CurlyPops Two Hearts - The Production Line

**This is not a sponsored post, but I did receive the Phillips Perfect Care Aqua Iron as a gift to keep.

It's safe to say that this poor little blog has been very neglected lately....

A combination of full time work, living a whole new life, and then a bit of a stint in hospital has meant that I haven't had the time or energy for blogging... but I wanted to update everyone on the outcome of the CurlyPops TwoHearts Teatowel fundraiser.


I only have iPhone photos from the production line, so please excuse the photo quality!

There was much excitement in my office, when the giant box full of printed CurlyPops Two Hearts yardage arrived....

The stack to be cut, ironed, hemmed, re-ironed...

In completely serendipitous timing, I was contacted out of the blue to see whether I would like to test the new Phillips PerfectCare Aqua Iron...... ummmmm YES!!!

My iron was about 15 years old, and I was completely dreading the task of ironing 100 cotton linen blend teatowels.

Photobomb by Foster Cat

It's soooo good!

I was able to iron four teatowels at once and steam them like you wouldn't believe. Even after 100 teatowels, there was still plenty of water left in the steam reservoir.

I have friends who have raved about these type of irons, and I never GOT it. Now I get it! I'm a convert for sure.

All cut and ready to hem

The most exciting part is seeing how much money we raised for the Heart and Lung Transplant Trust (Vic)

In other wonderful news, that I haven't been able to share until now. One of my TwoHearts friends has received his new heart and is doing really well. I'm so happy for him!  My other friend is still waiting and I'm hoping and praying that his call comes soon.

An extra special thanks to all my lovely instagram friends who let me use their photos, and to everyone who supported the project by spruiking or purchasing a teatowel. Crafty peeps rock!

Life Flashes and the Fat Mum Slim Photo-a-Day Challenge

 

'Make your wish count. Discover, decide and discuss organ and tissue donation'.

A few weeks ago, I posted about the Life Flashes photography competition that is being run throughout December and January by The Heart Lung Transplant Trust (Vic) as part of DonateLife Week 2013.

I know that everyone was really busy with the lead up to Christmas, and lots of people asked me to post a reminder once all of that was over and done with.... so here 'tis

I'm calling out to all of my creative friends today to join up for a fun photographic competition.

I'm a member of the Heart and Lung Transplant Trust (Vic). It's an organisation that assists pre and post heart and lung transplant recipients at the Alfred Hospital.

The HLTTV is running an online photographic competition named 'Life Flashes' through December and January to celebrate DonateLife Week (24th February - 3rd March 2013) and promote organ and tissue donation.

DonateLife Week is organised by the Organ and Tissue Authority and held every year to promote organ and tissue donation. The theme of DonateLife Week 2013 is 'Make your wish count. Discover, decide and discuss organ and tissue donation'.


How the competiton works:

• Take / create a photo for DonateLife Week in line with the 'Make your wish count. Discover, decide and discuss organ and tissue donation'.

•  Write a  50-100 word essay to accompany your photo to explain how it relates to the theme and promotes organ and tissue donation.
  

•  All photographs will be published on the HLTTV Facebook page, and shortlisted photographs will be blown up and printed on large canvasses and displayed at The Alfred Hospital during DonateLife Week 2013. They'll be seen by thousands of visitors and staff.

•  There will also be a small launch event at the start of DonateLife week where prizes will be awarded to the winners.

In other exciting news, Chantelle from Fat Mum Slim has chosen the Heart Lung Transplant Trust (Vic) as her charity for the month of January 2013.

From Fat Mum Slim:

♥ I get a lot of requests for charities to be involved in the photo a day challenges, and I’ve had trouble figuring how I could make it work. I thought that in 2013 we could donate a prompt to a charity and bring some awareness.

For January I wanted to share the charity: The heart and lung transplant trust. So prompt number 3 is for them. They’re holding a photographic competition over this month to bring awareness in the lead up to Donate Life Week 2013 {24th February – 3rd March 2013}. You can read more about it here. The photo competition is titled Life Flashes, so feel free to add the hashtag #LifeFlashes to your heart photo.

All the details on how to play along are on Chantelle's blog. On the third of January, I'm hoping to see lots and lots of hearts with the #LifeFlashes hashtag. 

If you're posting them on Instagram, make sure to include the hashtag so that I can find them all and include them in an instagram poster for our DonateLife Week Life Flashes Photograpy Exhibition at the Alfred Hospital!

Any questions - please email me!

A Call for Help - EDITED

Sorry for the unscheduled break in Crafty transmissions, but I just arrived home from the Hello Etsy event that was on tonight to find the following email in my inbox from the Heart and Lung Transplant Trust (Victoria) Inc

Page Link

The Age newspaper reported on 17 September that The Alfred is considering restricting the number of lung transplants it performs due to budgetary constraints. 

Read the full article on the Age website here and a further article dated September 22nd here. 

If there is one issue our Trust should take a stand on it is this one.

As we all know, transplant is lifesaving surgery and the suggested reduction in the lung transplant program will mean likely premature death for some of those on the waiting list.  In addition, it will also have an adverse impact on donor rates which defeats the purpose of recent government expenditure and advertising that has gone into this great initiative.

The Trust is deeply disturbed by this report and is considering how best to address the issue with The Alfred and various government stakeholders. 

The Committee urges all members to take up this fight with their State government representative. 

We would also encourage letters be sent to the following recipients:

Minister for Health
The Hon. David Davis, MLC
GPO Box 4057
Melbourne
Victoria 3001
david.davis@parliament.vic.gov.au

 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Premier of Victoria
The Hon. Ted Baillieu, MP
Office of the Premier
1 Treasury Place
GPO Box 4912V V
Melbourne
Victoria 3002
ted.baillieu@parliament.vic.gov.au

 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Andrew Way - Chief Executive
The Alfred
P.O Box 315
Prahran
Victoria 3181
Andrew.Way@alfred.org.au

 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Members may wish to use the following wording to help their drafting.

• Example government letter here
• Example Alfred letter here

Can you spare 15 minutes for me.... please? My life depends on it. 

EDITED: - I've created my own versions of the protest letters to make them much easier to copy and paste

Premier

Health Minister

Alfred (feel free to delete the HLTTV member details first)