JEWEL IS STILL AWESOME - PART 2!

I told you there was more!  Jewel signed the Kaylee maquette, donated by Nina.

A Kaylee t-shirt which you will probably never want to wear:

And a hand-painted parasol, painted and donated by Jodie Bjarson:

Remember it's cash only and be prepared to bid high and often!

The last trivia question will be up on the blog later today.

JEWEL STAITE IS STILL AWESOME - PART ONE!

And gorgeous and glowing and of course we know she's talented - and also a very nice person! Jewel came in to sign some items for our auction on Saturday and let me take her picture with Julia Simpson's crocheted Kaylee Minion.  (She signed a tag which we will attach.)

 Side view showing the teddy bear patch.

 She signed three copies of the Serenity Official Companion, two of which we will be auctioning off and one we will be donating to another CSTS city.

Jewel also signed issue #3 of the original Serenity comics.  (Issue #1 & 2 are also included.) If you can't read it, it says "Not that you...spit..."  Jewel Staite

More signed items up later.

LOOK WHAT ALBERTA BROWNCOATS SENT US!!

The Alberta Browncoats had a poster signed by Nathan Fillion and Jewel Staite, especially for us!

The signatures are not showing up in the picture but Nathan's is on the left, Jewel's on the right and they both wrote something - Jewel addressing the BC Browncoats!

Standard Action has donated a signed DVD of Season 1 so you can start catching up before Season 3 starts.

VCON has once again donated two memberships to this year's convention, which will feature pirates!!

The schedule will go up later today.

COSTUME CONTEST & MORE DONATIONS!

This year's costume contest will follow the same format as past years - one prize for the best costume from the Firefly/Serenity 'verse and one prize for the best costume from anywhere else in the Whedonverse.  Costumes will be based on originality, authenticity and creativity. 

We have been fortunate this year to have some wonderful and different donations, including passes from the Space Centre, the Museum of Vancouver, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Chinese Garden, VanDusen Botanical Gardens and the Royal Museum of BC in Victoria.   In addition, Storm Crow Tavern donated two $25 Gift Cards and West Coast Geeks versus Nerds donated two passes for one of their shows next season.

Laura has donated the card that Nathan signed and handed out at last year's San Diego Comic Con.

 Bianca's handmade Viking helmet attracted a lot of attention at our FanExpo table this year.

Not only did Julia crochet the Kaylee doll that Jewel signed, but she made Mal, Jayne and Zoe.  All will be separate auction items and are about half the size of last year's, should you want a comparison.

More Auction Items

We have been very lucky to have such wonderful supporters as Kathleen & Simon who have donated many t-shirts to our auction in the past few years.  In addition, this year they have also donated three sets of posters - which will all be sold separately.  From the "Firefly Les Femmes" series, I already posted the picture of the Kaylee one which Jewel Staite signed.  Here are the others (shortened pictures - the posters are actually 24" x 12", which you can see if you click on the link above and then click on "View Gallery").

Inara actually has Jewel's signature on it, as well, so you get a bonus with this one.  (They are good friends, after all. ;) )

Next up, "Firefly Les Hommes" series:

For some reason, I can't grab Simon's poster, but if you click on the link above and then go to "View Gallery", you can see Simon and all the posters full length.

JEWEL STAITE IS AWESOME!!

Of course we all knew that already, but she proved it again today - and you'll want to gather your cashy money to bid on these items.  Jewel went out of her way to come by and sign several items for our auction, including this fan, donated by Firefly Cargo Bay;

this Kaylee (crocheted by Julia, along with Mal and Jayne, who will also be available);

Finding Serenity, in which Jewel wrote one of the essays;

this Serenity comic TPB;

and the Kaylee poster in the Women of Serenity lithograph set, donated by Kathleen & Simon.

(picture from QMx website)

In addition, Jewel has agreed to donate a recording for a ring tone to our live auction.  The winner will get to choose from several different Kaylee quotes from Firefly and Serenity.

