Pillowcases are Done!

Today I knocked the rest of the pillowcases out of the way! Once my mom and I figured out the best way to paint them, it went pretty quickly. We did them all in a total of about three hours. Here's an example of the finished pillowcases!

All that's left to do is make a brochure to hand to people and sew the last four teddy bears. The group leaves a week from tomorrow! (Technically today, since we're leaving at about eleven at night on Monday, but whatever.)

Blankets Are Done!

Today I was free until later this evening, so I sat down and worked on blankets for most of the day. I had a lot of them cut already, and four that still had to be cut. I cut those and tied all of them, so as of today all of my blankets are finished! They're currently waiting in a giant trash bag to be packed into a duffel.

There's about seventeen total, I believe, and they're all child size, which is about forty inches by sixty inches. It feels so good to finally be done with a portion of this project! Here's what one of the final products looks like.

Our group leaves two weeks from today!

1/4 of the Way There!

Today I tied a few blankets for my project and reached a milestone! Upon writing down my time, I counted up my hours and saw that I have finished twenty of my (suggested) eighty hours! Only sixty more to go!

Getting Closer!

Less than a month to go until we leave for Costa Rica! Our team leaves on June 23 destined for San Jose. I've been working more on making my items since school got out. I've got about six bears made, and I'm going to sew a bunch while on a trip to Atlanta this weekend. Three blankets are completely done, ten others are cut, and four haven't been cut yet. We still haven't got the pillow cases yet, but those won't take long to make so I'm not really worried.

Today my mom helped me roll up the blankets to see how much room it was going to take and how much they were going to weigh. The airline we are taking is very 'low budget,' so to speak. They have really strict luggage restrictions (i.e., the bag can only weigh forty pounds as opposed to fifty as on most airlines, and it can only be sixty two linear inches). I can fit a few blankets in my luggage, and the teddy bears and pillowcases will fit in my backpack. Luckily, one of the leaders of our group has some room in a supply duffel that he is letting me put some blankets in. Hopefully it will all work out!

I'm getting pretty excited! My summer's been pretty boring so far, so it'll be nice to put some excitement into it! It's going to be a good trip. :)

Donations and Getting Started

I started going around to stores and asking for donations at the beginning of May. It didn't go well.

My first store was one of the many Walmarts in my town, where I was told that both the store manager and the personnel were busy. I left my list there and was told I would get a call from them (I didn't). I then went to another Walmart, where I was told they had already maxed out their donation budget for the month (It was May 8th). A few days later I went to Jo-Ann's, where I spoke to a store manager (finally!) and was told I would have to contact corporate because they are corporate owned. That same day I went to Old Time Pottery, where I was told all of their managers were at lunch (it was four o'clock in the afternoon) and that I could leave my list there and would get a call. I never heard from them.

So after all of that frustration, my mom and I came to the conclusion that we had no other option but to purchase the items ourselves. I did some research in order to find where to get the best fabric and other necessities for the cheapest prices. I already had a couple of yards of fabric at my house, and some scraps left over from previous projects I could use for teddy bears. I also already had a little fiberfill and the thread I needed. We were shopping at yet another Walmart a couple of days ago when we stumbled upon make your own blanket kits with two pieces of fabric in them for four dollars a piece. We bought they had, along with four single blankets, and spent just under thirty dollars on fabric and a bag of fiber fill.

We still have to find pillow cases, which is where a lot of our cost will come from. Those things are not cheap! I also still need fabric spray paint, which won't cost that much, and stencils, which I will be making myself.

My final challenge will be getting everything down to Costa Rica. In order to keep costs for the trip down, we have to split a suitcase with another team member, and the airline we are flying requires your bags to be under forty pounds. I've already shipped my work clothes down there, so I don't have as much to take, but it's still going to be tough. It's going to be an adventure, that's for sure!

Yard Sale!

This morning I woke up at 5:20, threw on some clothes, put my hair in a ponytail, and drove through the thick fog to school for our yard sale. We met at 6 am and finished setting up, and the first customers started trickling in soon after. I knew some people were hard core yard salers, but that's so early!

The entire sale was by donation, so people could name their own prices for what they were buying. Some people even gave extra when they heard the money was going for a mission trip. When I left at 10 am, we were giving people bags and charging them $5 for whatever they could fit into it to try and get rid of the stuff! There was so much it looked like we'd barely dented it.

Since we used the school cafeteria and all of the items were donated, 100% of the proceeds will go towards supplies for the trip. I haven't heard a final total yet, but with the generosity of the people in our community my hopes are high for a good total!

Yard Sale Prep

This afternoon and evening we started set up for our yard sale tomorrow. This yard sale is the second of our two major fundraisers, the first being a dinner we hosted at our school last week. There we served authentic Costa Rican food such as chicken and rice, black beans, and tres leches cake. People were so generous, and we made quite a bit of money!

We had so much stuff tonight. We originally planned to only use the back half of our cafeteria, but ended up having to use the front half as well, and the place was still overflowing! People from school and the mission team all brought stuff, and we had housewares, books, movies, clothes, and all sorts of odds and ends.

I personally will only be able to work part of the sale tomorrow, but I'm hoping that we will be able to make a lot of money. The money from these fundraisers doesn't help those of us going, rather, it helps fund our projects while down there and helps the people of Costa Rica.

Here's to early morning shopping!