EDITED: Because I was kind of late in posting this and my readership is low now I’m extending this give-away one more week! So if you have donated ANYWHERE to any charity that is helping in the Haitian relief effort (this includes text donations from your phone or personal calls to George Clooney!) take a second to comment on this blog and you are entered. You can double dip if you entered Emily’s contest too.

Once again I have let my blog sit idle. My life has been busy and I just haven’t been motivated to type out long posts. Facebook status updates are about all I have motivation for lately. (If you aren’t already my friend and really are interested when I’m leaving for a rehearsal or watching American Idol send me a friend request: Beth Wood Oberle).

Any way…

This morning while driving Sarah to school the radio reported that there had been another 6.0 after shock in Haiti. I have only been peripherally following all that is happening down there because I just can’t handle it. I learned quickly after 9/11 that I can’t allow myself to get sucked into the never ending stories of human suffering after a tragedy of that magnitude. Especially during these short, dark, dreary days of mid-winter. There just aren’t enough medications out there to keep me from spiraling down. Regardless, there is just no way to avoid the awful reality of what is going on there and the massive efforts that are being made by groups large and small and by intrepid individuals to reach out and help.

My friend Emily posted a give away on her blog this morning to try to encourage those of us who hadn’t yet “gotten around” to donating yet. I encourage you to donate, enter her contest and then come back here and leave me a comment too.

Saturday I did some cleaning and rearranging of the remaining inventory from the store and found some goodies. I am going to copy Emily’s great idea and do a give away. For everyone that donates to the Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders and leaves a comment on this post before Sunday (1/24/10) I will enter you into a drawing to win your choice of one of these T-shirts. Like Emily, I’m going on the honor system but blatant spam comments will be deleted. (Now is not the time nor place for ads for Viagra thank you very much.)

A great way to donate and get something back for yourself is to go through my friends at Wool and Co. and donate to Doctors Without Borders and get a bunch of fabulous knitting patterns free! One of their suppliers, Knitting Fever has graciously agreed to match donations up to $50,000! It is a win-win for everyone.

I have this “Stitch Happens” shirt available in white or pink and in sizes Large, Extra Large and 2XL (pink only). Indicate in your post what size and color you’d like if you win.

This “Queen of Unfinished Projects” shirt is available in Large or Extra Large. Indicate the size you’d like in your comment.

I have already made my personal donation but in order to add to it I will donate $5 from every shirt sold as well. If you would like to buy one of these shirts ($20) drop me an email (beth @ myeclecticmess.com) with the style, color and size you’d like and I’ll send you a PayPal invoice to complete the sale. Currently I have two of each color and size available. Winner’s selections will be honored first and then it will be first come first served. If I sell all the shirts I have minus the two give aways, it will add $60 to the relief efforts. That is more than many Haitians see in a year.

I will go through comments Sunday night after play rehearsal (or first thing Monday morning if I am just too darn tired) and have one of my daughters draw the winner’s name. If I get over 15 comments on this post I will draw two winners so tell your friends to donate and post too!

Some new goodies were delivered this week. (See the link in the right-hand column for my etsy shop)

First off I picked out a few of my favorites from Lila Tueller’s newest line, Santorini.


(Note that the olive print with the creamy yellow background is backordered)
I lovelovelove these prints! The colors match my kitchen and living room and I’m dying to get my sewing machines out finally to make some pillows out of these.

Next up is the newest from Tula Pink, Hushabye.

(Note there are two other small scale prints available in all the colors, they are listed in my etsy shop.)

This is such a fresh line for babies. My niece is expecting her second baby next spring and I’m excited to make something special for him or her out of fabrics from this line. I just love all the little hidden animals and surprises to be found in the details.

My friend Erin has a great blog: Damknit. Not only does it have one of the most creative and snarky names in craft blog-land but is also a fun read. Erin and I “met” online on a scrapbooking website eons ago. It was because of her that I rediscovered my knitting bug and started blogging and podcasting (briefly!)

She went from being a beginner knitter to spinning her own yarn in record time. She is pretty much self-taught in all her various craft forms. You should see her mad crochet skills! Recently she decided that she wanted to advance her spinning skills and applied for a scholarship to attend SOAR this fall in Oregon. She needed reference letters and I was more than happy to lend a good word or twenty to help her achieve this goal. I was not surprised in the least when she won one of the coveted spots. The thing is is that she lives in Arizona. As I mentioned, SOAR takes place in Oregon. Not exactly right next door.

You see Erin works really hard waiting tables to help support her family. She doesn’t make a lot of money so buying a round trip plane ticket is a real luxury. But in usual Erin style she looked at the problem and set a goal to solve it. She scored a load of decorator samples at a local thrift shop and set to designing an awesome needle holder for interchangeable needle sets. She has been working her fingers and sewing machine to the bone making these and listing them on her etsy shop. All proceeds from the sales will go toward purchasing her plane ticket.

I’m thinking I may just need to invest in a set of Addi Clicks just to have an excuse to buy one of these for myself. Looking at them I think they’d also work great for all those miscellaneous double point sets I have rolling around in the bottom of my knitting bag too. If you have a need for a small, compact, CUTE! needle case this would be the perfect solution. Go now. Buy one, or five!