Crafting for a Cause

My Oldest son Nio, goes to Catholic school.
And every year the school does different fund-raisers to subsidize the school funds for all sorts of activities, updates and just the daily grind of running a private school.

This year, I decided to join the Mardi Gras Committee. And with a fund-raiser like Mardi Gras, there's always a lot of work to be done  for all the different booths for the carnival. 

One of the booths is a Doll Raffle Booth - I gladly obliged to help this area although honestly, I really wasn't sure what I could do to help until they gave me this box...

Not much to work with- a few scraps of fabric, some beads and flowers and of course, the dolls

The leader of this group just told me to dress up these dolls like Princesses and make them look more attractive than their current state. I was up for the challenge, even though I never worked with dolls before, and so here they are…

Ta-da! All dressed up and ready to raffle!

Ok, you don't think I won't brag about each and everyone right? After all, they were all a 'labor of love'… and glue gun ( you know I can't sew!)!

Not the prettiest I suppose but my favorite since she was the first!
I added glitter glue on her sash, flower and hair cut up a bead strand for earring and sequence head dress. I also put rhinestones for her ring and bracelet.

Difficult fabric to work with, I think it's an upholstery fabric, but still turned out pretty I think.
Made the hat from an empty ribbon spool!

Another difficult fabric to work with, very stiff, but still with draping and the ruffles, I think she turned out pretty too.
I added a left over ruffle for her head dress.

I think she looks so modern and simple I only accented her with a ribbon hat and red flower.

Love how the purple fushcia ribbon added to the ends of the fabric made the white stand out.

This is flannel fabric I actually bought at Joann's clearance for $1.50 for 1/2 yard. I love the fish scale pattern and mixed with the greys, pastel elegance!

The 2nd brown fabric I had to work with, I added glitter glue to the dots for some bling and gave her lots of ribbons

The 2nd white fabric but this time I used blue ribbon as accent and shawl

I love the ribbon when  properly cut eventually looked like a crown. I also bought that black tulle with glitters from Joann's clearance for $1.50.

Fuschia and black looks so elegant combined, I added rhinestones on her neck too!

I really enjoyed making these and never realized how fun it was to drape and mix fabrics up on these little models. I hope they sell well during the Mardi Gras!

Which one is your favorite?

Have a Great Weekend! 

VEL 

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Linking back to...

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, A Stroll Thru Life, Our Home Away from Home, Linda's Coastal Charm, The DIYers, The Dedicated House, Work It Wednesday, Savvy Southern Style

Doing Small Things with Great Love

One of my favorite quotes come from Mother Teresa of Calcutta…

source

When the strongest typhoon to ever hit land came to my home country the Philippines, I was expecting the worse. My fears were realized with the aftermath…

source

We were very fortunate to have our families and friends spared from the storms wrath, but we still knew we wanted  & needed to help, not just with the little monetary means we could offer but  with something more.

Living 18,000 miles away,  it wasn't easy to do something more than just send money. Again, the world of blogging and social media came to my aid…

My Chef & Blogger friend, Malou Perez-Nievera from Skip to Malou came up with the idea to use her talent in cooking to raise money for our fellow countrymen affected by the storm. She called this
"One with Tacloban".

Check out her BLOG here

Lucky to call her my friend

Of course, she needed people who were willing to host these fund-raising dinners.
She eventually had 5 total planned, and I along with our other friend , Vivian Deloso, became one of the 5 to host this dinner  at my home!

I was more than willing to share my home because hosting a dinner party was actually something 

we could do, something I could do!

So I sent the invites..

Malou planned our simple sit-down dinner Menu…

And got ready to set up the tables the day after Thanksgiving…

Green table

Red table

Gold table

Since it was the Holiday weekend, a lot of people were not around to join us, so we were only expecting less than 20 people. Despite the small number of attendees, a lot of our friends wanted to help and gave generous donations even if they could not make it.

So last November 30th, we started cooking, with Malou on the helm ….

A true happy cooking chaos in our kitchen!

The three Cooking Claus! 

Aside from the main menu above, my husband steamed a huge Flounder and I made Pumpkin chocolate mousse!

Adobo bites with Mango Slaw for appetizers ready to be served!

Since it was a sit-down dinner, the whole team including my husband and Malou's, were the servers for the entire dinner! 

Service with a smile!

The Gold and the Red table were used by the guests and the Green table became ours, mostly, since we were busy serving food or wine to our guests.

It was fun and a huge success - Food was simply marvelous and the company equally so. Overall, we collected almost $3,000 to send to the victims of the the typhoon!

We decided to give it to a non-profit  called Mu Sigma Phi Foundation, where Dr. Deloso, Vivian's husband was a member of.
That way we know our help can reach the victims DIRECTLY!
It was to be used for a clean water filtration system - something really much needed in the area.

We feel truly blessed that we were able to do this small gesture of support for our countrymen.
Indeed, Mother Teresa summed up what WE all did and came here for that night - doing our small thing with great love.

MABUHAY, God Bless & Have a Wonderful Weekend!

VEL 

 Would love to hear your thoughts! Please share away...