Christmas Cards for a Cause

**UPDATE January 2, 2014: We have been able to raise $801 for this sweet family from just these cards. Thank you SO much for all who contributed! God bless!

For many of us, this Christmas Season is full of so much love, tradition and laughter.

And for the Teemant family, that's always been the case. But this Christmas has brought new challenges and heartache as Leo, the father of 3 sweet children (8, 6 and 3) passed away Monday the 9th of December, just 2 weeks before Christmas.

Maya, the oldest, is in my son Ian's school class, and I'm wanting to bring some joy to their incredibly sweet family.

Leo was diagnosed with melanoma right before his wedding day 11 years ago. It was treated, and he was cancer free for over 8 years. After a successful 10 year career at Novell, he decided to finish his bachelor's degree and took 2 years off work to do so. Living off of savings, he graduated and was ready to take on new successes. But only a few days after graduation, he was diagnosed with stage IV cancer, with no warning signs or preparation. Unable to get work because of treatments and his prognosis, their family has struggled but stayed so positive through it all. Leo was a volunteer at my son's elementary school and their family has served so many people.

But a few weeks ago after much medical intervention, his situation took a turn for the worse, was too advanced, and he lost his battle with cancer last monday.

Needless to say, losing a father  and husband is anyone's worst nightmare. But added to that the financial burden of not having employment the past 2+ years, and depleting their savings to achieve his life long dream of getting his degree, their family could definitely use holiday cheer.  

In these situations, you just want to do everything you can to help. And since I've been so late getting my holiday PDF cards out to you, I thought, this is the perfect thing to help out their family.

I've created 6 new cards for you to print and use for gift giving (or even framing!) this Christmas.

100% of the proceeds will go to the Teemant Family this Christmas.

I'll report on the amount at the New Year.

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE

Last year, if you remember, we raised  $800 for the Sandy Hook foundation in Newton. This year I'd like to raise as much as we possibly can for this sweet family.

Tell your friends and spread the word. I hope we can make the ache a little less deep and bring a bit of cheer.

You can read more about the family and see the memorial fund set up in their name here. 

Giveaway #5: Matilda's Macaroons

Last and final giveaway this Christmas Season....

Matilda's Macaroons! 

A brand new ETSY shop featuring handmade, hand sewn goodness!

Owner of

Aspen Fabrics

(online fabric store) Cecilia Zalinger says there is plenty of fabric to work with, and so she decided to create custom hand made items for those of us that would prefer not to take the time to sew it ourselves. Brilliant!

The quality is top notch, and I can't wait for you to have a look around!

Today,

Matilda's Macaroons

is giving away a Baby Quilt featuring my CHILDREN AT PLAY fabrics

(most 90% of which are all out of print!!) measuring 32" x 32". What a treasure!

I can't wait to see this go to a little person! These are still some of my favorite fabric prints.

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And as an added bonus, she's also offering Sarah Jane readerss 10% off all orders with code "christmas" 

Huzzah!

HOW TO ENTER: 

1) Leave a comment below

(optional) 

2) Like her brand new 

Facebook

page and leave a comment below saying you did

3) Giveaway entries

close Monday December 15th 10 pm EST 

Giveaway #4: Southern Fabric

Southern Fabric

is saying hello and Merry Christmas today with a $50 gift card towards anything in their shop!

One lucky winner will get to choose from their vast supplies of fabric. Horray!

A little about Southern Fabric: 

Southern Fabric

has been in business for 9 years and is still going strong! They just love the relationship they have with their customers, seeing creativity happen daily, and getting to play with fabric every day!

Oh, and did you hear they are the Friendliest Fabric store on the block? Yes siree!

They are currently having a 12 Days Before Christmas Special, which is good news for all of us! 

(Today is the 5th day)

5th day - 25% off all Bella Solids Coupon Code: 25bella

6th day - 25% off all Full Priced Jelly Rolls Code: 25jelly

7th day - Free Gift With Each Purchase

8th day - Free U.S. Shipping Code: freeship

9th day - 25% off all Full Priced Yardage Code: 25yardage

10th day - 10% off Storewide - Code : 10off

11th day - 25% off all Full Priced Layer Cakes Code: 25cake

12th day - 20% off Storewide all full priced items Code: 20off

And check out their incredible SALE section

here. 

See their

website

for more details!

HOW TO ENTER: 

1) Leave a comment below

(optional)

2) Follow them on

Facebook

and leave a comment below letting me know

3) Follow them on

Pinterest

and leave a comment below letting me know

4) Giveaway ends MONDAY December 15th at 10 pm EST

Giveaway #3: Quilt Sandwich Fabrics

Today's giveaway is from Quilt Sandwich, and I couldn't be more excited for you!

Quilt Sandwich Fabrics is two sisters, Kris and Becca, who love to sew and quilt. We love so many fabrics that we decided starting a shop was the best way to see a lot of them! We both felt that the fabric industry was something we wanted to be a part of because it's creative and exciting - there are so many great ideas online, new collections coming out all the time, and tons of people we admire (some of our favorite fabric designers are Anna Maria Horner, Kaffe Fassett, Tula Pink, Amy Butler, Denyse Schmidt and Heather Ross). We wanted to do something that we feel passionate about so we started our shop in 2009 on Etsy and have just recently moved to our own website, which we are really excited about. We hope that our new website allows us to offer a better selection of fabrics and also some new products - we have some beautiful ribbons by our favorite fabric designers, and we are going to be adding patterns and kits soon. We love choosing new fabrics for our shop and luckily we tend to like the same things, so buying is a lot of fun. We think we have a good eye for fun, eye-catching fabric and we have a fun sense of humor that we bring to our shop.

