Gathering, Butterflies, and Other Projects

Well, that was a lazy title wasn't it.

yes.

How's everyone doing out there?!!!

What is everyone doing?

I've been in gathering mode.  

It's like hibernating, but with gathering.

It means I look for good deals and hoard buy a bunch of stuff.

This desk is my new crafting station.  It was only 10.00 on craigslist.

yay. yay.

On the Road AGAIN to FUN-draising...Part 2

Did you see that coming..."on the road again?"  I bet you did if you've read Part 1.  If you haven't, and you'd like to, find it by clicking here.  And if you did, well, I'm going to do that thing that makes me REALLY not like reality tv, which is summarizing by pretty much repeating word for word where we left off .  It will be just like coming back from a commercial break.

In Part 1 Sara wanted to play the drums.  She decided to have a bake sale to raise the money to buy her practice drum kit.  We put her bake sale on wheels and off we went.  She was hugely successful.  This gave us an idea!

hark!

We regularly try thinking up good ideas to raise funds for Siri's medical expenses and needs.  "What if we simplify this idea by making only brownies, and do a similar type of fundraiser for Siri at the car show events and possibly a few others?" I thought.  Dion got on board at the beginning of last week, and we were off...

At the end of Part 1 there were lots of questions to be answered, and in Part 2 there will be answers, but first I cannot wait much longer to tell you the story of this cart.

In Part 1 we used this, taken from an old suitcase...

and tied a basket hamper to it, so that Sara could sell on wheels using this.

The night after Sara and I completed her fundraiser, I was having a typical fun time looking for things that are not in our budget on Craigslist.  And there they were.  Two Amish rockers.  The ad is no longer up, so I'll try recreating what I can remember here...

These chairs really wanted me to come check them out, so the following day we drove around the corner to the estate sale.  They were definitely project chairs, and in my opinion, overpriced, but I have wanted Amish rockers for such a very long time.  Probably because my grandparents were Amish, so it is kinda a part of who I am.  This is also why I am super good at eating things like whoopie pies, cookies, and all things baked with flour and sugar...see how this works? part of who I am. This is also why when I find a fitting and comfortable piece of clothing, I'd rather buy 10 of that shirt or whatever it is, and wear it every day.  This is also why I don't shower wish I didn't have to shower. This is also why for a very long time I only thought of Intercourse as a town in Pennsylvania where my mother grew up, and where we visited our Amish relatives. This is also why I don't wear underwear.  I'm kidding. That's a myth.  Also, I do wear underwear.  One time I wrote a song about underwear.

Any. way.  These chairs spoke to my Amishness, and just as my relatives would do, I got a better deal.  Actually, my relatives would make the chairs themselves. They would sell them in their wood shop beside their house in Intercourse, and make a lot of money.  See, Intercourse kept developing up around their house into what is now an Amish amusement park of sorts.  The tourist masses come to learn about the Amish.  They ask questions like, "Do you wear underwear?"  My relatives make and sell their things to the tourists who ask the questions of this kind.

Here is a picture of husband Dion, baby Sara, and myself, dressed up in Ohio Amish clothes for an Amish-like dinner.  The covering and clothing patterns are different in PA.  And Dion would have a beard.  Sara's covering is correct.  It was from one of those Amish baby dolls sold to tourists, this one made by my great aunt.  They look like real babies and wear Amish clothes.  Actually, the dolls that Amish girls have do not have faces.  It is against the rules.  They are fabric dolls without faces.  But baby Sara is a real baby.  Baby Sara has a face.

We would be good Amish.

So there we were at the estate sale, when I saw it...a dolly with a yellow handle.  I figured if we're going to pull off our up-coming car show fundraiser successfully, we would need to go bigger than Sara's band fundraiser.  THIS was the answer!  I saw it in my head.  THIS was it!!

I began building the idea, using the dolly as a base, and these wire cube things...found 2 of these containers full of them last year at a yard sale for only 5 dollars.

and made this.

