ballerina bear has a new home

I'm a little surprised at the thrill I'm feeling to get the good news! Ballerina Bear, our first Toy Society drop, has found a home. The Toy Society blog posted this message from her new family this morning:

We found the pretty bear @ the Welcome Center;
she now lives in Calvert County Maryland w/a 5yr little girl named Megan.

Hooray! I can't wait to do it again.

mission accomplished

Last weekend, VB, VG and I completed our first "mission" for the Toy Society -- we left a handknit Ballerina Teddy bear toy at a Welcome Center on I-75 near the Tennessee-Georgia border. It was all very covert and exciting, especially now that I see we are officially Drop #353, and as far as I know, the first in Georgia (either USA or the Republic of). I can't wait to see who found her. I hope they contact the site to let everyone know.

The teddy is knit from Bernat Cashmere (boo hoo, I think it's been discontinued). The pink was left over from a hat I knit for VG, and the brown was a ball of what my mom (not from Louisiana) likes to call lagniappe -- I bought a ball of pink from someone on eBay, but got the brown in a mailing mixup instead. The seller graciously let me keep the brown, and sent the pink too.

Ballerina Teddy is from the Mother Bear Project pattern, which you can buy from the website for $5. It's also included in a lovely little book called Knitting for Peace: Make the World a Better Place One Stitch at a Time. The book has information about many different organizations helping people around the world, and patterns for charity knitting projects helpful to the organization, such as prayer shawls, afghans, or warm sweaters for children. The Mother Bear Project gives donated handknit teddy bears to children in emerging countries whose lives have been affected by HIV/AIDS.

Thanks to Amy at badskirt, who linked me over to the Toy Society.

Have you ever done a charity craft project? What did you make and how was it used?

and the winner is . . .

Cristin!! I am sending an e-mail, but if you are checking, please send me your mailing info.

Here's how I got the winner -- since nobody entered who is in Central Asia right now, I gave one extra entry to Melissa, who is moving to an unspecified country in Central Asia in December. There were a total of 57 entries, and of all things, the random number generator came up with #2.

I have the very best intentions of putting the prize bib in the mail on June 3 (tomorrow) but I absolutely promise it'll be flying to Christin by the weekend.

Thanks so much to everyone who commented. This was fun, and I hope to hear from you again.

Prize-winning chicken photo by Kate Brown -
Creative Commons licensed photo from Flickr



Late Breaking News --

Christin says:

Awesome! The bib is gorgeous!! My little guy is 7 months old and he will certainly put this to good use:)

As for the something about me...I am a 27 year old SAHM to a 3 year old girl and her little brother and we live near Austin TX. I love blog hopping and attempting anything crafty in my "spare" time:) Thanks so much for hosting this giveaway!!

Thanks again to everyone who participated!

last days for giveaway, and a fat quarter swap to share

I know that the Sew, Mama, Sew May giveaway has officially ended, but since I am often pushing deadlines to the limit (yes, on Saturday I did discover a credit card bill due Saturday -- thank heaven for online bill-pay!), I'm giving everyone an extra day, closing mine tonight. I'll do the random number thing on Tuesday morning. Jump down to the next post to comment and enter. Thanks to everyone who has visited here and commented. Double thanks to the wonderful visitors who browsed around and read other posts, and who visited my Etsy shop. Your comments make my day :-)

Personally, I can't wait to find out if I've won anything. There are SO many talented and creative folks out there, and because of this giveaway I've found lots of new sites to keep up with.

One of my new sites to follow, Two Hippos, is having a Fat Quarter Swap! You have until June 3 to sign up to swap either 2 or 4 fat quarters, so head on over and get the full info.

I participated in Sew, Mama, Sew's winter fattie swap, and it was a lot of fun. I sent out several fattie Qs of favorite patterns, and got some really neat pieces in return. A couple were just perfect for projects I already had underway. How lucky is that? It's a fun and easy way to reach out and connect with other crafty cloth people. Thank you, Two Hippos, for sponsoring a Summer Swap.