Cookbook Update - And A Special Announcement!

Well we are most definitely down to the short and curly end of the cookbook. Some amazing people have been donating long and hard hours to the cause. Anna, Bev and Isla have been motoring through the collation and proof reading of all the wonderful recipes donated by you. Thank you ladies.

One very very special announcement we have is that we have a printer! McPhersons Printing Company - who can be found at www.mcphersonsprinting.com.au - have kindly offered to print a small run of cookbooks that we can then sell and hand on to those affected by the fires so they can rebuild their cookbook library's. We want to extend our greatest thanks to McPhersons Printing for this generous offer and are super happy that corporate Australia is coming on board.

So never fear - your recipes are being well cared for and once they have been primped and preened will be appearing very soon on a book shelf or website near you!
xx Gilly

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packed to the rafters

Thank you everyone who has donated to the restash a crafter effort! Your generosity has filled out every possible storage nook and cranny we can find and has us sorting into the wee hours. You are all amazing!!

At this stage we have as much stuff as we can deal with so I'd like to ask you all to hold off on sending more stuff in. Keep an eye on the blog, as we'll post here from time to time when we have a specific need we can't meet, and if supplies run low we'll let you know.

The best way to help now is let us know if you know of anyone or a group from a fire affected area who might need our help on the restash front, we have so many great things to get people crafting with and we really want to see it get out there.

Thanks again.

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Kids Art And Craft Supplies Needed!

We urgently need Art and Craft supplies for a Home Schooling family who lost their home in St Andrews on Black Saturday. Perhaps you might be able to help?

Do you have any of the following items you can spare? Please send them to Mike's clearly marked 'HOME SCHOOLING FAMILY' and we will pass them on to the family's case worker. Please be sure they are marked clearly, otherwise they will go int a pile of things to be sorted and their delivery will be delayed.

• Acrylic Paint (2L bottles were lost - but any size appreciated) - various colours, particularly primary colours
• Artist brushes, various thickness
• tubes of artists paint (particularly red, blue, yellow)
• printing materials (such as rubber stamps, ink pads, ink rollers, stencils)
• scrap materials (eg upolstery samples, or other samples, fabric remnants)
• felt
• wool
• beads (wooden, chunky)
• beads (small, jewelery style)
• oragami paper
• plaster
• candle/paper/card making kits
• specialised drawing kits
• cut out stampers
• sticker books
• derwent pencils (or similar good drawing pencils)
• art books
• hole punch
• glitters of various colours
• collage materials
• glues (craft glue / glue stick)
• blue tac
• highlighters
• sticky tape
• staples/stapler
• puppet kit
• coloured paper (eg small glossy coloured squares, kinder squares, craft papers, drawing paper)
• weaving loom
• spindles of wools/cotton
• paint pots (kinder style) / paint stand

Thank you!

Handmade Help
C/- Meet Me at Mike's
63 Brunswick Street
Fitzroy 3065 Australia

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Handmade Horticulture

Are you a gifted horticulturalist? A greenish thumb? Even a thumb of the khaki variety.

We want you to be a part of 'Handmade Horticulture', we need local people on the ground around bushfire-effected areas. We need people who can write, take photos, organise and share their gardening knowledge. If that sounds like you, (and I bet it does!), pop over here and drop us a line.

Ta x
Image: inthemix.com.au

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Things Are Happening!

Just checking in to say that we've had two calls today from case workers helping families affected by the fires. Things are needed by people who have lost everything:

One lady desperately needs paints - anyone have any paints or painting supplies? Oils and watercolours, brushes, easel. Please?

And a home-schooling family who are needing lots of craft supplies for their kids - glitter and string and pretty tape and lovely paper and textas, acrylic paints, pens, pencils and the like. I'm thinking excellent children's books and perhaps a cd player and some stories on CD would be good too for these guys.

We will make a start on these things this week - but would love to fill these needs within 2 weeks. Can you help?

Please email us if you can.

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getting re-stash stuff out there

Just to let you all know a few more stories about getting your donations connected with the right recipients.

Thanks to some volunteer transport (thanks Kirstie) a load of stuff is making its way up to Kinglake next week for a patchworking group starting at the Kinglake Community Centre. It is great to be able to help out this new group.

If you have any fat quarters or backing or binding fabric sufficient for a whole quilt do please send it in to us. Make sure it is clearly labelled KINGLAKE PATCHWORKING GROUP - as we're having quite a job keeping the donations for re-stash a crafter sorted and stored in a way that makes getting them out easy. Your help in labeling would really be appreciated.

In other news we've been contacted by Sarah, who is coordinating some knitting groups in Kinglake and Toolangi looking for extra supplies for her group. In particular Sarah has found it really hard to get a hold of whole jumper quantities of yarn since most donated yarn has been of the oddment or recycled kind. The focus of the group is garment knitting so sourcing larger lots of new yarn is now a mission! They are especially interested in colours suitable for men's garments and any good patterns for men's garments too.

There's also a call from Sarah for machine washable 8 ply pure wool in teddy 'skin' colours (browns, greys, black, cream, beige etc) for the trauma teddy learn to knit group - single balls are OK for this one - and 3.75mm knitting needles.

We've been able to help out with a bit, but not enough, so if you have any of these things we'd love to get them! Again, please make sure they are clearly labelled - SARAH'S KNITTING GROUP so we can make sure they get tot he right place as quickly and easily as possible.

It is great to see some of the goods that have been donated reaching the right people and we look forward to forging more partnerships with people in affected communities.

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Lots of bags!

A load of beautifully-made fabric bags arrived from Queensland (organised by Dewdrop Inn in Hervey Bay), and are on their way to Monica to fill with goodies for comfort packs.

The next drop-off point is likely to be in the Bendigo area. There are 50 homeless families there and the aid agencies have contacted Monica.

So far we have lots of bags, but there is a need for COMFORT toys to put inside. Soft handmade (or new factory-made) cuddly things to appeal to any age from toddler to tween. If you can help, please contact Monica or one of the drop off points listed on her blog (including me).

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Hold the Yarn!

Thanks SO VERY MUCH to everyone that has donated knitting needles, yarn and crochet hooks too!

We have plenty of yarn and needles now, and are only in need of bulk donations of yarn (jumper quantities to be specific!) So if you can help with that - send your yarn on to us - and mark it 'JUMPER YARN' - so we can sort it more easily!

And don't worry - if your yarn is in transit now and it's a smaller quantity, we will be sure it's put to good use in these areas!

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Update - Donations Delivered

A pile of fabric, sewing supplies and some baby items were sent out to a family who are expecting a baby in a few months and lost everything in the fires. They are currently being housed in Melbourne, while they await more permanent housing. They requested some quilting supplies, and also a few things for their impending arrival.

Thanks to everyone that has donated things so far, we really appreciate it - as do families such as this! Further updates as they happen.

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