Raising Funds

Well, we're done with our garage sale! I can finally exhale. As a reward, I sewed one skirt for Emily tonight.

Wanted to share one photo of our garage sale:


In spite of that look on Emily's face (it was freezing outside today), there is actually a pretty decent story behind the photo.

Emily and her friend Rena decided they wanted to raise money for two worthy causes. Rena, after hearing the story of a boy who had leukemia, was moved to paint pictures to sell at their garage sale to raise funds for the foundation. Emily wanted to raise funds for Operation Christmas Child, which our family supports every year, and that the girls more fondly interpret as "the kids who have no toys". They painted tiles using the instructions from Anna at ThreeSneakyBugs. I first met Anna when I used her tutorial to make playsilks for the girls' dress-up box two Christmases ago. What a lovely person she is! And so nice to correspond with! And now, she's helped us again with this project- thank you, Anna! The girls are so proud to help someone else with the work of their hands.

A funny story: my brother-in-law put out a suit at our garage sale. He'd inherited it from someone (not sure who) but had never worn it. It was a lovely black pinstripe suit, well-tailored but quite unsaleable. We called it The Weird Suit. The pants were for an approximately size 32 waist and the coat had the shoulders of an approximate size 44. Obviously not off-the-rack. One of the downsides of custom-drafting one's clothes is being unable to later pass it on to another human being!

And now that the garage sale is over, I can finally get back to sewing those school clothes for Emily. Yes, I have been sneaking off between garage sale tasks to steal a few stitches and run off a few seams, but nothing organized or focused. Photos soon!