New Banner and Badge

Nancy (of themailbag.etsy and nanalee.etsy) and I decided that we needed a bit of a sprucing up regarding our banner, badge, and colors. Nancy created a nice celtic badge that is available on our Yahoo Groups page, and I had a new banner and badge made by Custom Graphics on Etsy.

The banner and badge were created with a font that I very much like, but it does not come with any possibility of upper case H and U, so these will be sent anew with a corrected font within a few days. I do hope you all like the change. I will upload the badge and banner with the corrected font as soon as I receive it. I will be notifying Etsy teams support also, so they can update our team profile page. Feel free to grab the badge if you like, either from the blog or from the Yahoo Groups page.

Post Edit: It appears we will be keeping the font as is for the time being. If it becomes a problem in the future, or active group members would like a change, we will look at another remodel at that time.

Stripey goes to Sacramento

Just wanted to share with you the finished donation sock monkey for the Craft Hope Project #4. He is complete and went out in the mail yesterday to his destination. Amilia fell in love with him and gave him a very warm goodbye. We sent him off with loving thoughts and a note to his new human.

Hop on over to Craft Hope and see the photos of the 101 monkeys they have already received...

Sharing Our Gifts Across America feature

This is a cross-over post because I wanted to share with you the wonderful places on which my project has been featured today. We are growing each day, and getting the word out there. Today, we are featured in TWO places!

1. DinnerTime Chimes has featured us on the Etsy Team blog NCTriangle. Even though our project is not specifically Etsy, this team blog has opened its arms to our project, and I am so thankful for the mention. Check out the blog and all the wonderful Etsy sellers there as well.

2. Kae at Kae1Crafts has joined our project drive and has featured us in her blog post today as well. Kae has two Etsy shops: one for her crafts and one for supplies (shops currently on vacation mode). She also has her own ongoing charity project, donating knitted wool helmet liners to military troops. Specifics on her project and how you can help are found on her Squidoo page.

Visit and Stumble It! Even if you cannot personally engage in either of these projects, please Stumble this post and visit each of the links and Stumble those as well. Then, if you Twitter, tweet the projects for us. For Sharing Our Gifts, please add the hashtag #sharingourgifts to your tweets. (you can just hit the Tweet This button at the bottom of this post if you like, and use the Share This button above the post.)

Thanks Kae and DinnerTimeChimes!

Cotton Lunch Bag by WhoaItsMe

I am off to the seaside today. While I am gone taking lovely photos to share, hop on over to ThisNext and see this eco-friendly and sophisticated cotton lunch bag. Feel good about carrying your lunch! (via WhoaItsMe)

Change The World Wednesday

It's that time again...changing the world, one Wednesday at a time. I am going to make this our regular Wednesday post here at Hoarders Unite. We are eco-friendly as a group, since our mission statement is to use up stash to curb consumerism and hoarding, after all. This week, we are doing it with a snazzy new logo. If you click on the logo, you will be taken to Reduce Footprints' blog (the creator of this challenge) to see all the official stuff like rules and such. Do you like the change? Answer my poll on NatureWithMe in the right hand column...

Last week was composting, and otherwise reducing your contributions to the landfill. Though I did not create a new post this week for it, I did follow the challenge by continuing to compost and recycle. We took our twice yearly trip to the dump (we do not have municipal trash pickup) and got rid of the things we could not compost, upcycle, recycle, freecycle, or otherwise use or donate. How did you do with the challenge? If you need composting tips, you can read my older posts here and here.

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Now, for this week's challenge:

This week's challenge comes from one of our new bloggy friends, Millenniumhealth, at ... well ... Millenniumhealth. It's an easy activity and once again shows us that small actions matter ... especially when we all do them. Here it is:

This week, put your computer to sleep or set it to hibernate when it's not in use. If you need help in doing this, check out these sites:

Use Standby and Hibernate

Manually Put Your Computer Into Hibernation

Or ...

Typically, if you're already doing the first part of the challenge, I ask you to write about it on your blog. This week, however, we're going to do something different. If you are already in the habit of putting your computer to sleep or turning it off when you're not using it, look around your home and identify one other "sneaky" area that uses electricity. Come back here and, in the comments section, tell us what it is and how you'll either eliminate it or reduce it.

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I started this last night by shutting completely down for the night. I would like to see a change in my energy bill to reflect the environmental love I am sending out!

Also, if you Twitter, please retweet this post and add the hashtag #CTWW.
Visit the new forum for CTWW at Blog Catalog, set up by Tony Beach.

