I’m changing the focus of the Donors Choose yarn contest, at least for a while. The kids in the Bronx will get by okay without learning how to knit, I believe Katrina is a bigger challenge.
I read a post from a former colleague of mine,
Donors Choose is putting all general funds toward Katrina proposals for the next week, and that strikes me as a good use of time and money. So donate, probably get some yarn, definitely help a kid.
Handcrafters across the internet are donating their goods for sale, with all proceeds going to the Red Cross Hurricane relief. I’m going to go through my stuff and see what wear with style items might be good to donate. They’ve already raised about two thousand bucks.
It’s all gathered in one place for your convenience. There’s some gorgeous stuff here – neat jewelry, clothing, purses, stuffed animals, and… well, more cool things than I can count! So shop! Buy quirky, cool accessories and help hurricane victims!
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=3146
My daughter was eating a snack, and I asked her to clean up after herself. She went into the kitchen, but didn’t throw away a paper towel that had a dab of applesauce on it. Instead, she brought it back to me, clearly wanting me to dispose of it personally.
Me: “You can throw that away.”
Her: “No, I shall not!”
Her use of “shall” in conversation cracks me up. It’s like she’s doing Shakespeare. Today’s play: “As I Like It.”
Someone in the knitting community posted a link to a Diesel Sweeties comic. I read Diesel Sweeties intermittently, so I’m glad someone pointed it out. High-larious, at least to me!
http://www.dieselsweeties.com/archive.php?s=1302
Three weddings in the last two weeks, plus alterations last night and definitely again this weekend and probably later in the week…
It was a lot easier to do night owl Dragonrealms work until 1am when I didn’t have a child jumping on my bed every morning promptly at 6am.
On the up side, I’ve gotten my Dragonrealms inbox down from 92 e-mails to 52. I’m getting caught up again, just very slowly.
Some folks asked for this recipe, so here it is. I can’t claim this is healthy, but it’s easy as can be. If you’ve got fresh summer berries in season, MAN is this good.
Blackberry Coffee Cake
1/2 c butter
2 cups self-rising flour
2 cups white sugar
2 cups milk (I use lowfat or skim)
4 cups blackberries
* Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Once oven is preheated, melt butter in a 9×13 inch baking pan.
* In a medium bowl, stir together flour, sugar, and milk. Batter will be slightly lumpy. Pour mixture on top of melted butter in baking pan. Do not mix butter and mixture together.
* Drop blackberries into batter. If more crust is desired, add fewer blackberries. Bake in preheated oven for 50 minutes or until golden brown.
(If you do not have self-rising flour, add 1t salt and 2t baking powder to 2 cups of white flour to achieve same effect.)
Okay, I think the contest, she eez about ready to be born. I welcome any comments, questions, criticisms, etc., especially from the knitters in the group. I have a rhino-thick hide, and I’d rather make changes early than late! Please consider going clicky-click and telling me what you think!
http://www.wearwithstyle.com/contest.html
Read entry 3, then read entry 5.
snerk.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-realm-cenarioncircle&t=145812&p=1&tmp=1
With good intentions but misunderstood motives, you are a hardy, if somewhat unreliable, companion.
“I ask only for the strength to defend my people!”
Boromir is a character in the Middle-Earth universe. TheOneRing.net has his character profile.
______________
So basically, I seem okay, but let your guard down and next thing you know you’re being spirited away by orcs.
Yep, typical GM.
A while back, Sars at Tomato Nation did a contest in which she asked her readers to donate to Donors Choose in exchange for a feeling of well being… and goodies, too. I thought it was a great idea. I contacted her a few weeks ago to ask her for tips, and she was very helpful.
So, coming up in the knitting channel in LJ, I’m going to sponsor a charity raffle-type thing. People will donate to a knitting-related proposal on Donors Choose and I will offer up some nice things from my stash for donors to potentially win. I’ve got a good range of things to appeal to folks, from Jaggerspun Zephyr wool/silk laceweight yarn to Lamb’s Pride Burlyspun. Donors will forward to me the e-mail they received confirming their donation, and I will enter the donors into an Excel spreadsheet, later to pick randomly from them to see who all gets the various bits of loot. (Possible glitch – I just donated a small amount to be sure things were working as expected. When I donated for tomatonation’s contest I never got the confirmation e-mail from Donors Choose. Once again, just now, I got no confirmation e-mail. Ugh.)
I’m trying to decide what the best way to do this is. Some possibilities would include
a) donate and you are entered, no minimum required.
b) every donation of $10 or more enters you again, like purchasing raffle tickets. I could be beholden to people’s honesty, as I can’t recall offhand whether the e-mail they receive mentions the amount. However, I am a trusting person.
c) (and Sars recommends against this one because it’s a bookkeeping headache), go with a) and also let people without credit cards PayPal me and I forward the cash to Donors Choose.
I dunno. I want Donors Choose to get the most money, but there’s really something to be said for “keep it simple, stupid.” I’m mulling it over.
Thoughts on the process? If you’re a knitter, thoughts on what you might like to get? I’m assuming most people will do it because it’s a fun thing to do, and a nice way to help people – but let’s face it, swag never hurts.
The next challenge: write the challenge up in a very short way, because nobody wants to wade through a hella long post.