What better way to tell your mother (or the mother of your children) that you love her than by donating to fighting a disease that will strike one in eight women? Really, who needs flowers? Donate to a Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure walker instead!

I tried that pitch last year with admittedly limited success, but I still really like the idea. You can offer personalized letters, cards, or other small gifts for people who make donations in their mother's (or someone else's mother's) name. That way, the person has something to physically hand the special lady on her special day.

Mother's Day is May 9 this year, so you have about a month to plan and execute this fundraiser. Here's a sample of the letter I used last year. Good luck (and happy Mother's Day!)

P.S. If you are a loyal ChaiLattePlease reader and aren't raising money to walk in the 3-Day yourself, may I suggest donating to one of my lovely team members? Linda, Molly, Vicky, and Jennifer are still working to reach the $2,300 minimum goal.

P.P.S. I'm running a little late this morning, so I'll post the new giveaway later today. But as always, you can comment on this post to enter the giveaway (if you're eager to enter before you know what it is :)

Next week's Friday FundRAISER will feature a pretty successful quilt raffle.

I've been kinda behind (read: busy/lazy/mostly busy) and didn't really pick winners for the Friday giveaways UNTIL TODAY. To be all formal and official, I set up an account at Random.org and used their Third-Party Draw Service.

For the pink frame: Shannon from Texas is the winner. (Her odds were incredibily good, seeing as how she commented twice and there were only four qualifying comments total.)


And for the pink toggle bracelet: Rhowena is the winner out of nine entries.


And for the pink New Balance keychain: Becky Gibbs. (Some super-nice person left an anonymous comment saying they really liked my blog. Which made my day. But anonymous comments cannot be entered into the giveaway. For what should be obvious reasons :)


This Saturday, I'll pick a winner for the Cooling Headband giveaway. Then, I'll have two more giveaways: a pair of cute cell-phone charms and two pairs of pink ribbon shoelaces.

Thanks for reading my blog.  :)

Okay, so maybe my score shouldn't be zero - I've been wearing contact lenses for a little over a week. I've actually been WEARING them up until Sunday evening, when I dislodged one while rubbing my right eye. It was later at night so I figured I'd just take them out and call it an evening, but my hands were coated with puppy love and food (having eaten and played with BlackJack since last washing my hands).

So, I closed my right eye and went to wash my hands before I touched my eyes. Somewhere in the process, I involuntarily blinked and MY CONTACT FELL INTO A SINK FULL OF DIRTY WATER. Curses. I put on my glasses, turned on the lights and looked for the darned thing everywhere, but alas, found nothing.

I gave up.

The next morning, when it was light again, I drained the sink and LO AND BEHOLD, there was my contact, resting peacefully in the drain strainer. I plopped it in solution and pondered whether I could still use it. By ponder, I mean I called the Walmart Vision Center and the lady who answered the phone asked me a series of questions prompted by a computer program. It ultimately informed us that soft contacts tend to absorb whatever they are sitting in. So, if the dish water had soap and random food particles in it, I MIGHT feel some burning if I put the contact back in my eye.

I elected to just toss that contact and open a new package. I swear, I had NO IDEA these things were so complicated. ;)

So if this isn't a fundraising idea that will RAISE you up, I don't know what is. It might, in fact, inspire you to host a PG-13 rated bake sale ... but I guess the world could use a few more of those :)