DIY Holidays: Crafting Love

Make your Christmas presents this year. It’s more personal and will save you money.

 From a tin of homemade fudge to a colorful knitted scarf, your family and friends are sure to appreciate your hard work and thoughtfulness. You can also think bigger! Here are some ideas that  list many ways to knit, sew and quilt your way to a better world.

Socks For Soldiers knits socks for soldiers serving in the Middle East.
Stitch for a Cause knits, crochets, sews, and quilts blankets and infant apparel for local children's agencies. Based in Louisville, KY, USA.
Stitches From the Heart sends handmade clothing and blankets to premature babies across the nation. Based in Santa Monica, CA, USA.
Stitching Up The World knits, crochets and sews items to donate to a variety of organizations. Their main effort is items for chemotherapy patients in New Hampshire, Based in Candia, NH, USA.
Threads of Love provides clothing, blankets and other handmade articles for premature and sick infants. Threads of Love has chapters in the United States, Canada and London, England.
Tiny Stitches is based in Gwinnett County, Georgia and provides basic layettes to disadvantaged newborns and preemies in north Georgia. They also provide burial ensembles to families who lose an infant.
Ugly Quilts for the Homeless, My Brothers' Keeper.
Victoria's Quilts and Victoria's Quilts Canada. Quilts for cancer patients.

Games That Give

Instead of playing games that take you out of this world and into another, potentially violent one, play on Games That Give, http://www.gamesthatgive.net/play/. This website donates approximately 70% of their advertisement revenue. Everyone wins here.

Here is one of this week's causes:

Fund 12 Days of Research to Protect Biodiversity

Help recover overgrazed land in Cajón Bonito in Sonora, Mexico by funding a biodiversity expedition!

Cajón Bonito is one of the most important riparian habitats in northwestern Mexico and southeastern Arizona. This riparian land (land on the banks of rivers), is home to many diverse and unique species of plants and animals, like the trogon. The brightly colored trogon can turn its head 180 degrees to always keep a watch on what may be coming. Even with this amazing ability, the trogon cannot see that overgrazing has destroyed a large part of its habitat, hurting its fellow plants and animals. Twenty years ago, the Cuenca los Ojos Foundation (CLO) tried removing cattle from its protected natural area. It worked. Today, the cottonwood-willow forest in the area has made a dramatic recovery. CLO recently purchased another section of the Cajón upstream that has been badly overgrazed and requires immediate action to save its flora and fauna.

The Madrean Discovery Expedition in April 2017 compared the pristine, ungrazed riparian habitats in Cajón Bonito with the newly-acquired heavily overgrazed area. The evaluation will help develop a recovery plan for this new habitat. With your help, we can recover and restore the habitat and expand an important wildlife corridor.

Read more at https://greatergood.com/project/#guTy9TXpds6z8z6w.99

Here's how You Can Help the Kids Going Back to School in Texas and Florida

Pack a shoebox with new toys, school supplies, socks… go to www.samaritianspurse.org for more information on how to pack a box. It will be donated to a child in need (you can decide the gender and age group) and you can even track the box to see where it ends up! 

Check out this website for some packing ideas: http://faithfulprovisions.com/2012/10/01/101-operation-christmas-child-shoebox-ideas/

Craft Up a Storm to Help our Storm Survivors!

Here is my favorite resource that lists many ways to knit, sew and quilt your way to a better world. www.handcraftedwithlove.net:

      Socks For Soldiers knits socks for soldiers serving in the Middle East.

      Stitch for a Cause knits, crochets, sews, and quilts blankets and infant apparel for local children's agencies. Based in Louisville, KY, USA.

      Stitches From the Heart sends handmade clothing and blankets to premature babies across the nation. Based in Santa Monica, CA, USA.

      Stitching Up The World knits, crochets and sews items to donate to a variety of organizations. Their main effort is items for chemotherapy patients in New Hampshire, Based in Candia, NH, USA.

      Threads of Love provides clothing, blankets and other handmade articles for premature and sick infants. Threads of Love has chapters in the United States, Canada and London, England.

      Tiny Stitches is based in Gwinnett County, Georgia and provides basic layettes to disadvantaged newborns and preemies in north Georgia. They also provide burial ensembles to families who lose an infant.

      Ugly Quilts for the Homeless, My Brothers' Keeper.

      Victoria's Quilts and Victoria's Quilts Canada. Quilts for cancer patients.

Did you know your old prom dresses can become a kid's favorite blanket?

