Shiver me timbers!!!

Blimey, it's been bitterly cold up here on the west coast for a few days now. The artic winds are blowing but thankfully we haven't had any snow on the island.

Ferries have been off again today and probably will be again tomorrow judging by the weather forecast.

Our heating has been going on around lunchtime and its taking ages to get the flat warm. Roll on summer that's all I can say!.

February is cholangiocarcinoma month - what's that I hear you say! Well, cholangiocarcinoma (or CC as its often referred too) is bile duct cancer and its the cancer that my Mom died of back in Dec 2013.

I've spoken before about the charity AMMF who are the only CC charity in the UK. I fundraise for them and shall be holding another online auction for them in mid March when it would have been Mom's 80th Birthday.

I had an article in my local paper, The Buteman  this week to help raise awareness and have had a couple of monetary donations already to the cause which is nice.

The auction is being run through my buteartism FB page and hopefully by the time of the auction there will be lots of lovely items up for grabs.

My aim is to reach £1000 by the end of this auction - so far I've raised £835 for AMMF so I'm pretty sure we can do it this year.

If you can spare a little something handmade then it would be much appreciated. You can contact me via the FB page or leave a comment below.

Right, need to go find my hot water bottle. xx

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow - anywhere but here!!!

Well, it seems like winter has arrived across much of the UK with temperatures dropping and snow everywhere. Well, almost everywhere!!

Thankfully we don't have any here on the island as yet but we've had a couple of days of heavy frost and its been very cold, especially at night.

There is snow over on the Cowal Hills on the mainland but as long as it stays there, I'm happy.

Have been keeping busy sorting out my stash of goodies and listing them on the FB page. Have also put some on Ebay as a charity listing for AMMF (the UK;s only cholangiocarcinoma charity, and one of my good causes that I raise funds for)

You can find the items  here - there will be more listed over the weekend including, hopefully some of Terry's artwork.

That's all for now. Stay warm.

Here's to 2016!

Hello, hope you all had a nice Xmas and New Year.

I've been busy adding more handmade items to my FB page over the past couple of weeks and have a nice selection of items - bracelets, necklaces, fabric flower brooches and earrings plus other odd bits and bobs. No sales as yet but its still early days.

Hopefully this year we can raise more than the £730 raised last year which was split between AMMF and womb cancer research.

The Etsy shop has a few items left in it but will close once the listings expire.

Starting to make plans for the next auction which will be for AMMF and will run from 12noon Sunday 20th March until 6pm Tuesday 22nd March 2016.It would have been Mom's 80th Birthday on 21st March.

Please pop over to the FB page and say hello.

Until next time - take care. xx

End of year round up!

Hello again!
Been a long time since I updated you but there has been a lot going on and I've also been dealing with a lot of health issues related to my cancer treatment.

Anyway, if you have been following this blog then you will know that throughout 2015 I have been selling my handmade jewellery to help raise funds for 2 very good causes - AMMF, the UK's only cholangiocarcinoma or bile duct cancer charity and a womb cancer research project.

Well, just before Xmas the total raised stood at £730 so I was able to pay £365 into each Justgiving account. I was really pleased to have raised such a huge amount, far more than I thought I would at the beginning of the year.

I am doing the same again throughout 2016, with the money going 50/50 to AMMF and Womb Cancer Support UK, (WCSUK)  the national organisation that I run that supports women who have been diagnosed with womb cancer and also raises much needed awareness of this cancer as, despite it being the 4th most common female cancer in UK, there is no national awareness campaign.

The money raised for WCSUK will help pay for the awareness leaflets and their distribution around the UK.

I was selling items through an Etsy store but have decided to go back to doing it through Facebook, as not only is there no fees to pay but despite FB making it difficult for pages to be seen, most of my sales from the Etsy shop have come via me sharing posts on FB.
Plus it's easier to keep things together, for me anyway!!

So, why not pop over to the FB page and have a look around. https://www.facebook.com/buteartism/

I shall be running an online auction again for AMMF, in memory of Mom who died from cholangiocarcinoma on 5th Dec 2013 and there will be some lovely items up for grabs there.

Hope you all had a nice Xmas and I wish you all the best for 2016.

Etsy Sales Update

If you've been following this blog you will know that I am making and selling items to help raise funds for good causes.

At the moment, those good causes are AMMF - the UK's only cholangiocarcinoma charity and a womb cancer research project.

You can see the items that are currently for sale here and the total raised so far, which is being split 50/50 between the 2 good causes is £145.50.

So pleased to be able to raise funds for these 2 good causes and will donate the money to them at the end of this year. Lets hope I can get to the £200 mark before then.

Etsy Sales Galore!!

Hello again, hope you are all well.
Thought summer had arrived up here on my little island but it seems to have decided to change its mind and disappear again as its now quite windy and chilly, more like October than May.
Anyway, just a brief update on my Etsy store sales.

If you remember from my last post, I am now selling items from my Etsy store with all proceeds going to 2 very good causes.
The first is a womb cancer research project that I am helping to raise funds for; I was diagnosed with womb cancer at the end of 2009 and there is very little awareness or research into this cancer despite it being the 4th most common cancer in women.
The other good cause I am raising funds for is AMMF - they are the only UK charity for Cholangiocarcinoma or bile duct cancer which is the cancer that my Mom died from in Dec 2013.

I have a selection of jewellery and artwork in the Etsy store and so far sales have raised £78.50 which will be split 50/50 between to 2 good causes at the end of the year.

You can check out the store here

Hello again!

Hello, as some of you will remember from the last blog post back in December, I said I was changing the way that I fundraise as FB has been messing about with the way it shares posts recently and as a result my post reach had dropped dramatically which meant that I wasn't selling anything and therefore not being able to raise any money.

I now have an Etsy store which has some nice bits of jewellery and some of my artwork in and the proceeds are being split 50/50 between AMMF, which is the UK's only cholangiocarcinoma or bile duct cancer charity. This is the cancer that Mom died of in Dec 2013. The other 50% is going to the womb cancer research project that I have been helping to raise funds for over the past 3 years.

Had 2 sales from the Etsy store so far and the money will be split at the end of the year between the 2 good causes.

In March I also help my 2nd annual auction for AMMF in memory of Mom. It was done over the weekend of what would have been her Birthday and it raised £119 which brings the total raised for AMMF to £471.50.

The next auction will be the one in September for the womb cancer research project. Why September I hear you ask? Well, September is womb cancer awareness month and so its an appropriate time to raise some money and also hopefully lots of awareness for this cancer.

If you would like to donate to either of these good causes then you can. The links are here:

The womb cancer research is here https://www.justgiving.com/Kaz-Molloy1/
AMMF is here https://www.justgiving.com/Kaz-Molloy2/

I'll be back soon with another update. xx