Friday Finds - Raffle Sponsor Spotlight Part III

We're about halfway through my raffle to raise funds for The 3 Day and so we're up to Part III of my series featuring the amazingly generous folks who contributed their time & talent to the event. Because of these wonderful artists, ALL proceeds from the raffle will go directly towards my fundraising for the 3 Day to help fight breast cancer. Please check out these amazing Etsy sellers and, of course, the raffle where you can win some of their work! The raffle is super easy: check out the amazing goods, buy tickets (aka: donate to my fundraising), and then comment on my blog to let me know. That's it! Enjoy!

I am a part of the amazing Fantasy Artists of Etsy Street Team. Not only a very talented group of people, but also very kind, generous and supportive. I've already featured a few members in the last few weeks (mermaiden, Gypsy Moon Art Studio, aquariann, Fairies Nest, Threads of Magique, and Meri), so today we'll check out the rest of the fantasy artists that contributed!

Plushroom Soup created this adorable little plushie called Wings of Hope Owlet. I think the name speaks for itself.

Tremendous supporter of my 3 Day fundraising, FaerieKat made these delicate earrings. She says, "In the Victorian language of flowers, Canterbury Bells signify gratitude, and gratitude is exactly what I had in mind when I created these dainty cup-and-saucer version earrings to support awareness for research and outreach efforts to cure breast cancer. "
Fairy Queen Crochet hand crocheted each rose colored flower on this choker and even attached the center one to an awareness ribbon. This piece reminds me to use my voice and spread the word. Yes, the 3 Day is about fundraising, but it's also about awareness.

Daydreamer Art has been a strong proponent of my fundraising and the cause. She was inspired by Oestre, now more commonly referred to as Ostara, the German Goddess of Oestre/Eoster- or also known as Easter when she created this piece.
88Links contributed this armband that rests on your upper arm like a metallic ribbon. Talk about wearing your heart on your sleeve.

Inspired by spring, Anika's Art hopes that like the blooming flowers, hearts will open for hope. I do, too.
Phenome Gnome shares that Feline Fairies are considered extremely good luck and they are excellent guardians of the fairy realm. Sounds like we can all use to have one around. Believe!

Don't forget to visit the 3 Day Raffle for your chance to win one of these or many other amazing handmade items!
It's super easy: check out the amazing goods, buys tickets (which really means donate to my fundraising for the 3 Day), and comment on my blog to let me know. That's it!

The Pink Warrior Chain Maille Collection

About a month ago I had made a very special announcement about my fundraising for the 3 Day: the insanely talented mailler Rebeca Mojica of Blue Buddha Boutique agreed to provide me with literally thousands of pink jump rings. This was an amazing sponsorship for me because I've admired Rebeca and her work for a very long time so I'm thrilled to be able to work with her, but also because her generosity will allow me to donate ALL proceeds from the sale of items in the Pink Warrior Chain Maille Collection to Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the Cure!

This year, the 3 Day is using the song Pink Warrior by Candy Coburn as their theme song. The warrior woman in me was inspired to combine my passion to find a cure with my love of chain maille (the armor of warriors past). My goal with Athena's Armoury is to equip your inner warrior with chain maille to bring out your strength and confidence. Whether you are undergoing chemo, have won the battle, are supporting a loved one, know someone who has lost the fight, or are standing up to have your voice heard... you have the heart of a warrior.


I'm thrilled to share with you the beginnings of the collection. There will be a few pieces in the collection that will be remade after they sell, but there will also be many one of a kind items that once they sell they are gone. It's important to me to include these unique items as a reminder that every situation and every person dealing with breast cancer is unique and have their own battle to face. There are many more pieces coming in the future; including more jewelry and accessories, but also housewares like candle holders and dream catchers.


All items are available in both Athena's Armoury on Etsy as well as Artfire.


And if you haven't checked it out yet, don't miss my handmade raffle benefiting the 3 Day! All you have to do is check out all of the amazing goodies that have been donated, buy tickets (aka: make a donation), and then let me know about it. Easy peasy.

