craft hope

For those of you making scarves for the Orphan Foundation, the amazing Vickie Howell has created a tutorial to help you with the star stitch.

Pattern for the scarf can be found in the sidebar. It’s a downloadable pdf.  There’s still time to make a scarf, deadline is February 14th.

Good morning!

Sarah again. I’m writing to you today from the happy place of having posted most items and notified shippers of nearly all sales. I can’t tell you how good that feels after days of having hundreds of unread emails full of generous offers and even more notifications of excited buyers. As I look back over the last several days, the picture of a snake eating an elephant keeps coming to mind – where the snake thinks it is eating the elephant’s tail, discovers it is consuming the whole elephant, and slowly works back down to the trunk. I am happy to announce that we have made our way to the trunk of the elephant. There are still some great things in the shop. If you’re all shopped out, then please pass the word to your friends, your neighbors, your Facebook and Twitter networks. We’d love to see all items sold. We have a few more treasure to add over the next few days, so keep paying attention!

I think my kids are pretty excited that I’m doing things like making dinner again (or not, since last night’s dinner was not a big hit). Working on the Craft Hope store has been a joy and an incredibly rewarding experience,  but I’m ready to get back to making things myself! Once we open the new version of the shop, we will be able to maintain it and still have lives. Systems are a good thing, people. Never forget it like we did in all of our excitement and desire to help right NOW.

Some housekeeping notes:

1. I am finishing up the sale notifications from the last 3 days that were difficult for my lovely volunteer – my mother – to locate, despite her organized, and persistent nature. If you are a donating seller and you have not heard from me regarding a sale, please contact me at sarah (at) crafthope.com rather than by leaving a comment on the blog. I will have your information to you quickly. I am also auditing the Etsy sales data and verifying that each item has an accompanying notice to the donating seller. Please communicate with your buyers when you ship the item so they know their order has been processed. You have all been so generous in giving of your talents and time and I can’t thank you enough.

2. Buyers – please email me if you have not had contact with the selling donor by the end of this week (January 30). Most items should be shipped by tomorrow, and I know that hundreds of them are already out the door. If you have not received a PDF pattern or printable that you purchased, then please contact me immediately at sarah (at) crafthope.com so I can make that happen for you. Leaving feedback at http://crafthope.etsy.com is a very helpful way of letting us know that you have received your item. Also, as Paypal reviews our account (which they are doing due to the sudden high volume) they do check feedback as proof that buyers are receiving items. If you receive the wrong item or the wrong quantity of items, please email me immediately so I can track down the right item and make sure everyone has what they ordered. In the event that your item simply does not show up, then your money will be refunded. Mishaps, unfortunately, are inevitable with this volume of sales and number of sellers. I’m asking in advance for your patience and understanding as we sort through whatever problems may arise. Thank you all for your purchases and your understanding as we work through this process.

3. As of yesterday, we have raised over $27,000 for Doctors Without Borders. I am working with them and Paypal to efficiently transfer the funds to them in the next few days. I am still astonished at what we have all accomplished together. We should never ever underestimate the power of the crafting community to make things happen.

Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all that you have done. We could never have done it without all of your enthusiastic support and giving and love.

Sarah

One of the things I love about the Craft Hope community is the giving nature of everyone involved. You give your time, your handmade items, and your love. You carefully craft handwritten tags to accompany your gifts. You spend hours, after the children have gone to bed, working on your donations. Finishing one last thing. You go through your yarn stash. You find just the right fabric. You pull items from your own Etsy shop. To help others.

Every little thing makes a difference. It is that sweet comment, posting our button on your site, and twittering about our effort. You are spreading the word. You are showing the world you care. And that matters.

Last summer, we did a project (project 3) to benefit the Miracle Foundation. We collected blankets, beanies, booties, burp cloths, crib sheets, blocks and balls for children in orphanages in India. The first item that I received, out of the 2,809 items we collected, was a beautiful quilt by Ronit. It was the only I thing I had in my possession when I went to visit the Miracle Foundation’s headquarters downtown Austin. I sat there and held that sweet baby quilt. Thinking about my own baby soon to be born, and the new baby in India that would soon be wrapped in love by that beautiful quilt.