Do you remember Linus of the venerated Peanuts cartoon? He was a piano virtuoso who loved his blankie and also shows how universal that love for just the right soft cloth can be. My mom and aunts are amazing quilters and can seemingly take anything and make a gorgeous, collectible quilt from it. Even if you, like me, lack that “quilting gene,” you can blanket the world with your love and good intentions by collecting them for donation.  I put out a call and got a ton of nice comforters to donate to Project Linus,  www.projectlinus.org for gifting cozy quilts and oh-so-warm blankets to kids in shelters, hospices, hospitals and wherever the cloaking comfort of love might be needed. My mom recently made a quilt of some of my crazy outfits from the 80’s!

Blanket the World With Love

Calling all sun-worshippers

Solar ovens are inexpensive to buy, easy to use, and you’ll cook for free every time you use one. Solar ovens cook food without using electricity, fossil fuels, or propane. Food cooked in a solar oven retains all vitamins and minerals. Solar ovens also pasteurize water for drinking. A solar oven is perfect for your emergency supply kit. Check out www.solarovens.org to see the great work this nonprofit is doing with solar ovens in Third World countries. Go solar and really worship the sun.

Help the helpers

Empower an entrepreneur with a loan through Kiva. You can give as little at $25 dollars to entrepreneurs in developing countries to help eliminate poverty. Throughout the life of the loan, you will receive updates on the progress of the project and will be repaid by the borrower with Kiva Credit—which you can use to fund another project or withdraw. http://www.kiva.org/ I have bought some really lovely pillows baskets and bangle bracelets made in India by women whose creativity was sent soaring by Kiva!

Happy Random Acts of Kindness Week!

February 13- Practice Random Acts of Kindness (and deliberate ones, too)

Random Acts of Kindness Day is always the week of Valentine’s Day. I always love to hear how this meaningful movement has touched other’s lives. Artist author Peg Conley shares this: You’ve seen those bumper stickers, the ones encouraging you to commit “random acts of kindness?” What they can’t tell you in that little space is how performing those acts can be a way of transforming yourself. When you begin to focus on extending kindness toward others, you’ll feel more kindness coming toward you. Not only will you make someone else’s day better, you’ll be surprised at how well yours improves. It’s rather like the “secret Santa” gift exchange that many offices and families adopt during the weeks leading up to Christmas. There is delight when you do something for another while keeping your identity a secret. When you watch a person receiving a surprise gift, you see their face change, the eyes open wide with delight, a smile bursting into a grin, and laughter erupting. They appear to feel sheer joy at the unexpected. The old adage is true: “It is in giving that we receive.” The other part of the quote, which is by a San Francisco writer named Anne Herbert, is often left out: “and [practice] senseless acts of beauty.” I received a text the other day from a friend who had taken a picture with her phone of a sidewalk outside the coffee shop where she works in San Francisco. Someone had written “It’s a beautiful day” with colored chalk on the sidewalk and adorned it with butterflies and hearts. That, to me, is a senseless act of beauty. Think how many people walked on the sidewalk that day and smiled at the childish scrawl reminding them of the beautiful day.

The Hebrew word mitzvah means a good deed or an act of kindness. Judaism teaches that the world is built on kindness. I recall what my Bubbe, a dear friend in Salt Lake City who was my son’s first caregiver, used to tell me about the importance of doing mitzvah s. She believes in the power of doing something good for another person but not telling them about it. She is a perfect example of someone who practices random acts of kindness, and also one who sees and acknowledges the beauty in everyone she meets. I always feel better just by being in her presence. Entire campaigns focused on practicing random acts of kindness have sprouted up. This, along with “having an attitude of gratitude,” enriches my days in many ways. There are myriad ways you can practice random acts of kindness. Don’t forget to include yourself when you are doing them!

• Pick up trash you see on the street and make the world a better place.

 • Pay for the coffee of the person behind you in line.

• Buy a cookie for a coworker and leave it on their desk.

 • Hold the door open for someone.

• Smile at a stranger.

• Send a thank-you note through the mail.

February inspirations on how to be a good in the world

January 7- Scatter Joy All Around

Think about how you can create little moments of happiness for others. Helping a friend plant her garden, buying an extra coffee for your coworker, paying the toll for the car behind you on the bridge, even taking your kids to a movie.  All those little things can add up to BIG joy.

January 8- Operation Gratitude

I learned about his from my mom whose church regularly sends cards letters and care packages overseas to the armed forces. My mom and her fellow church ladies bake some of the best cookies in the world so they gather up all kinds of goodies and treats and send them overseas where the taste of “down home” surely brings many smiles of satisfaction. Those who are less gifted in the baking department, such as ME, can make $15 donation to Operation Gratitude, which pays for one care package for one serviceperson. Operation Gratitude has end over a million of these kindness kits around the world!

