Deux Nouveaux Sacs

Deux nouveaux sacs sont disponibles pour que vous achetiez.
(If that's messed up, blame the online translator)

• Man in White
• A Tangled Web

Bid on a bag by leaving a name and a bid in the comments section for the bag you want. Or you can just leave chatty comments as well. The highest bidder at 8pm (pdt) on Monday, May 4th gets the bag and ALL profits are put towards Zaza's adoption!

About the Bags ~ FAQs ~ How to Bid

We're Back!

This week's bags are from our Arizona crew.

Bidding is now open on:

• With Endless Sight
• Words from a Fearless Heart
• Mom ... and loving it!

Bid on a bag by leaving a name and a bid in the comments section for the bag you want. Or you can just leave chatty comments as well. The highest bidder at 8pm (pacific) on Monday, April 27th gets the bag and ALL profits are put towards Zaza's adoption!

About the Bags ~ FAQs ~ How to Bid

Auction Open: Last Chance Before Christmas

This is our last batch of bags before Christmas. Y'all have been so incredible supportive and wonderful, we wish we could sew sew sew for you day and night, but alas, our children whimper to be fed, our husbands whine for attention, the turkey gobbles to be trimmed and the presents rustle to be wrapped...

This week's bags (the last for 2008) are:

• A Fragile Design
  
• Christmas Miracle
  

Bid on a bag by leaving a name and a bid in the comments section for the bag you want. The highest bidder at 9pm (PST) on Saturday, December 13th gets the bag and ALL profits are put towards Zaza's adoption!

About the Bags ~ FAQs ~ How to Bid

A Fragile Design

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This fanciful butterfly bag titled A Fragile Design is both winsome and practical being loaded with seven pockets. (I'm making up for forgetting pockets last week.) I was visiting friends in California this past weekend and a high school classmate of mine donated a bag of material for BFZ. This gorgeous butterfly denim and the patterned green poly-blend are some of the goodies from Melanie G. Thank you, Melanie!

The sides and straps are made of faux suede in a handsome rich oak color accenting the chocolate butterflies on the light turquoise denim. The olive green butterflies are brought out by the trim on the flap as well as the front and back of the bag.

There are two large pockets on the front AND the back of the bag this week. I happened on an adorable little off-white ribbon with a turquoise and green pattern edged with brown that I topped the back pockets with. There are also brown buttons securing the separation of the pockets. Under the flap the pockets are two sizes for your checkbook and your sunglasses, or your hairbrush and your lotion, or your calendar and your pens. The separation is again secured by twin brown buttons.

The flap of A Fragile Design is trimmed with a satiny brown grosgrain ribbon that is gathered for the ruffly appearance. The center is adorned with an antique olive button with a pearlized ring on it.

The cell pocket is trimmed in hot pink fabric and a brown ribbon with pink stitching. (My scrapbooking ribbon is getting depleted quite quickly.)

Inside this sturdy bag are four large pockets with the same brown buttons. There are pockets on both the front and back of the inside.... for your keys, and your lipstick, and your love notes, and your gum packs, and your family photos and your Christmas lists.

If you asked me last week if I thought light turquoise, olive green, hot pink and a luscious brown went together, I would have said no. And then I was introduced to this pretty butterfly BFZ donation.

Bid on this bag by leaving your name and a bid in the comments section. Bidding starts at $25 and increases by whole $s please. Highest bidder at 9pm (PST) / 10pm (MST) on Saturday, December 13th gets the BAG! Postage extra (from Phoenix, AZ). This bag was created by Linda.

About the Bags ~ FAQs ~ How to Bid

Auction Closed: Fa la la la la la la la la

Yes, that's enough "la's" -- I counted them!

This week's bag biddies are:

• Whispers of Winter -- Shelley -- $51
  
• Fireside Christmas -- Miriam W. -- $30
• Lullabies for Little Criminals -- Colleen -- $29

Bag Biddies, please email BagsforZaza@gmail.com within 1 week to arrange payment and postage/pickup.

