*****THIS AUCTION HAS ENDED*****

Let’s start this week off doing some good, shall we?

The delightful Amy from The Idea Room and Heather from Whipperberry are hosting a fundraiser for Operation Smile.  My contribution is a Jack Skellington pillow cover, that can be yours for a donation to Operation Smile.  The short version is that you leave your name and the amount of your bid in the comments on this post.  For the specifics, read on:

We as women and mothers delight in the joy of raising our families despite some of the frustrations and effort it takes.  We delight in hearing and seeing our children grow and learn, and we strive to put their needs before our own.  Their heartaches are OUR heartaches and their joy is OUR joy.  So imagine if you had a child who was beautiful and happy in everyway…but who did not have a beautiful outer physical smile to match the beauty of their inner smile?

Every three minutes a child is born with a cleft — often unable to eat, speak, socialize or smile. In some places these children are shunned and rejected. And in too many cases, their parents can’t afford to give them the surgeries they need to live a normal life.  Whereas, most of us are blessed to be living in nations and countries where we have access to basic services and healthcare for our families which is there to help us help our children to lead healthy and normal lives.

We feel that women everywhere have the same basic tendencies to nurture and care for their families and feel that automatically connects us as social beings.  A group of us wanted to be able to use this crafting/DIY community and find some way to give back to others, to be involved in something that was bigger than us and our blogs, and do something to actually make a difference in the lives of women and children who are just like us.

Operation Smile is a charity organization healing children’s smiles, one operation at a time.

Operation Smile, is more than a charity organization. They are a mobilized force of medical professionals and caring hearts who provide safe, effective reconstructive surgery for children born with facial deformities such as cleft lip and cleft palate.  Each operation costs approximately $240.

With this is mind, we created “Swap A Smile” to raise funds through an online auction of DIY and Craft Bloggers’ past projects.  We would love for you to join us in our efforts to give back to others who need help. It only takes a little bit to go a long way. Our goal is to be able to give at least 5 children new smiles and help them to live the life they weren’t meant to live.

image source

We reached out to some various bloggers and asked them to help us out with and unique charity auction to raise funds in hopes to be able to help a few children by giving them a smile.Each of these bloggers have generously agreed to auction off an item that they have made recently and shared with their readers on their individual websites.  Below you will see a list of all of the items that are being auctioned off.  You can access each item by clicking on the link or the image and you will be redirected to that persons site and the item that they are auctioning off. 

The auction will begin immediately and will end on Friday, October 14 at 12:00 pm PST.  Each item has been assigned a shipping cost that will be added to the highest bidding price.  The item will go to the highest bidder.   You can bid on an item by leaving a comment on the individual’s post leaving us your name and the price you are bidding.

If you are not interested in bidding, but would still like to help out, we have also made it so that you can donate any amount to help us out with this great cause!  Every little bit helps!

We will be writing a follow up post and providing everyone with a screen shot of the PayPal account and keep you updated on our progress so you can be sure that your money is really going to support this cause. 

image source

For more information regarding Operation Smile and their mission statement and goals you can read about them on their site OperationSmile.Org.

Crap I’ve Made

$4 will automatically be added to the cost of this item for shipping/packaging costs

To bid on this item, leave a comment ON THIS POST with your first name and your bid amount.

Check out all the other fab blogs participating:

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We’re making over Macy’s room, inspired by these delightful prints from The Handmade Home.

Our search for bedding was not going well (how come there’s no awesome bedding in twin size?), so I’m sewing.

I’ve got 7 rows completed thus far.

I really have no idea what I’m doing.

Like, once I have the top pieced, what do I do next?

Sometimes I don’t think things all the way through before I jump into them…

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They’re baaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

You know ‘em.

You love ‘em.

You give ‘em your money a couple of times a week because the deals are so fabulous.  (Is that just me?)

It’s Pick Your Plum!

Before we get to the free crap (and my bad jokes), I want to show you what their deal of the day is today:

Stamps that are perfect for holiday neighbor gift tags and for the rest of the year, too.

Oh, hey…check out that one on the bottom left.

SCORE!

Click on over and buy yours before they’re gone, and then come back for the rest of the post.  I’ll wait.

If you’re not already familiar with Pick Your Plum, let me give you the low down.  Every morning at 7 am MST, they post a new deal.  It’s some sort of crafty fabulousness and it’s always a great price.  Sometimes it’s vinyl…

sometimes it’s a set of owl charms…

sometimes it’s earrings…

and sometimes it’s nut cups.

