I was a sewing fool earlier this week!  My Mom and sister have an open house every year for their embroidery businesses and I worked hard to get some aprons made to try to sell.  Of course, I ran out of the house yesterday morning without taking a single picture of my work.  Good thing for me, though, that my sister took some pics last night of their goods and put them on Facebook!

I am selling them to help raise money to bring Valeriy here. I found out his name is pronounced Va-Larry.  I decided to sell raffle tickets to win the reversible apron below.  Now that I look at it, I kind of wish I had one like it!  I love that combo of Anna Maria Horner fabric!

I'm planning on making a special mother/daughter matching apron set to giveaway on my blog - hopefully next week.  Stay tuned!

Will you help us?

We are hosting a sweet little boy in our home this Christmas through an organization called New Horizons for Children.  You can go to their website to read more, but here's an excerpt from an email and this explains a little more why I want to host Valery in our home.

"NHFC is a non-denominational, non-profit, Christian ministry. Our goals are to reach orphans in Eastern European countries and bring them to the USA to visit with American Christian host families for 4-5 weeks over Christmas and in the summer. This shows them a functional family environment, immerses them in English, gives them love of family, and of their Father in Heaven. It undoubtedly builds their otherwise non-existent self-esteem. They realize they DO matter and can succeed in life."

 

Valery - 12 last week! speaks Ukrainian, Russian and a little English. He came to the interview with “Bubba teeth” in his mouth that he got from our team while waiting his turn. He really loves cooking and aspires to be a chief in the future. He has a very warm smile and enjoys playing ball and swimming. He would like family with kids younger than him and dogs. He also would like to live near a city. A past adoptive mom wrote: I (Stephanie) spent some time with Valery while on our adoption trip. He is a little shy, but very friendly and ready to smile! He has very bowed legs, and I think some of the kids tease him for it. Although he is a good little soccer player, he would shy away from playing with the big boys. He is small for his age, maybe a size 10? Super sweet guy!

 

 
 
Some money has already been donated to bring Valery to America!  Derek and I are willing to host him and pour our love on him, but we need help to raise the remaining money.  Will you help us?

I have a paypal account you can donate to, or you can go to my active fundraising page.  By donating through the active page, the money will go straight to New Horizons (for our family and Valery) and will be tax deductible.

Thank you!
 

Branching Out Leaves Scarf

I finished the Branching Out Scarf last week and finally blocked it last night.  I am very pleased with it; it's so soft and surprisingly warm.  It's too bad I'm sending it off in the mail today - and I'm hoping the new owner will love it as much as I do!