Whenever I hear about people who are struggling, be it financially or physically, I always get this sinking feeling in my gut. I wish there was more I could do to help others, I wish I were a millionaire so I could just give them the money they need. It makes me feel so tiny when I can’t be of much help.

What I can do though, is offer up my creative talents in hope to raise a little bit of money. Recently I did a fundraiser on Instagram for a very good friend’s sister-in-law. The Wargo family is incredibly dear to my heart, so I wanted to do SOMETHING to help. (You can read all about Arianne’s story here.)

I decided to sell these embroidery projects, which are done on hand-painted fabric. The space fabric was so much fun to paint! A little nerve wracking though, as you can never tell exactly what it will look like until it is dry. Once the fabric is ready, I embroider the designs and then add stars with white acrylic paint. I just finished all of the Tardis ones, up next is another Serenity and a couple of my ‘Dueling Fandoms’ design. I think the best part is the fact that I found glow-in-the-dark embroidery floss! Fact: Everything is better when it glows in the dark. (Sadly, I had already finished a few before I found the glow floss.)

I also sold a handful of paintings, and some tiny sculptures. I was able to raise about $400, and I’ve been working hard this past month to get everyone’s orders filled. But it doesn’t feel like enough. I really wish I could do more.

I searched everywhere for some 5×9 sized embroidery hoops, and finally ended up finding a few on Ebay. Who knew that size would be so tricky to find! I bought 6 when I finally found them, even though I only needed two. But when they came in the mail, I was super disappointed in the quality of the frames… The outer rim doesn’t match up perfectly with the inner rim and there are these tiny gaps. It isn’t a huge deal, and most people probably wouldn’t even notice. But it drives me crazy. I almost want to add some sort of padding to the inner rim so it will fill in the gap. Maybe some mounting tape would work. I’ll have to do a little experimenting this week.