News for May 2017

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Emporium Proprietor continues to do a lot of Volunteer Activities. When presented with a volunteer opportunity, our Proprietor asks herself, “What would Grammie Do?” The answer is always clear.

We support the following non-profit organizations and awareness building campaigns in our communities:

 

 

 

 

Seasonally, we offer Discounted Tickets to the Great Dickens Christmas Fair, with special rates for groups of people who are in school, and for elders and seniors. Please contact us with these requests!

 

 

 

And we are also please to introduce a place for you to express your interest in doTERRA Essential Oils  ~  From there you may also request Wellness workshops or private consultations.   As our friends over at Mrs. Greenbalms Healing Salves tells us, “the plants remember Paradise.” And as musician Laurie Anderson tells us, “Paradise is exactly where you are, right now, only much, much better.”

 

We are also continuing to offer our Letter Writing workshops at libraries and bookshops around the San Francisco Bay Area and on the East Coast. Stay tuned for upcoming class schedules and ways that you may participate or purchase supplies.

Events in 2016

4490625591_4ab86ee2e6_bOur Proprietor has been so busy, this year, she realized that she hadn’t taken the time to enter a proper Update for this season’s events.

The first photo is from the Blind Baby Foundation’s Beeper Egg Hunt, a few years back, with the pictured pals Kenny and Kate, plus Costumer’s Guild members (Helena, Lynne, Dawn and the Proprietor) creating the costumes and helping out. We had an Alice in Wonderland Tea Party for the young guests; and gathered contributions of tea, cookies and all sorts of raffle prizes from kind Oakland vendors.  That day at the BBF Beeper Egg Hunt was much fun.  So, this year, our Proprietor remembered that she might borrow the Alice costume that Helena created and is wearing in the photo for a similar event at the Camron-Stanford House! In the next photo she’s wearing the Alice dress, standing next to the amazing docent training officer, Molly (on her right) as they both admire the handiwork of  Dragonfly Cakes in Sausalito. “Eat Me,” the cake told Alice.

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March Hare Tea at the Camron-Stanford House, Oakland, CA with Molly (right)

 

 

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2016 Edwardian Ball, San Francisco

 

 

Here are some other photos from events we attended. The black, silk, beaded shirt was a gift from Sara, who received it from a design teacher. It was apparently beaded in Paris in the early 1900s, so the Proprietor wore it to the Edwardian Ball in San Francisco.

 

 

And here is evidence that the Emporium’s Proprietor does a fair amount of community work on behalf of women and girls. She’s performing the monologue called “The Flood,” in Eve Enslers’s Vagina Monologues. This year, with a cast of 9 women, they were able to raise $1,200 to give to Oakland Elizabeth House for women and their children who are homeless.

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V-Day at the Uptown Lounge. “The Flood.”
Fires of Wisdom 2011 Tea at Lovejoy's in San Francisco
Fires of Wisdom 2011 Tea at Lovejoy’s in San Francisco

 

We recently learned of the passing of our dear friend Jane Cudlip Coblentz King, Mills College class of 1942.  She is pictured, above, at the center of our group in the grey and black jacket. Jane was 93 years old when she passed last fall. She retired from tutoring just the year before and boy howdy, could she tell jokes, stories and remember Shakespeare, line, act and scene! She is dearly missed by our group of volunteers in Fires of Wisdom, the Mills College Oral History Project, pictured above. We miss her so much, some of us made a gift to the American Heart Association in her memory.

~~ Malvena Pearl’s Emporium staff also witnessed the glory that is/was the Pan Pacific Exposition, entitled Jewell City.    There are many images,  including a lot of stories, here. ~~

Finally, the Proprietor started off in January of this year assisting some clients with their outfits for the NOIR CITY Film Festival at the Castro Theater in San Francisco. Here are some happy film goers!

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February 2015

February has seen the return of Lady V_Jay Jay in her pink outfit, as a greeter and fundraising for the Oakland 2015 readings of The Vagina Monologues.  Here is a photo of this year’s amazing cast:

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Thank you to all of our sponsors and to the people who helped us sell out the two evening shows, and fill the hall at the matinee, held at the Humanist Hall. All proceeds went to Bay Area Women Against Rape. 

THANK YOU:

AdvanceHealth Chiropractic & Rehabilitation

Ais Q. Harvey

Bacheesos restaurant

Bibliomania book shop

Cemora Vanetino-Devine

Chelsea Hill

Daryl Rodillas

Dr. Clo Lau

Ericka Schneider

Eva Salyer

Follies & Dollies

Get Goes Mobile Coffee

Greta Joseph & La Sagata

GwendOline PouchOulin

Howard Bloom

Jessica Opitz

Juan Romero

Kin Folkz

Liba Falafel

Lisa Marie Arens Insurance Agency

Liz Burden and Serenitea Handmade Soaps

Marcelina Verarde

Micha Bennett-Cauchon

Mystic Hands Massage & Body Work

Neena at Feelmore 510

Perch Cafe

Princess/Merlin Monroe/Chris Hughes

SpectrumQueerMedia.com

Splendid Colors

Suzette Davidson

Sweet Bar Bakery

Tanaya Hurst and Rogue Making

Tech Liminal

The Creativity Stimulus Package

The White Horse

Viscera Studio

 

 

Many things to Do and Tell about

So, do tell! Our proprietor went to her 20th Mills College Reunion yesterday and she saw lots of long-lost pals and even met some new ones whom she had only known in her volunteer capacity as Class Agent from 1994 to 2007 or so.  She even did some (gasp) Networking for her day job status, as she has only recently been offered a Temporary Full Time Job at her old stomping grounds, UC Berkeley. Aherm. What does the Queen of England have to say about this? Let’s find out:

COSCon MN 2013 Queenie 1 Queenie from the rear endQueenie in stocks 2013

 

We were So Pleased to see our buddy and pal Jane Cudlip King, from the class of 1942, at the lunch on Toyon Meadow! We also saw Redwood Mary and hung out with her for most of the day, meeting friends and classmates of hers, getting caught up, getting our photo taken and hearing part of a dramatic reading of Letters  written to Mills College President Aurelia Henry Reinhardt, during the Japanese internment period of American History (talk about infamy, holy cats, why did the government force people to live at race tracks?!) that was being read at Danforth Hall. Our proprietor could only stay for an hour and a half of that before she had to go to her Class Dinner at a classmate’s home, which was also awesome in many 21st century ways, unlike walking back into the past when seeing all the wonderful alumnae and staff who were Kind to her. That is what we take away from the day at Mills.

