Situation:  My Nana is staying in a rehabilitation facility until she recovers well enough to return home, and that day can’t come soon enough for her

Challenge:  Send a little bit of sunshine her way every day to make it easier for her to deal with the situation

I ruled out flowers because they are expensive to send one time, much less every day.  New plan!  Picked up a bunch of random greeting cards from SCRAP.  Cards are 10 cents each, and envelopes are a nickel each.  However, finding envelopes that are the right size to match the cards is time consuming and frustrating, so I picked up a stack of collage paper at a penny a sheet.  I luckily stumbled on pages from a desconstructed book on Sunflowers, which would really help me send a bit of sunshine her way.  Making envelopes is a cinch.  It took maybe an hour to make enough envelopes to go with all of the cards I bought.

I started signing cards and writing crazy things in them.  One of them I signed from her dog.  One I signed from all of her grandkids and their families.  Another one wished her Happy Administrative Assistant’s Day just for the heck of it.  Lots of them contained cute animals, silly jokes, or pretty flowers. I made address labels on my printer, slapped ‘em on, and added postage.

Four went in the mail the first day.  Anywhere from one to three cards went into the mail each day for a week.  Some were sent from home, and others dropped into the mailbox near work.  Then I waited.

She thanked me for the first day of cards with, “Do you believe I got 4 cards from you in one day?”

Every day I spoke with her after that she seemed tickled to be getting mail, and apparently her nurses are teasing her about being so popular.  When I spoke with her this morning, she said, “I have gotten nine cards from you so far!  I have run out of room for them on the windowsill, and I think they will need to go on the bulletin board next. They make me smile.”

Achievement unlocked!!!!

I didn’t tell her that I picked up another batch of cards, envelopes, and collage paper after my shift at SCRAP yesterday, so more are coming!  My objective is to have a ready stash of sealed cards that I can trickle into the mail every day.  As she starts to get better and is ready to go home, I will just change the address on the cards so she will continue to get them.  With a couple hours prep work and minimal out of pocket cost, her mailbox will be overwhelmed but she’ll know I am thinking about her.

Combining the details and photos of two Saturdays at SCRAP in one post since I have been so busy lately!  The jewelry bin was overflowing, so I spent most of one Saturday untangling necklaces and separating earrings from pins. Lots of bling-y costume jewelry that would be perfect for playing dress-up!  I found a beaded bracelet that someone obviously spent a lot of time on.  It was strung with elastic thread and had some cool texture, but from a distance it sort of looked like a sweat band wristlet.  There were many sewing notions to sort through, and we found pieces of a galloping horses wall plaque.

My fellow volunteers have caught on to my habit of taking pictures of the odd things we find when sorting.  When they find something interesting they will often bring it to me so I can snap a photo for my “archives”. They are also willing to take pictures of me. Rather, I will find something, and they will say, “There needs to be a picture of you with that,” which explains the photos of me in an Anne Geddes-esque sunflower headband as well as a Chinese dragon mask.

I had a nice chat yesterday with Mike, a gentleman looking for a hand-cranked pencil sharpener. He has one in his personal studio, and needs one for his grandchildren. He is having difficulty finding one, and he refuses to purchase an electric one. His reasoning is that electric ones can easily break or be lost, and he can bolt down the hand-cranked pencil sharpener. Makes sense to me. Unfortunately, we didn’t have one on hand for him yesterday. Perhaps next time?

Another busy day at SCRAP. (Is there any other kind in December?) A huge donation of vintage holiday greeting cards came in, and they were flying out the door today. Keri posted a cool video earlier this week with five quick ideas to use them. Inspired, I took home a dozen or so to use as gift tags.

I sorted and priced the contents of the button bin in between ringing up customer purchases. There has been a run on buttons, which seem to be flying out the door as soon as we put them out. I bagged a group of really cool vintage white molded plastic buttons that are going to be terrific embellishments in someone’s project. I also bagged an assortment of random stuff that included tax tokens. They were in poor condition, but it was fascinating to see them because I had never heard of them before.

My favorite moment today was ringing up a gal who was purchasing fabric. She asked me if I knew of any places where she could borrow a sewing machine if she couldn’t borrow one from her friend. I smiled and told her, “Right here at SCRAP!” She was perfectly giddy about it. I showed her the workshop rules and she made plans to come back very soon so she could sew Christmas gifts.

Other interesting finds today include “Betty Brite” nut cups, a felted hanging dispenser, a Christmas Aluminations project book, and a snow globe computer mouse thing.

SCRAP was super busy today, as everyone seems to be feeling the “almost Christmas” crunch. Many holiday greeting card packs sold today! Yarn and gift wrap are going fast, and fabric is (as always!) very popular. One lady I chatted with purchased notions, a small assortment of fabric, and a creativity pack* (all in brilliant hues of orange and pink!) to stuff a stocking for her niece. Lucky girl!

I put a number of ceramic molds on the floor, including a pretty songbird one. Wrangling them out of the storage area left my sweatshirt looking chalky, so it was very easy to pick me out as a volunteer. Okay, so the name tag and tool belt usually give me away, but I am sure the chalkiness added to the authenticity. Our sorting discoveries today include a grocery sack filled with vintage Legg pantyhose, “Freedom from Consumerism” currency, American Cancer Society posters, and a Mexican card game.

Soundbite of the day is courtesy of a fellow volunteer: “Technology question? Forget the app. There’s a Jenn for that!”

* Sweet little assortment of goodies assembled by volunteers for use in collage or other craftiness.

Most weekends I can be found volunteering in the store at SCRAP (School and Community Recycling Action Project). Sorting and pricing donations are a large part of the work. It’s a bit like exploring a crafty estate sale every weekend. I’ve been diligent about taking pictures of interesting objects, but have not posted many of the pictures outside of my Flickr account.

It’s time to change that! Here are some recent finds.