The 3 Day: Week Nine Progress Report

It's a long one: I've got a lot to share with you!

Training
I had my followup visit with the doctor and feel a little more reassured that plantar fasciitis really is what I have. I was questioning the diagnosis because my symptoms are so vastly different than what I've heard from so many other people. My problem is really in my arch and what he explained to me is that the plantar fascia ligment really is the only thing in the arch that could cause the pain that I experienced. Apparently, I'm not normal since everyone else's pain is in the heel. I guess it's all about the mechanics of how I'm built and how I walk. It seems that this is a condition that I may have had previously, but it just got aggravated & inflamed from overtraining (if 9-16 miles per week was overtraining, I wonder what's going to happen when I start doing 30-40 miles per week) and unsupportive shoes (thanks a lot New Balance).

For the time being, I'm still following the icing, splint, stretching, anti-inflammatory, resting routine... at least for another couple of weeks until my next visit with him. He prescribed a semi-custom orthotic to see how my feet respond to it before we go all out and order the custom orthotic. I really hope that the one I have now fits the bill! It cost handsomely and the custom one will cost even more. In addition, the one I have right now is just big enough that I really need to go buy some new shoes so that my feet aren't cramped. Apparently, if I have to get a custom orthotic I will have to get yet another new pair of shoes for it to fit into. Sigh... I hope after the inflammation goes away, I can wear some shoes other than sneakers...

The crazy thing about all of this is that my feet have felt worse this week than they did before I went to see him (and before they were taped up!). Ah, well... I can only imagine it's because they are being stretched so often. Here's to hoping that they start to feel a bit more normal soon.

Even though I can't go walking, I've decided that I can at least continue to stretch and strengthen with my yoga and pilates. I think that the yoga can only help at this point and I think that the pilates is going to be a huge benefit for strengthening my core for the event. I do hope that the inflammation calms down soon: training officially starts mid-May!

A woman that lives less than two miles away from me contacted me through the 3 Day's share list to see if we can do some training walks together since we live so close. She sounds like a nice lady & I'm looking forward to doing some walking with her, but I had to tell her that I'm holding off on any more training until I see the doctor again. Needless to say, she totally understood.


Fundraising
People are still offering to donate goods to my raffle! I'm so thankful for the generosity of the handmade community, but I've had to stick with the beginning of the raffle as my cut off date for item contributions. I have 23 amazing artists contributing $600 worth of products and am now working on selling tickets (aka getting donations). The handmade raffle has already raised $80 to find a cure & there's still three weeks left! I'm hoping to do a couple more markets or tables outside stores in that time, too, but more on the market later. It's just $5 for your chance to win one of these amazing goodies, so please check it out!

The lovely ladies at The Herb Society allowed me to set up my fundraising goodies at the meeting this week. It wasn't a huge success, but I walked away with $15 more towards the 3 Day than I had before the meeting. I also got to talk to one woman who has participated in the event and another who's considering doing it. It was also nice to be able to set up my goods in a fairly casual setting before doing the market on Friday.

The Tampa Downtown Market was a lot of work both getting ready for it and doing it, but it was also a lot of fun. I spent countless hours printing out breast cancer awareness literature, being crafty with banners and signs, figuring out my table set up, etc. So the time spent preparing for it isn't necessarily commensurate with what I raised but I have to say that I really enjoyed it!


I had quite a few sales of the Pink Ribbon Accessories that I got specifically for events like this. You can also get a little sneak peek of the Pink Warrior Chain Maille Collection that I've been working on in this photo. I'm hoping to have the beginnings of the collection listed for sale online this week.


I also had two raffles going: one was the handmade raffle and I also had another to see Cats at the Straz Center in Tampa. The handmade raffle was quite popular with many people wanting to buy the items outright!


I have to give a big old thanks to the Tampa Downtown Market who actually donated the space for me to use for my fundraising tent! They were also nice enough to include a blurb about me and what I'm doing in their weekly newsletter. One woman came to my tent to support me after reading that blurb. Every little bit helps and it does not go unnoticed!