And, I am adding the CTWW Honor Society to this post as well:
Weekly Honor Society:

Tony Beach and at http://entrepreneursocialnetwork.blogspot.com/2009/08/smallfootprints.html and at http://www.retaggr.com/Page/TwitterOnlineSystem

Harveyavatar

Sharon Hightower and at http://www.jewelrytreschic.etsy.com and at http://artisanjewelrydesigners.ning.com/profile/SharonHightower

Cindygeenotes at http://dragyourfeet.wordpress.com/2009/08/20/small-footprint-gentle-hand/

The Wayland Springs Cook at http://waylandcook.blogspot.com/2009/08/compost-for-change-world-wednesday.html and at http://waylandcook.blogspot.com/2009/08/honor-soceity-for-cange-world.html

The Dafthermit at http://dafthermit.ning.com/ and at http://theblackbuscompany.blogspot.com/2009/08/change-world-wednesdays-by-our-friend.html

Connie Mishali at http://seewhykinsman.blogspot.com/2009/08/change-world-challenge.html

TC at http://livesmartbook.blogspot.com/2009/08/recycling-made-easy-with-earth911com.html and at the BlogCatalog Group he started here: http://www.blogcatalog.com/group/change-the-world

Green Gal at http://greenbeangal.blogspot.com/

Brian at http://the-new-author.blogspot.com/

Harmony at http://harmonytravel.blogspot.com/2009/08/welcome-to-my-world.html

S. Engelmohr at http://sengelmohr.blogspot.com/2009/08/recycled-items-in-your-home.html and from last week's challenge: http://sengelmohr.blogspot.com/2009/08/change-world-wednesday-this-week-i-want.html

Joe Todd at http://www.myqualitytime.net/2009/08/change-world-wednesday-time-to-start.html (I also hear that Joe put CTWW on his facebook page so if you're a facebook member, look him up there).

Annie Kelley at http://akannie.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/august-20-2009/

Elizabeth Barrette at http://gaiatribe.geekuniversalis.com/2009/08/20/how-to-shrink-your-garbage/

Eemilla at http://eemilla.wordpress.com/2009/08/19/clean-and-green/ (for last week's challenge).

Sober White Women at http://thoughtsofasoberwhitewomen.blogspot.com/

Dora Renee' Wilkerson at http://y2k-hippie.blogspot.com/

EcoGrrl at http://ecogrrlnetwork.blogspot.com/

Ken at http://www.thegreenapartmentblog.com/apartment-recycling/

Harripao at http://blogodril.blogspot.com/2009/08/change-world-wednesday-and-karinda.html

Kate at http://holdfastseeker.blogspot.com/2009/08/one-thing-for-planet-compost.html

Rewinn at http://rewinn.blogspot.com/2009/08/carbon-neutral-book-shipping.html

Swap-O-Rama-Rama

(photo from swaporamarama.org)

Have you heard of Swap-O-Rama-Rama.org?

"Swap-O-Rama-Rama is a clothing swap and series of do-it-yourself workshops in which a community explores creative reuse through the recycling of used clothing.

The Swap When you attend the swap bring at least one bag of your unwanted clothing and a small donation (each swap varies depending on available funding). Every swap begins with a giant collective pile of clothing, the unwanted clothing of all who attend. Everyone is welcome to dive in and find their next new/used items from the pile. Take as little or as much clothing from this pile as you like, it's all free"

Doesn't that sound like a wonderful way to share the spirit of giving (and receiving), and to promote recycling and upcycling? I would love to see one of these in my area, and one of the wonderful aspects of this organization is that the opportunity exists for anyone to produce an event in their city. Ashland, Oregon anyone?

Hop on over and take a look...

Handmade Hope- September Challenge

In my Internet travels, I ran across a succession of blogs that led me to one called Craft Hope. I am very happy to have found this site because it puts important things together. It combines the importance of beauty, appreciation, caring, sharing, helping, and hope all into a tidy bloggy box of love.

In doing so, it puts helping people together with those who are in need of help. Here is what the founder, Jade, says in her About section:

"Craft Hope is a faith-based, love inspired project designed to share handmade crafts with those less fortunate. It is our hope to combine our love for crafting and desire to help others into a project to make a difference around the world."

This is similar to my goal with my sister blog, Sharing Our Gifts. I have not been as faithful in developing that blog as I would like to be, but finding Craft Hope has helped kick my thoughts about it back into gear. Meanwhile, I think I am going to join in on the Craft Hope current project to make a sock monkey for the Little Heroes Preschool Burn Camp in Sacramento, California. The camp is by the Firefighters Burn Institute in Sacramento, and runs from September 25-27, 2009. I encourage you to join me in this September Hoarders Unite Challenge and do the same.

So, the link above to "sock monkey" will take you to a place to learn how to make a sock monkey, and to purchase a sock monkey kit if you (like me) have never made one. Even more exciting, a message on the Craft Hope Nest Bulletin Board from Tamara at sockmonkey.net states that she will give a discount on sock monkey kits to any person purchasing specifically to make a monkey for this project. If you don't need a kit or a discount, sockmonkey.net is just a fun place to visit for free pattern ideas and monkey inspiration.

The deadline to get your sock monkey in for this project is September 18. If you're interested, visit Craft Hope and get started!