Crafting hope, MLK Day and a new fabric fairy

OK, so I was a wee bit overzealous thinking my book sling was going to save the world. Keep in mind that last post was written with tears streaming down my face. I think I was also feeling a little cocky because I'd re-opened my Etsy shop last week and made three sales within a day. Since three sales is about all I can handle, I promptly put my shop back on vacation.

So no takers on the book sling, but I'm sure you've all seen what's been happening in the (wonderful, generous, big-hearted) handmade community: Craft Hope.

I learned about Craft Hope's effort for Haiti roughly five minutes after my last post. Um, yeah. It's a much more brilliant and efficient way that crafters can help the earthquake victims. Folks are donating handmade items that are being sold in a special shop on Etsy. They've raised almost $10,000 now! So I'm going to get in line over there (apparently it's quite a long line) and offer a book sling to them.

By the way, Craft Hope isn't just around because of Haiti. They regularly post ways that people can use their crafty skills to help others in need--sock monkeys for kids in a preschool burn camp, dresses for children in a Brazilian orphanage, etc.

One kind and generous (not to mention witty as heck) crafter who is donating to Craft Hope is Ari Rooney, of Buttercuppity. I wrote about Ari on Dwell Well a couple months ago.

The fabric gods must be smiling down on Spokane because Ari and her husband Michael just opened an adorable fabric shop in our downtown (also called Buttercuppity). She carries all the good stuff and her prices are quite nice, too. (She sells online, too, by the way.) The space is darling. There's free parking. She's planning a kids' and a dads' play area. Life is good.

Here are some pictures from their opening party last Friday.

That's Ari in the middle:

Since the girls came just shy of destroying the store, I let them each choose a fabric for me to make twirly skirts. Coming soon.

Speaking of the girls, check out their finished Martin Luther King mural:

We marched in Spokane's MLK celebration yesterday, a tradition we've kept up since Bo was just six months old.

The girls were very proud to carry the sign ... until their arms got tired and they made me do it. And that, of course, was right when the photojournalist from the local newspaper decided to snap a picture. So there I was on the cover of the region section this morning carrying a big ol' sign that, by that time, was starting to fall apart because of the wind. I am awesome.

Again, the talented Kathy Barbro of Art Projects for Kids is the genius behind that paint-by-number mural. And she has other designs for sale on her site.

Other than that, we're just trying to get outside more and enjoy this unseasonably warm (as in upper 30s and 40s) winter we're having. My sister-in-law and a friend invited me for a run the other day. Thankfully they didn't tell me we'd be going six miles until it was over. I never would have agreed to go. But I did. And it felt great.

I'm also making attempts to feed the family real food more often, especially after the 6 p.m. consumption of a York peppermint patty caused Magpie to stay up until 3 a.m. the other night. Um, what were we thinking? The kid weighs 30 pounds. That probably contained her annual allotment of sugar.

Take care.

Comments

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yeah for another great fabric store in spokane, whoot whoot!

Posted by: kristine hanson | January 20, 2010 at 07:24 PM

thanks for linking craft hope...i linked them and you on my own blog...love the fabric shop...i really should look into a MLK celebration here in san diego next year...what a wonderful photo of the girls carrying the sign...i still cry whenever i hear his "i have a dream" speech...it is sampled in several songs on my itunes playlist...

Posted by: denise | January 20, 2010 at 09:07 PM