Optimism trumps pessimism every time

Those who are closest to me know that I have been through a rough patch in the last year. The highs were high and the lows were, well, way down there. I can see a glimmer of sunlight at the end of this tunnel and I want to share a wee bit of the wisdom that helped me along the way:

This is your life, only you can truly control your choices, and choosing happiness is the best way to achieve being a good to yourself as well as the world. Here are some suggestions for how you can ensure simple joy in your life:

·  Be the best you can be by your own standards

·  Surround yourself with people who inspire you and make you feel good

·  Focus on what you have, not what you lack

·  Optimism trumps pessimism every time!

·  Smile often and genuinely

·  Be honest, to yourself and to others

·  Help others

·  Embrace your past, live in the present, and look forward for what is yet to come

Helping Those Who Helps Themselves

Empower an entrepreneur with a loan through Kiva. You can give as little at $25 dollars to entrepreneurs in developing countries to help eliminate poverty. Throughout the life of the loan, you will receive updates on the progress of the project and will be repaid by the borrower with Kiva Credit—which you can use to fund another project or withdraw. http://www.kiva.org/ I have bought some really lovely pillows baskets and bangle bracelets made in India by women whose creativity was sent soaring by Kiva!

Power to the people

Turn off your computer at night instead of leaving it on or in sleep mode, as this is wasted energy. By doing so, you can save an average of 40 watt-hours per day, which adds up to 4 cents a day or $14 per year (www.50waystohelp.com). In addition, the life of your computer will also be extended, as the amount of available time for virus contamination will be greatly reduced. This act of conservation is a great idea you should share with your office-mates.

Emit Good Vibes

 Take stock of your day-to-day life. Are you giving to others or a little out of balance where your work, your immediately family gets 99% of what you offer the world?  You can change that in one day. Donate more of your time or money to a charity. Supporting a cause will help keep you informed about social issues and can strengthen your sense of well-being while benefitting others in the process. Additionally, monetary donations are tax deductible. Which is really just a bonus because the real reward is not on April 15^th but comes the other 364 days of the year. 

I figured out last year that I was waaaaaay out of balance. I had become Bartelby The Scrivener. I am working on fixing that and it has been an interesting journey. 

More about that later!

Veg Out

Have you hear of “food deserts?” I certainly never did until reading last year in the New York Times about entire swaths of urban areas with nothing but corner stores filled with processed packages foods and no produce whatsoever.  I started paying attention and it is true.

There is something you can do about it, by making a donation of www.WholesomeWavge.org who will provide fresh fruits and veggies to these underserved communities.  How great is that? Actually, it is even better, as Wholesome Wave obtains their organic produce from small and mid-sized farmers. 

Creating your path to inner peace:

Maggie Oman Shannon Champions the Importance of Creating  in a Busy and Often Chaotic World:

The author of Crafting Calm and interfaith minister shares her philosophical take on beauty.

• 

Maggie Oman Shannon, author of Crafting Calm

Ultimately, connecting to our creativity can help us connect to our spirituality. In other words, crafting can become a spiritual practice."

— Psych Central

(PRWEB) June 11, 2013

Interfaith minister Maggie Oman Shannon claims that cultivating and noticing beauty is far from frivolous. In her new book Crafting Calm, she relates personal stories and step-by-step how-to's on DIY projects that help people get in touch with their spiritual side. As she explains on Inspire Me Today, "There is always something lovely to be found, always; and the search for it or deliberate creation of it is never frivolous. John Keats was right: Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty." When most of the world is determined to shut down creativity in favor of being "realistic" or practical, Maggie Oman Shannon's is one of the lone voices encouraging people to put busyness on pause and focus on small, simple moments of peace and beauty.

Oman Shannon has also recently appeared on the the popular podcast Tranquility du Jour with Kimberly Wilson. The two experts discuss how to make time for crafting in the midst of a busy schedule, and talk about the importance of finding a few moments for peace. As a mother with a jam-packed schedule herself, Oman Shannon knows from experience how hard scheduling time for calmness can be. But, as she so boldly states, the active and mindful focus on beauty is a "political statement" and a "spiritual practice," and the inner peace it can bring is well worth the effort.

Rev. Maggie Oman Shannon, M.A., is an interfaith minister, spiritual director, workshop and retreat facilitator, and author of five books, including Prayers for Healing and A String and a Prayer: How to Make and Use Prayer Beads. In 2000, Maggie Oman Shannon founded The New Story, a coaching and consulting business focused on helping people create deeper meaning in their lives. Shannon currently has the honor of serving as Spiritual Director of Unity Spiritual Center of San Francisco. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and nine-year-old daughter.

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