Donors Choose

It's that time of year again, and the wonderful Sarah Bunting of Tomatonation.com is running a contest throughout the month to raise $250,000 in donations to Donors Choose. What is Donors Choose? A place where public school teachers throughout the country put up requests for desperately needed supplies. A place where you can donate money (even just a dollar) for a specific project, allowing you to make a real, concrete difference in children's lives. The Tomato Nation Donors Choose page is here, where you can see eligible requests and the progress so far. What happens when the Tomato Nation goal is reached? Sarah Bunting will dress up in a tomato costume and personally deliver a frosty beverage to one lucky donor. Also, there will be other prizes awarded at the end of the month, and mini-prizes every day.

Unfortunately I'm not in a position to donate a lot of money this year, so instead I am donating my time and skills. Last year I made a pair of tomato earrings, this year it's tomato pendants:
The idea came from Indygo Junction's Yo-Yo Blooms pattern -- little stuffed yo-yos that have a tomatoey shape in my eyes. By using red silk and a bit of green wool felt, they became even more tomatoey. Donate to Donors Choose, and maybe you'll win one!

Bet Red

Sars over at Tomatonation runs a contest every year to raise money for Donors Choose, a wonderful charity that helps classrooms all over the country. To help out this year I decided to make tomato earrings to donate to Sars, to serve as one of the mini-prizes she gives out during the contest.

I started with big-hole wooden beads which I sloppily painted red and then covered with red delica beads:
I then made a sort of headpin from green wire which I formed into a spiral and strung on the beaded beads. The holes were still too big, so I added some size 8 beads to stabilize the earrings, then did a wire wrap loop to finish them off. The results:
So all two of you who read this blog -- check out the contest and donate if you can!