Also? The lunch didn’t suck and she got to give out information about her latest volunteer organizations, the East Bay Children’s Book Project and the Next Step Learning Center for adult literacy in Oakland.

Speaking of life during World War II, Here are some Photos of the Fires of Wisdom: Mills College Alumnae Oral History Project at a few of the annual Tea outings, which keep the Mills Tradition of Having Tea and Schmoozing up a storm. CAN YOU TELL WE LIKE HATS? Yes. Yes we do. Old hats. And outfits that recall the Tea Parties of Yesteryear. We keep this Fire alive to Stay Connected and share Experience, Strength and Hope.  To share our activies and triumphs, stories of our travels and job huts. And to give scoop on what vintage clothing stores and thrift shops are still in business or what flea markets for charity had the best deals on gloves. (not really a huge topic but sometimes…)

The first photo is of the Fires of Wisdom group at a performance of our Dramatic Reading at Alumnae Reunion at Mills A note from our proprietor:  HI JANE! I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU ARE STILL CONDUCTING THE CAMPUS TOURS! We LOVE YOU and WE HAVE MISSED YOU SO MUCH! I almost burst into tears when I hugged you, yesterday! SEE YOU SOON!

Fires of Wisdom 2006
Fires of Wisdom 2006
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Fires of Wisdom 2011 Tea at Lovejoy's in San Francisco
Fires of Wisdom 2011 Tea at Lovejoy’s in San Francisco
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Cecille, Kathleen, Moya, Betsy, Jane, Beth, Erika and our own Malvena Pearl’s Emporium Proprietor

V-Day 2013

 

2011 Vagina Monologues show in San Francisco
2012 V-Day show at the Uptown Lounge, Oakland

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a guest post from our visiting dignitary, Lady Vagina, aka Lady V-Jay Jay:

“Well my lovelies, it’s here again! A fantastic opportunity for you to support the women in our communities who may need a little help, a little, shall we say, attention. Aherm. We’re talking about domestic and sexual violence that has to stop. And WE ARE THE ONES WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR!

As the ONE BILLION RISING Oakland group showed us: we can all show up for our communities, women, children, men, and say Enough! No More Violence! and dance, rise, celebrate the growth we have experienced.

For this Vagina Monologues show, being performed on Wednesday, April 10 and Thursday April 11, 2013,at the New Parish in Oakland, CA all proceeds apart from direct production costs will go to Communities United Against Violence.

Please join us in supporting our fundraising on Wed.  APRIL 10 & Thurs. APRIL 11, 2013 at the NEW PARISH by attending The Vagina Monologues show in Oakland.  Order tickets here.

Here are our generous sponsors and donors from last year’s show and the silent auction we held.

All the profits from the 2012 event went to Bay Area Women Against Rape:

Get Goes Mobile Cafe

Fiftyseven-Thirtythree

Book Zoo

Ruth M. Freeman

Tech Liminal

Kristen Caven

The Sacred Well

Blisses B

CupKates Bakery

Good Vibrations

Now some photos from the 2012 show. Rumor has it that Lady V-Jay Jay’s handler performed the role of The Flood in that show. But that’s just a rumor.

further along

Well, things have been a little different around the emporium for the last few months. Our proprietor volunteered with a local theater production company as their box officer during the month of June. She’s also been sorting through the stash of fabric and notions in addition to working at a Full-Time Day Job for a great company that let her take two entire weeks off to go back to the East Coast for a birthday gathering for her mother. All of her older sisters were there for an historic group visit and lobster-and-clam-bake.

While she was there, she worked on her sister’s organic farm and attended an all-school reunion for her junior high school, the same school that her grandmother attended, in the town where her mother grew up. She also got to sing in an impromptu rock band who called themselves the Ad Hocs– at the reunion dinner for this organization. The school gathering was attended by more than 150 former students and instructors. The building is now owned by another school but this is the place.

In the meantime, things have changed a little with regard to product sales via the online web site. We’re taking orders but are mostly doing in-person sales and repair jobs; doing our best to complete projects that need completing. Please stay tuned for availability of products. And feel free to drop a note anytime.

 

V-Day 2012 Oakland, Benefit Show at the Uptown

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As foretold by our guest blogger, Lady V-Jay Jay, the fund-raising performance of Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues will be held on Wednesday March 14 and Thursday March 15, 2012, at the UPTOWN NIGHTCLUB on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland, CA.

2012 Vagina Monologues Performance, Oakland, CA

Come on by the UPTOWN on Thursday night for a chance to bid on some great Silent Auction items from these local businesses and individuals

slient auction table, all proceeds go to Bay Area Women Against Rape

All profits from this event go directly to Bay Area Women Against Rape. Thank you to our generous sponsors:

Get Goes Mobile Cafe

Fiftyseven-Thirtythree

Book Zoo

Ruth M. Freeman

Tech Liminal

Kristen Caven

The Sacred Well

Blisses B

CupKates Bakery

Good Vibrations

*  THANK YOU!  *