Many many many many many many many many (that's the same amount of "many's" as "la's") thank yous to all of you for supporting our quest to give a little Colombian orphan a safe and loving home.

If you would like an email reminder when new bags are posted and little BFZ updates, please join the Facebook Group or send an email to me with the subject of "subscribe".

Auction Open: Yum Yum

As promised, I did not make a bag this week. But I'm completely GA GA over the GORGEOUS bags whipped up by Grace and Linda. Beautiful, rich looking winter bags. Just LOVELY.

And good news for those of you who liked Jenn's adorable green, blue and pink Lullabies tote from a week ago - I'm putting it up again because the highest bidder hasn't contacted me :(

This week's bags are:

• Whispers of Winter
• Fireside Christmas
• Lullabies for Little Criminals

Bid on a bag by leaving a name and a bid in the comments section for the bag you want. The highest bidder at 9pm (PST) on Saturday, December 6th gets the bag and ALL profits are put towards Zaza's adoption!

Auction Open: Happy Thanksgiving to My American Friends

Happy Thanksgiving to y'all down there. Wish I could join you for another round of turkey and stuffing.

Before we get on to the bags, I want to let you know what's going to be happening over the next month-ish. Our production will likely take a dive, as we're busy getting ready to celebrate Christmas. I have some sewing and crocheting projects to work on and some shopping to do and some presents to wrap, etc. I just can't make any promises at the moment. We may have a bag or two for you last minute shoppers, but I just don't know....

This week's bags are:

• A Tapestry of Hope
• A Moveable Feast
• The Tale of Peter Rabbit
  

Bid on a bag by leaving a name and a bid in the comments section for the bag you want. Bidding starts at $25 and increases by whole $s. The highest bidder at 9pm (PST) / 10pm (MST) on Saturday, November 29th gets the bag and ALL profits are put towards Zaza's adoption.

About the Bags ~ FAQs ~ How to Bid

A Tapestry of Hope

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[Picture with button added Nov-26th]

It has been requested that we do neutral colored bags and so here is A Tapestry of Hope. It is made up of two reclaimed fabrics: nice quality wool tweed from a sports coat and dark brown suede-like polyester fabric from a dress. The other fabrics have been most welcome donations. One is a rich, woven chenille designer fabric of tan and dark brown. I also used a plaid fabric of tan, dark brown with a rust stripe running through it and two coordinating multicolored designer fabric samples.

After it was finished I realized that all the fabrics are sturdy and so it can be REVERSED! One side is dressier with the flap being trimmed in dark brown with fun coordinating fabrics pieced across the bottom.

The pocket is trimmed with dark brown fabric and has a two-toned antique button that matches perfectly. The cell pocket is dark brown with fringe trim made from the plaid fabric and is topped by a square design fabric that I also used for trim on the strap and front flap.

The strap is a little shorter than usual at 43” as tied.

Tapestry of Hope: Reversed...

The other side of the bag is a more casual look using the same fabrics, but more of the plaid. The pocket is dark brown with contrasting trim, divided into three with two unique square patterned buttons to reinforce the stitched seams.

Bid on this bag by leaving your name and a bid in the comments section. Bidding starts at $25 and increases by whole $s please. Highest bidder at 9pm (PST) / 10pm (MST) on Saturday, November 29th gets the BAG! Postage extra (from Phoenix, AZ). This bag was created by Grace.

About the Bags ~ FAQs ~ How to Bid

Auction Closed: About the Gray Line

Grrrrrrr - what is that gray line down the middle of my blog? Any of you techy people out there feel up to trouble-shooting - let me know?!

• Baby Island -- J.A. -- $27
  
• The Hundred Secret Senses -- Leanna -- $31
• Flower Arranging II -- Jody V. -- $30
• Just Go To Bed -- Coral -- $32

Bag Biddies, please email BagsforZaza@gmail.com to arrange payment and postage/pickup.

