Notes from Bonnie's Desk

January brought many opportunities for giving to some truly worthwhile causes and I am humbled by the awesome response to our Soles4Souls shoe drive which ended this week. I am thrilled to say that Finders Keepers collected 3670 pairs of shoes and 69 singles for this shoe drive and I would like to thank to each and every customer, consignor, neighbor, friend and church member who took the time to clean out their closets and bring those no longer needed shoes to one of the shops, Avondale City Hall, Avondale First Baptist, or my front porch!

Together with NAPO-GA, we sent 10,157 pairs of shoes and 359 singles to the Soles4Souls distribution center in Alabama over the last 3 months. We proved that the greater Atlanta Area is a very giving community.

Many of those shoes will go to developing countries including Haiti and some will be distributed in the United States. These shoes are often the first pair of shoes that a person will own. That should make us all happy and humbled at the same time, I know it does me. But there is another avenue for some of these shoes which to me is more exciting as an entrepreneur and I want to share a little of what I have learned about this.  Some of the shoes get packaged and sold to individuals in developing countries for a “micro enterprise” business venture. This micro-entrepreneur cleans and sells the shoes at village markets and then with those profits, he or she buys more shoes and thus grows the business. This business is a way to escape poverty and take care of his or her family by making a living instead of living on handouts. Now THIS appeals to me!

I saw some awesome shoes as I rubber banded and tied shoes together, wondering who would be wearing the brand new Timberland boots that someone donated or what woman just have to have the cute red sandals with the button closure or what child’s feet would be protected in the stride rite sneakers. Your generosity has warmed my heart and warmed many feet far from here. To find out more go to www.soles4souls.org

Always Be Giving,

Bonnie Kallenberg

Owner, Finders Keepers, Inc

Workshop schedule and bios (January 26th - February 1st)

Free Workshop Schedule

Thursday, January 26th at 1:30pm - Closet Organizing with Renee Kutner: Are you constantly running late in the mornings because you spent too long looking for the clothes you want to wear?  Do you trip over a pile of shoes to reach the outfit you're trying to put on? Your closet should be inspirational - not stressful. Renee of Peace by Piece Organizing will teach you a few simple steps to make your closet a place of wow instead of woe. Learn more about Renee on her company's website: http://www.peacebypieceorganizing.com/

Saturday, January 28th at 9:30am - Kitchen Organization Made Simple with Gigi Miller: During this workshop, Gigi Miller of Vision Organizing will teach you how to plan your space, choose the right organizing products, and address problem areas such Tupperware clutter/pantry overload/junk drawers. Each participant will receive a workshop handout outlining Gigi's 5 steps for getting organized in the kitchen and helpful tips for maintaining your space. And....there will be a special give-away for one lucky member! Learn more about Gigi on her company's website: http://www.visionorganizing.com/.

Wednesday, February 1st at 10am - De-Stressing and Decluttering with Renee Kutner:
Renee is back to help you learn how to conquer your clutter for good. During this workshop, Renee will help you answer these three basic questions: What should I keep?  What should I do with the stuff I keep?  What should I do with the stuff I don't keep? Learn how to answer those easy questions and you'll be able to declutter without all the stress! Learn more about Renee's company on their website: http://www.peacebypieceorganzing.com/.

About Renee: They say you should do what you love. It just so happens that Renée Kutner loves doing something many people find daunting, and even dreadful: organizing. So she founded Peace by Piece Organizing to bring order to chaos, and peace to our otherwise hectic lives. Ask anyone who’s crossed Renée’s professional path and they’ll tell you no one they know could get so much done with so little on their desk. It became a trademark of sorts — so much so that starting early in her career, years before envisioning the formation of Peace by Piece Organizing,  Renée was conducting workshops for peers and supervisors alike on efficient time and project management. Renée is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) and the Georgia chapter of NAPO. For more please visit my website: http://www.peacebypieceorganizing.com/

About Gigi: Gigi serves as the Marketing Director for The National Association of Professional Organizers- Georgia (NAPO-GA) and is the owner of Vision Organizing, an Atlanta based company that works with individuals and businesses.  As a Professional Organizer, Gigi utilizes her highly honed organizational skills towards helping others realize the benefits of living an organized life. Vision Organizing's mission is to create customized solutions for home, work, and life that are simple, practical, and easy to maintain. For additional information, please visit www.VisionOrganizing.com.