WHAT THEY ARE GIVING AWAY: 

QUILT SANDWICH is giving away 6 quarter yard cuts of fabric to go with this LOTS OF DOTS quilt pattern (by Green Bee Patterns)

Quilt Sandwhich is also offering 15% off to Sarah Jane readers with code: SARAHJANE (now through Dec. 31st)

HOW TO ENTER:

1) Leave a comment below

(optional)

2) Follow them on FACEBOOK and leave a comment below letting me know

3) Giveaway ends Sunday Night December 15th 10 pm EST

For more info and goodies, follow them on FB and their BLOG 

Thanks Quilt Sandwich!

Giveaway #2: ATLY creative classes

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I'm so excited to introduce atly to you.

atly is a brand new (launched this summer!) online creative class platform and is a fantastic place to spend a lot of time...learning, creating, making and engaging.

Their message: LEARN | IMPROVE | INSPIRE

I have been so attracted to their message, their clean, easy to navigate site and  their emphasis on forever learning for all ages. I love that you don't have to subscribe, but rather have the choice to take classes as you see fit. I love that they take a portion of their profits and donate to the Women's and Children's Education Fund. I also love that it's also set up in a way so that if you wanted to teach classes, you could earn a very good side income by sharing your gifts with others.

I asked them to share a little about their business so you can get to know them a little bit more:

Tell us why you started your shop:

atly was conceived because of a belief that we are never too old or too smart to learn.  We believe that life is best when we are learning from one another.

What sets your company and makes your work special?

We love being in a position to influence without borders, without restraint.  We hope to inspire and educate people across the globe.  We are believers in making education fun and accessible for everyone.  We are going to great lengths to enhance the learning process for our students.

Anything special for the holidays?

We'd love to spread the word. - Like Santa, we're giving away free stuff. We hope people will take advantage of our free classes.

 * * * * * *

What are you giving away?

atly is offering 1 free class of the winner's choice, with the upgrade. Some classes come with an upgrade option that includes instructor feedback.

Are you including a discount for our readers? 

We're going the extra mile here--readers have access to two free classes that are currently posted on our site. The

Buttercream Basics class

is free, and the

Crockpot Freezer Meals class

is free for the first 2,000 registrants.

* * * * * *

HOW TO ENTER:

1) Leave a comment below and tell us what class you'd love to take!

(optional)

2) Follow atly on Instagram and leave a comment here letting us know

3) PIN an image from the atly BLOG or WEBSITE and share the pinterest address of your board or pin here in the comments below

4) Follow atly on FACEBOOK and leave a comment below letting us know

5) Giveaway ends Sunday Night December 15th 10 pm EST

OTHER PLACES TO FOLLOW ATLY: 

Facebook,

Blog,

Pinterest

and

Instagram

GIVEAWAY #1: Fat Quarter Shop

A week of Giveaways! Just in time for the holidays. Each day this week I have a new sponsor offering a giveaway that will ship in time to arrive at your door before Christmas. I'm so excited!

First up, Fat Quarter Shop. 

I asked them to share a little about their business so you can get to know them a little bit more:

Tell us why you started your shop:

Kimberly started Fat Quarter Shop in 2003, after falling fast for the art of quilting.  She found that many of the fabrics she wanted were hard to find, and she decided to open an online storefront with top quality quilting fabric, making it accessible to everyone!

How long have you been in business?

Fat Quarter Shop opened in 2003, so we celebrated our 10 year anniversary this year!  We celebrated with the Deck-ade the Halls Quilt Along!  You can expect many more quilt alongs of this nature in the future!

Anything special for the holidays?

Our annual Countdown to Christmas begins on December 13h, and we will have different sales each day!  There will be plenty of opportunities for BIG savings, so follow along on Facebook and Twitter!

Fat Quarter Shop will give away a $50 gift certificate to one lucky winner! 

TO ENTER: 

1) Leave a comment below

(Optional)

2) Like them on Facebook and leave a separate comment below with that info

3) Follow them on Twitter and leave a separate comment below with that info

Have fun and thanks again Fat Quarter Shop! 

World Wide Windows

My mom took a day trip to London yesterday (my dad was just admitted into Oxford University, so they were there visiting) which was perfect timing to see the Ralph Lauren windows at Bond Street in London! Gosh. I wish so bad I could be there in person. It's such a gorgeous building!

(I asked my mom for a souvenir but all she could find were outfits more expensive than my stroller:) So fancy Schmancy. I love it.)

What a fancy little trip, and I just love seeing all your candid pics in front of the windows!

I'm starting to get instagrams and emails with people visiting the window displays around the world, and I can't wait to see yours!

If you are planning on bing in New York City, Chicago, London, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong this Christmas, don't be shy, and take your pic  in front of the window display!

{Click here for a list of stores}

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I would love to have a little collection...especially since I don't even know what the set up is in the other stores besides New York and London.

So do share! You can facebook, instagram, or email. 

Happy Christmas!

xo

Sarah

New Holiday images

I'm getting ready to load up some "print your own" holiday cards....for any of you that like the comfort of your own home, your own time table, and filling in last minute gifting requirements:)

(I fall into that category big time!)

I just love this time of year. It gets me every time.

Stay tuned!