Mother's Day Fundraiser 2011

Our COWBelles gathered at 10am and set up a wonderful display of necklaces, earrings, bracelets, bookmarks and sparkling lightcatchers for the community Mother's Day morning tea held with the generous cake and coffee donation from Glebe's Hopestreet mission. 

The Old Firestation was abuzz with chat and laughter as local women (and a few curious men!) cruised up and down the sales displays choosing their favourite trinkets and stockpiling them at their coffee tables while they waited to pay. Ladies tried on their purchases and compared colours, shapes and designs with each other.

Glebe doyen Sarah has recently moved house and donated several treasures for sale to help raise extra funds for COWBelles. I must admit I had to fend off several contenders for the glorious porcelain teapot in the shape of Edinburgh Castle!! It is just beautiful and now has pride of place in my kitchen!

Our great thanks and appreciation must go to Julie and Geoff, both of Hopestreet and of course, dedicated volunteer Nina for the yummy devonshire tea provided free to our community Mums and Nannas. Beside the jam and cream laden scones, there were a selection of unusual and very tempting treats provided by generous community members to accompany our coffee orders and much 'I'm just tasting' went on all morning.

COWBelles raised $200 and considerable confidence from the fundraising morning and another is being planned. The COWBelles inaugural findraiser was a very enjoyable and tasty community led initiative, it was a pleasure to be there! Photos of the event can be seen by clicking the link at right.

Irene

News update for April

Hello to all!
It's been a busy month behind the scenes for COWBelles this last month or so.

Our Internet presence is slowly growing with our little influence on 3 websites so far and more to come as I get a grip on the whole social media thing!!  Maybe in modern terms I am a bit of a dinosaur to still value paper-based promotion but there is also the proven influence of the Internet in getting the word out about our group activities, so the need and time to learn all this 'new-fangled' stuff has arrived! Very frustrating though......several times I have threatened to push my computer off the table!!!!

We received notification from City of Sydney about our Matching Grant application and it appears we have made it through the first round of assessments! Very excited but still have fingers crossed we go all the way. So many new craft possibilites but we will definitely need the money to make them happen.

Adding new jewellery skills to my repetoire so will have wonderfully quirky new approaches to 'jewellery' when we expand in June. Felt, polymer clay, and odd bits of 'junk' will materialise as pretty objects for neck and ear ornaments when we grow our interests mid-year. Definitely looking forward to the wonderfully experimental jewellery that our COWBelles are sure to create.

Our group is settling in to the necessary changes that have happened with COW and COWBelles now that our fabulous Beckie has left us and had her baby............by the way, was Cordelia BEAUTIFUL or just BEAUTIFUL!!!!  last Friday, 15th when Bec came to visit us with baby in tow? So many sooky, cooing 'nannas' handing Cordelia about. Both mother and daughter looked well and fabulous as they were off to see Dad graduate from Uni. (Congratulations Ethan, we are proud of you!) I know all COW members want the best for this young family!!

Some of the changes affecting COWBelles are our self-funding for a period of time while the Grant is considered and a slight change to the bus booking proceedure. It is taking a little time to get used to the changes but the Belles are a committed lot and take change in their stride. A copy of the COWBelles April Newsletter is available to read at right in the 'Publications' list.

A sturdy group of COW members is set to convene en masse at the Old Firestation on Friday 29 April for the unpleasant but very necessary bi-annual visit to the BreastScreen clinic. Inventive as usual, they have booked the community bus to take them as a mutually supportive group, along with books, food, cross word puzzles and crafty bits, to the Prince Alfred clinic to have their breast checks and provide community support to each other while they wait. A great example of the closeness of support that is such a fundamental mainstay of women in Glebe's community.

Finally but most importantly!!......we are having our first fundraising sale for Mother's Day!!!!!!! Yay!!
On Friday 6th May COWBelles will hold it's first fundraiser at the Old Firestation from 11am-2pm. The ladies will show off their handmade jewellery treasures amid tea, coffee and homemade treats. We are inviting people to come along have a look at our jewellery, buy some of course and stop for a chat about the great Mum, or Nanna! in their life. We are looking forwrd to a great community day. The flyer can be seen in the 'Publications' listing at lright.
Irene

At last, at last....the Grant is done at last!

Yes, today at 2pm I drove to City of Sydney council and handed over our appliction for a 2011-2012 Matching Grant that we so hope will see the much anticipated extension and expansion of our COW Belles craft initiative into a small wonder of the Glebe community area.

One big block to community initiatives in our modern society is the huge cost of Public Liability insurance for even the simplest, most modest community-based ventures. This too, was to be a big stumbling block for us but the City cleared the way for our progress by accepting the responsibility liability for our group at the Old Firestation on Fridays and also for our proposed new group at the St. Helen's Community Centre. This is fantastic news for us as it saves us about $1500!! that we would obviously prefer to spend elsewhere.

