Good, Practical Charity



Robin's Raiders 2011

Every year I participate in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life event.  After being a team captain for going on five years, I'm always surprised at all the new and innovative ways the American Cancer Society uses their resources to help everyone touched by this terrible disease.  I knew about the research and I knew about the support and educational programs, but what follows are four ways that the American Cancer Society helps people battling cancer right this minute.  These programs surprised me with their common sense practicality and make me proud to volunteer for this organization.


Hope Lodge provides a place for people to stay when their best treatment choices are far from home.  Currently there are 31 Hope Lodges across the country to help cancer patients and their caregivers the chance to focus on getting well.
http://www.cancer.org/Treatment/SupportProgramsServices/HopeLodge/index

Road to Recovery helps get cancer patients to treatment when they have no way to get there. 
http://www.cancer.org/Treatment/SupportProgramsServices/road-to-recovery

Look Good…Feel Better addresses appearance related concerns faced by women and men undergoing cancer treatment.
http://www.cancer.org/Treatment/SupportProgramsServices/look-good-feel-better

Look Good…Feel Better for Teens addresses issues both boys and girls ages 13 to 17 may have related to cancer treatments, side effects and how it impacts the way they look and social issues.
http://www.cancer.org/Treatment/SupportProgramsServices/look-good-feel-better-for-teens


These are just the tip of a very big iceberg.  To learn more about the organization as a whole, go to
http://www.cancer.org/

To learn more about some of the other support programs offered, go to http://www.cancer.org/Treatment/SupportProgramsServices/index

WARNING, WHAT FOLLOWS IS A SHAMELESS PLEA FOR ATTENTION, DONATIONS, AND SALES AT MY ETSY STORE ALL TO BENEFIT RELAY FOR LIFE. 

STOP HERE IF YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED.  YOU CAN'T SAY YOU WEREN'T WARNED!

If you want to learn more about my team, Robin's Raiders, visit us (and like us) on facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/RobinsRaidersShelbyTwpRelayForLife

If you want to donate to or join Robin's Raiders, follow this link:
http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?team_id=1136194&fr_id=38669&pg=team

Through the month of May, 100% of proceeds from purchases made at my Etsy shop will go directly to Relay for Life AND I will honor the person of your chosing with a hand crafted luminaria (check out pictures of luminaria on the facebook page mentioned above) to be used at the event:
http://www.SockMonkeysAndBacon.etsy.com

My World According to Random Buttons by Beanforest on Etsy

I spend a lot of time on Etsy, and while roaming around, I stumbled upon a store that sells only buttons.  Silly, smart, sometimes inappropriate buttons.  I find myself going to see what new little words of wisdom Vincent (the very nice man who is responsible for these) has posted.  So without further ado, I'd like to share with you my favorites:
(click on the images to see larger versions, and the captions are also links to etsy)

1. I'd might as well make the best of it 'cause I can't do much about it anyhow.
2. I don't know what I did before the concept of plausible deniability came into my life.
3. I'd like to pretend the Id isn't in control, but I'd just be lying.

4. I never really did this before, but now I do it WAY more than I should.
5. Poor cheese.  The saddest part of Farmer in the Dell.  
6. At least one is included in each day.  Even the good days.

7. Art nerd alert!
8. I repeat, art nerd alert!

9.  Who would get married on the Ides of March?  I would!  How's that for tempting fate?
10. One kid is an English major AND in med school. She knows her colons!
11. The other kid compares having a kid to having a pet monkey.  Sounds like a good idea, but then you are stuck with a monkey!

12. Look out kids, I am you in 30 years.
13. Dessert wins.  Always. 

The Butcher

Touching Base

This has been a week of juggling a few things online.  My daughter wanted to sell some textbooks (the ones the bookstore wouldn’t buy back) on Amazon, so I now have an account to do that.  Out of the three she wanted to sell, two have been shipped already, so I am pretty happy about that. Amazon has an amazingly organized system.  You list your books for free, and when something sells, Amazon takes their fee (a fairly complicated system they spell out on their site), plus they collect a shipping fee from the buyer that will go to you once the transaction is complete.  Basically, the two books I sold went for a total of $24.00.  The Amazon fee was $8.28 and they collected $7.98 ($3.99 x 2) for shipping from the customers.  Once I figure in my actual shipping cost (around $2.60 each), I expect to realize $18.50 from the sale of the two books.  I found the fees to be kind of high, but it is hard to beat the audience the site has, and with the text book season being limited, I don’t mind paying it.

I’ve also been in contact with a possible customer for some custom work on Etsy.  When I first offered to do custom work on my site, I really had no idea as to how the mechanics might work.  Luckily, the lady I am working with is patient and is really helping me figure out a viable system.  She is interested in some 20” x 20” knit throw pillows with button closures.  I’ve spent one week knitting a big batch of swatches (she’s been pretty specific on her colors, but to avoid misunderstandings, actual samples seem like the way to go).  Once I got the color samples in the mail, I spent another week on an actual pillow, to make sure the size is right and to have an idea of scale when choosing the big, mismatched vintage buttons she wants.  Speaking of big, mismatched buttons, my stash is a little less varied than I’d like, so I’ve also been working with a lady on Ebay to purchase of a variety of colors and shapes.  I seem to be spending an excessive amount of time on this one sale, but by nailing down all the details now, I will be extra sure of my abilities to come up with a repeatable product.



