Three Bags Up at BFZ!

Yes, come one, come all.  There are three bags up for auction at Bags For Zaza this week.  We’ve been on summer holidays for a bit, but we’re back up and running, well, sewing.  There is something for everyone this week!  All the proceeds of this eco-friendly fundraiser go toward the adoption of our little Zaza from Colombia.  We have been impatiently waiting for her for over 2 1/2 years now, but with each day that passes, we’re one day closer to hugging and kissing her.

Without further ado, may I present THE BAGS:

#1 is a saucy little lavender number for a little girl or a lady who likes to pretend she’s a little girl.

#2 is a more sophisticated carrier bag that is fashioned after a “birding bag” with lots of pockets and a handy shoulder strap.

#3 is a handbag in the stylish colors of black & white with a splash of lime green thrown in there too.

So, if you please, go have a look at WAY more photos of each bag, make a bid or two, and PLEASE tell a few folks about our cause.  We are nearing the end of our wait… the thus our sewing time too, unfortunately. 

www.BagsForZaza.blogspot.com.  THANKS SO MUCH!

A Bag for Zaza!!!

My mother made this beautiful handbag to be auctioned for our adoption of Zaza, our little Colombian princess…. who is still in Colombia waiting for us to come and get her.

To bid on the bag please go to:  www.BagsForZaza.Blogspot.com.

To read our adoption news, please go to:  www.ZazasMama.wordpress.com.

Yes, we’ve been on a sewing sabbatical, but we are slowly getting back in the swing of things.  Please keep checking back at Bags 4 Zaza for more beautiful creations.

Changin’ it up at BFZ

The format for the auctioning of the bags on Bags for Zaza changed!  We now are aiming at having a bag available every single day, instead of down time on Sunday and Monday.  SO, this beautiful tote is up for auction until Wednesday monring, March 18th.  Yes, those plush dots are velvet!  It’s a beauty; I’ve seen it with my own eyeballs.  Enlarge the pictures and take a look here: 

www.BagsForZaza.blogspot.com

In case you’re new here to MSJ, BFZ is a fund raiser for the adoption of our little princess from Colombia.  She was affectionately nicknamed Zaza by her auntie in Canada who started the blog to auction handmade, one of a kind purses and carrier bags. They are all made with donations and upscaled fabrics and is eco-friendly.  We’ve had some astonishing designer donations of fabric samples that are over $100 a yard.  They are so gorgeous! 

Thanks for your support!  I can’t wait to post a picture of Zaza’s little face on here for you to see the little girl you helped come home. 

~Blessings, Linda 

For adoption news:  www.ZazasMama.wordpress.com

For my site:  www.LindaCrosby.com

Bags for Zaza is Showing Off

There are two beautiful bags this week… ending on Valentine’s Day.  This would be a good blog to forward to your husband if you like these bags! 

My mom made the first one and my sister-in-law, Jennie, made the next one.  Doggone-it!  I can’t get Jennie’s picture to load.  Well, go see it in real time here:  www.BagsForZaza.blogspot.com.  All proceeds go to bring our little Colombian home to her forever family.  By the way, we have officially been working on this for 2 years, 2 months, 2 weeks and 2 days.  Whew.

New Bags are Up for Auction

Two newbies needing homes.

Check ’em out.  Bid and help bring Zaza home!

www.BagsForZaza.blogspot.com

Adoption rocks!

After-Veterans-Day Bags Have Arrived

Bags For Zaza took a day breather this week and the bags, well most of them, posted this morning.  There’s something for everyone… the career woman, the teenager, the traveler, the book worm, the chic shopper.  I was the delinquent picture sender as I worked past midnight and went to bed mad at the bag.  The flap was too long and went to the bottom edge of the front of the purse.  It just didn’t look right and the length would be a bother when digging inside.  After many futile attempts at tricky solutions, I gave up and hit the sack. 

Fortunately, I awoke with visions of grandeur and a fringy idea.  Here are the results of 7.5 hours of sleep:

For those new to MSJ, Bags for Zaza is an adoption fundraiser to help bring home our little girl from Colombia.  We have requested a daughter between the ages of 3 and 7… and chances are really high that she will have black hair, like her daddy.  BFZ was started by my sister-in-law, Jennie, who is also adopting a sibling group of three kids who happen to be the same ages as our three children.  Incidentally, Jennie is also the one who bequeathed the name Zaza for our little girl.  We hoped and prayed that we could raise $500 for this worthy cause.  Well, we haven’t heard official tally numbers in a while (due to double staffing with our head seamstress and bookkeeper) but I believe it’s nearing $4,000!  Woooo HOoooo! 

A heartfelt thanks to bidders, sewers, auction junkies and YOU for going over, taking a looksie and telling ALL your friends about Bags for Zaza.  www.BagsForZaza.blogspot.com.

The Chips are Down, but the Bags are UP!

www.BagsForZaza.blogspot.com has some real beauties up this week, if I do say so myself.  In fact, I just did.  There is something for every gal on your Christmas list, young and old.  For those new to MSJ, this is an adoption fundraiser to bring our daughter home from Colombia.  It started as a family project and has blossomed as we found more people to call family. :o)

The bags and/or purses go up for auction on Tuesday and the highest bidder on Saturday night at 9:00 pm has a little bit more of their Christmas shopping completed.  Purses are the rage, in case you haven’t been out of the house lately.  Big bags, handy bags, cutesy bags and just plain versatile bags are IN.