Extra money will now be allocated to our promotion and advertising budget for our fundraising efforts which will now concentrate on sales made from the community centres themselves, from the local stores who may stock our products for us and from our up coming online shop. These options for fundraising mean that expenses and volunteers for a regular market stall will be channelled into less consistently dispruptive situations. A little easier for all of us I think.

So, fingers crossed for a positive outcome late in May and the opportunity to see our wonderful COW Belles grow in it's new and challenging directions over the next year.
Irene

COW Belles back at work

Yay!! The COW Belles were back for 2011 today and ready to pick up some new challenges for this year.

Lynne and Ashley from City of Sydney council came to visit us this morning and speak to us about the possibilities of applying for a new Matching grant to expand and develop our COW Belles craft sessions further.

Our first newsletter titled  'COW Belles Community Craft Collective' outlines some of the choices and directions that our COW Belles may want to see the group move towards. We have options to fundraise at Senior's Week,  Mother's Day,  September Spring Sale,  The Michell St Fete,  The Glebe Street Fair and  Christmas. This gives us 6 opportunities to fundraise for further supplies....and coffees of course!

We can also expand our options into other crafts such as cardmaking and scrapbooking. Also possible are crochet and knitting (of which someone far more capable than me must teach!!) and the opportunity to further develop our jeweller's skills into more advanced techniques.

A great opportunity to really promote the group and our products exists with a new grant funding thing like pricelists, business cards, posters and leaflets for distribution around the Glebe community. This would let community members know COW Belles exists in the area and that we are serious!

And, best of all, a City of Sydney grant would see our community bus on the road and paid up for a whole year!!! That is really exciting as it would mean that none of our Belles would miss out!

Included in this post is a copy of our preliminary Pricelist. This is a start for us and open to adjustment in the future as we decide what products we want to focus on and the exact prices we want to have.

To finish I'd like to say how pleased I am with the continued dedication our COW Belles have for their group. A group cannot exist without it's loyal members and our COW Belles are committed to the continuation, expansion and thorough enjoyment of the COW Belles community craft sessions that we have all come to look forward to each fortnight.

Welcome back for 2011 COW Belles!

Irene

Happy New Year 2011 !!

What an amazing 2 months for our intrepid COW Belles - a franitic pre-Christmas beading frenzy saw some beautiful gifts made for loved ones and some of our Belles 'addicted' to their beading boxes have continued over the holiday period at an unabated pace!  COW Belles is due to restart on Friday 18/2/11 with a few changes from last year.

Our 2010 grant has expired and a new 2011 grant with City of Sydney is being drawn up but in the meantime the community spirit of our Belles will see them providing their own supplies and contributing to the upkeep of the community bus service which many of our members rely on for their attendance, while we wait for the grant results.

Another aspect of COW Belles 'growing up' is that the administration of the COW Belles venture is to be handed over from the Glebe Community Development Project into the hands of COW Belles members themselves. This is exciting and a bit scary too!

Some ideas for 2011 are extending our invitation for women from other Centre's in the Sydney LGA to join us. Also fundraising sales for Seniors Week, Mother's Day, a September Spring Sale, the Mitchell St Fete and the Glebe Street Fair.  The COW Belles WILL be very busy this year! A monthly market stall at Balmain's Handmade Markets and possibly an e-commerce website are also being considered.

A big push foreward for this year for our creative Belles so keep an eye on us as we expand and bring our craft creations closer to wider community recognition.
Irene

Christmas is coming!!

You know it's that time of year again, don't you?

COWBelles certainly do and this year's presents have been taken care of with a multitude of bright and spangly gifts for all the family and friends who have supported us, individually and collectively, throughout the year.

Our COWBelles have a generous nature and bestowed group-made necklaces as their gifts of farewell for our 2 lovely Sydney Uni Social Work students, Loretta and Alyssa. Not much of a bead-o-phile herself COW group member Marla had the Farewell cards amassed with signatures and well wishes, ready to go as the Uni girls chose their favourite baubles from the display.

Loretta and Alyssa were 'on loan' to us through their placement with the Glebe Community Development Project but alas the end of the year means a change of placement and we miss all the wonderful students we meet who then need to move on for the next stage of their courses.

We still have 2 more COWBelles get-togethers before we finish up for the year. Friday 3rd is a making day and Friday 17th is earmarked for a final buying frenzy at the beadshop at Leihhardt for all those individual presents to be made in the last week before Christmas Day. It will be a hectic, but fun outing as is usual with our spirited COWBelles ladies.
Irene

COWBelles + PLACEspace registration for COW

Do you know, it might take me a whole month to write about the latest updates but it's a good thing the COWBelles don't wait so long for their progress!!   