In appreciation for her continued generous support, C&C Cakery made a dozen mini Kaylee cupcakes, with which Jewel was very impressed!  Wait till she tastest them - and wait till you see what they have in store for us this year.  (Pssst, visit their website to enter a Star Wars treat contest.)

Our thanks to Jewel for being such a class act and supporting CSTS Vancouver from Day One!

LAST-MINUTE CHANGE TO THE SCHEDULE!!

Jewel Staite wasn't able to attend our CSTS event this year - although she sent her good wishs for a very successful event.  However, we are going to get a small dose of our favourite home-town star  - very small, just a taste in fact!  The producers of the new animated series Animism are bringing us a rough cut of about five minutes of their new show, which stars Jewel Staite as a young woman who woud look right at home in any Joss Whedon show.  In order to bring this sneak peek to you, we have had to juggle the schedule a bit.  (You do remember the part that said "Schedule subject to change", right?)  Basically, the costume contest parade has moved to 2:35 - although participants still need to check in with the judges in the Lounge between 10:30 and 11 am; Animism will play before trivia bingo.  We thank those involved for giving us this glimpse of the new series, produced in Vancouver.

If you're reading the Buffy comics, you may be familiar with the name Georges Jeanty, who did a lot of the art work and even some covers for Season 8.  He was gracious enough to sign and donate two of his prints to CSTS Vancouver at this year's FanExpo.  Here they are:

Firefly Cargo Bay out of Ontario donated a box of goodies to our event, some of which are in the auctions, some in prizes.   Here are some of the buttons which were put in the grab bags.

She also donated a Jayne t-shirt that was designed by well-known Browncoat artist, 11th Hour, who died much too young last year.  There is a story attached to the shirt which you can read to find out how buying the shirt will have benefitted three different charities - five if you count our three separate!

A reminder that ticket sales at La Fontana will close at noon tomorrow and on the blog they will end at midnight.  It looks as if there will be tickets available at the door, so if you look at the weather and realise it's a good day to stay inside, think about how much fun you'll have at our event, while contributing to three excellent charities.  It's a win-win situation.  (PS Don't forget to bring cash because that's all we take.)

Message from Jewel Staite

Besides saying hello to everyone at CSTS Vancouver (via e-mail) and wishing us well, Jewel asked if we would pass on information about a friend's fundraiser.  We did at the event, but we're adding it here for those people who are interested.

In her own words:

"My friend Ryan Purcell, who was one of the camera operators on Stargate: Atlantis, is throwing a benefit on September 24th at the Sutton Place Hotel in Vancouver to raise money for research to help his son, who's sick with a very rare degenerative disorder called Hunter Syndrome.  If you could, it would be so fabulous to give the benefit a shout-out by mentioning its website, http://www.onceuponacure.com.  Several actors from Stargate, Smallville, Sanctuary and Supernatural are going to be there, as well as a few local weel-known actors from Vancouver.  There's going to be an auction held there as well with various prizes like lunch with me and Paul McGillion, lunch and  a set visit with Amanda Tapping, etc.  It's a great cause, and I'd love to help Ryan and his wife Deb sell more tickets!"

Since Jewel is always helping us out with CSTS Vancouver, it would be great if people could help out with her friend's fundraiser.  The link is on the side bar as well.

Don't forget to check out Jewel's food blog.  Just don't do it if you're already hungry!  There's a link to Happy Opu (under Jewel Staite's Food Blog) on the right.

Schedule, Notes and a Couple of Special Items!

One of our special auction items is currently somewhere in the Canadian postal system.  I had asked Jody Houser, who does a couple of online comics, Brick Girl and Cupcake Pow! if we could have a signed print of one of the panels of Cupcake Pow! that would have a lot of significance to Firefly fans - of which Jody herself is one.  She agreed, even though she had never done it before, and in the process, the CA Browncoats, who are hosting Joss et al in LA on Saturday night, also requested one.  However, Jody assured me that the print we are getting is No 1 of 2. :)  There will be a colour copy of it at the auction and we will mail the original to the winning bidder when it finally arrives.  Check out Cupcake Pow! and see if you can guess which panel it is.