Caroline, the founder of the Miracle Foundation, held up the quilt and was in love. She asked if Ronit would mind making a few more to hang on the walls of the orphanages. They are concrete walls, with no decoration. Not like your home, or mine. No pictures strewn about of their families. No cheerful artwork. I quickly emailed Ronit and was greeted with an ‘of course.’ And not much longer, three beautiful quilts arrived for the children in India.

Thank you Ronit. Thank you Craft Hope community. You are the most loving, caring group of individuals I have ever been blessed to know. You are appreciated and you are making a difference.

This is my ’state of hope’ address for you. Kind of like the state of the union, our Craft Hope union. In the midst of listing after listing I called a union sanctioned lunch break the other day, then was promptly reminded by Sarah that we have no union.

Although the listing and management of the shop can be exhausting. We are having a wonderful time behind the scenes. Admiring your donations and timing how quick certain items will sell. A beautiful quilt, pictured below, sold in all of THREE MINUTES!

So we wanted to just catch you up on what’s going on. First and foremost, Project 6 is still happening! We are still making red scarves so please join us. Please leave a comment in the Project 6 post if you would like to participate. Many of you are new to Craft Hope and this is what we do. We have projects where we make things and send them to deserving organizations. You can see the list of projects we have done in the sidebar. Join us!

As of this morning we have raised just over $20,000 for Doctors Without Borders, 1,155 sales, and currently have over 155 items for sale in the shop. We have approximately 300 more listings to add to the shop. Please do not be confused and think the shop is closed. We are OPEN for business. We just need to take a two week break to get a more formal system in place for accepting donations. Please spread the word that you can support Doctors Without Borders by shopping in the Craft Hope for Haiti Etsy shop.

We will continue listing these items to the shop throughout the week. Once they are all listed, we will continue to process purchases. No rest for the weary right!?!

If you are a seller, please allow 2-3 days to get your buyers address. I know you all are such amazing sellers. You have donated your time and things you could actually get money for. THANK YOU. Know that the buyer understands that it is going to take a few days for us to get the information to you. Sarah has got her mom on board and between the two of them they are getting these out as quick as humanly possible. Seriously folks, our entire team is working around the clock. And our families have all been recruited into the process.

We will begin accepting donations again in TWO WEEKS! In the meantime, shop until your heart is content! And start whipping up new things to add to the shop. The need in Haiti is not going to let up anytime soon. If you follow Doctors Without Borders on Twitter you can read stories and see photos of what our donations do for them in Haiti.

A HUGE welcome to those of you who have come to us through Twitter, Facebook, the thousands of blogs, Canadian Living, Ohdeedoh, Apartment Therapy, Huffington Post, Discovery’s Green Planet, Casa Sugar, DIY Life, Playgrounder… the list goes on. We are glad you joined us on this ride. It is truly amazing what a collective group of individuals can achieve.

“A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” — Margaret Mead

Wow. Just wow. Sarah here, stopping in to say thank you to everyone who has been part of the wild ride that is Craft Hope for Haiti.

As I’m sure you’ve seen on the Etsy shop, we’ve been listing and selling items nonstop since Friday morning. The response from the craft community has been amazing and overwhelming. You are a remarkable bunch of people. Jade and I and the other volunteers are humbled by your willingness to give when often you don’t have much yourselves. This experience has been a testament to the power of a connected community.

Jade and I started this effort as a quick offshoot of Craft Hope because we wanted to help and knew that sending things was not a viable option. We hatched a little idea about the shop on Etsy and figured we’d raise a few hundred dollars. We had this pie in the sky idea that we’d maybe get to $5,000 eventually. You all got us there by yesterday at noon. As of now, we’re rapidly approaching the $10,000 mark. Amazing. Overwhelming.

