Water For Christmas

Within two days Project 320 reached their goal of $5000 and building one well. So they raised their goal and raised another $5000 for a second well. For a moving summary of the events of last week read here.

Merry Christmas!

Project 320 Update

The Project 320 financial goal was to collect $5000 for CharityWater. $5000 builds one well somewhere clean water is not readily available.

I remember wondering how six women can organize all this in so little time. I remember thinking how little time until December 10 to collect 100 donations for the raffle prizes. They collected over 300. I remember thinking how large a sum $5000 seems to raise by December 18. $5290 has been raised as I type.

Just think what else we can accomplish!

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There are three raffle days left. Three prize bundles to be won per day.

See today's prizes here,
and
here

and here.

Project 320 Prizes

The first three prize bundles have been posted.

Prize 1
















Prize 2



















Prize 3



















Entries for these three prizes close at 12 midnight PST tonight.

Missed the instructions on how to enter? Read here.

There will be three prize bundles up for grabs every day this week!

Project 320

Six crafty ladies have gotten together. They want to make a difference this Christmas. Their goal? To build a well in a place where clean water is not readily available. One well costs $5000. Sounds impossible? $3000 have already been raised as I type.

These six ladies have gathered handmade goodness donated by Etsy sellers - and other treasures from the not-so-crafty-inclined - and worked them into fabulous prize bundles. They had hoped to collect 100 items to group into 10 prizes. There are over 300 items bundled into 15 prizes of over 20 items each! Prizes you can win.

For every $10 donation to charitywater you help build a well AND purchase one raffle ticket for a chance to WIN one of these prize bundles. Read this carefully for the instructions on how to donate and participate in the raffle. Don't dawdle now, from tomorrow there are 3 prize bundles to be won every day.

Read here about the Project 320 goal and follow their blog for more information on the prizes. And remember to click on the charitywater button to make a qualifying donation.

(Unfortuntely only US residents can take part in the raffle.)

I Don't Own A Thimble

Not something I gave any thought until I started this project which requires about 1 million blanket stitches. So I had to come up with a plan before my finger fell off. Clumsy, I know. But it worked until I could make my way to Jo Ann's to find something a little more elegant.








I am making a Christmas table runner. Our tree and decorations are in storage in Charlotte. And we are leaving Jacksonville Beach on about the 30th of December. This year. So we'll pretty much be packed and ready to go by Christmas Day. But we do need a little something festive to make it feel like the Holidays. It's December 1st and one half is done. Here's hoping that I'll actually manage to finish it before next Christmas. Wherever it may be celebrated.

In The Bag

I just know you haven't read enough about me yet and are dying to know what I lug around in my handbag. The lovely Nathalie of Snowbell Jewelry did an interview with me recently and this is what came out. Of me. And the handbag.

If you are bored and have five minutes to kill, go here. But better yet, go check out her fabulous Etsy jewelry shop here.

Columbus Day

When Miss M was born, I started worrying about her growing up and going to school here where we know so little of the history. How will we help her with her homework lacking what other parents know as general knowledge?

Well, the three of us are starting from scratch together. I suppose it would have been a lot worse if we arrived here when she was 11 years old - or something like that - and already in the middle of a school career.

So yesterday Miss M brought home her Columbus Day art from preschool. A paper crown depicting the sea and ships sailing on it. And the words "In fourteen hundred ninety two Columbus sailed the ocean blue". And another painting of the three ships that carried Columbus and his crew to the New World. Later in a completely unrelated conversation, Miss M rattled off the names of the three ships.

And that made me wonder: Why do we learn the names of the vessels? Because growing up in South Africa, I had to learn the names of the ships that carried Jan Van Riebeeck to the Cape. What possible use can this information have? Unless of course you end up on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Is it part of the education process and brain development to memorize seemingly useless information? Or is there some real purpose to knowing Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria?

Why is it as important to learn Apollo 11 as it is to learn 1969 and Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin? Why do we need to know the names of inanimate vessels amongst other significant historical facts? It's not like I remember the name or even the flight number of the aircraft that delivered us to the New World 512 years later. Or even the boeing that took me out of South Africa the very first time 15 years ago. Although I do suspect that I did write it down somewhere, being rather sentimental about things like that. Is that what it is? A bit of sentimentality?

As for the large gaps in our general knowledge? All I can say is, thank goodness for Google!