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!

Headin' back to Winnipeg!

So happy - got word today we received the grant we hoped for from the Youth in Mission branch of the Pres Church of Canada - God love 'em!

Some well wishers of GoodYarns may know of our loyalty to Winnipeg Inner City Missions since coordinating a youth humanitarian trip there last year to help with WICM's programs.

The bonds built were powerfully strong, and all felt a deep compulsion to return.

So we've developed a proposal for doing it completely on the cheap, but it relied heavily on getting this grant from YIM/PCC.

It wasn't a shoe-in that we would get it since naturally YIM/PCC wants others to have the experience.

With a 3 day road trip on either end, vs our previous 2 hr flight, it's a no brainer this will be a different experience.

So we have fresh wind in our sail, new resolve to get out there and sell our book, etc. All participants are so looking forward to catching up with new/old friends next summer!

Thanks so much YIM/PCC!!!

Gotta love 100 Mile Finds!

Nice little ego boost found in my inbox this morning - featured on 100MileFinds blog for last minute Halloween dress up ideas! Gotta love 100MileFinds!

Find the blog entry HERE.

Christmas gift idea from Kevin Knight in Cambodia

We've long been admirers of Bill McKibben's 100 Dollar Holiday. Now that most of our kids are out of the piles of toys phase, we're in a good place to hear and act on messages like this one from a grade school buddy of mine, Kevin Knight, who is working with a relocated impoverished community at the foot of Oudong Mountain in Cambodia. Read Kevin's latest blog entry - much food for thought on Christmas giving...

Kevin's Christmas message

fresh ink - new book!

Well it's always nice to add some fresh ink to the GoodYarns inventory, and this week we've done it. Our new fundraising book is hot off the presses - it's to raise money for a teen humanitarian trip helping with the programs of our favourite organization, Winnipeg Inner City Missions.

I dashed off a little story, partly in fun last fall, but it turned out to be fairly popular. And as it puts a spotlight on WICM, I thought it was just the right piece to turn into the cornerstone fundraising project for our next visit.

It's called, The Golden Acorn Project, and features a little girl named Junebug. She's named for the mom of the grade school friend that I kabitz with on FB, an animal lover who engendered this clearly profoundly in her own daughters, one a vet and one the ED of Boston Terrier Rescue - gave a suggestion on what Benny and I should do with all the acorns we had collected.

I've created an online order and info page. It's published thru Createspace - I'm really pleased with the 24 page, 4-colour book, pretty professional looking. The author copies are really cheap - way cheaper than my first run done at a local print shop. Tho I wanted to shop local, unit costs per book were $9 a copy for 100 copies. Thru CS, author copies were $3.65 (with ProPlan upgrade). Shipping from Texas costs a bit, but bumps the unit cost to a whopping $4.95 ea, so still cheaper this way. I make almost $15 a book for the cause rather than $11. Plus the added distribution channels of Amazon +. And the book looks better done than the quaint plastic coil bound version of first print run.

Anyway, just wanted to share from a creator's point of view. We have some great ideas for the launch. Benny and I were out collecting acorns yet - a feature of the launch will be to create the golden acorn necklace Junebug wears at the end of the book. Thinking gold acrylic paint, cord and some variation on needlefelted nut.

For your reference, here's the link to the order/info page:

http://web.me.com/lisadmckenzie/Golden_Acorn_Book/Order_Golden_Acorn.html

I may even re-order some copies of our fundraising book for the launch. Could make us another $500!

For fun, here's the link to the book on Amazon. Altho I did subscribe to Look inside, I also uploaded my own pages. Wanted people to be able to see more of the illustrations than leave that to chance. Plus uploading customer files let me make notes, which I found helpful:

http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Acorn-Project-not-just-children/dp/146636890X/ref=cm_cmu_pg__header

Hope this helps some of you out there contemplating fundraising projects!

Cute little shop in the Junction - Kid Culture

Another terrific spin off from 100 mile finds - received a msg from Clare, who has opened a sweet little kids shop in the Junction neighbourhood of Toronto - called Kid Culture. Clare has taken some of my HP knits on commission, so friends if you want to see the pieces live and in person, check out Kid Culture. Some of my critters are there - Hegwig, Scabbers, Pidwidgeon, Crookshank - along with lots of burgundy and gold striped items - scarf, tie, tam, pom pom beanie, fingerless gloves and more. Check out the pic Clare sent of the HP display - looks awesome. Thanks so much Clare!