Speaking of nut cups…have we discussed the fact that I had to take one of my children to buy a, uh, you know…athletic supporter because BC was out of town?  And that I was reading packages whilst the poor kid was hiding on another aisle?  And then I may have had to Google to see which direction things went?  There’s an eHow article, in case you ever need to know.  Just sayin’…  And yes we are saving for therapy.  Thanks for asking!

Where was I?  Oh yeah.  The free stuff.

Pick Your Plum.com is giving a 3 winners each a set of nut cups (valued at $40, 200 cups of goodness, 50 of each color)!

Did you know you can bake cupcakes or muffins in them?  Fun, right?

OPTIONS FOR ENTERING, do as many or as few as you like, leave a separate comment ON THIS POST on the blog (not on Facebook or in response to your email subscription) for each one:

1 – Get on the Pick Your Plum  email list to be the first to find out what the daily deal is.

2 – Like the Pick Your Plum  FB page.

3 – Share something you’ve done/said to your children that will probably require them to get therapy.

4 – Name your favorite nut.

Giveaway runs through the weekend.  Ready?  Go!

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If you’re of the Mormon persuasion, you know that this weekend was General Conference, aka church on TV.  For some reason, I listen better when I’m working on something.  This Nightmare Before Christmas inspired pillow was the perfect project!

I picked up a package of precut black and white 5” squares at Hobby Lobby.  I believe the full price was $5.99, but there’s ALWAYS a coupon/sale at HobLob, so you know I didn’t pay that much.  I used 16 of the 20 squares in the pack to make my pillow background (1/4” seams).

Then, I found a Jack Skellington image and used it to sketch my applique.  (Sorry, no pattern since it’s copyrighted.)  I used a heavy canvas fabric for the white part so that the prints wouldn’t show through.  I stitched the mouth with a tight zig zag.  (Applique basics here.)

I made a simple envelope back using some black and white striped fabric from some pirate costumes I made 4 or 5 years ago.  The finished pillow cover is 18”.

Fun, right?

Did you make anything this weekend?

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My name is Char and I have a serious problem with my email inbox.

How serious?

SEVEN THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED AND FIFTY.

Anybody have a similar problem?

Give me your best tips on taming the email insanity.

Ready?

Go!

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My guest post over at Kristen Duke Photography on Sunday was the motivation I needed to finally get my crap together and complete a project I’ve been meaning to do for ages.

I saw the idea online (Google it, there are a bunch of images to inspire you) and even bought the clipboards.  But, I’m a procrastinator.  And the pictures I had up in that space were great…other than the fact they were missing a kid.

They’re also a little tame for my current style.  My old age is making me gaudy, I think.

I usually make paper cut outs in the shape of each frame and tape them to the wall to figure out my arrangement.  Since I only had 2 shapes of clipboards and I was hanging them in straight rows, I decided to try a different method this time.

Using painters tape, I taped off an area on my rug the same size as the space above my piano.

Then I laid out my clipboards and played around with the spacing until I had an arrangement I liked.

Then I measured how far from the top tape line the picture hangers would need to be placed and transferred those measurements to the wall.

The small clipboards that are hung sideways are propped up on 2 finish nails.  I used some of that white rubbery sticky stuff (that I can never thing of the name of) to stick the top corners to the wall, just in case.

I like the idea of hanging certificates and artwork and other schoolwork on the clipboards as well and I’m excited to see the pictures change as our lives change.

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You guys are familiar with Jess from Allora Handmade and Mique from 30 Handmade Days, right?  They also do the Queen Bee Market (including the one that will be SNAP! next April).  Well, a childhood friend of theirs needs help.

Miq and Jess have rounded up some delightful tutorials, printables, and patterns from many of your favorite bloggers, with ALL the proceeds going to help.  You can read more here or just go here to shop.

I didn’t here back from the original My Only Sunshine Design winner.  The new winner is Kelly.  If your name is Kelly, check your email.  You’ve got 48 hours to respond.

And, the winner of the Kona cottons bundle from Canton Village Quilt Works is Carla G.  If you’re Carla G, check your email and respond to claim your prize!

Happy Monday!

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I’m guest posting today over at Kristen Duke Photography as part of her Decorating with Portraits series.

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