July 15, 2013

Apollo

We've done our Christmas bake sale the last two years for In-Sync Exotics. We've been thrilled to support In-Sync, since we're huge cat lovers and they do such amazing work. In my opinion, In-Sync is holy ground, and that's not something I say lightly.

In this economy, it's rough for any non-profit to keep things going, even when things are kind of normal in their world. Last month, however, things took a horrific turn at In-Sync when their lions and tigers were hit with a random outbreak of Canine Distemper, probably spread by an infected raccoon. As of today, we have lost two tigers – Apollo and Abrams – and one lioness; Layla.

This Thursday, we are holding an emergency bake sale to assist in any way we can with the enormous costs incurred over the last few weeks. Volunteers and staff are working 24/7, caring for and treating all of the cats at risk. The financial and emotional and physical burdens have been overwhelming.

We can't fix this, but we can do what we know, which is bake to try to help ease a teeny tiny bit of the financial burden. If you're in the Dallas area, please join us. We have a sponsor who will match the proceeds of the event 100%.

The sale will be in the lobby of the Premier Place building at 5910 North Central Expressway, near I75 and Mockingbird Lane. If you have any questions, email us at kittybakesale (at) hotmail (dot) com. If you're not local, please go to In-Sync Exotics web site to contribute to the work they're doing.

Thanks in advance for your support.

~BigSis

December 30, 2012

Could I get a drumroll please? The total for 2012's charity bake sale benefiting In-Sync Exotics is…

$15,192!

You read that right. After all the contributions were counted and our sponsor matched them dollar for dollar, the grand total was $15,192. Unbelievable!

We, first of all, thank God for blessing this event! We experienced a lot of challenges and spiritual warfare during the planning and execution of this year's sale. When that happens, it's always a sign to me that we're on the right track to something awesome if the Enemy is interfering to that extent. He was and we were!

Second of all, thank you to our sponsors. Paper Mart provided us with a generous discount on all of our packaging, which helped us enormously. Since all of our ingredients, packaging, printing and every other expense comes out of our personal pockets, we really appreciated Paper Mart's help. Thank you, Paper Mart!

City Vet was back as a third-time sponsor, and we are so grateful for everything they've done for our event. They help promote it via social media, and have donated gift cards and a wide variety of fun things for us to sell and give away. They've also shopped with us, so we're doubly blessed by them and their friendship. Thank you, City Vet!

We, of course, are extremely thankful for the 100% matching gift provided for the second year by our employer. We hope these checks will continue to grow each year as they have been so far! 2011's match was $4,175 and 2012's was $7,596.

Huge appreciation also goes to the In-Sync Exotics volunteer who donated $2,500 to the bake sale total. You, kind lady, are responsible for $5,000 of the $15,192 that went to In-Sync this year. We don't even know what to say about that, except that your generosity is an enormous blessing to the big cats and everyone who cares for them. Thank you!

Last – but absolutely not least – I want to thank all of the bakers! My co-workers Kristen and Lauren were back with all their goodies, and also recruited Erica and Susan for cookie duty. My SisMama baked 105 pound cakes (!), and Cyndi brought a wealth of brownies in all flavors. Thanks for doing this with me, girls! We make a good team!

Because we were so darn busy (good problem) during this year's sale, my photography was a little rushed and skimpy. Following are the photos I did manage to snap before the goodies were snapped up by lots of hungry people with Christmas shopping lists and cash in their hands. Thank you to everyone who made this happen for the wild ones at In-Sync Exotics. We are beyond grateful!

~BigSis

December 16, 2012

Gideon the baby bobcat is our poster child for this year's bake sale!

After much planning, shopping, fretting, stressing, and finally baking, wrapping and packaging…the 2012 Bake Sale benefiting In-Sync Exotics is here! The only things left to do now are to sell like crazy, and pray, pray, pray!

I promised to talk about this year's goodies, but apparently I got too immersed in actually working on the goodies to get that done! I will absolutely put together a post-sale follow-up with a bunch of photos and results from the day.

Before I get back to sale preparations, I have to say again that we just can't thank our sponsors enough for their support.  We are very, very grateful to City Vet, Paper Mart and Venable Royalty. This event would definitely not be as successful without everything they do for us, so thank you!

Wish us luck. For the wild ones!!

~BigSis

December 6, 2012

Gideon: our 2012 Bake Sale Poster Boy! Is there a cuter baby bobcat?

Our 2012 charity bake sale for In-Sync Exotics is right around the corner on Monday, December 17th, and we are full of gratitude and excitement about it! It's the season to be thankful, so let me count the reasons!

• We have a brand new sponsor joining with us in support of this wonderful charity. Paper Mart – our favorite packaging source for years – has provided us with a generous discount on the incredible items we use to make our goodies look super cute. We know that cuteness helps things sell, right? And moving our goodies out the door is the name of the game at bake sale time. We could probably feed our cookies to the lions and tigers, but we'd much rather sell them to peeps and use the money to buy what the big kitties prefer to eat (and that's not biscotti). If you'd like to see some of our favorite Paper Mart products, check out my Pinterest Bake Sale Board. Thank you, Paper Mart!

• We are so happy to welcome back City Vet as a returning sponsor for the third year! City Vet provides us with tons of things to sell and awesome giveaway items. This year they've even donated a gracious plenty of the reusable shopping bags that we all love. These will be a big help, and a nice bonus for our shoppers who buy a bunch of goodies. We also have some gift certificates for exams and baths to sell; things that all of us animal lovers need! Thank you, City Vet!

• Last but not least, we are beyond thrilled that our employer is matching our sales, dollar for dollar, for the second year in a row. That means that we can totally leverage what we're doing. If we sell $4000 in goodies again, that magically turns into $8000 instantly! Thank you, our boss!

I have lots of baking to do, and ribbon to cut, and tags to make, and tweets and pins and instagram photos and facebook statuses to post, so I'm out for now. And yes before you ask, it is important that all of these tasks get completed, especially updating social media as this is one of the best ways to get the message across in this day and age. It's also definitely worth doing if it means that it will give me more followers in the process, but I always have the option of reading this Upleap and mr. insta review if I need another method to fall back on. I never turn down the chance to grow my following so updating my feeds is something that I should definitely do. I'll report back this weekend with our list of goodies to entice you.

For now, thanks, thanks, and more thanks to our supporters! If the wild kitties at In-Sync Exotics could thank you, they would, so I'll speak on their behalf. Oodles of thanks, chuffs and purrs to you all!

~BigSis

January 22, 2012

I've been noodling around a tiny brainstorm for the last 2 days, so this is how a chunk of my Sunday was spent.  A weird little mess, you say?  Maybe.  I'd rather call it the evolution of an idea. 🙂

I'll give you the scoop on what I'm up to bit later, but here's a hint…a very beautiful, dangerous and mesmerizing hint.

~BigSis