Monkeying Around

About a week and a half ago, I attended a baby shower for a lady who works with my husband. It was a diaper and wipes type of shower, but I decided to whip up a couple cute newborn hats to give as well.

The patterns for both of these hats can be found for free at Alli Crafts.

While I was at the shower a couple of other women who work with my husband started asking if I could make them hats. My business card was passed along and within a couple days I had some more orders.

Both of the ladies ordered monkey hats.

One wanted a sock monkey hat for a friend who is expecting.

And the other wanted a plain monkey hat for her future grandson.

Right now I'm sitting about half way to my goal of $1,000. Orders kept coming in even though I didn't have an official "cause." Hopefully I'll be able to donate the funds to The ALS Association before the end of the year. That would be great!

The Search Has Ended

I'll be honest... I haven't been searching very actively for a new cause. There have been a couple ideas tossed around but nothing that has really resonated with me. Nothing ever "stuck."

That changed the other night as I was doing the dishes. (Good things can come from doing dishes....aside from clean dishes.) 

I was thinking of an amazing family that I have had the privilege to be acquainted with. They are basically my husband's second family. He spent many summers with them at their family theater working in and running the cook-out, and also acting in the shows. They treated him like a brother and a son. I have yet to meet a person who does not love this family. They are the kind of people that you want to be around all the time and hope their "awesomeness" rubs off on you.

Well, in 04/05 the father of this family was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. He faced this challenge with optimism and was an inspiration to many, myself included. He passed away in May of 2010. My husband had the opportunity of working side by side with this man for several years, and he had a huge impact on the person my husband is today.

I plan to raise $1,000 to donate to The ALS Association in memory of T.B.D. and in honor of his wife and family.

When I choose a cause I like to have a connection to it. I want the cause to really resonate with me. It was something I felt passionate about that started me on this journey, and that passion needs to be there for me to keep going.

As I thought of this family I made up my mind that this would be my new cause. I was excited about the prospects. I knew I had found my new cause.

So, please join me here on my ACWS blog as I document my progress. Thank you to everyone who has supported me in my efforts so far!

Crochet Update

It's been awhile since I've blogged about what I've been crocheting.

I had an order awhile back for 8 old school football helmets. The person who ordered these hats is a football coach of a little league team. For each game he gives away a hat to the MVP. Their team this year was the Indianapolis Colts, so he got a hat for each game in their season. I thought it was such a cool idea!

I also had an order for a couple pairs of booties. One was a set of little loafers in dark blue, and the other was a set of Granny Square Baby booties (Pattern by Mamachee) for a baby blessing. The little one's name begins with an L.

Another order was for a yellow cluster stitch hat. If I ever have a girl, she will probably have a hat like this. It's just so cute.

A couple posts ago, I mentioned that my cousin ordered a couple hats from me. One was the chef hat that I blogged about and the other was a cute little beanie in OSU colors.

That's all I've had for orders for awhile. It's a slow season for business, but that doesn't mean I haven't had projects to work on.

One of my nieces had her 2nd birthday back in March. I made her some birdie maracas to use during her "I Hear" therapy for her cochlear implants. It was so fun to make them. I made two for her, but had to make a third for my boys. It's a really fun toy. I got the pattern from Mamachee. *She has a lot of awesome patterns.

I also made some hats for my newest little nephew. He was born a lot earlier than we all anticipated, but he's doing great. I came up with a new Panda bear hat that I love. I'm planning on writing up the pattern, I just haven't gotten around to it. I also sent two other hats.

The stitching says, "Be Happy"

Pop a Color beanie from Mamachee

This is my little guy modeling the above hat.

I also have a lot of friends who are expecting babies. This, of course, means that I have had fun crocheting up little hats for them. Here is another "Pop a Color" beanie that I made. The color combinations for this hat are endless!

And finally I wanted to share a little "upcycling" idea for old crochet hats. A couple years ago I made a beanie for one of my friend's sons. Well, her second child was a girl so she asked me to "girlify" the hat for her. All I did was take some pink yarn and stitch around the bottom and weaved some pink into the braids. Then I stitched some hearts and it was perfect.

That's all I have for now, but I have finally found a new cause to donate to. More details on that coming soon!