Yay - local media story about our book launch!

Well, out at Beavers last nite - and sometimes in the hubbub I don't bring the Thurs paper in til Friday. Skimming thru this am, I found a sweet little release about our book launch, with thumbnail of book cover even, inside. Seriously, 6 column inches when there's so much Christmas bumpf going on, is pretty darn good! Just the shot in the arm I needed to get going on prep for the launch.

Continuing to work on stuff for our Occupy Christmas trunk sale. One of my vendor pals made me feel a bit self conscious about the name - until Stan brought home the news that Ad Age last week - so a good couple of weeks after me, i'm just saying - had adopted the slogan for this xmas season of 'Occupy Christmas.' Sometimes I scare myself with how ahead of the curve I am !!! ; ) !!!

And one more thing while i'm all avant garde and everything - just for the record, I don't think Black Friday sales mesh with handmades. Like what, I'm going to crank out Weasley sweaters then try to mass produce the billions people will buy off me?!? I mean isn't the meaning of hand made how much TLC gets put into a few well wrought pieces? So sorry folks, if you're looking for Black Friday deals, you won't find them in my shop. I'm slowly and steadily at work on a few nice pieces for loved ones. Occupy Christmas - oh yeah!

Test Driving an Etsy Mini

Saw a reference to this. Why not give it a whirl...Noice!

Christmas shopping has begun - even for me!

What I mean is I don't sell volumes of stuff. But 3 items in a week is a sign that things have begun.

My thanks to Nicola in the UK for purchasing a simple cream coloured chunky scarf with maple leafs - reminded me that expat Canucks are looking for Canadiana on the giving or receiving end of international shipping.

Had a nice email exchange with John re an HP tie. He notes that gold and burg are the colours of the U of Southern California. Had a great tip about an essay on the value of hand made by Octavio Paz. I have already added this to my wish list on Amazon ; ) . Even the reference put me in mind of the PK Page glosa based on Neruda's 'In Praise of Ironing.' I love that pairing of poems so much - have pulled it out to review when I get time.

Trunk sale is shaping up nicely. Have 6 vendors now. Had the brainstorm to knit 1 more HP sweater in chunky and raffle off. Diane at GYC helped me with the conversion of Alison Hansel's sweater to chunky. If I can shave a bit of time off the making of it, perhaps I can list for less. But what the hey - it's handmade, it is what it is - you just can't rush it.

Fundraising calendars should be here soon. Received shipping advisory. Can't wait to see them. The kids did phenomenal work. Maybe this is a good place for a sneak preview. Good idea. Will upload a pic... Ok what you see here is Holly's dream catcher, blending in the golden acorn idea from the book. Isn't she a wonder?!

Think that's it for now. Gotta start Benny's cereal sogging...

Philanthropy

I find my shop changing complexion a little bit. I think the fundraising activity of my various friends is having much to do with that. It started with Nick's Cwood hospital marathon, then Kevin's Christmas in Cambodia challenge. Discovered with Nick's run that it's much more immediate to donate funds in my PayPal account to a charity thru Canada Helps than taking it off my credit card.

Solution - build up more funds in my PP account to support the charitable initiatives of my friends.

Next - create an item specifically dedicated to my 'pet' charities where all or portions of sales from such can be transferred directly over.

Also wanted an easy to dash off item that can go on a Christmas sale table and become the item identified with that charity.

Hence the Kevin's Kids Cap was born. In Kevin's online pics is a photo of a little kid in Oudong village wearing a baseball style cap. As long as I can dash it off in an evening or a sitting, I don't mind dedicating the funds to charity.

I have one dedicated to WICM, an earflap hat, 100 % wool. The idea here would be that if I make extra and they don't sell, they can obviously be sent out to the mission. For these I wouldn't do in pick your own colour, but stick to the on sale colours I find at GT yarn and crafts. Am thinking a photo of the current working colour at end of listing should do the trick.

And then given my family's history with kidney disease and transplants, I thought I could do a 'kidney beanie.' This would work up best in the royal and white KF of C company colours. Am thinking a kidney/peanut shaped tassel topper. Maybe not all proceeds from this, but say half is fair. Next step - prototype.

Now that I think of it, my inspiration goes farther back. I love Frankie Brown's patterns on Ravelry. She works it that her patterns are free, but you can give a free will donation on her UK Giving Page, which is linked in to her dedicated charity, the research foundation. I see that her donations are up over 2,600 pounds (sorry, don't know the html symbol). So what's that, + $5000? Amazing! I totally want to be like Frankie when I grow up!

So now that I have all these philanthropy ventures I need a place to put them. As a result, my trunk sale idea is going quite well. I'm getting the church booked for Dec. 3. My friends Tye Dye Daddy 0 and Erika are in. We're all getting pretty pumped about it. Of course I will have my books for the mission trip available. More as we get closer!