Last Friday 5th Nov. saw the frantic and colourful bedlam that is the COWBelles creative morning tea sessions, break out again at the Old Firestation as 10 Glebe COW and 5 Waterloo Spainards descended into a flurry of prolific bead-making.

Necklaces, earrings, bookmarks and spectacle holders were created at lightning pace and much cooing of admiration followed as the ladies modeled their latest design.  And of course, continued justice was done to Hopestreet's coffee and cake!

A warm camaraderie has developed between our Glebe ladies and our new Spanish friends as the sharing of craft activity and the inclusive Glebe community atmosphere have transcended the language barrier and  initial uncertainty of new acquaintances.  The group is a pleasure to be part of and some wonderful photos may be seen by clicking on the Events in Photographs links at left.

News for COW  is the addition of the COW social action group and COW blogsite to the new community recognition and resources site called  PLACEspace.org.au. The website is a collaborative service provided by TAFE Ultimo and the Federal Government with a vision to connect people, organisations and learning opportunities into one resource location.  Our group may be found by going to   www.placespace.org.au  registering your name, email contact and a password and scanning the Groups list.

If that seems like a lot of detective work then click on the link below for a very quick shortcut!
http://www.placespace.org.au/index.php?option=com_community&view=frontpage&Itemid=183

It's COWBelles Friday again this week and some discussion is due for our continued meetings next year.....yes, alas,.... our funding has come to the end and decisions must now be made to self fund or finish up. Know which I would prefer and I suspect all our COWBelles will be of similar mind, so thinking caps on and many ideas to consider as we enter this next phase of  COWBelles craft.
Irene

Our new Spanish friends......yay!!

What a FUN day at COWBelles last Friday!! I thought the Old Fire Station would burst at the seams with so many people in it!

I phoned Community Worker  Edith the day before and she told me the Spanish ladies were a little unsure of meeting our COWBelles, so 4 ladies of the group of 12 would be joining us for our craft morning to 'check us out'. I wondered if  they might not like us but whatever the uncertainties were on either side, of course there was no need to worry at all.

4  ladies arrived on the community bus with our regular COWBelles so I'm sure they had already discovered how open and friendly our Glebe-ites can easily be. Then we were delighted when another 4 ladies joined us as well.

The COWBelles and our Spanish guests were a little reserved at first, but within half an hour conversations sprung up and the lure of all those colourful baubles worked their magic. The tables spanning the length of the room were laden with colourful trinkets and the babble of noise was punctuated with gleeful bursts of laughter.

Photos of our day can be seen through Events in Photographs at left.

At the end of our morning social craft session there were hugs and genuine smiles as our guests were leaving and we knew we had made some new friends. They promised to come join us again in a fortnight when we next gather at the Old Firestation in Glebe and we greatly look forward to seeing them.
Irene

COW at Homebush today!

It may be nearly a month since I last wrote about our jewellery making but the Belles have been busy nonetheless!

Last session our COW Belles ladies were in full swing with new beads, new techniques and new creations after our visit to the beadshop at Leichhardt. Not to sit on their laurels for long, the Belles were out in force at Homebush today checking out the Bead & Gem Expo for more new beads, more new techniques and the inspiration for more new creations yet to come.

Alas, no photos were taken as I had my face in every stall, beady-eyed on beads, and forgot!

Yet, not all is lost, the return journey saw us stop at the Dairy Bell ice-cream factory in Australia St at Camperdown and a photo was to be had of several hot, tired but smiling COW, and one ever-serene Geoff, thoroughly enjoying the factory wares.

Its back to our fervent beading next session and the launch of a new phase in our jewellery making as we welcome the Waterloo Spanish women's group into our creative community.

Looking foreward to it.
Irene

The Spanish are coming!

COW Belles is expanding it's welcome.

A decision was made sometime ago to open up COWBelles to other women outside the local area and the invitation has been accepted by a lively group of older women of Spanish background, regularly meeting at Waterloo and also looking to expand their horizons.

Yesterday Bec, Loretta and myself met the Spanish ladies and their Community Worker and translator Edith. The ladies were excited by the chance to join other women for craft and conversation. 'Conversation' will be a patient yet pleasant challenge as the ladies' primary language is Spanish and COW has no Spanish speaking members - yet!

The Spanish ladies were intrigued by the notion of COW as a social action group. This idea seemed new to them and the concept of 'group action' at the local, state or even national level appears to be something that COW may one day be able to offer alongside the cake and craft social setting.  Our Spanish guests are of course under no obligation other than to enjoy our hospitality.

There is a feeling of anticipation and welcome in the COW Belles today as we wait to meet our new guests on Friday 8th October and discover that coffee, cake and craft can surmount any cultural barriers we think we may have.
Irene