In addition to the draw for the winner of the quotation contest in the introductory remarks Saturday morning, we also have an e-mail message from Jewel Staite to read.  We are so proud to have her as a supporter of our event.

    CSTS VANCOUVER 2011 -  SCHEDULE
    Saturday, June 25th
10:30    Doors open / special video presentation
11:00   Welcome/Online Contest winner drawn
            Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog sing-along
11:50   Evil Laugh Contest
12:10   Mind My Brains, Darling episodes 1 & 2
12:30   Break
12:45   Costume Contest Parade & Prizes
1:10     Standard Action webseries episodes
2:00     Firefly Trivia Bingo
3:00     Silent Auction ends; doors close
            Introductions to movie
3:30     SERENITY
5:30     Door prizes drawn
            Auction winners announced
            Closing remarks


IMPORTANT NOTES

If you are picking up your PayPal tickets at “Will Call”, please bring a copy of your PayPal printout/receipt.

There are a limited number of grab bags available for a minimum $5 donation. Bingo cards are $1.00 each and will be two lines in any direction.  Get your cards early as last year they were all snapped up within the first hour!  There are also door prizes which will be drawn after the movie.

Beverages in containers with lids are allowed in the Auditorium, all other food and drink must be consumed outside the room. This year we are offering some food by donation, wraps courtesy of John at La Fontana Caffe & friends and Firefly-inspired goodies courtesy of C&C Cakery available in the Lounge on the other side of the Lower Lobby. You are also welcome to bring your own food or to go to one of the many food places near Cornwall & Cypress.

For anyone wishing to stay after the day’s main festivities are over, we have the Lounge booked until 9 pm and you’re welcome to bring in food, get together and order in or just hang out with your fellow Browncoats and wind down for the day.

Please note that pay parking is in effect at the Space Centre/Museum lot at a rate of $2 per hour; $10 flat rate until 6 pm and $5 flat rate from 6 pm until 6 am.  EasyPark does patrol rather vigorously, especially just after 6 pm, so please make sure you have paid and have the ticket visible! There is little to no on-street parking in the area except for residents.

FINAL REMINDER THAT ALL MONETARY TRANSACTIONS ARE CASH ONLY, SO BRING PLENTY OF IT!

A couple more auction items to whet your appetite for Saturday - auotgraphed pictures of Mark Sheppard (Badger) and Jewel Staite (Kaylee), donated by RiverSue and Doug.

More Auction Items from Other Fandoms

We have been so lucky this year with donations from our members and some made by our members.

Robert from Happy Bats has donated a "Faith" from Angel action figure/diarama. It's still in the packaging and will be a sweet deal for any Faith fan.



Have you been watching V? One of the stars of that show, Logan Huffman who plays Tyler, signed a picture and donated it to us.















Kim knit this Dalek from Dr. Who. Aren't you just waiting for it to say "Exterminate! Exterminate!"?


VCON 35, Vancouver's science-fiction, fantasy, anime and everything geek con will be taking place from October 1-3rd. The theme this year is steampunk and they have donated two weekend passes for one, one of which includes a book by the special guest author, Cherie Priest.



If you enjoyed the latest Star Trek movie, you will want to own one of these actions figures from it, including Scotty and the original Spock.


Speaking of Canadian-born actors playing spaceship engineers, we love Jewel Staite as Kaylee, but she went on to play a doctor on Stargate:Atlantis and she has donated two cast pictures, signed by all of them. These are quite rare and we are honoured that she has given us two.

Ever Sailed in a Firefly?

We're happy that once again this year Jewel Staite (Kaylee) has generously donated some shiny items for our silent auction. She has autographed some new photos of Kaylee, each one with a special message, appropriate to the picture.