Then I made the top, using two types of yard sale fabric, and a fun green and yellow ribbon.  I used this yogurt lid for the pattern.  It had a little bit of yogurt on it...when I get an idea, there's no stopping for things like cleaning yogurt off of the lid that I must use in that moment. 

My inspiration for this cart was the yellow handle on the dolly, and the idea of a bright, fun, and cheery lemonade stand on wheels.

Then I tied a cut piece of fabric around the cart.

Those blue wavy things are classroom bulletin borders sold at The Dollar Tree.  I added velcro to the ends. Now they wrap around and attach over the wires, making them easy to take on and off.  They keep the product from falling out.  This cart can hold 120 of the 6 inch square, plastic, clam shell containers!  It's really not that large, so it was maybe brilliant.  Using the 6 inch containers, that's 260 brownies.

I cut out large and small felt flowers, leaves, and hearts and hot glued them to the cut fabric ribbon.  The fabric ribbon of flowers can be untied and removed.

Then another fabric ribbon was cut and tied around the cart, and used to begin a rag skirt.  A rag skirt is when you cut lots and lots of strips of fabric and tie them to the top.  This project took a ridiculously long time to finish, only because I tend to be a perfectionist.  I would not have needed to be so particular with it. But I was, and completing the cart took an embarrassing three days.

Then I added two 8x10 photos of Siri, using cardboard, two sleeve protectors, and more yard sale fabric.  DONE!!!

front:

back:

This cart has potential.  Items could be hung off the sides, or attached to the top.  The skirt hides what could be anything on the bottom.  And the wire cubes lift off of the dolly as a unit. Or the top can be removed, making it smaller. 

We're parking it in Siri's room.  It's perfect for her books on the top, diapers/wipes in the middle, and extra blankets on the bottom.  Love how it worked out.  Today we bought the matching dolly to make another.  Here's a basket for Dion and Sara to keep snacks and waters.

When the cart was finished, I began baking and packaging.  I found great joy in packaging these brownies, knowing that every buyer would be giving a donation, probably more out of compassion than the immediate desire for a freshly baked, chocolate fudge brownie.  They certainly were put together with love.  Siri Love. Siri's middle name is Love, so when others demonstrate their love to her, we call it Siri Love.

These brownies are in a brownie prison...

And now the answers to Part 1 questions....

Can they sell a mess of brownies?  yes we did.  all 486 of them.  We bought out three stores, including Walmart.

Will they be baked in time?  yes.

Can they get through this challenge without arguing   (who? us?)?

Yes!  and if we wouldn't have, I wouldn't have brought it up.

Will there be enough containers?

We ran out of containers, but then on Friday morning husband Dion found some more.  We had just enough.

Will the weather cooperate? 

Kinda sorta not really. Dion planned to take off of work Friday night, when most of the car-loving folk come into town, but the weather forecast said "no deal due to rain".  So he made a last-minute executive sales decision to get off work Thursday night and take out the brownies that were made. 

No problem right?  Well, a little bit of a problem, since the cart was ready to go, but the plan was to bake most of the inventory that night...so less than half of the brownies were ready.  

Oh. And then as we were loading up, it began to pour. THURSDAY!  (weather forecast said "clear") 

After the rain slowed up, he and Sara went out to sell the brownies that we did have, to the Thursday night not-as-many-people crowd.

He took my cart apart!!!  What husband Dion??!!  I put SO MUCH time into this plan, and now you are rushing it?!! And now you are taking off from work??!  And now you are breaking my beloved cart??!  

sad

But we did not argue.  We went with it.  We were doing our best, and taking some risks, and when one does one's best and takes some risks, there must be grace and flexibility.

