As you may have noticed, we haven't had the heart to post since Tuesday's horrific earthquake in New Zealand. It's been the most distressing time in New Zealand's recent history and it didn't feel right to blog about craftiness while others were trapped or waiting to hear from loved ones.
Many people we know have family they were worried for, or have found, or have lost, or are still waiting to hear.
Many crafters we know who live in Christchurch such as Nin @ The Wardrobe ( http://notchkas-wardrobe.blogspot.com/ ) or Gil @ MudbirdNZ ( http://felt.co.nz/shop/mudbirdnz ) have lost their studios, their years of gathered up craft supplies, but escaped with their families.
And everyone who I (Aimee) work with (in my day job, in the healthcare sector) have either volunteered to fly down to help with the medical response, or have helped to man the healthcare phone lines to talk to distressed or injured Cantabrians.
For those of us without medical skills, or those of us with small kiddies meaning we can't fly down to volunteer in the clean up, there are plenty of other ways we can help from afar. Trademe is running a great round-up of registers where you can offer a place for Cantabrians to stay; assist the initiatives underway; or donate to appeals.
And as they did in September, after the first Christchurch earthquake, the handmade community is again rallying around to help by offering our goods in return for fundraising.
Both Greta and I have donated several prize packages from Lily Pad Designs and Topography up for auction in L'il Magoolie's "L'il Quake Appeal" - which is bound to be anything but small. All the cool and caring children's designer product businesses in New Zealand have donated prizes to be auctioned off, with all the proceeds going to the Red Cross Appeal.
Maddie from L'il Magoolie is herself based in Christchurch and has gut wrenching, personal accounts of how the quake affected her here. Read them and you will be moved, I swear. She's very brave to be putting together an auction to help her community, despite being one of the very people who need our help and care.
Secondly, many of our good friends and crafty colleagues on Felt are passing on the proceeds of their sales this week to charities such as the Red Cross. Felt is based in Christchurch and while its owner Lucy and her family are safe, Felt's headquarters have been affected and they are really emotionally shaken up. If you go to http://www.felt.co.nz/ and have a shop around, you will find lots of listings and stores on there noting that their proceeds go to charity.
My top picks of Felt sellers donating goods are:
Songbird Designs - gorgeous vintage jewellery, unique and made with love.
Cat Taylor Design - bunting and oilcloth zipper purses, perfect gifts for friends - you can stock up on presents for the girls.
Tinch Design Studio - restickable wall stickers and fabric magnetic images.
Cloud Nine Creations - beautiful hand-drawn etchings - check out the awesome wall art saying "I love NZ" or her tiny earrings and charms.
Laulipop Vintage dresses - beautiful upcycled cotton summer dresses. I've already bought the purple and blue one for my miss one.
There is also a couple of facebook-based handmade auctions - just type in 'handmade for Christchurch' or 'charity auctions for Christchurch'.
Please have a hunt, and lend a hand. xx