Oatmeal, Charcoal, Espresso, and Plum Swatches

Previews of a future photo essay on drying tomatoes

Of all the things I need to do better across all social media, perhaps the most obvious it to add more photos.  The more blogs I read, the more I realize how important a visually appealing page is to keeping interest and adding to the written content.  For someone with a background in photography and graphics, you would think that this would come more easily.  Just the opposite seems to be true.  I think that this might be payback for all the snarky comments I’ve made over the years about poor design in general as well as all the poorly photographed and poorly edited images throughout the years.  Now that I am the one responsible for the content, I have a new found respect for how much time and patience it takes to accomplish even the simplest task well.  Thank you to anyone who has taken the time to comment.  I really appreciate your efforts and insites. 

The Butcher 

Still not so hilarious

For someone who has a hard time shutting up in real life, sitting here trying to come up with something to say has been amazingly difficult.  It absolutely does not help that as I find other bloggers and look at what they have accomplished, I realize that I may have a fundamental problem.  Instead of going online and learning all of these tools in an effort to focus on career development, I have been opened up to all sorts of possibilities that I hadn’t expected and are totally distracting me from my original goal. 

This isn’t a new thing for me.  I can pinball from one project or task while never actually finishing anything.  I am always busy, but seldom do I complete anything. I had been making some headway on this.  I did finish my hand knit Zombie Sock Monkey (without a pattern, thank you very much), but that was something I started prior to this blog / Facebook / Etsy / Twitter / LinkedIn project.  Now, I find myself following a great blog Carmenandginger that feeds into my love of all things second hand.  Not only do I spend way too much time reading her blog, it also makes me want to run off to the nearest flea marker.  Unfortunately, my love for old stuff got me to the place where I needed to start an Etsy store (SockMonkeysAndBacon) to get rid of my stash.  Can you see my problem here? 

I have found that there is a whole world of food bloggers out there who are just waiting to give me one more chocolate cupcake recipe. To that end, might I suggest Evilshenanigans and the Chocolate Italian Wedding Cupcakes with Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting?  I just made them yesterday to rave reviews.  Of course both batches of Quick Sour Cream Cinnamon Rolls that I made from this blog were a hit with the whole family too.  I can usually satisfy myself by dumping online recipes into my ever-growing stash, but this blog actually gets me to move into the kitchen and bake.  That is double distraction and frankly I’d be better off learning how to grow vegetables or make salads, if you catch my drift. 

On the plus side, I am hearing things from my kids (age 19 and 23) that I never expected to hear.  My one daughter told me via facebook about my twitter posts that “I never thought I'd have to tell you this, but you use hash-tags too much.” and a recent status posted by my other daughter on facebook about a recent text to her, "'If you were following me on twitter, you'd have found out sooner.' My mother is getting OUT OF CONTROL."  Hey, I have heard worse constructive criticism. Either one is better than being told that you have sprouted some new facial hair or that you are using way too much self tanner.

I guess that for now, I will be grateful for the new ways that I am learning to connect, and I will probably allow myself a little more time to play, but ultimately I will need to either focus on my original goals, or reassess the whole purpose of blogging. 

If you have any ideas, or if you want to tell me about your adventures, I’d love to hear them.

The Butcher

Why a blog?

I really don’t have a good answer for this question.  I don’t need another project that is for damn sure.  I work full time in a job that pays well and that I like well enough.  I really have no complaints, but at the same time, I can’t help but feel that things in general are slipping through my fingers.  I’ve talked this over with a lot of people, especially those over 40, and we are all at the same point in our lives; we are pretty sure that we will have to find another job in our life, and that social media will play a big part in that search, and that none of us really know how to use it.  What’s more, we are all busy with work, kids, hobbies, school, spouses, and parents so learning another “thing” seems exhausting. 

Of course, we all suspect that NOT learning how to use social media is not an option either.  On top of that, for every benefit you gain from social media, there are a seemingly endless number of pitfalls to not using it carefully or wisely.  To that end, myself and two good friends have decided to start a blog, start to use twitter, clean up our LinkedIn profiles and try to figure some of this out before a crisis hits.  There may be other forums (I have a Facebook fan page for my Etsy site, for example - SockMonkeysAndBacon), but we are trying to see where this takes us organically.

Please do not be surprised at links that go nowhere or lots of links to odd places.  Just ask some of my family on Facebook how truly awful I am.    As for the name, well the short answer is that I used to work with a great group of people and we formed the kind of team that most people only dream of.  We worked hard, and the thread that held us all together was a creative, funny sensibility, coupled with extreme competence and stellar work ethics.  We found ourselves hilarious then, and even though our team has been dismantled still We Find Ourselves Hilarious.

The Butcher