Friday night came and the weather was PERFECT (so much for rain).  So, husband Dion made another executive sales decision to once again take off work. This began to worry me, since we are trying to raise money, not loose money.  But all the brownies were ready to go, and the cart was fixed and better than ever, so we all went out as a family.  A few hours later, we sold out to a crowd of amazingly kind, 
car-loving folk, who were so very generous to our family.  Our last sale was to a group of men sitting on and around a golf cart by the old cars.  They said, "We will take all you have."  That was 80 brownies!!  They gave a generous donation.

How many brownies does husband Dion want her to make next time? Will they become brownie makers and sellers for the rest of their middle-aged lives?

We did so well after all expenses were paid, that Husband Dion now sees a little bit of wisdom in my ways.  We hope to try the next two car shows in the spring, but hopefully a few other venues in the meantime as well.  For our next "try again" in the making, he has asked for 120 brownies. No problem. 

The very last batch of brownies was finished up on Thursday night at 5:30AM.  I was mixing up that batch, when I figured out it would be much more efficient to use these two larger than life pans, instead of the little eight x eights I had been using all week.

Live and learn.  The memories and lessons of this experience may last us a lifetime, but I'm pretty sure the brownie sticky/crumbs will too.  There was brownie sticky/crumbs ev-er-y-where.  Sticking to the bottoms of our feet. stick. stick. stick. sticky here. sticky there. sticky everywhere.  

Here we are rocking on our Amish rockers...age 90 and 92...

How are you making your today world beautiful?

Can She Sell an Apple Pie Billy Boy?...On the Road to FUN-draising...Part 1

  This is the story of a little girl who wanted to play the drums.  Her mother would not let her play the drums.  The drums were too loud.  The drums were too big.  Boys played the drums.  So although this little girl still had the chance to be in band, she was doomed to life with a flute...a small, light, wind instrument.  Indeed...the girl felt lightheaded and winded when she played it. She was sad. 

A few years later, the beginning of her 7th grade year I believe, she became sure that becoming an average or even a somewhat-less-than-average flautist didn't seem to be in her destiny.  Demoted to banner carrier and later band manager,  she carried flags during parades, and ran out onto the football field, running like a wanna be professional tennis ball retriever...(those guys move like monkeys) to place the correct flags before the silk squad at the correct times, and then collect them again before the next song.  She didn't like to tuck her shirt in, but band managers tucked their shirts in. She did get to march beside the drummers and their drummings.  She also got to sit with her band friends and watch her football-playing friends play at Friday night football games, and well, that even makes tucking a shirt in worthwhile.  

Flash forward twenty some years later. 

don't be scared...it's only imaginary and there are no explanation marks

 The little girl had grown up, and now she had her own little, band-entering aged girl.  This child narrowed down her instrument preference to two...the clarinet or the drums.  The mother, recalling her own missed childhood opportunities, determined not to interfere with her daughter's instrument-playing decisions.  And so then, you can imagine the happiness that welled up within her motherly self when the daughter independently chose to live out her mother's dreams become a girl drummer.

But now.  How to we go about this?  Do we encourage this new thing that everybody else is doing by buying her the needed practice drum set?  (oh.  right.  this story is about us)  It was 95 dollars, much less upfront cost than the other instruments (sigh of relief)...but could this be an opportunity to teach the lesson of investment and responsibility?  Why yes.  That is what this could be.

The daughter had 24 hours to write out her reasons for wanting to join band.  She also wrote out her reasons for her instrument choice.  Then she proposed to her parents, who were presenting a united front, a few of her ideas on how to go about buying this drum kit set that was such a must have, and yet has only been pulled out of its bag once this week.

One of those ideas was pulling off a bake sale.  Now it just so happened that the coming weekend was the first of two weekends this fall for a huge car show here locally.  These two weekends, as well as two more in the spring, bring lots and lots of car-loving people and their colorfully-happy cars to our area.  Once they arrive, they park the vehicles along the main road, and out come the lawn chairs.  There they sit, directed towards the road, or they walk up and down the street, socializing and looking at one another's cars.  Some of the cars are for sale.  Some work on their cars while they're there.  Imagine a huge, long parade with an anticipating audience lined up and ready.  That's what it's like, but there's no parade.  Sure, many of these cars are also driven around, so you do see some pass by when they're not parked , but mostly the cars are parked and folks just sit lined up on lawn chairs along the road.

