My First Solo Event:

I did it! 

I had my first solo event in which I had a showing of all of my paintings and their respective poems + all pf my jewelry designs and I have also spoke in front of the people and had an open discussion at the end.

It was wonderful to see how many people have showed up (we were well over 20 there). There were NT (neurotypical) people there,  adult Aspies, parents to children with Asperger's and even professionals who work with kids on the Autistic Spectrum.
 

It was a huge success!

How do I measure my success?

It's not just the fact that I have sold some of my jewelry there, which feels nice and of course helps this company grow towards the future goal of employing people from the Autistic Spectrum...it's much more than that;
It's when a fellow adult Aspie comes to me almost in tears (out of excitement) and thanks me for my efforts and for this event, for expressing what he has been feeling and thinking all of his life but could have never expressed the way I have in my poems and paintings, saying afterwards that I have represented well all of the Aspies and that he's proud of me- That is success in my book;
And when I see parents to a newly diagnosed teen, who feel lost and have no idea what they can do to help their son, get their HOPE back, see their eyes shine again and the smile go back to their face, and hear them say I was the one who gave them that hope and how inspirational I am...-That is success!
When I hear professionals cheer me on to continue my work, telling me I'm doing a great job and how wonderful I am for taking on this cause, when people there told me the are looking forward to hear me speak in my next event or conference, when they told me they can't wait to read my book...All of these things show me that the event WAS successful and that I AM indeed on the right track!!!

It was a wonderful event and I enjoyed it tremendously even though I was very very stressed out and anxious at first. I feel that the cause is bigger than everything and I will be continuing this work, hoping to help as many children, people and families as I possibly can as well as raising awareness to Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Here are some pictures from the event:

This is one side of the "Aspie Series" paintings displays with their respective poems

A larger view of the area- on the left the table with the Jewelry display, in front- some of the painting and jewelry from the "Aspie Line" with their respective poems.

My speech and the presentation.

The open discussion, after the speech.

My husband took part in answering some of the questions.

  

The people looked around, asked me more questions, checked out the jewelry (some even bought something) and signed my book's waiting list.