Put Your Passion to Work!

If you are interested in putting your sewing, knitting, or crocheting talents to work for the good of others, I invite you to join the current “Littlest Warriors” (Project 16) at Craft Hope. We have participated in past projects and found it to be a great way to give back something creatively.  If you haven’t heard of them, please learn more about Craft Hope on their website. Jade Sims is the founder of Craft Hope, and continues to bring crafters and causes together to create items that are needed during crisis. Haiti, Birds rescued from the Oil spill, dresses for little girls in a Mexico shelter, and sock monkeys for the littlest burn victims, are just some of the successful projects at Craft Hope.

Cancer Breeds Warriors

The Littlest Warriors is their most current project, and they are asking for handmade beanies and bags for children that are facing a challenging journey with cancer. The children can carry their bags, filled with all their favorite things for their hospital visits, or treatments. You have the option to fill the bag with items that would delight any child (please use good sense, and keep safety in mind). Cute, unique, funky beanies are also desired (all sizes from babies to teens). And, don’t forget they need items for both boys and girls. It’s a great opportunity to create “stitches that count.” It doesn’t matter if you make one item, or 20, they are all needed, and wanted.

I hope that you will consider creating a special beanie or bag for a child that is so brave, and so appreciative.  The deadline is March 12, so there is still plenty of time. You can find all the information you need at Craft Hope.

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” ~ Dalai Lama

Cotton: 8 Reasons Why Organic Matters:

• NO Insecticides are used / Use of beneficial insects and luring or trapping methods
• NO Soil Depletion / use of crop rotation
• NO Herbicides /Weeds are physically removed
• NO chemically induced defoliation at harvest time/ Defoliation occurs from natural, seasonal freezing.
• No Fertilizers
• No GMO
• Uses untreated seeds
• Organic growing methods allow for healthy strong soil, which holds moisture more effectively, requires less irrigation.

Organic cotton is grown in 22 countries, India is the leading producer at 51%,  the US at 1.9%

Consumer demand for organic cotton continues to rise, due to unhealthy farming methods with conventional cotton. As the demand for organic cotton grows, prices will become more competitive, and lower. Farmers in the US  have increased their organic cotton production by 26% during 2008-09 (Ref: OTA) and the sales of organic cotton fiber increased by 10.4% during the same period of time. Retailers consume 50-60% percent of the Organic cotton market. Organic cotton plays a significant role in our health and well being, and I hope that you will make “organic cotton” a standard of your life. We welcome your thoughts and comments on this subject.

References:
OTA
Earth Talk

Note:  Just a reminder about our YouTube Channel, where you can view our tutorials.  Rachel just added a new tutorial for beginning crochet, if that is something you have been wanting to try.  Once we get the basic tutorials up, we will be adding some project tutorials.  Stay tuned, and thanks for following us!

Warmly,

The marine mammals (like dolphins & sea turtles) need us. If you can sew, knit, crochet, recycle old t-shirts, or even tie knots, you can help. Wash cloths and hand towels (made from absorbent, soft materials, like cotton) are desperately needed to help clean the animals affected by this disaster. The deadline is July 3rd, so there’s still time. Please visit Craft Hope to learn more! We are all in this together, so please pass this on.

And, if you prefer to donate something from your shop, please visit Help the Gulf Coast – a collective shop on Etsy, where 50% of the proceeds go to the National Audobon Society and the other 50% goes to Oxfam America, both of whom strongly support relief efforts on the Gulf Coast.

Since the first of the year, we have made many new friends, have been blessed with sales, and honored to take part in some good causes.  We recently upgraded our Artfire shop, and discovered some great guilds to share our journey with.  We joined three guilds that share our interests, and we have met some extremely talented, fun loving artists and crafters.  Pacific Northwest Artfire guild unites those of us that call that beautiful part of the country “home.”  Yarnies is all about the yarn, baby!  And now it gets interesting…we discovered “Plurk” and a guild called  ”AF Plurkies”, and they are a little crazy (their words, not mine, lol), but a lot of fun. Plurk is another way of linking up with friends, family or groups, etc.  What is really unique about Plurk is that you can actually carry on conversations in an organized way, with your group, friends, or family, or even have a private conversation.  It’s great for guild meetings, group discussions, or when you’re in need of feedback.

We are both currently working on new projects, and hope to share them with you very soon! Neither of us are setting any speed records, and, unfortunately, tend to have the attention span of a 2 year old, but  I’m looking forward to taking you on a journey with me, as I attempt something I have never done before.  At the very least, it should be interesting, and  a challenge for me to document my process.

We seized the opportunity to donate Valentine cards to OperationValentine, giving military families the option to share a Valentine with their loved ones.  When the earthquake in Haiti hit, we were moved to donate a valentine card to Hearts for Haiti, which, happily has sold several times.  It’s a small contribution, but it all helps, and we are glad we could do something. As a collective, great things can happen!

Another exciting thing that has happened is the “Link Love” phenomenon on Facebook, which was innocently started by Zur Designs.  It’s a link exchange that has taken off like wild fire. Please support each other by becoming fans, and posting all your handmade-related links on each other’s discussion boards. You can read more about it on Zur Designs.

We are also planning some new things in the coming weeks.  Blog it Forward, the blogger mashup, is an interesting concept, and we decided to take part.  If you are interested, you can get the details from the above link.  We are also looking into doing some craft shows this year, something we have never done, so it’s a little intimidating.  We will keep you posted on that adventure!

We hope you will keep visiting our blog, as we work hard to make it interesting and fun, with new regular features, interviews, giveaways, tutorials, and peeks into our personal worlds.  Thank you for letting us share our journey with you.

Bonnie & Rachel

I originally was led to this information through Delaney Gates’ Blog and we are so grateful that she did!

“Operation: {Valentine}” is a program that provides deployed service members with blank Valentine’s Day cards to send home to their loved ones. They are in need of cards and our community of crafters is the perfect place to shout it out! I know we have some paper masterminds and creative crafters, so let’s take a little time to give. Valentine’s Day is officially on it’s way!

You can show your love and appreciation by providing them a way to share theirs. Share the love…isn’t THAT what it’s all about?

Here’s how:

1. Design and create a Valentine’s Day or love-themed card(s) that is left blank inside. Please, no bulky and/or heavy embellishments
2. Send your card(s), along with a blank envelope(s) to: Operation Valentine, PO Box 2290, Rogers, Arkansas 72757-2290 (Please Note: Deployed servicemembers send mail home at no cost, so there is no need to add postage to the blank envelopes)
3. Please have your package postmarked by Friday, January 15, 2010
4. Are you  not crafty? That’s okay! You can still help! Leave a comment at http://delaneygates.typepad.com if you’d like to donate toward the cost of postage and/or the p.o. box.

Please help spread the word! Feel free to copy and paste the above blog post to share on your own blog, on Facebook, in an email to all of your contacts or link to it on Twitter!