Thank you everyone for sticking with us on this adventure. We are SO appreciative of your support.

Auction Open: Right to the Point

Welcome to those of you who've just discovered Bags for Zaza. And welcome back to those of you who've been with us for awhile. Thank you so much for helping us in this way.

This week's bags are:

• Baby Island
  
• The Hundred Secret Senses
  
• Flower Arranging II
• Just Go To Bed
  

Bid on a bag by leaving a name and a bid in the comments section for the bag you want. Bidding starts at $25 and increases by whole $s. The highest bidder at 9pm (PST) / 10pm (MST) on Saturday, November 15th gets the bag!

Please note: There's a 1 hour time difference between us and Arizona.

P.S. I'm a little behind on "the books" - so I haven't posted any new totals in awhile - but I haven't forgot - I promise!

Auction Closed: Have You Seen My Brain?

Not sure where my brain was last night. Actually, I know exactly where it was - it was buried deep in a good book.

I was trying to figure out why Bags for Zaza was so quite last week. And then I realized that the whole blogging world was a bit quiet last week. My theory is that everyone was in a post election retreat - getting some well needed rest.

Sooooo, this week's bag biddies are:

• If You Give a Mouse a Cookie -- Kimberly -- $40
• Flower Arranging -- Coral -- $42
• Owl Moon -- Ana -- $40

Bag Biddies, please email BagsforZaza@gmail.com to arrange payment and postage/pickup.

Thanks for sticking with us through election week! We REALLY appreciate your support through this restless time of waiting for our Zaza.

Auction Closed: African Spirit!

This has been such a busy week for me - I'm feeling very light at the prospect of having a relaxing day today. And I'm going to see the Soweto Gospel Choir tonight and am VERY excited about being energized by some African Spirit.

This week's Bag Biddies are:

• That Hideous Strength -- Ana from AZ -- $55
  
• Listening to Others -- Alana-- $50
• Winds of Autumn -- Jody V. -- $55

Bag Biddies, please email BagsforZaza@gmail.com to arrange payment and postage/pickup.

Iyo ka lebitso la ntate!

The Books (for the auditors)

Oct-31-2008 - $4066.70
In October, we received $671, with $8.61 going towards October's expenses.

Sep-30-2008 - $3404.31
We've pulled in another $428, with only $23.69 going towards September's expenses. So - 94% of your purchase price has been going toward's Zaza's adoption!

Aug-31-2008 - $3000
Since this is a fund raiser, I like to be super accountable about monies raised. I mentioned before that there would be some changes coming for BFZ and how the finances work will be one of them. Up until now, we've donated 100% of the purchase price of each bag towards Zaza's adoption. We're mostly family and it was our way of giving. But now that we're at $3000 (thank you everyone), our personal expenses have been adding up and we will now begin deducting them from the purchase price. I don't anticipate this amounting to more than a few dollars a bag, as we primarily use donated materials and thrift store finds. Some examples of expenses might be: thread, needles, thrift-store purchases, and PayPal's percentage. At least once a month I'll update you with expenses and income in this post for those interested in how we're doing.

As for what our new goal is - I just don't know. For now, we've still got a ways to go before all of Zaza's adoption expenses are covered. And then -- maybe we need to bring someone else's Zaza home? We're just going to keep going ... until we stop.

... one more sleep until new bags!

Auction Closed: Yessireebob

Two elections down, one to go! Yessireebob - I'm both an American and a Canadian. I've voted in both the Canadian and U.S. federal elections this month (mail-in ballot for U.S.). And now we have our municipal elections coming up. I'm not one of those folks who automatically vote for a person because they belong to a particular party - I like to do my research. But, oh my - it's been stressful. And that's all the non-BFZ rambling I shall do for today. Do your research and VOTE!

This week's Bag Biddies are:

• Perennials for Your Garden -- Monica from NC-- $45
• Laughing in the Dark -- Val Y. R. -- $75
• Stormy, Misty's Foal -- Monica from NC-- $50

Please email BagsforZaza@gmail.com to arrange payment and postage/pickup.