I also am SO grateful to Scott who is by far my #1 supporter. After working crazy hours for the past couple of weeks, he could have slept in Friday morning, but instead he was up with me at 6:00am loading the truck for the market. He helped me set up the tent, ran back and forth to get the truck, made sure that I had something to eat, covered the table so I could run to the bathroom, and was just my overall rock.


When all was said and done, my tent at the market raised $119 to go straight to my fundraising for the 3 Day for breast cancer research and breast health programs!

Including the cash that I raised at the Herb Society and the market this week, I've surpassed 75% of my goal!! I had hoped to get to the 75% milestone by the time training starts simply because I knew that with what's been going on with my feet I was going to have to stay focused. I'm just thrilled that I was able to meet that goal! That got me to thinking about where all of the money has come from. Turns out that the majority of the money that I've raised to date has been from letters, Facebook, and word of mouth. Here's an approximate breakdown of where my donations have come from so far:

$1,390 Letters, Facebook, word of mouth
$55 twitter
$120 raffles (handmade & show tickets)
$60 pink ribbon accessories
$10 silicone bracelets

My goals for the 3 Day this week will include attempting to get a couple more market dates & finally listing my Pink Warrior Collection!!!

Mileage to date on training walks: 41
Goal: $2,300
Achieved: $1,754 or 76%
Remaining: $546
Countdown: 187 days until the event!

If you're enjoying keeping track of my progress, please consider supporting me in my effort to eradicate breast cancer. No amount is too little or too much. Thank you!!

Don't forget to check out my raffle benefitting the 3 Day!

Simple Joy Sunday

Finding the simple joys each week...

I got do a whole bunch of fun crafty stuff this week as I finished making preparations for my market event for my 3 Day fundraising. I had so much fun playing with paper, glitter glue, yarn, etc! Yeah, it was for a purpose, but it's so much fun being creative for creativity's sake.

As usual, the Herb Society meeting made me happy. I made a new friend and may be able to take a soap making class with her. I'm really excited about the class since I still have not mastered the art of soap making.

Again, this is 3 Day related & will be included in tomorrow's progress report in more detail, but I just wanted to say... I had so much fun fundraising at the Tampa Downtown Market on Friday! And then when I got home, I iced my feet, had a beer, and read some of my book. It was such a great day!!

I've been insanely busy for the last few weeks, so now that my mom's visit is over, I think (I HOPE!!!) things might be evening out with my feet (I just need the inflammation to go down so I can start training again), and my first big market event for the 3 Day is done, I'm feeling so much better. I slept a solid ten hours after the market and woke up feeling so much more refreshed than I have in a while.

I spent the day on Saturday lounging around the house, reading, repotting herbs, making myself a breast cancer awareness chain maille bracelet to wear out, doing pilates..... It was the relaxing, do nothing day that I've been craving. It was so nice to do all of those things and thoroughly enjoy them.

My herbs were in such dire need of attention. I had basil and dill that needed to be repotted and the new herbs that I got from the Herb Society meeting this week needed homes: I've added a nasturtium, some lettuce, Tulsi (or Holy Basil), and Perilla to my herb garden. Unfortunately, I also discovered mealybugs on my lemon balm -- I am none too happy about that. Regardless, it was so nice to spend some time with my greenlings.

Saturday night, Scott & I went to see a band play. It was so much fun actually getting dressed to go out on a Saturday night! That may sound kind of lame, but with our work schedules, we almost never get a chance to go out on a date nonetheless a date on the weekend. It was so much fun!

As always, check out more Simple Joy Sundays over at Cool Zebras. What were some of your joys this week?

Oh! And don't forget to check out my raffle: ALL proceeds to benefit breast cancer research! It's super easy: check out the amazing goods, buys tickets (which really means donate to my fundraising for the 3 Day), and comment on my blog to let me know. That's it!