Well happy holidays!

Regardless of your creed or where you are, the beginning of December signals a time for celebration. Even if it's just because the year is almost over, it seems like there is a general sense of excitement.

I am excited that we, if you can believe it, are nearing a very successful, obstacle-ridden third year of existence. Boy, that seems hard to believe!

You all are among the folks I felt thankful for yesterday, as I do every day, really. I just usually don't stuff my face after saying thanks :)

Hope you are all well. Round of hugs on me!

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. :)