London Calling

I wanted to share a few winter and holiday decor images from my recent Thanksgiving trip "home" to London...

Knightsbridge:
This gorgeous entrance courtyard in Knightsbridge made me positively swoon! It takes serious gardening skills to keep flowers alive in London's frosty winter weather. I should know - these potted topiaries with cyclamen inspired me to come home and spruce up my own pots...which didn't survive last week's freezing Seattle temperatures. Back to the nursery...

Regent Street/Oxford Circus:
Liberty's department store at 218 Regent Street has been around since 1875, making it one of the oldest shops in London. Known around the world for its stunning building reminiscent of a Elizabethan theatre, luxurious designer collections and interior design origins, I was dying to check out its Christmas decor and was not disappointed! A ceiling covered entirely with wrapping paper ribbons, tinsel streamers glistening all the way down from the 8th floor and flowers, flowers, flowers galore!

A visit to Luella Bartley's Christmas Grotto immediately added an extra page to my Christmas wish list with so many irreverent and beautiful things it was tempting to ignore the exchange rate and max the credit cards http://www.liberty.co.uk/pws/images/services/projects/luella/luellaxmas.html

So if you happen to be in London at Christmas, I highly recommend a visit to the iconic store, camera at the ready, and if you feel like being really generous, dear husband, I'll happily accept one of their "gift coins" commissioned exclusively by the Royal mint. http://www.liberty.co.uk/

Goody Bags for KCSARC!

Every 2 seconds someone in the United States is sexually assaulted. It's an appalling statistic and to make it even worse, 70% of those victims are children. The King County Sexual Assault Resource Center (KCSARC) is the *only* provider of rape crisis intervention, legal advocacy support and therapy for survivors of sexual assault in King County, yet every year KCSARC relies on funding from the city, state and individual donors just to keep itself afloat.

Each year, KCSARC holds a 1,000 person breakfast in Seattle. The 2010 "Kids are Our Business" breakfast will be held on February 23 at the Westin Seattle and is free to attend. This year's speakers will include Molly Shen (KOMO news anchor) and Margo Myers (ex KIRO news anchor). Major sponsors include Expeditors, Group Health, Boeing, Virginia Mason, Nintendo, Puget Sound Energy, Committee for Children and many others. Attendees will come from every major business throughout King County.

Here's how you can get involved:

We are looking for in-kind donors to contribute items to our Table Captain gift bags at the event. By contributing to the gift bags, your business will get to showcase your product/logo in front of over 1000 influential people at far less than the minimum $2,500 sponsorship level. We will need 100 of each item and are also looking for a sponsor to provide the bags themselves.

I became involved with KCSARC because I strongly believe in their mission to "End the Silence" which I think will resonate strongly with the women of the Ladies Who Launch and CRAVE communities. As mothers, daughters, sisters, trendsetters and entrepreneurs, we can support KCSARC with a small in-kind contribution, showcasing our own business to potential investors and customers while standing united against sexual assault in our community. Together we can "End the Silence."

Please contact me at rbowes@kcsarc.org if you are able to help with this request.

Thank you!