From a housekeeping perspective, you should know that listings are taking up to 72 hours to place on Etsy. Currently we are notifying sellers of the shipping information the day after the sale, and we will try to maintain that pace, but it may go to 2 days. We ask for your patience as we process a tremendous number of transactions. We may make an occasional listing mistake, and we’ll hope you forgive us. We have streamlined and slowed down our pace a bit so we don’t make hurried errors. There are only a few of us, and so many generous gifts.

This operation is being run by a mom with 3 kids under 5, including a 3 month old baby and by a mom who is 7 months pregnant and has 2 homeschooling kids. We are relying on the kindness of our wonderful friends (who are also all moms with babies or homeschooled kids or jobs) and our husbands who have given up their weekends to help out. The task at hand has become far larger than we can maintain for any length of time. We don’t want the program to become a victim of its own success because we were so excited to help that we didn’t take the time to set up sustainable systems.

We have decided to stop accepting donations on Wednesday evening, January 20. We will list everything we have received by the following weekend, and we will keep the store open until everything has sold. The plan is to be closed to new donations for 2 weeks while we regroup. This has taken us in a direction that we never anticipated Craft Hope going. In order to serve the community better, we are going to take a break and organize our thoughts, our systems, and our mission. While we would LOVE to just keep on going, we have to do so in a sustainable way so that we do it well and still have time to feed our children, take showers, and interact with our families on occasion.

Over the next few days, we will be forwarding funds to Doctors Without Borders and will post the transactions to this site, so you have verification of the donations. We understand that donating and buying is an act of trust by all of you, and we are committed to living up to that trust. Thank you, all of you, for giving us the opportunity to help the Haitian people in a meaningful way. Because this isn’t about us at all. It’s about the generosity of each and every one of you.

We are all so grateful to be a part of this effort, which is a small part of the larger effort to help the Haitian people. We hope you understand our reasons for regrouping in order to serve the effort even better. Thank you again for everything you have done and continue to do.

In hope,

Sarah

Today can be summed up by one incredible listing that we had in the Craft Hope for Haiti Etsy shop to benefit Doctors Without Borders.

Behold the Tom Selleck pillow! Unfortunately it sold before any of us on the Craft Hope behind the scenes team could snatch it up. But we were all keeping our eye on it, hoping at the end of the day when we had time to shop that it would still be there. Alas. Tom is gone.

Today was an AMAZING day. We have buyers and sellers from all around the world. Twitter is on fire with mentions of Craft Hope and the shop. Matt Lauer hasn’t called yet, but we are holding our breath.

So are you ready for this? So far we have raised $7,000 for Doctors Without Borders. In TWO DAYS! You are all amazing!! Thank you all so very much for your patience as we get items listed and get back to you. This has turned into a huge undertaking and we are moving as fast as we can. This entire community is making a difference!

There are now so many of our friends behind the scenes. Many crafty mamas that you all know and love, typing as quickly as possible listing items. We are all spread out around the country working for you.

Here are the mamas behind the scenes at Craft Hope:

Chris :: Pink Picket Fence

Beki :: Artsy Crafty Babe

Courtney :: The Woodland School

Marjorie :: Auburn Doll House

Sarah :: Green Clogs

Molly :: A Foothill Home Companion

And moi :: chikaustin

If you get a chance, pop in and tell them thank you. You are keeping all of us very busy, but it’s a good problem to have don’t you think?!?

I found this following quote rather appropriate for what this community is all about…

“The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.” — Nelson Henderson

Spread hope.

I just wanted to pop in quickly and let you know what has been going on behind the scenes at Craft Hope. There are several mamas around the nation that are typing as quickly as possible, day and night, to list items in the Craft Hope for Haiti Etsy shop, which benefits Doctors Without Borders.

{Pillow donated by Kasja of Syko}

Let me just tell you that there is a whole lotta love in that little shop. Handmade love from all around the world. Go on over, take a looksy. We are seriously updating that space at all hours so keep checking back, or refreshing your page. There is some amazing items that have come through that shop! A HUGE, HUGE, HUGE thank you to all of the crafters out there that donated and continue to donate items. I know we only get to reply with a quick thank you, but you need to know that you are truly appreciated. Without your donation, there would be no shop, there would be no money raised for Haiti. You all are amazing.