Thank you all you lovely lovely people - oh Zaza we can't wait to meet you! Come back Tuesday people...

P.S. I've also been researching Halloween costumes - gotta get the Incredible She-Hulk just right!

Auction Open: Finally

Here ya go - happy bidding!

• Love You Forever
• Espresso for a Woman's Spirit
• Once Round the Sun
• Over Sea, Under Stone

Bid on a bag by leaving a name and a bid in the comments section for the bag you want. Bidding starts at $25 and increases by whole $s. The highest bidder at 9pm (PDT) on Saturday, October 18th gets the bag!

About the Bags ~ FAQs ~ How to Bid

Auction Closed: La Dee Da

OK, this has nothing to do with Bags for Zaza, but I guess I can do what I want with my own blog. And what I want to do right now is show off this adorable skirt I just made for my daughter out of two thrift store t-shirts. It has exposed seems and raw edges. So easy!

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming. This week's bag biddies are:

• The Hiding Place -- A.B. -- $27
  
• Phantastes -- Kate -- $50
• Nature's Wonderlands -- Heather -- $51
• Pilates for Dogs -- Amand A.-- $33
• Letter Perfect -- Colleen -- $35

Bag Biddies, please email BagsforZaza@gmail.com to arrange payment and postage/pickup.

THANK YOU and THANK YOU again and please come back Tuesday for more bags!

P.S. We've raised over $3400 so far! Click here for details.

Auction Open: Word Challenge

I'm hiding my dog in the wonderlands of nature for he always ruins my perfect phantastes of balancing pilates on broomsticks and sitting in my favourite place to scrawl calligraphy letters.

OK, so your challenge (aside from bidding on your favourite bag) is to use all the words from the titles of this week's bags in one sentence with the least number of extra words (I used 19).

For your bidding pleasure:

• The Hiding Place
  
• Phantastes
• Nature's Wonderlands
• Pilates for Dogs
  
• Letter Perfect
  

Bid on a bag by leaving a name and a bid in the comments section for the bag you want. Or just comment and say NICE and HAPPY and CHEERFUL things. Bidding starts at $25 and increases by whole $s. The highest bidder at 9pm (PDT) on Saturday, October 4th gets the bag!

Note on bidding: Please leave a name, nickname or handle of some sort. This is an informal and trusting system, but "anonymous" just won't do and "anonymous" bids will be disregarded. :(

The Hiding Place

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There is no better name for this humongous bag than The Hiding Place. You could seriously hide a medium sized dog in this bag..... or three 10 lb. bags of potatoes... or your winter parka, mitts and muff. It is REALLY large.... to be exact, 20" across and 20" deep.

Inspiration for this giant fashion accessory came from Spiegel magazine... BIG is IN! So voila! BFZ is IN! The bag is made of a nubby upholstery fabric in soft tan with a leaf pattern of black (or dark purple?) and purple.

The top of the bag is a rich eggplant purple of polyester that has a suede feel to it. It is reinforced with iron-on fusible interfacing making it have form and some stiffness to it.

The straps are of the same eggplant colored fabric and are 20" long each. The are attached to the bag at their full width of almost 3", but the tops of the straps are sewn folded over, double thick for comfy handles.

Inside this big baby is a deep purple, avocado green and slate blue floral pattern. There are two huge pocket inside trimmed with the purple material. The pockets cross the width of the bag and are just over 10" tall. TV dinners would fit nicely in here. :o)

The bling on this glamour bag is the hand beading on the front following the leaf pattern. These are glass beads in varying shapes of white, tan, brown, lavender and purple. Simply elegant.

Bid on this bag by leaving your name and a bid in the comments section. Bidding starts at $25 and increases by whole $s please. Highest bidder at 9pm (PDT) on Saturday, October 4th gets the BAG! Postage extra (from Phoenix, AZ). This bag was created by Linda.

