Win Your Choice From Juicybags - and lots more!!

I'm participating in a HUGE giveaway contest on one of my favourite blogs. Please check it out at His Boys Can Swim. If you're pregnant or a parent, you could win one of 31 prizes, worth close to $1600 in total, including your choice of anything from MY SHOP! There are going to be 31 winners, so it's really exciting and you'll have a lot of fun doing your entries. Their blog explains all about how to enter. See you there:-)

Good luck!

Couch Surfing?

I mentioned a few posts ago that my daughter and her friend packed up and took off on an adventure to Alberta a couple of weeks ago. Against my (better, I think) judgment, off they went in her friend's car, with barely a dime between them, no job prospects, a shaky plan about where to stay and really no idea what they were doing. Not to mention, driving through the Rocky Mountains in winter. I ended up paying for them to stay in hotels for 2 nights on the way there so they wouldn't be trying to sleep in the car or drive for 24 hours straight (I can remember being 19 pretty well sometimes!)
I continue to struggle with my maternal urge to protect her and the desire to let her learn from this experience...
They started out staying in an apartment that her friend's father owns in the city. It turned out that the apartment was connected to a business that he has there and they weren't able to stay more than a few days. They both got jobs in a restaurant after about a week. Then, they got a 2-day gig over the weekend, house-sitting for someone who works in the office.

Here's the situation now:
Since Sunday, they have been 'winging it', staying at some random friend's house and sometimes sleeping in the underground car park under the apartment building. This is where I started getting "nervous".

Ok, a bit more than nervous maybe:-) My brain was screaming "ARE YOU GUYS CRAZY? YOU COULD BE RAPED OR KILLED!!" but I restrained myself slightly and said something like "I bet that's cold."

Then I talked to her today and she was hanging out in her friend's car all day while her friend was at work. When asked where they were going to go tonight, she had no answer.
My brain screamed again "MY CHILD IS HOMELESS! I MUST SAVE HER!"
but I said something like "do you guys have any idea where you could go?"
Of course, she had no ideas and said they would probably stay in the car park tonight.
Well, my maternal super-hero couldn't resist. I started looking up hostels in Calgary online and found one not too far from where they were. I ended up faxing my credit card info to the hostel so they could stay there tonight. *sigh* Of course, Aly was all teary and thankful and sorry they hadn't planned it all better, etc, etc, etc...

So now my brain is screaming (a little less loudly now) "what are they going to do tomorrow?" and then my sweet, wonderful husband sent me an IM saying 'what about couch-surfing?'

"YES!"

So, off I went on my google search, and found Couchsurfing.com which is an online community of folks all over the world who offer up their couches, extra beds, and sometimes a room to travelers for a night or a few nights....for FREE! What a neat concept. I had read a bit about it on SparklytoSingle's blog. She had an interesting experience in Europe with couch surfing, (and stirred up quite a controversy on her comments) but I'm not going to think about that right now:-) Besides, I've only sent requests to couch-offering females. Now, I'm just waiting to hear back from a (hopefully nice, kind, sweet, friendly) person who will allow my child to crash on her couch for free.

Whew, this teen stuff gets more and more challenging. Moms of 20-somethings keep telling me it gets better...I sure hope so. This has got me sprouting grey hairs everyday!

New Home For Triage From Home

I'm transitioning my blog over to my own domain, so please come and visit there. For the time being, I will continue to update both blogs so I don't lose anyone, but please update your following status and bookmarks to my new page:

www.triagefromhome.com

I've found a wonderful graphic artist to develop a custom theme for my new blog and I'm really excited about that. The trouble is- she is very busy so I have to wait a couple of weeks until she has a chance to work on it for me. In the meantime, my new blog looks a bit plain, but hopefully it is clear and easy to navigate around. Let me know if you have any suggestions to make it better while I wait for it to be revamped and beautified:-)

Ooh La La Mama! Start Your Bids!

Please place all bids at the new blog site HERE

I've decided to start posting the auctions more frequently than once weekly because I've been getting lots of wonderful donations of products and I can't wait that long to share them all with you!
Don't forget that the Love Letters Wall Monogram auction is still continuing to take bids until Feb 23rd, so get your bids in quick.

Today's auction was very generously donated by Cindy from Ooh La La Mama! a very unique clothing store for kids. Cindy has offered up for auction ANY ITEM on her site! The winning bidder can choose his or her very favourite item and in the perfect size:-)

Cindy is a full-time ER doctor, as well as a mom of two little ones herself. You can read all about how she got her clothing line started on her website. If you browse around there a little, you might find some pictures of the celebrities who love her kids' apparel too:-)

Here's How To BID (it's easy!):

1: Hop over to Ooh La La Mama! Have a look around to choose your favourite item from the shop.

2. Come back here and leave a comment, telling us:
a) the name of your favourite item
b) the $ amount of your bid for the item you want!

