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Zipping it Up….

November 21st, 2017

If you’ve been following here for a while, you know I’ve been making zipper pouches for charity. Last summer, a friend and I made 100 to send to an orphanage in Indonesia of girls affected by the tsunami a few years ago. After that project, I decided to make 400 *gulp*, one for each child in the school I work with in Colombia. It was definitely a lesson in perseverance, many times I thought I was never going to finish. But I am finally finished!!!!! This bag is filled with 200 of the zipper pouches, the other 200 are already back in Ohio.

I have been collecting school supplies and raising funds to purchase additional supplies (stickers, erasers, small toys, etc). to fill the bag. So far I have quite a stockpile going. In February, a group of 15 is heading down to the school and they will be taking them to the kids. I’m looking forward to seeing photos of them receiving the pouches. Most of these kids are so poor they can barely afford clothing, let alone good school supplies. The charity I work for runs a sponsor a child type program where we raise scholarships to pay for their education.

This project was not only a lesson in perseverance for me, but also a great lesson in the value of small pieces of time. I very rarely sat down and made large quantities of these pouches. Most of the work was done in 5-15 minute segments when I had a few minutes here and there. Over the course of a year, a lot can be accomplished in seemingly small chunks of time.



Now that this project is finished, I’m moving on to make more zipper pouches for my marketplace. Yesterday I made the one pictured above, which is probably my most favorite of any I have made. These pouches will be slightly bigger (9″x6″), many of them will have metal made in USA zippers, and there will only be a few made in each pattern. I will most likely make different sizes as well. For each zipper pouch purchased, I’ll make another zipper pouch to donate somewhere in the future. No doubt I’ll find another charity that can use them, when I have enough, I’ll send them along. If you’ve been looking for a few gifts for friends/family, check out the market when it launches.

What charitable projects have you been working on recently?

The Market

November 14th, 2017

I’m slowly getting the Cultivate Simple Market going. This weekend Mr Chiots set up the e-commerce site for me, now I need to watch a few videos and start adding products. I also made 100 seed packets. The text/lines are printed and I stamp the image above them. I’ll be using these to package all the seeds I harvested from the garden this summer. I’m also planning on selling empty ones for those that save their own seed.



Overall, I’m super happy with the way they turned out. I’m looking forward to using them for seed I save myself and for gifting them to gardening friends. Stay tuned, I’m working hard to get the store up and running in a week or two.

Do you save seed from your garden?

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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