our star of the month!

Hi Everyone,

It's time to announce our star for November, and the winner is...

sen_ichi_rei, aka the Yello Hobbit, aka Rachel :)

This lady is a great crafter who offered, of her own volition, to contribute the prizes for our November drawing. And what gorgeous give-aways she's offering!!

Thank you, Rachel. I appreciate it very much, and I know we all do too :)

Hey everyone!

Well, here we are, the middle of November, and it feels like late August. I can't figure out this weather! Anyway, despite what the weather is making me think, we are heading towards the holiday season, and we are heading towards the end of 2009.

I know that 2009 is a year that many of us will not look back on with kindness, but I hope you all realize how special that makes the fact that we still were able to do so much as a group this year. You really are awesome.

Now, I do have a little goal that I'd like to toss out there just for fun. Right now our tally is at 2,429 items. Do you think we can hit 3,000 by the end of the year? It's a tall order, especially if you are doing a lot of crafting for the holidays, but let's see what we can do.

Have a great rest of the weekend! :)

Got Blankets?

Hey folks,

A friend of a friend of mine is collecting blankets here in my hometown for refugees -- drive will last till 11/29.

If you're interested, let me know!

Thanks :)

Also, Sandy has volunteered to create a blog that would just be an information source. We'd like to emphasize charities that you (our membership) is involved in. For example, Sandy's Bridge Project, Robyn's 100 hats work, Ninja's Preemie drive, etc. We're thinking email addresses so that folks can contact you for your address. If you want to create an email specifically for your charity so that you aren't publishing your personal email address, that's fine.

The blog that Sandy would create would be linked to all of our communities. This also might inspire some of you to create your own blogs for your drives like our friend Amy over at Warm Up Winchester!

feedback, again, welcome and desired! :)

A change of plans

Although there was not a lot of debate about having a "pet" charity for 2010, the arguments against it were extremely compelling. The best argument for having a single charity to concentrate on is Zort's point -- it gives you time to plan and work on things like outfits, etc.

The arguments against having a pet charity included the fact that a lot of people wouldn't feel able to concentrate so much just on one charity because there are so many great ones out there. Holding on to items to make one big donation might mean missing important deadlines.

I would like to try something new that I think might be the best of all of these opportunities. I'd like someone to create a single place where all of the information about charities we donate to could be found. They'll all be listed. They'll be linked to from all of our communities. I'm thinking maybe a separate blog, a single web page -- something easy but accessible. I thought that our Yahoo Groups page could help with this but I am not sure how many people go there -- and since you need to be a member it's not as accessible as I'd like.

I'm very open to suggestions as to what charities should go on this list and how this database could be made accessible to everyone. I'm also thinking that maybe some of the charities could incorporate their logos or links back to their website -- just thinking out loud here.

Please discuss! :)

Welcome, November!

First things first. It's hat hat shaky shaky time!

And our winner of the October contest is....Cienna2000!

Let me know what you would like to have sent to you! Congratulations!

In other news, today is the first day you can submit entries for what you would like our pet project to be in 2010. Entries accepted till 11/15. Around that time, I'll post all of the entries as a reminder. Votes will be sent to me in lieu of public polling.

Reminder again -- just because we're going to have a single pet project does not mean you have to donate to that organization at all or a ton. In fact, if someone wants to be in charge of picking causes for each month, that is fine. The single organization will just get all of our donations at once, around the holiday time :)

Speaking of monthly causes, November is all about boys! JezebelSF told me last year that the shelter that she donates our stuff to really needs boy stuff - -apparently crafters make girl stuff a lot more often. So November is the time to get away from those pinks and purples! If you don't have Jezebel's address, please message me.

I think that's everything! Let me know if you have any questions, concerns, etc. :)

since we had no major objections

I am pleased to announce that beginning November 1st, people can post the charity they would like us to focus on next year.

I know some folks noted that there are a ton of charities they like to give to -- that is perfectly awesome! I'm not going to count numbers differently or anything like that. It'll just be neat (I think) to tally at the end of the year how many items we as a group gave to a specific charity. I like gathering things :)

So! If you know of someone that runs a charity and you think they could benefit from being our pet next year have them post. Entries till November 15th (I'll cross-post so everyone sees everything). Email me your votes till Turkey Day, and the winner will be announced the first week of December!

Thanks, everybody :)

Proposed Plan for 2010

Hi folks,

I'm cross-posting this everywhere so hopefully you see it and feel free to converse!

I have been thinking long and hard about Homespun Helpers and next year, and here is what I have come up with.

1) Instead of having a charity a month, I'd like to choose a single place to focus our work. Now, this does not mean you HAVE to make stuff for that charity, but Zort and other folks have pointed out, for example, that making outfits over just a month is really hard to do. If we're all working on a single goal as a group (in addition to whatever you want to do as individuals) we'll be able to really make a huge impact on that group and there will be more time to make really nifty things.

Let me reiterate - you will NOT have to make things at all or in any volume for the charity we choose. You can still do whatever you want. But for folks who want to participate, those items will all be donated at one time around the holidays next year.

If you suggest a place to donate, make sure you'll have a means to store up several months worth of stuff so it can all be given at the same time! :)

2) In order to choose the 2010 cause, I'd like to open up a contest beginning November 1st and ending November 15th. Submit your cause and explain why you'd like to be able to give that shelter, city, whatever a huge donation at this time next year. People will contact me privately to vote and I'll announce the winner.

3) Once we've announced the winner, I'll set a goal. I'd like to ask people who may not be involved in our organization to pledge to make a donation to the American Cancer Society if we hit our mark.

4) I'm thinking we'll still continue with our monthly drawing, one item, one entry.

5) We'll still have stars of the month.

6) We'll have our Summer contest that will begin around Memorial Day and end around Labor Day.

Any thoughts? Let me know!

And I'd still LOVE to have a volunteer to help me keep various sites updated -- it's just too much for me to do now! Most especially, I'd love help in keeping our Blogspot site updated and active because that is where traffic gets driven from places like Facebook and Twitter.

Lend me your thoughts, fellow countrymen (and non-countrymen!) :)