BFZ has also become an addiction for many, but especially my mother.  I truly don’t know what she used to do all day long before she was designing award-winning bags… and checking the comments for every single bag dozens of times each day.  She took a sewing break last week, which we have all done in turn, but she had a difficult time knowing that she wouldn’t have as many comments to read.  Dad even put a computer in her sewing room, right next to the Singer, for easy access while stitching and ripping out and stitching the beautiful bags.  Such dedication. 

Seriously, how easy are we making your Christmas shopping for you?  It couldn’t get any easier.  You don’t even have to stay up on the auctions, if you choose not to.  Just pick out a dazzling Bag for Zaza for that special someone on your list, bid $175, and you will read your name up in lights on Saturday night.  It’s that easy.  (The bidding starts at $25….. shhhhhh!)

Thanks to all those who have donated fabric, trim and buttons.  Thanks to all who have bid and bid and bid, and STILL don’t have a bag.  Thanks to all of our models across North America for showcasing BFZ when you wear your bag.  Thanks to those special women who are spending their not-so-free-time sewing for Zaza.  Blessings upon you ALL!    (Only 72 shopping days until Christmas!  Don’t get caught in the MALL on the 24th!)

June THIRTIETH….

Today is the half-way mark for 2008….  makes me sit and wonder how I’m doing in 2008… and WHAT I’m doing…. and what I’m NOT doing. 

A song came on the car radio this morning that talked about “It’s not who you are.  It’s not what you’ve done.  It’s how you lived.”  After a moment of contemplation, I pronounced, “I don’t agree with that.”  My daughter, always up for a good debate, said, “I do.”  We went back and forth about if what you are doing IS how you are living.  Does how YOU live only include yourself?  Does what you’re doing include others?  We both tried on each other’s side of the argument for size…  we never came to a conclusion, but I still don’t agree with the lyrics.

I was anticipating 2008 like I’ve never anticipated any year previously.  That being said, I was never pregnant over a New Years…. that I was aware of.  So babies don’t count here.  I always anticipated new children with great joy.  But this year began with a bang as my parents celebrated 50 years of matrimonial bliss and took me and my siblings (and spouses) on an eight day cruise.  We have never gone anywhere for more than four hours together without our nine children.  It was fabulous.  Words don’t describe how relaxed we were.

Next, my first solo writing project was published.  Wow.  I still can’t believe it sometimes.  I survived my first book signings…. but not without nightmares.  (For graphic nightmare details, please see: https://mysistersjar.wordpress.com/2008/05/03/pre-book-signing-nightmare/ ) Which reminds me, I need to send the next proposal for Laughing in the Midst of Marriage.  Truck loads of material for this book are stored in my memory banks.  You may have read several of the stories on this blog already…. so you know what I mean.  (golf carts, acupuncture, photo radar tickets….)

And our adoption of Zaza…. is still pending.  We started the journey in Nov. 2006 and so I’ve passed through two new years with the anticipation of gathering our new girl in our arms.  But it seemed closer as 2008 arrived.  We pray every night that God’s will be done in the timing of bringing her home, but I always add…. “and please make it soon!” 

Never would I have imagined sewing bags and bags and bags to help bring Zaza home.  Thanks again, Jennie, for this amazing idea as well as the fortitude to execute it brilliantly!  I’m rather enjoying the sewing journey.  With every bag I make, I have a new favorite.  Tonight’s bag almost didn’t hit the auction block.  I love it.  But I can always make another like it… or different to become my new favorite.  Here it is “Ten Thousand Charms”: (the green is lime… not sage.)

Five new bags go up for auction each Monday… for five days at www.bagsforzaza.blogspot.com. Please help bring Zaza home and check it out.  Tell others.  Link the site.  Make posters and put them up at work.  Buy one and show it to every stranger you meet.  :o)  Thanks, from the bottom of my heart.

And not to forget blogging.  I didn’t know what it was in 2007, so I’ve come a long way, baby.

www.LindaCrosby.com 

NEW Auction Format @ BFZ!

Jennie, my talented and brilliant sister-in-law, has started using an auction format for Bags for Zaza, the fundraiser for our adoption.  What a great idea!  Please go check it out and help bring Zaza home.

www.bagsforzaza.blogspot.com

She put on four new bags for this week and the auctions will close on Friday.  They are beautiful bags.  Go have a looksie.

I spent my weekends working on the bags and I must say, it’s sort of like adoption therapy while we are waiting.  I feel like I’m actually doing something concrete to bring our girl home…. well, because I am.  Our tidy loft has been transformed into mounds of fabric, notions and trim that looks like a messy garage sale of an upholsterer waiting to happen.  My mom joined the fun and scooped up a gargantuan bag of matchy-matchy items just waiting to be transformed into chic bags for YOU.

AND, if that isn’t good enough…. a Bag for Zaza is being given away by Jennie’s sister, Leah, HERE: http://pluckymama.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/blog-giveaway./ Go and enter to win!

Bags for Zaza has raised $520 so far!  Wooo HOoooooooo! Way to go, Jennie!  Thank You!

RUMOR: MORE Bags for Zaza posting on June 3rd

http://bagsforzaza.blogspot.com/

The first eight Bags for Zaza sold in 36 hours…. but now there are online vultures awaiting the next flock of bags.  I read in the National Enquirer that FIVE more original Bags for Zaza are hitting the web on Tuesday night.  Don’t tell anyone… unless they are computer illiterate… or very slow typists.

Zaza is the nickname of our little girl that we are waiting to adopt from Colombia.  Bags for Zaza is a fundraiser that our sister-in-law schemed up and is tantalizingly successful. 

On your marks.  Get Set.  GO!  http://bagsforzaza.blogspot.com/