Better than Ebay?

Your place to buy & sell all things handmade.

Knowing that I have dabbled in Ebay, a friend recently told me about ETSY.

A site similar to Ebay but dedicated to people wanting to buy that unique handmade item.

It has been a refreshing experience browsing the Etsy pages. Their search engines give you the options of browsing by colour or location . The Pounce function is exciting letting you see items from new sellers as well as what has been purchased recently. The gift section, chosen by the Etsy staff, allows you to find that unique present.

I was so impressed that I rushed to my studio and made some more chickens. Sorry Luke, I know that those log cabin squares should have been for your quilt.

Charity Chicken

Hopefully this will be the chicken that lays the golden eggs for my daughters fundraising effort. It is a hollow chicken made from two log cabin patchwork squares and filled with mini eggs.

She is taking it into school for her colleagues and teachers to try to guess the number of mini eggs inside. At the moment I am the only one who knows the magic number and I'm not telling!

Big Jump

When you become a parent you never expect to hear "What would you say if I jumped out of a plane from 13,000feet?" It's just not in the parenting handbook.

These words were uttered by my beautiful daughter a couple of weeks ago. She had heard on the local radio (thank you to them!) about the Big Jump for Kidney Research. Well what can a mother do but support her crazy mixed up kid. Unfortunately she is too big now to wrap in cotton wool so we spent yesterday baking cakes and cookies for her to take to school to raise money for this worthwhile cause.

I take comfort in the fact that she will be firmly secured to an experienced sky diver who wants to land safely and so will ensure that she does too.

Until that day, Kidney Research UK was an unknown charity to me. It was founded in 1961, and is the leading UK charity funding research that focuses on the prevention, treatment and management of kidney disease. The charity also dedicates its work to improving patient care and raising awareness of kidney disease.

Kidney disease is not, as commonly thought, a disease that affects only the elderly - it can happen at any age. Treatment options include a transplant - for which there is a waiting list or a life on dialysis, a life sustaining treatment - but which can severely restrict daily life.

So I will support and give thanks that I have a wonderful (but slightly mad) daughter who is prepared to throw herself out of a plane from a horrendous height on behalf of this worthwhile charity.