Connecting with our Community: Bound by Beauty at Green Day 2017 Miami Shores

The Green Day Fair is a wonderful event in the life of Miami Shores.  We close our main street to traffic, and come together as a community to shop for food and plants and gifts, to chat with neighbors, to listen to live music, to eat all sorts of delicacies, and, if fairgoers stopped by Bound by Beauty's booth, to be awestruck.

That's Susan Howell there in the center. Susan donated beautiful treasures to Bound by Beauty, which she unearths at estate sales. Loved that amazing frog box with green rhinestones. I wonder who the lucky buyer was?

What struck people with awe?  Was it our booth, which was like no other, thanks to the easy-to-install, beautifully constructed cedar walls created by the talented Mike Oliva for his lovely wife, Melanie, an artist and activist extraordinaire (click here and here to learn more about this amazingly talented human being)?

Melanie Oliva, artist and activist and the love of Mike's life.

Or maybe it was Maria Font's warm and winning smile as she greeted those who entered through the back door (besides being powered by passion for pollinators, Maria is a truly gifted photographer who could find magic in the mundane.  Click here to see her marvelous images)?  Plus, we were the only booth with a back door....and we had awesome vintage Polish cutouts of brightly colored birds and flowers, visible in the background, and all sorts of other unique and wonderful nature-themed items for sale.  And did I mention we had oodles of handsome guys helping out, like that guy back there?  

Or were passerbys awestruck by our amazingly stylish friends, like Wendy Doscher-Smith and Jill Leslie?  Too bad you can't see Wendy's go-go boots in this photo!

Come to think of it, our outfits were pretty awesome.  I mean, who doesn't think Monarch wings and antennae are the next "hot" thing in Miami?

Wendy and Maria modeling butterfly couture.

Beverly and Jill solving the world's problems, right there on Main Street.

Yes, that's Melanie Extraordinaire again, as she kindly loaned BbB the butterfly gear that had been broken in during the March Against Monsanto. Go, Melanie!

Maybe it was our beautiful and unusual notecards featuring -- you guessed it: butterflies -- which proved a favorite with the crowds?

Kate Eaton, the creator of the Ruah service at the Ancient Spanish Monastery left, laden with our butterfly notecard sets (you can read about Kate's magic here). All butterflies were captured, figuratively, in Mary Benton's garden, right here in Miami Shores.

Was it our wonderful educational tools, that highlight the magical process of metamorphosis?

No, I think the answer was right outside our amazing booth, as filled with treasures as it was.  What are they looking at?

What does she see?

Awestruck!

Maria's at it again, drawing children of all ages in to a world of beauty and mystery and magic and wonder and awe.

What was at the root of this beauty and magic and wonder?  It was our wonderful Monarch tower, made by Geoff Lee for the love of his life, Jean (I think we have a theme going here) and donated to Bound by Beauty, bejeweled with gold-crowned jade chrysalises and pupating caterpillars.  Talk about performance art!

The sharp-eyed among you might notice that this photo was taken elsewhere. True, but the magic at the fair was no different.

Dreaming their last caterpillar dreams as the inner pupa takes over.

Many passersby were lucky enough to see a pearly white Queen chrysalis. Here is a photo of the Queen herself, newly emerged.

All in all, it was a most wonderful day, and Bound by Beauty is grateful to the Chamber of Commerce for having conjured up a Green Fair.  All of us at Bound by Beauty thank everyone who came by and supported our critical mission of transforming how we interact with neighbors and with nature, using butterflies as the catalyst for change.  All of us at Bound by Beauty are passionate about safeguarding the beauty of nature for future generations. #GreenDayMiamiShores