Intricate Hand-Made Bead Embroidered Cuff Bracelets

We are so impressed with this talented artist! Her bracelet designs includes thousands of beads meticulously embroidered to create a 2" wide by 7" long piece of art for your wrist. The intricate beading provides a whole backdrop, playground and home for the Little Critterz and a beautiful setting to enjoy while you wear it.

Karen, the artist chose to use a tree frog because of it's cute colors and bug eyes, and it's ability to frighten predators if disturbed. She uses a mix of green beads to replicate it's rainforest home, using emeralds, jades, chartreuse, and dark red beads to emulate jungle vines.

For her second piece, a sea otter was chosen because of it's playfulness and ability to incorporate the piece situated amidst a sea of waves, whitewash and seaweed.

Both pieces took several days to complete. Beginning by fastening the Little Critterz to a square piece of metal, weaving beads into complex patterns, then attaching the bracelet to a cuff form backed with ultra suede for your comfort.

These pieces are available on her Etsy shop here for the frog and here for the otter, but hurry only 1 of each is available now!

Our World Without Water

As you've probably seen us post about on our Facebook and Twitter pages, we've been shocked, nervous and curious about food production and waste as of late. We know that climate change is occurring and population is growing. So we wonder, what factors are contributing to the impending food crises? After all, there is estimated to be 9 million people in the world by 2050, and poverty and starvation is already a huge problem.

Water is the Worlds Most Precious Commodity

In Developed Nations, 95% of water that enters the home goes down the drain.

We know long showers, and letting the water run while brushing your teeth and washing your face wastes water after all 27% of water usage is from showering. But did you know that receiving one newspaper every day uses 66,000 gallons of water each year? Holy cow!

70% of water usage is for irrigation. But over half of the water used for irrigation is lost to leaks!

Trends

Increased population
Decreasing productivity due to climate change
Changing consumption

What People Are Eating Is Changing

In 2010, the world consumed 235 million tons of meat. By 2020, it is expected the world will consume an additional 60 million tons.

Producing 1kg of animal protein requires 100 times more water than 1kg of grain protein.

Let's Talk About Waste

24% of calories produced are not consumed. That's 198 million hectares, or the size of Mexico. Think about all of the energy and water that goes into producing this food, only to be thrown away!

In monetary terms, the average US American family wastes $1600 in food every year.

A UK report suggests that food waste if given to pigs instead of incarcerated could provide 800,000 tons of pork per year.

Anyone Else Nervous Yet?

So what can we do?

Grocery shop more often, but buy less. Buy what you need for the next day or two. I think we in the US feel so pressed for time that we make excuses about not having time to run to the store for an item we need. But wouldn't we rather make the time to go more often instead of over buying, over spending, and wasting what we don't really need just because we want to be "safe not sorry"?

Drive less. One car uses 40,000 gallons of water in gasoline. Walk or ride your bike to the grocery store. Making lifestyle choices to be more active everyday will cut down on gym time, leaving more time to be conscious about buying habits and the environment. Can we say win, win!

What are you doing to save water or prevent food waste? Comment below and let us know!

Orangutan Adoption

We've decided to adopt an orangutan! Yes, that's right! We are going to be helping Orangutan Outreach and their partners care for rescued orangutans and give them everything they need to be successfully reintroduced into the wild.

So help us choose which orangutan!

GUNUNG

The International Animal Rescue team got an emergency call from the local forestry department informing them that a man had found a tiny baby orangutan alone in a tree in an area called Tanjung Gunung. It’s hard to say what really happened, but one thing is for sure: It is highly unlikely that 2-3 month-old baby orangutan would be alone in the forest without any sign of his mother. The little fellow was given the name “Gunung “ which means “Mountain” in Bahasa Indonesian.

RICKINA

Rickina was rescued in the capital city of Pontianak, West Kalimantan, from a man who claimed that he had encountered a mother orangutan with the baby in the forest, and that the mother was so startled that she abandoned the baby and ran away. The man picked up the baby and in doing so apparently caused a gaping wound on her head with his machete…. A mother orangutan will never leave her infant behind and will fight to the death to protect her baby from aggressors. So what really happened?

Cast your vote in the comment section. Or visit our Facebook page and comment there!