Showing posts with label Dogs for the Disabled Ireland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dogs for the Disabled Ireland. Show all posts

Monday, March 19, 2012

A brand new FUNdraiser!

I always did like maths.

last night I sat down and worked out that, if we take the €85 raised so far since the project began, that I wasa going to be about €160 behind by the end of the year.

Now, the Guinness people rejecting the World Record Attempt (on grounds of being "too specialised", which is fair enough) meant there was one less fundraiser this quarter, but even so, behind is behind.

As it stands, I worked out that I need to be raising €10.93 a week for the rest of the challenge period in order to hit the target. That's an achievable amount still, but I'd rather get ahead fairly quickly.

I do have a small, quick FUNdraiser in the works (more on that when it's ready to go - don't want to spoil the surprise!) but in the meantime, we've kicked off a larger-scale project that's going to last until June.


We've managed to secure permission to "Yarnbomb" a building for Worldwide Knit in Public Day (Tuesday, 12th June)

In keeping with the spirit of more traditional 'yarnbombing' the location will not be revealed until the time, but, as we're doing this to raise money for good causes, we have made particularly sure to get permission of the current building manager.

This is a chance to get involved and help to fantastic causes: Dogs For The Disabled, Ireland & The Cultural Quarters.

_______________________


Here's how to play:


* Knit, or crochet (or any other yarn-craft for that matter - we already have a needlefelter on board!) a piece (or as many pieces as you like) - squares, triangles, and rectangles are good shapes, but we'll take all comers (and all levels of ability)

* Measure your piece and donate 10c (€uro-cents) per square inch of work that you'd included. (Nearest metric equivalent would be 20 €uro-cents per 5 square centimetres) - ideally to the PayPal account we have put by for the project, but if you can't do PayPal, we'll sort something.

* Send in your piece(s) by Friday, 8th June for inclusion in the piece. (Message me for posting address). Remember to include a note with your email address on it.


What you will get out of it:

* A certificate of participation after the event and a photo of your work in-situ emailed to you (include your email of choice with your submission).

* A name credit online publicly thanking you for your participation.

* A warm, fuzzy feeling from helping two very deserving causes!



If you'd like to join in, you can join us:

* Yes, there's an event and a group - it's confusing I know - and that's my fault I'm afraid. I set it up as an event, but it's actually going to need a group to enable us to converse properly, add photos and tallies etc. - Sorry about that!


We're open for submissions as soon as you like, so come on in and join the fun if you can! - If you don't yarn craft, then please spread the word (and the group link) to as many people as you can think of - it's a pretty big building!

Friday, January 13, 2012

Friday, 13th January: Day 13

Another splendiferous day down at The Cultural Quarters. Started work on a custom draught excluder for the main door. After which, I'm going to attempt a scarf in the O'Rourke tartan for Al (he's going to find a picture for me to work from.

At the same time, over the next few days, when I get my 8mm needles back (Olivia is borrowing them for the weekend - graduated to completely knitting on her own this afternoon, across the room no less!) I'm going to start work on an Aran Style jumper in machine washable (mixed fibre) yarn as a reward for our "Fund It" entry.


Will post pics of the draught excluder in a wee while.




In other news, I'm pleased and proud as punch that my suggestion of a name was one of the ones picked up for Irish Dogs For The Disabled's latest litter of puppies!

Meet Farah, three weeks and one day old today:

(this image belongs to Irish Dogs For The Disabled)



...namesake of Farah, who will be 12 next Tuesday:


(and this image is mine.)
This one was taken last Dec 25th.
Farah is herself, a retiree from the UK Guide Dogs programme, where she should've been a brood bitch, but was retired early due to a medical condition.
Her smile is in anticipation of getting to unwrap her present (pigs' ears)

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Wednesday, 4th January: Day 4

Very brief update today as things did the "may you live in interesting times" thing and got away from us.

Have managed to put the south point on the throw and redesigned our book-keeping and budgeting system for today, so that's progress.


Will add a picture tomorrow.




One other titbit for today - Dogs for the Disabled are naming the first of this year's litter and for just €3.00 donation, everyone gets to nominate their favourite name.

I suggested "Farah" in honour of our Farah, now 12, who's a retiree Guide Dog pup from the UK.


You can read more about naming the seven wee girls and two boys, and see pictures at:

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Square One

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

If you answered anywhere along the scale from "Eeeeep!" to "What AM I thinking?" then you're just about on the money.

my Darling Love, Christophe has extended a challenge in two parts to me.

The first part is here, today - now in fact, as it's currently 21.52 on Saturday, 31st December 2011.
It's going to sound a simple task, but part one is to celebrate Gregorian New Year with him.
So here I am, Baileys in hand, compiling my list of resolutions for the first time in 11 years, since I resolved never to make any more resolutions and to stop commemorating the date pope Gregory decided to get time and space into (his) order.

I was flitting about on Facebook earlier (as we all do when uninspired and thinking round things if we're honest) trying to think how to begin and my friend, Music World Radio's (www.musicworldradio.com) own DJ Destiny, posted an image that for me, pretty much summons up the decade, Hel - the century so far. It was this one (caption is PG for language):


Cute little lass isn't she?

Well, ths was me at this point in 2007. The last four years have been (in short) a sort of process of hibernating and putting the pieces back together, including an International move in the January of 2009, following the fabled "Call" of Ireland.

Three years down the line, it's time to re-emerge, stronger and better than ever before.

"So what's new?" You might well be asking. Well, for me, this year - all bets are off!
You see, I've just turned 29 two weeks ago.

Don't panic - I have absolutely NO problem with 30 - this is not going to descend into a messy, cliched, nervous breakdown - in fact, in due course, I'm rather looking forward to 30.

No, my issue is 29! Beyond the births of my precious three children, (none of whom are with me now) the twenties have thus far been, for the most part, an exhausted stumble from one heartbreak and crisis to the next. So now, it's my task, with these last 50 weeks, to emerge from my hibernation and truly define this decade for myself, the people who matter to me and for my children. - To set myself up to step into 30 in much better shape and ready for everything!

There are some things I've already decided I want to do as sideline quests this year, but I'm hoping to also collect more as we go along.
I'm still really not quite at home with this "New Year" thing, so rather than resolutions (I understand about 2/3 of those get broken within the first fortnight of January anyhow) I'm just going to dub them my Twenties Bucket List (the things I want to do before I'm 30) - some will be big, some will be little, but all will be productive and all will add to the adventure.


The list itself, however, is likely to need another Baileys and a wee bit more consultation with my sweetie, so I'll sign off for now and post that up in a bit.




Ooooo - should add as a PS: I'm enabling that AdSense thingie on this blog - I know, ads drive us all crackers, but one of the things I'm definitely decided on is I want to raise at least €500 for Dogs For The Disabled Ireland (D4D) this year and any revenues I might at some point in the future get from this, I plan to donate straight over to them, so I hope you'll be able to put up with some sidebar ads for this fabulous cause!