About the Bags ~ FAQs ~How to Bid

Phantastes

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"What I saw was this. Everywhere, here and there over the ground, lay little, dark-looking lumps of something more like earth than anything else, and about the size of a chestnut. The beetles hunted in couples for these; and having found one, one of them stayed to watch it, while the other hurried to find a glowworm. By signals, I presume, between them, the latter soon found his companion again: they then took the glowworm and held its luminous tail to the dark earthly pellet; when lo, it shot up into the air like a sky-rocket, seldom, however, reaching the height of the highest tree. Just like a rocket too, it burst in the air, and fell in a shower of the most gorgeously coloured sparks of every variety of hue; golden and red, and purple and green, and blue and rosy fires crossed and inter-crossed each other, beneath the shadowy heads, and between the columnar stems of the forest trees. They never used the same glowworm twice, I observed; but let him go, apparently uninjured by the use they had made of him."
[George MacDonald - Phantastes].

I'm loathe to say more, but I suppose I must try...

The primary colour in this gloriously rich bag is sage green. But the tapestry used for the body and straps of Phantastes sports hues of purple, plum, teal and gold.

The contrasting upholstery sample on the front flap is a one-of-a-kind swirl of eggplant and gold with little plush dots of texture. The accenting ribbon is burgundy-plum and a strip of sage green velvet finishes the flap off.

The pockets and straps are lined with a fine sage corduroy. One strap features a piece of the same sage green velvet featured on the flap. The double back pockets are decorated with a retro plum button. Hello you happy little plum button.

Phantastes is lined with a gorgeous decorator floral of rust, teal, plum and more. The inside double pockets are also accented with a plum button.

Credit: The eggplant swirl was donated by Melanie G. The sage velvet was from a thrift store. I can't remember where the rest came from. My mom? My mom's friend? Feel free to claim credit in the comments section.

"Thus I, who set out to find my Ideal, came back rejoicing that I had lost my Shadow. "
[George MacDonald - Phantastes].

Bid on this bag by leaving your name and a bid in the comments section. Bidding starts at $25 and increases by whole $s please. Highest bidder at 9pm (PDT) on Saturday, October 4th gets the BAG! Postage extra (from Abbotsford, BC). This bag was created by Jennie.

About the Bags ~ FAQs ~How to Bid

Nature's Wonderlands

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The fabrics in Nature’s Wonderlands are a textile delight for your fingers with suede, velvet, tweed and linen. They were almost all donated remnants and were chosen to complement each other. We sure appreciate the many generous donors!









The flap has a lovely piece of peach ultra suede on one side and a brown tweedy fabric blend on the other. The turquoise velvet is from my stash and it borders two embroidered linen fabric pieces embellished with turquoise mini sequins. I pieced them together with striped turquoise and brown linen-like material which made the diagonal strip down the center of the bag. The three turquoise shell buttons add a nice touch.

The front of the bag is ultra suede and brown tweed with two pockets made from off-white and peach polka dot upholstery fabric. It is trimmed with off-white cording and topped with a two toned peach button. The under flap has a linen embroidered piece surrounded by the other fabrics used in the bag to tie it altogether.

I used the brown tweed and brown and turquoise striped fabric to make the straps and the back. The back and straps are accented with complimenting rick rack. I had fun making the cell pocket by fringing the embroidered piece and sewing it on the peach ultra suede.

The lining is a striped fabric that has been in my cedar chest for years, finally being put to good use! There is a double pocket sewn with the brown striped fabric and velvet and trimmed with just the right button. This would be the perfect bag for traveling with your Mp3 player, cell phone, BlackBerry, head phones, and laptop. I have strengthened the linen fabrics with fusible lining to make the bag sturdier.

Bid on this bag by leaving your name and a bid in the comments section. Bidding starts at $25 and increases by whole $s please. Highest bidder at 9pm (PDT) on Saturday, October 4th gets the BAG! Postage extra (from Phoenix, AZ). This bag was created by Grace.

About the Bags ~ FAQs ~How to Bid