And another HUGE thank you to those of you who have gone shopping. Some of you took items I was wanting to buy while I was typing feverishly. I would be typing and say ‘look at that… where did it go?’ Things go fast!

This shop has exceeded our wildest expectations. We thought, maybe, just maybe someone would donate something and we’d raise a couple of hundred bucks for Haiti. Boy, did you blow that out of the water.

In just 24 hours, the Craft Hope for Haiti Etsy shop has had 162 sales and raised just around $4,000. Pat yourselves on the back my friends. You are rockstars!

Please understand that there is about a 24 hour turnaround on listing items. We are going as fast as humanly possible.

We truly appreciate all of the sweet comments that come in with the listings. You cheer us on and certainly make us feel like what we are doing is important. Thank you for that.

We just added a new section to our shop called ‘kid craft.’ Crafts made by kids. So please encourage your child if they want to get into the action. My daughter got a weaving loom from Santa and has been working on a pot holder to put into the shop.

Etsy Star on DIY Life (AOL)

Apartment Therapy Chicago

Parents.com (updated 1/17)

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One thing I love about this community is that you all step up and volunteer to help where you see a need. Amy, from A Commonplace Life, graciously donated the banner for our Etsy shop after she noticed that space empty. And many of you have offered up your time. Thank you. I don’t believe there is a better gift that you can give another person than your time.

Just a reminder that Project 6 is still ongoing! The deadline to have your scarf to the Orphan Foundation is Valentines Day. Thanks to everyone who is knitting and crocheting a beautiful scarf. You can still sign up on that post.

Back to work, see you all in the Etsy shop!

The Craft Hope for Haiti Etsy shop is now open! There are some amazing handmade items in the shop. Please support Doctors Without Borders by either donating a handmade item or shopping in our Etsy store.

Our Etsy shop will benefit Doctors Without Borders, with 100% of the proceeds going to them. The medical need in Haiti right now is acute. The Doctors Without Borders existing facilities are so badly damaged, they are no longer functional. Post-earthquake medical care will be from tents. So far they have treated 1,500 people – 500 of them need immediate major surgery. There are no facilities to do this in Haiti currently. An inflatable hospital should be arriving in Haiti today.

The shop will remain open as long as we have donations to fill it up! Thanks to everyone for spreading a little hope to those in Haiti.

Update: There is currently a 24 hour turn around time on things getting listed. We are listing as fast as two mamas possibly can.

Iwill have a button for you to put on your site within the next few minutes!

embed code:
<a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/crafthope" target="new"><img src="http://crafthope.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/ch_haiti.gif" alt="Craft Hope for Haiti Shop Spreading seeds of hope one stitch at a time" width="175" height="175" border="0"></a>

Store Update: The Craft Hope for Haiti etsy store is now up & running! Over 1000  items sold and $20,000 raised!

1.20.10 Donations Update: We are suspending donations for the next two weeks due to the amazing response!  The store is open and we will be posting all donations over the next few days while we get caught up!

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” — Anne Frank

Craft Hope community, it is time to Craft Hope for Haiti. The devastation in Haiti is catastrophic and we can help. At the encouragement of many people we will be opening a Craft Hope Etsy shop to benefit Doctors Without Borders. We are growing by leaps and bounds and as needs arise we will rise up to meet them.

The Craft Hope Etsy shop will allow crafters to donate products and allow folks to purchase them. With 100% (less etsy transaction fees) of the proceeds going to charity. Having seen, firsthand, the beautiful items you have created I know this can be one awesome charity shop. The dresses, sock monkeys, quilts, blankets, beanies, etc. that you have all created are incredible. I know many of you even have your own Etsy shop where you sell you’re items. This is a call for all things handmade. If you can make it, we will sell it to benefit Doctors Without Borders. If you have a handmade item you’d like to donate, please read the guidelines below.