A follow-up with workshop speaker Jiffy Page

First, thank you for coming out on a cold Saturday morning. I hope you took away some helpful information and thought it was a useful way to spend an hour. If you have suggestions for us, please pass them along - we're always tweaking and adjusting. Your feedback is helpful and greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Second, as was mentioned this morning, we were given the sign-in sheet with your email address and thus, you're getting this email. Let me be honest - we would love to have you as a Pixorium client. That said, at Pixorium we treat people as we wish to be treated which means we only want to be in your email box if you want us there. So, do me this favor - if you do NOT want to be in our database, please reply to this email and let me know. I will understand and won't have my feelings hurt, promise. :)

If you stay in our database, what are we going to send you? The main (and at this point only) email you'll get from us is an "almost" quarterly e-newsletter. In it we write about useful tips, ideas and other things we think you'll want to know. After all, we want you to read it, so we try hard to make it interesting, relevant and fun. Here's a link to our most recent one, which was much more "here's what we're doing" than usual: http://t.co/zzWlTh1N

We also have a Facebook page that we'd be delighted for your to visit regularly (and "like", share with your friends, etc.) if you're an FB person:
www.facebook.com/pages/Pixorium/146253261222  

We also tweet - it's an easy way to share fun and interesting tidbits or photos, which we do about once a week - @pixorium

But the best place for information on Pixorium is our website: http://www.pixorium.com/. We keep it up-to-date and actually, you can read the tweets right on our home page. I also write a blog post which you can access from there. Again, it's almost quarterly and I work hard to make it interesting, relevant and fun. Take a look; I'd love to know what you think about what's there now and any suggestions you have for future posts.

Lastly, I hope you were inspired today - maybe to open that huge box of photos and think about an organizing plan; to move the photos from the attic/basement/garage to an inside-your-home-closet; to think about the way you'd look for a photo if you had it organized; to go to pfile.com and see what they have for archival binders, boxes, sleeves; to think about what would be the best way for you to back up your photos - separate hard drive, cloud back-up, etc.

The hardest part is getting started. We know that. So, let us know if we can be of help. For us the point is to encourage and enable people to save and share their photos and family stories; here's hoping we encouraged you this morning and perhaps enabled you a bit too.

Wishing you and yours a wonderful 2012,

Sincerely,

Jiffy

(on behalf of Wally, too...)

Jiffy Page

Principal
Pixorium
404-680-5341
http://www.pixorium.com/
@pixorium

Celebrating our 5th Anniversary with
"Snapshots & Stories - A Celebration" Photo Exhibit

See pix on our FB page:
www.facebook.com/pages/Pixorium/146253261222

See now @ Va Hi San Francisco Coffee  (mysfcoffee.com)
 a new location to announced soon...

Pixorium is an Atlanta-based photo storytelling business. We create video shows, custom books and other fun ways to celebrate and share the stories of families and organizations. We also provide digital conversion services, scanning prints, slides, film, VHS tapes to digital images.
Life is a story. How do you tell yours?

Angels on Earth

We just wanted to share an awesome thing that happened to one of our staff members, Karnu. Karnu works at Finders Keepers Furnishings. He drove his car to Maryland to give to his younger sister during the holidays because he thought she needed it more than he did. He spent the rest of his money to fly home. He was using his bicycle for sole transportation to work and school.
The day he arrived back to work his bike was stolen from beside our store.
We set up a jar fund for donations to replace his bike. On this past Monday a lady inquired about the jar fund and we related Karnu's story. She informed us that she was part of a not for profit organization called "Annandale Village" which is a community that serves adults with developmental disabilities. They have formed a cycling group in their community and Fuji Bikes made a generous donation of 60 or more bicycles to their organization. They were unable to use them all but were instructed to share with those in need as they saw the need. She asked permission to gift a new bike to Karnu.

Yesterday she arrived with a brand new Fuji bike and helmet for Karnu proving once again that good things come to good people and that angels do walk among us.