first ever Holiday Glow Art Sale and Show the first weekend of December was very successful. Here are some tips on hosting open houses to sell handmade art:

• Put out yard signs several weeks in advance.

• Serve food/drinks that people will enjoy and appreciate…and tell their friends about. We want Friday guests talking up our event on Saturday, perhaps coming back with other friends the next night! Have enough food so you don’t run out, please. We are all dependent on each other – we need to do a nice job.

• Have someone as a greeter at your door if you worry about people walking out with unpaid items. Your greeter can say hello, hang coats and remind people to remove their shoes.

• Be organized with your cash box, bags and boxes, tissue, etc. Also, people love on-the-spot gift wrapping!

• Have holiday music playing and festive décor to set the mood and encourage purchasing gifts.

• Make your business cards/brochures readily available.

• Be sure your door prize (if you are offering one) is attractively presented and the slips/deposit box/pencils are user-friendly. Have a form people can sign to be on your mailing or emailing list.

• Wear your nametag, smile & introduce yourself, invite questions about your work and then back off so guests can browse.

• Email or send out ‘hint cards’. People fill out the card with gifts that they’d like to be given, from your selection of inventory. They return the card/email to you. You pass along the hints to their spouse/significant other.

• Call and personally invite as many of your friends and acquaintances as you can. Don’t forget about people at your church, your neighbors and at your work place. People are much more likely to show up if they’ve had a phone call. We can expect a turnout of ¼ of the people who find out about our sale.

• Be sure you have distributed all your postcards (hand out personally or mail). Please hang up your flyers in public places. Many businesses will allow flyers/postcards in their break rooms, even if they don’t allow them in the lobby, etc. Our signs and printed material will be wasted investments if we don’t get them out into our community.

• If you know people in the smaller outlying communities, please be sure they know about our event. Ask them to put out flyers/postcards in their towns. Lots of people in these communities will come to GF for a special night out like this.

Use your email contacts and any social networking sites you belong to (such as Facebook, Plaxo, etc.) to tell people now about our event. And remind them again a day or two before our event.

Visual art sale & show, Grand Forks, ND, December 4 & 5

Curious about the artists who are participating in the Holiday Glow Art Sale & Show? Fifteen artists at twelve open houses, Dec. 4 & 5, from 5-9pm, both Friday and Saturday nights. Besides myself (I like to make fused glass art; pottery (functional and sculptural); giant painted and woodburned gourds lamps and mini-gourd clocks; weavings and tapestries, and table/lamp combos that I call "lamples". I will have a variety of work to show and sell for holiday gift giving during the Holiday Glow event.

Also participating in the Holiday Glow event are: Dyan Rey, Connie Hodgson, Marian Gates, Carolyn Meisel, Pat Danielson, Terry Kuntz, Laura Look, Karla Nelson, Sheila Dalgleish, Tessa Hiney, Pirjo Berg, Paula Kallinen and Tom Perdue. These artists specialize in oil painting, water color, wood carving, mixed media, sculptural garden art and jewelry. Go to: www.jackiesart.com to see photos of artists' work as well as to obtain a printable map so you know who is participating and where the various open houses are located. Each artist will have some sort of holiday treat to share and many will give away a door prize, too! (Each home will have a yard sign and their lights on so you will know you are at the right places.)

This Saturday, Nov. 7, from 9am - 5pm I will be at the C'Mon Inn on 32nd Ave. S. in Grand Forks participating in a Holiday Art Sale. A different group of wonderful artists - come see!

Holiday Art Sale & Show (visual art) in Grand Forks,

The Holiday Glow Art Sale & Show is storming ahead, full blast! It has been a lot of work so far, but I'm learning new things every day about logos, yard signs, advertising, etc. And I'm learning that a contribution of $25 per artist doesn't buy much! Next year, we'll each have to chip in more. I have enough to buy post cards, yard signs and about thirty 8 x 11 colored flyers. I was hoping to have a bit of money left for an ad in the newspaper but we'll all have to do our best to get the word out and about through our big mouths instead!

Artists will have their homes open and show their work, with holiday treats to share with those who stop by to browse and buy art for holiday gifts. I chose a weekend when the UND hockey team is out of town - otherwise too many people would be at "the Ralph"! Now if only the weather cooperates, we'll be in great shape. We don't usually have big blizzards that early in December, but we do live in North Dakota and blizzards are a definite possibility any time after mid-October.

Put Friday, Dec. 4 & Saturday, Dec. 5 from 5-9pm, on your calendar and plan to attend the Holiday Glow Art Sale & Show...no admission charged!

Holiday Art Show (visual art) in Grand Forks

Holiday Glow Art Sale & Show. It's a new event I've organized for Grand Forks. Friday and Saturday evenings, Dec. 4 & 5, 5pm-9pm. Artists will open their homes (or an alternative site) and display their creative art...in time for holiday shopping! Nothing says "I care" like a gift that is hand crafted and one of a kind, not run of the mill. I'm super excited about it, as are the artists that I invited to participate. We will all serve treats, like wine & cheese, or hot chocolate or hot cider and Christmas goodies. I'm looking for an inexpensive yard sign (like political signs) that I can put the Holiday Glow logo on for the artists to put in their yards a few weeks before the event.

I've ordered a bunch of fusable glass. I'm letting my 33 art kids make their own Christmas gift this year. I'll cut blanks for them and small shapes out of various colors. They will design their own glass work, and I'll fire their pieces and have them out right before Christmas. They are super excited about it. And so am I!

Fused glass, Jackie's Art

YAY! My fused glass projects came out of the kiln and I really like how they turned out! I'm hanging them this afternoon at the Dakota Harvest Bakery downtown Grand Forks. I hope to get photos taken and list them on my website shop and etsy shop.

My art kids are doing an Eric Carle unit - their stories turned out well and the cut paper collage is also going better than I expected!

Hooray!