3. Check back often during the week, to see if you've been out-bid. You may bid as often as you like.

4. Bid increments for this item will be $1 minumum (for example: if the highest current bid is $10, you must bid $11 or more)

5. Bidding starts at only $10.00 for YOUR CHOICE of any item from this shop!

Bidding for this item will end at 12:00 noon PST on Feb 25th.
Winners will be notified by email and must respond within 48 hours with their shipping details. Item will be shipped directly from the supplier.

All payments for items won can be paid via my online donation page at the End Cancer website (or I can invoice you via Paypal if you prefer) Net proceeds from the walk go directly to the BC Cancer Foundation.
Your item will be shipping directly to you from the donating shop owner.

Want to see your products here?
Please contact me at helen(at)triagefromhome(dot)com if you would like to donate something for the weekly auction. I would love to showcase your shop and products. Let's help each other!

Winner of the Sweetheart Pendant Giveaway!

And the winner is: (chosen by the random integer generator)

Danetta, who said:

"Everything in her shop looks so fabulous! One of my favorites is the Another Dimension Sprinkle Star Pendant"

Congratulations Danetta!
Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway.
Please shop at Everythingsblue's Shop- her jewellery is so much fun!

Brainstorming For Fundraising Ideas

So, ever since I signed up the other day to do this 60 km walk for breast cancer, I've been brainstorming to try to come up with ways to help me raise my goal amount of $3200.00 in donations by August.
I've started the online auctions, as you can see by yesterday's post, and I got the first bid today-- Yippee!
Some of the other ideas I've been bouncing around:

1) Holding a BIG yard sale next month, once the weather warms up a little.

Since I'm not much of a hoarder, I don't have a lot of stuff to sell, so I'm thinking of dropping a flyer in everyone's mail slots in the neighourhood asking for donations of stuff to sell.
I found some 'Awareness Ribbon' shaped cookie cutters online, so I thought of making pink-iced ribbon cookies.
I also found pink ribbon temporary tattoos for sale online for cheap. I could sell those to the kids:-)
My brother suggested checking craigslist in the FREE section regularly and trying to pick up anything nearby that might be worth selling.
I thought of selling pink balloons, seeing if I can wangle the donation of a helium tank for them.
Perhaps getting a cotton candy machine rental donated.
I know signage is a big one. Will have to make some clear signage and draw big pink awareness ribbons on it.
Of course, I'll advertise it everywhere FREE I can find- craigslist, etc.

This is starting to sound like a circus...LOL

Anyone else have any good fund raising ideas?
Any good tips on how to have a successful yard sale?

I just had a little fund raising fantasy sitting here while I'm working: I was thinking that if everyone who is following me on Twitter donated $1 to my fund-- I'd be nearly done:-)
(I told you it was a fantasy, but it's nice to think something like that is possible!)

Love Letters- Auction for Breast Cancer Walk!

Here is the first item up for auction to raise funds to sponsor my 60 km walk this August, during the Weekend To End Breast Cancer!
There will be lots of auctions here, so please keep coming back to check them out. There will be some GREAT products offered here that I know you're going to love.

Today, we have a Custom Monogram Wall Decal, graciously donated by Rebekah at Love Letters. The colours will be customized to the winner's preference, as will the name (child's name, last name, etc.)

I recently purchased 2 custom wall decals from her shop and they are great! Excellent quality and she was so much fun, friendly and easy to work with. You can see my LoveLetters decals here.

Rebekah is a former TV News Reporter turned stay-at-home mom. She loves words, writing, quotes, quips, you name it. She wanted to do something that would allow her to stay home with her children, working only when they sleep, but also combine her love of words and creating. Thus, Love Letters Vinyl Lettering was born. It's truly a labor of love. She LOVES finding a new quote and turning it into a design, doing custom work, and knowing that her designs will be a part of a home. But most of all, She LOVES her little family and the blessing that this business has been for them.

Here's How To BID (it's easy!):

1: Hop over to Love Letters. Have a look around to choose your favourite item from her shop.

2. Come back here and leave a comment, telling us:
a) the name of your favourite item
b) the $ amount of your bid for the auction prize item.

3. Check back often during the week, to see if you've been out-bid. You may bid as often as you like.

4. Bid increments for this item will be $1 minumum (for example: if the highest current bid is $10, you must bid $11 or more)

5. Bidding starts at only $5.00 for this lovely Custom Wall Monogram!

Bidding for this item will end at 12:00 noon on Feb 23rd. I will notify the winner via email and once payment is made, Rebekah will be notified so she can ship the prize.
Anyone can bid, as Rebekah has agreed to ship the item anywhere (thank you Rebekah!)

All payments for items won can be paid via my online donation page at the End Cancer website (or I can invoice you via Paypal if you prefer) Net proceeds from the walk go directly to the BC Cancer Foundation.
Your item will be shipping directly to you from the donating shop owner.

Want to see your products here?
Please contact me at helen(at)triagefromhome(dot)com if you would like to donate something for the weekly auction. I would love to showcase your shop and products. Let's help each other!