The Merry Church Mouse: January 2010

Heartbroken...

The events of the past few weeks in Haiti have been constantly on my mind. My heart is broken for the children who are lost and hurting and confused and possibly mourning the death of one or more parent, and almost certainly someone that they know, a friend or relative. We looked at possibly adopting a child from Haiti a few years ago and realized that we just do not have the financial resources to make that happen, so that may be part of the reason I am so torn apart for these children. I read a statistic recently where it said that the number of orphans was expected to jump from around 380,000 to over 1 million because of these earthquakes. Nearly quadruple. This would constitute approximately one ninth of the entire population. I can't even fathom that.
I was recently made aware of an organization called Churches Helping Churches. It was formed just a couple of weeks ago specifically to help churches in Haiti to begin to rebuild, and to help the families in the churches to begin to pull their lives back together. The following video is incredible. It is a difficult watch, but so very worth it. It is a sermon given by Mark Driscoll who is one of the pastors at Mars Hill Church in Seattle. He is also one of the founders of Churches Helping Churches. I urge you to take the time to watch even though it is difficult and does take about an hour and a half. It certainly put a lot of things into perspective for me.

What a production....

Sheesh...
You'd think with this much lighting....

You'd think my pictures would come out looking better than this...

Any of you photographer types got any suggestions for me? This is the only spot in my house that has any natural light to speak of, and it's January in Minnesota, cold, icky, snowy and rainy outside. I need help!

Craft Hope for Haiti

I thought I would post this for those of you who might be interested. Craft Hope has set up a special Etsy shop to benefit Doctors Without Borders. The money raised will go to help those impacted by the devastating earthquakes in Haiti. The instructions for those who would like to donate are listed here. I decided to donate a boys lounge set that I made earlier this fall.

One Block Wonder...

I finally started a One Block Wonder quilt. I have been thinking about doing one of these for a couple of years now, so I finally bought the book, found a fabric that would work and started cutting. I think this is going to be fun! Not only is every hexagon unique because of the way that the fabric is cut, but there are three options for every one as well! I can't wait to start sewing and see what happens!

Fabulous Friday blogs...

I've decided to post some links to other blogs that I have found and enjoy reading. I can't guarantee that I'll be able to do this every week, but I will try and do this occasionally on Fridays.
This weeks pick is Blue Cupcake. Just look at these awesome cupcakes!

Puppy pattern

I have had several inquiries over the past couple of years as to what pattern I used for the stuffed puppies that I have made and blogged about here, here, here, and here.

I thought I'd share what pattern I used for these cute little pups here in case there were any others who wanted to know what pattern to use. The pattern is by McCalls. Number M4893. You should be able to find it in your local fabric store. I bought mine at JoAnn's.