Yard Sale

This Saturday I'll be having a yard sale, craft sale, and bake sale.  All to benefit the shelter and Crafters for Critters.

Successful day at Pet Valu

We had a successful day of sales at Pet Valu today.  The store manager even bought some items to stock in her store.  People enjoyed looking at our crafts and chatting about their pets.  Here's a photo of Monika at the table - doesn't she look like she's having fun?

Here's one of the beautiful kittens waiting to be adopted.  She's laying on cat beds made by Brenda and playing with a mouse toy I made.  We've made 60 cat beds for the shelter so far.  I'm making the mice out of wool socks to be donated to the shelter.  One of the siblings of this kitten found a home today.  Unfortunately that was the only adoption.

You are welcome to post comments on the blog's entries!  Just click on "comments" below.

Crafters at Pet Valu Customer Appreciation Day

I've just confirmed that Crafters for Critters will have a table outside the Pet Valu tomorrow (July 24)!  Pet Valu is located at the Kingston Town Center across the parking lot from the Loblaws.

The Kingston Humane Society will be having an adoption drive, so come see the pretty kitties hoping to find homes and check out our crafty creations.

Let's all hope that many cats find homes tomorrow!

Shelter needs foster homes

The shelter really needs more foster homes.  They have some kitties who need some extra TLC and some pregnant cats.  If you know anyone who would be interested in fostering, tell them to get in touch with the shelter.  Thanks.

Upcoming events

I'll be having a yard sale on July 31st to raise money for Crafters for Critters and the Kingston Humane Society.  In addition to the normal household  items, there will be a crafts table, bake table and maybe even a lemonade stand.

I'm accepting donations for any of the tables.


On August 1st we'll have some of our crafts available at the Kingston Humane Society's booth at the Agility Connection Trials at Lake Ontario Park.

Aug 6-8 has us at the Sheep Dog Trials at Grass Creek Park.

If any club members want to help out at any of these events just let me know.

Grandma knitting wool cat toy balls.

Genuine felted wool balls hand-knit by this genuine old lady

Knitted critters:  a couple of the furry mice (a gray and an orange with white fur), a skunk, a red and a purple/pink critter.  I called the large colourful ones "tribbles".  They were a bit of trouble.

Grandma visits

My mom from Halifax came for a visit.  She knits all the time.  She does a lot of knitting for her various charities in Halifax and she was more than happy to knit up a few things for Crafters for Critters.  We spent a few days working out a pattern for little critters.  We sat in the back garden and knit some furry little mice and a few other critters too.  We played with different colors and textures.  I think the felted furry mice are the cutest.  We stuffed a few with catnip.  The larger ones could be kids toys or pet toys.
Grandma also had an idea for felted balls (it came to her at 4am).  She knit several and we felted them.  Some have bells inside.   I took a photo of her with her knitted balls and made a humourous poster (picture and caption above).  We had a good laugh over the poster and she thinks it's a good idea to display the poster when we're selling the balls.

Photos of things we've been creating

Our Second Meeting

We had our second meeting last night.  Thank you Andreanne for hosting. We had two new members join us, Mary and Jennifer.  Mary brought a box of items to donate.  She had knit some nice blankets for the shelter cats too.  Linda is knitting scarves, dog outfits and catnip mice.  Andreanne's cat loved the sample she brought.  Linda is also collecting used books to sell.  Monika has made some more cute dog bandanas and pads for pet carriers.  Brenda has been working hard at producing more beds for the shelter cats.  She brought some smaller sized ones to fit in the pet store cages. Andreanne made some nice price tags with our logo on them.  I sewed a colourful banner for our club, and brought a few samples of other items I'm working on.

We discussed selling and pricing and I'll be reducing the prices on the bandanas.  We hope to get out to some of the Kingston Humane Society's community booths and sell some of our items.  We discussed the cost of materials and we have decided to continue to donate our materials as well as our time so that the shelter gets the maximum monetary benefit from our efforts.  We'll make what we can with what we have and with what we receive from donations. 

We talked about getting more exposure on the internet, no one is interested in setting up and maintaining a facebook page at this time.  I'm trying out this blog and a google group, so we can share some ideas and pictures and so new members can see what we're all about.  Mainly for now, we are keeping in touch via email.






 

Apparently the shelter is now over-flowing with animals needing a home. The foyer is full of rodents as well. There's even a ferret, and I saw a gorgeous white angora bunny yesterday.
I'm more of cat person myself.
If you were thinking of getting a new pet, maybe now is the time.

Crafters for Critters - How it started (I'll be brief).

Back in May 2010 (not that long ago), I had an idea to make some beds and toys for the cats at the Kingston Humane Society. I also wanted to help with fundraising. I've been a long time crafter (mostly needlework) and thought about making crafts to sell. I knew I couldn't produce enough on my own so "Crafters for Critters" was born. Almost immediately other crafters signed on and within a few weeks we had our first meeting. Everyone and enthusiastic and we came up with lots of ideas for the club. In just a few weeks we have provided many kitties with warm soft beds, dogs with flashy "Adopt-Me" bandanas, and we have already raised a few dollars through craft sales. There's lots more in the works. We've been busy crafting and creating. We're having our second meeting this week and we hope to get some more sales by setting up a table at various up-coming events. Our group continues to grow as we welcome more crafters.

Keeping in touch and up-to-date: I'll try (when not busy crafting) to post here some of the things I'm working on and what's going on with the club in general. I welcome (and encourage) any other Crafters for Critters members to blog here as well and let us know what you're working on.

We support the Kingston Humane Society 100%. All of our proceeds go directly to the KHS or Crafters for Critters club for supplies. So far, we have been donating our materials as well as our time. We also accept donations of crafting materials. We are completely non-profit!