Many people have asked how they can support Craft Hope and it’s charities if they can’t sew, knit, craft. Well, this is the way. You can shop in the Craft Hope Etsy shop, get a beautifully handmade item, and rest assured that the proceeds from your purchase will go to charity. It’s that simple.

DONATIONS ARE CLOSED AT THE MOMENT – NEW DONATION INSTRUCTIONS COMING SOON!!!

Update: There is currently a 24 hour turn around time on things getting listed. We are listing as fast as two mamas possibly can.

Update: Please be willing to ship worldwide. We are getting tons of requests about worldwide shipping. Please mention this in your listing. Thanks for understanding. If you can’t ship worldwide, please tell us so up front so we can put that in your listing.

Today we are working diligently to get the shop set up and open. We’ll also have a button for you to put on your site very soon. Please spread the word that we are looking for donations. Also, we’ve set up a nifty way to share information from our site through Facebook, Twitter, etc. Try it out, it’s super duper cool! I will post a link to our Etsy shop as soon as it is open.

Thank you for all you do. You truly make the world a better place!

“There has not been a humanitarian disaster that has needed more outside help than these people.” — Ann Curry, NBC

I sat transfixed to the television set all afternoon. Flipping between channels watching coverage of the Haiti Earthquake. Wanting to help. Wanting to do something. I read heartbreaking story after heartbreaking story online. Each one tears my heart out. The stories are endless. Their voices not silent.

The people of Haiti need help and they need it now. Yesterday’s devastating earthquake in the capital city of Haiti has demolished a nation. Officials estimate that over 100,000 people may be dead. In Port-au-Prince, all hospitals have collapsed or are abandoned. Orphanages have collapsed. There is no running water, no electricity. Much of the capital has been leveled. The people are running out of clean water and food. The port is destroyed. The airport has no electricity and only one runway. The prison has collapsed and all prisoners are running free.

People have no place to go, they are trying to find a way out. Many of them heading to the airport, with no planes leaving.

Countries have begun responding from all around the world. Airplanes dangerously making their way into the damaged airport. This humanitarian crisis could soon escalate to a refugee crisis. Haiti has no military and only 10,000 police. 80% of the nation lives in poverty. It is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

There was a woman on the news this evening that runs an orphanage in the mountains just outside of the capital. She reported that the orphanage did not get damaged but they only have enough diesel to run their generator for two days. After that, nothing. The roads to get to the orphanage and through the mountains are impassible, destroyed by the earthquake.

Bill Clinton said that there is no logistical and organizational capacity right now to handle a lot of donated items. There is no way for in kind donations to make their way to Haiti immediately.

An organization that we have partnered with here at Craft Hope is Giving Children Hope. We have projects planned with them in the future, but they need us now. Giving Children Hope is talking with field monitors to find out what is needed most in Haiti. Your gift will help to administer emergency aid relief to communities in need. They are currently taking monetary donations as well as disaster relief materials. Please donate what you can. At this point and time it is near impossible to get items into Haiti. Money is needed most.

Material donations they are accepting are: hygiene products, blankets, pillows, tents, hand sanitizer, bottled water, antibacterial soap, and new clothing. Please only donate new items. You can drop off or mail your donations to:

Giving Children Hope
8332 Commonwealth Ave.
Buena Park, CA 90621

If you’d like to volunteer at their facility in Buena Park, volunteers are needed to sort medical supplies and hygiene products that will be shipped to people affected by the earthquake.

Their needs are going to be long term… years. If you’d like to make something handmade, they are requesting clothes, blankets, and pillows. Please send them to the above address.

Please pray for the people of Haiti, the aid workers in Haiti, the organizations trying to figure out how to mobilize and get resources there, the families affected living abroad, and the leaders of your country who are diligently working with other leaders to find the quickest way to deliver aid. Haiti needs help now.

Update: Click here to see a news segment that ran on Giving Children Hope’s efforts just yesterday.

Please do what you can and spread hope!