Tag Archives: do-gooding

Last week, I sent a few sets of wooden sheep and alpacas to several of my “famous” knitwear designer friends and yarn makers to see if they would dress them up to help us promote them. They have been appearing on Facebook this week, and Susan B. Anderson just took this game to another level. She made sweaters for her animals, and if that wasn’t amazing enough, today she published free patterns so you can make them too!

I gave a speech in NYC a couple of months ago and one of the slides I showed was, “People will help you, if you ask them.” I am so grateful that I stepped out of my comfort zone to ask busy, important people to help us with this project. And I am even more grateful with their response.

You can get your own set of sheep, alpaca, goats, llamas and bunnies in our pop-up sheep shop.

A couple of years ago, I did a blog post about some really cool DIY sheep ornaments I made for my Christmas tree.  I cut realistic sheep shapes out of wood and wrapped them in scrap yarn from my stash. The results were so lovely and rustic that I ended up making a who bunch more to use as gift tags for my handmade gifts.  It was one of our most popular, most Pinned post of all time.

I also get tons of emails every week from people who don’t have the tools or the skills to cut their own own sheep out of wood, and are looking for a source for realistic wooden sheep cutouts.

I found a few sources for good wooden sheep but no matter how often I updated the post, the emails still come when the suppliers I linked to sold out.

So my amazing, adorable husband volunteered to become my sheep supplier. He can do just about anything and he always exceeds my expectations. For example, I gave him the outline of one sheep to use as a template; he came up with the other two on his own.

Our adult ewe sheep has been joined by a yearling and a tiny lamb! Aren’t they the cutest?

And for the alpaca lovers…

He even hand stamped the muslin bags to ship them in.

You can use any kind of yarn to wrap your sheep and alpacas.

I wrapped this one using a self-striping yarn. You just have to pay attention to the color changes if you want to make stripes. (A dab of glue from a glue gun can help keep everything in place if you’re anxious but it’s definitely not necessary.)

Here’s another example of variegated yarn. I didn’t try to keep the stripes together on this one.

Here’s the best part:

This year, we will be donating a portion of the profits from the sale of Sheep Stash to Heifer International, to continue or long tradition of donating livestock to help lift families out of hunger and poverty. In previous years, we have raised enough money to purchase 6 sheep, 2 goats, 2 pigs, 2 hives of honey bees and several flocks of geese, ducks and chickens. It’s one of the most rewarding things we do here at JMF and it’s a tradition I hope to keep up for years to come.

To purchase your very own set of Sheep Stash Sheep, visit our Facebook shop. I’ll post the total of our donation to Heifer International when all is said and done.

Oh, one more thing– I would love to see your Sheep Stash once you wrap them! Please post them to our Facebook page so we can all be inspired.

Wow. I am speechless. We not only met our goal of raising $1500 for pediatric cancer research, we blew right past it raising $1865!!

I’m not entirely sure why this particular charity speaks to me so deeply. All of the kids I “know” who have fought cancer, I don’t know well. Only one of the moms would be able to identify me by name. Two may recognize me as someone they’ve seen around the neighborhood or school. Perhaps it’s the fear that one day I may discover a strange lump on my child’s back. I can teach my children to look both ways before crossing the street and what to do if a stranger asks them to help look for a dog. I can’t protect them from cancer.

While the St. Baldrick’s shaving day is essentially a big party (food, drinks, live music, raffles, photo booths), the days starts with a presentation. It introduces you to the children you’ve raised money for. It tells the stories of survivors and angels and their siblings and parents. It is always powerful and always requires several tissues. Then the celebration begins.

Thank you dear readers. Thank you JMF friends. Thank you family. Thank you friends that I see every day and friends that I haven’t seen since high school. I am amazed by your generosity and truly humbled at the support that has poured forth.

Look what you did! By supporting Juniper Moon Farm this year, our lovely readers have helped us raise enough money for our Heifer International Fund this year to make a donation of:

• Two Flocks of Geese
• Two Flocks of Ducks
• Two Hives of Honey Bees
• Two Llamas
• Two Sheep
• Two Pigs and
• Two Goats

Think about that. Your dedication and loyalty to this blog has helped us to help Heifer International life fourteen families out of poverty this year. Fourteen, y’all. That’s huge. That’s insanely, ridiculously huge. It’s more than quadruple the donation we made last year!

You are amazing, kind and generous people. Thank you for helping us pass on this gift.

**You can continue to support Heifer International through Juniper Moon Farm by making all your Amazon purchases through our affiliate links here on the blog. All the dollars we earn through Amazon are donated to Heifer at the end of each year.

A few days ago we got an email from Mike Monteiro and the folks at Small Can Be Big asking if we could use the Lambcam to help raise money for homeless families and of course we said yes.

For one hour on December 26th, anyone making a donation to Small Can Be Big would have their name posted on the Lambcam for the world to see. Amy and Paul agreed to stand outside with a white board while Mike tweeted about the fundraiser.

I’m thrilled to report that Paul, Amy, Mike and Juniper Moon Farm raised $2281 in one hour for Small Can Be Big. $100 of that total came directly from JMF, because I told Paul I’d donate $100 myself if he would dance with Jerry on camera. See photographic evidence below.

It was awfully cold out there while Amy and Paul were putting donors names up on the board but they were lucky to have a lovely warm home to go into afterwards. Homeless families aren’t so lucky. It’s easy to forget how blessed we are, isn’t it?

If you are feeling grateful for all that you have why not share a little bit of that gratitude with Small Can Be Big in the form of a small donation? Even $10 can make a difference.

So much thanks to Amy, Paul and Mike Monteiro for all the work you put into this, and to the 60 people who made donations during the event. You all made a big difference today.

Juniper Moon Farm has a whole lot of shareholders and friends living very close to Moore, OK, the site of yesterday’s horrible tornado. It looks as if we got lucky– I’ve heard from the people we love and they are all okay.

More than any other weather, tornados terrify me most, probably because I grew up in “Tornado Alley”, but also because tornados are so unexpected, so fierce, so capricious in their destruction. The come from out of no where with very little warning and tear people’s lives apart, smashing one house to bits while skipping over completely the one next door.

I have no words of wisdom when these things happen– I don’t know anyone who does — but I believe there is no greater reminder that it’s the people on our lives that matter. Not our possession or our plans. Just the people who we love.

There will be a whole lot of people hurting in Oklahoma for a good long time. In the meantime, where you live in the world, take a little time for grace this week. Be more gentle with the ones you care about. Show them your love every time you see them.

They say that life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans. Well, a whole lot of life happened in Moore Oklahoma yesterday. And they are going to need a whole lot of help before they are whole again.

This link has lots of great contact information and  need info for anyone who if looking for a way to help. The need is great, and there are many opportunities to pitch in. If you hear of any specific needs, please share that info with us so we can help get the word out.

Tonight, my heart is breaking for Moore Oklahoma.