Yesterday was the Christmas gift sort at the Humanitarian Service Project in Carol Stream. After shopping for craft supplies and packing up the kits, Q and I loaded up the car and headed over to the warehouse for delivery and some gift sorting.

We joined a large group of people helping out yesterday and talk about an efficient group of hard workers! We sorted, counted, bagged and tagged two giant batches for gifts for families in the area and even had time to sort donated books PLUS eat a slice of pizza (thanks HSP!). The experience of helping with the gift sort this year was great - just knowing that we were a small (but important) part of a family's holiday was very rewarding.

In addition to all the gift sorting shenanigans yesterday, I was also very excited to see that Sheila at HSP mentioned QQ on the HSP blog December 7th! Here is the link to the feature!

http://humanitarianserviceproject.blogspot.com/2009/12/crafty-christmas-idea.html

Sheila had e-mailed me earlier in the month after she had found my post about doing the Creativity Kits. I was so happy to learn that she was just as excited as I was about the little project! It was nice to meet her and other staff members yesterday. We are already looking forward to the next project!

SQ

Greetings!! Yesterday was the final day of the Quintessential Quirks Creativity Kits donation drive to benefit the Humanitarian Service Project. My goal at the beginning of this drive was to raise awareness about HSP and put together 5 creativity kits to give local kids the opportunity to grow their creativity. I'm very happy to say that the QQ Etsy store sold 48 items from November 1st through December 6th so I will be donating 48 arts & craft items... enough to put together 5 kits (plus a little bit more)!

Here are photos of the stash so far! My friend Chris is going to be adding a few things from her scrapbooking stock too so there's a bit more to come. Next weekend we are going to volunteer at HSP and will deliver the boxes. I hope the kids enjoy them!


In other exciting news, Q and I officially booked our first craft show. It will be at the Handmade Market Chicago on April 10th, 2010. We are sharing a 4 foot booth and I can honestly say we have zero experience with craft shows! Regardless, we are excited!

That is about it for now. Q had a great feature recently on Unplggd.com in an article all about gifts made from old recycled tech. You can check it out here: Unplggd.com

... and we are ready for Christmas

... and ready for a bit of a crafting break. Both shops will be going on vacation next week until after the new year. We've had a wonderful year creating and have so many ideas for 2010. Thanks for reading and I'll be checking in once again before Christmas.

SQ

I opened my inbox earlier this week to discover the latest newsletter from the Humanitarian Service Project (HSP), a wonderful non-for-profit in our area dedicated to serving the less fortunate in Kane and DuPage Counties. For several years Q and I have participated in HSP activities such as buying presents for giving trees and helping with gift sorting around the holidays. Well... as I was reading through the newsletter at the verrrry bottom there was a note about a new spin-off of the popular birthday box project HSP does. Instead of birthday party supplies, they will be collecting arts & crafts supplies in kits for children ages 8 - 12 and up to 15 for the holidays. I got so excited! This is a great opportunity to give to the community in a new way... and not only that.... but in a way that supports and fosters creativity in young people!

I immediately set to work trying to figure out how to raise awareness while also gathering supplies and I decided to incorporate the Quintessential Quirks Etsy store. So for every item sold from November 1st through December 6th, 2009 I am going to donate an arts & crafts supply. The supplies will be assembled into creativity kits to be delivered to HSP on December 13th when Q and I participate in the annual present sort.

I've already put a notice up on my Etsy store and I sent a preliminary tweet out. My goal is to be able to provide 5 creativity boxes to HSP by December 13th. I can't wait to get started!

SQ

... and just a quick note about another exciting development... today my Red Tomato Poptop was featured in this Etsy "Do-It-Yourselfer" Gift Guide!