  

This gave us an idea...

What if we take our baked goods to them?!!  What if we put our baked goods on wheels, and travel up and down the line of cars and people, and Sara can ask them if they'd like a water or something to eat.  Brilliant, right?  Right.  It really really was.  More brilliant than we could have imagined at the time.  So, we got to work making apple pies...

...and these cute packages of animal crackers and lemon cookies. Super easy and fast to put together. Apple pies, not so much. 

 For Sara's cart, I used a laundry basket after removing the lining.  Then I took an old, worn suitcase/ bag and removed the handle/wheels.  The basket was attached to the suitcase wheels with twine.  Easy enough.  The crackers and cookies on top were also attached with twine, so we could open and close the lid, without them falling off.  They added fun and color to Sara's business start up.

 We carefully loaded her cart up with brownies, pies, and water bottles.

 Sara added fun and color simply by being her Sara self.  I made a few extra felt flowers for her headband, and we had felt, apple name tags.

 She picked out this light blue, reversible apron from my vintage collection, so I chose the pink matching one.

Happy with this excuse to wear vintage aprons and flowers in our hair,

off we went to hit the road together.

 In no time at all, she charmed those men with her "excuse me...I'm working towards buying a drum kit, and was wondering if you would like some apple pie", and with each sale, she grew a little more confident asserting herself.  I walked alongside of her, offered some guidance, but then let her do her thing. 

She was fabulous, sold out quickly, paid back her parent-lenders 90 dollars to cover supplies, bought her drum kit, and still had cash left over for something fun, like buying her and her mother some ice cream. (I may have "offered some guidance" in that direction.)  Pretty sure if she were selling dirty, stinky sneakers, those men would have bought them from her.

She did work very hard.  It was one of the hottest, most humid days of the summer.  We took small breaks here and there, but the promise of an ice cream stop and a few short, motherly pep talks saw her through to a successful sell out.

  With it being such a successful day, I began to think....

(again)

We are regularly looking for good ideas to raise funds for Siri's medical expenses and needs.  Simple is best.  "What if we simplify this idea by making only brownies, and do a similar type of fundraiser for Siri at the car show events and possibly a few others?" I pondered. We would need to go bigger...meaning more product.  At the beginning of the week, husband Dion came on board.  If I would make 486 brownies, he would sell them at the second car show (this past weekend).  

So this past week was spent accumulating supplies, designing simple packaging, eating baking lots and lots of brownies, and designing a larger, more functional cart that I now love in the way we humans love ice cream, or when our favorite sci fi is renewed for a second or third season...because that rarely happens, or how little puppies wobble when they walk...or how over 9 million of us love watching this little puppy topple over this equally cute baby boy and make him cry...

If you'd like to read more about how the bigger cart and fundraiser ideas turned out (spoiler alert: amazing), hopefully I'll have the sequel, On the Road AGAIN to FUN-draising...Part 2 up in a few days.  Can they sell a mess of brownies?  Will they be baked in time?  Can they make it through this challenge without arguing (who? us?)? Plus, will there be enough containers? Will the weather cooperate? (kinda sorta)...How many brownies does husband Dion want her to make next time?  Will they become brownie makers and sellers for the rest of their middle-aged lives?...you know, the kind of questions you may not be able to stop thinking about until they're answered...

There will be photos of how a yellow-handled dolly estate sale find, combined with a few yards of yard sale fabric, and this yard sale find...

became this...

(ahhh!..I couldn't wait)

In the meantime, this is what I turned our house into last week...

How are you making your today world beautiful?