Facecloths!

Today I was blessed with a box of crocheted facecloths for shoe boxes!  Mrs. E Wiebe, from our congregation, saw a blog post I had made about learning to crochet so I could make some facecloths for shoeboxes.  She has been faithfully sitting by her husband's side as he has been in palliative care at the hospital for the past few months and to fill her days, she's been crocheting.  Today she dropped off 90 facecloths! She plans to carry on, making more as she spends more days in the hospital. The square ones have a bar of soap inside (wrapped in a bag).  These will be used to fill boxes at our church-wide packing party this fall.

Always amazed by the generosity of some people.  Instead of focusing only on the negative, she chooses to use her time to bless others.  And in turn these facecloths will be a part of a shoe box that will travel across the world, to share about God's love with a child.  Amazing!

Chalk

This week I found some chalk on clearance at Superstore.  Regular $2/pail these are on clearance for just .50 cents each.  These would be great for either gender and all ages.

I think most kids would have a place to use these...a street or cement wall, but I think of those kids living in areas that are more lush and green.  Cement may not be something that's plentiful, so I think a small chalk board would be a great addition to these.
They come in a small pail with a lid and handle, so I think it could be repurposed once the chalk has been used.
If you do go on the hunt for these, check the clearance bins when you first walk in, as well as the toy section.  Lots of summer clearance...

More Garage Sale Success!

This weekend I hit up some more garage sales.  I find it's best to know when a town or area of the city is having multiple sales as it increases your chance of success.  This past Saturday was the garage sale day for Island Lakes in Winnipeg  (Whyteridge area is also a good one, always the Saturday before Mother's Day).  It means getting up a 6am as I have a 1.5 hour drive into the city.  But I also scored some deals for myself and was able to visit a friend in the hospital, so definitely worth the trip!

It may be hard to see what's all in the picture, but I found:

- New set of hair barrets and headbands for 50 cents
- Beanie Babies in packaging for 50 cents each
- New cars pencils for 25 cents
- Skipping ropes, marbles, tiara, large bouncy balls for 25 cents
- Thomas train and monster truck for $1 each
- Wooden X's and O's game for $1
- Fuzzy socks were free...brand new found in a bag of hand me down clothing my friend passed along to me from a co-worker.

To find these things, I often looked in a bin marked 25 cents.  Yes there is a lot of stuff I didn't want. Pieces of stuff, obviously used things and just general junk.  It takes time, but there is usually a few treasures that work well for shoe boxes.  Either new in packaging or things that look new.  The thrill of the chase...always so fun.  ;)