Don’t y’all go looking at me like I’m crazy! I wanted to make a “medicine bag.” Not for me! For Share A Square.

I’ve shown you the afghans we are making for the children at Camp Sanguinity Cancer camp. Each one has 48 name tags on it to show the 48 people from around the world who contributed squares. Those tags are special, and the little kids will want to save them…

maybe.

We decided to make bags to hold those tags so they don’t get damaged. My friends Sherry and Barbara are each going to gather 70 from anybody who wants to make one. Do you? You can make any kind of bag you like, and I think both ladies have some links to instructions for different kinds of bags.

Some people will knit bags. Others might quilt or crochet them or bead them. I decided I wanted to make one that looks like a Native American “medicine bag,” because this little Scots-Irish gal always wanted one of those when she was growing up. I figured some other little kid might, too.

So, after voting today, I made a trip to Michael’s to pick up the kit. I’m feeling a little daunted by it as I spread it out before me. But notice what it says on the picture!

You think I should believe them if they can’t spell “easy?”

This morning when I crawled out of bed, I was halfway hoping that my blog had not shown up on my home computer yet, so that I could just climb back in bed and ride out my back pain. It was here, so I felt the need to work on an update for Share A Square. I had several afghans strewn around the house, and needed to take pictures to update the afghan gallery. If you haven’t been around to my house before, a ton of people have been making afghans for children with cancer. I’m piling up the finished product here at my house.

Sometimes looking at all these afghans can be overwhelming. This morning, it seemed so. I needed to take pictures so that I could package them, and we could move around in the living room again. To take pictures, I have to climb up on a stool to see the camera at the top of the tripod. Ouch!

This is an example of what I’m photographing:

As I sat pondering the project, I started counting afghans, kits, and afghans being worked. I surprised myself. I hadn’t been paying attention, and didn’t realize how far we had come! People, once again I felt a sense of awe at the outpouring of generosity from all over the globe. I just have to tell you the news, because it does give me cause to rejoice:

• At my house right now, I have 82 completed afghans for Share A Square.
• I have 16 “extra” afghans.
• I have 56 afghans being pieced together (which makes 138!!!).
• I have enough kits (with 48 names) to make 15 more afghans…and I’m not finished packing the kits.
• I have enough squares with no tags to make another 20 afghans.
• I still have people wanting to help!!

For the record, this all started last June, and it has just been a landslide. Just thinking about it makes me forget about my back hurting. For a minute.

My humble thanks to everyone who has participated in this project in any way. If you have not participated, but want to do so, there is still work to do! Please visit Sherry or Barbara to find out how you can help make cloth bags to hold the tags that the children will have on their afghans. If you aren’t feeling “crafty,” maybe you can just tell some folks about it!

I think I’ll go recline on the couch and rejoice for awhile. I can’t stand and I can’t stand to sit. Y’all have a fun Friday night!

Do y’all ever get side-tracked when you go on the internet? I sure do. I just wanted to look up “bags” on the internet, and got all carried away (I’ll tell you why I was looking in a minute). It’s a good thing I can never find my purse, or I’d whup out that credit card and be spending some serious money! Here’s a little bit of what I found.

I first was looking for Medicine bags, because I’ve had a fascination with them since reading about them in a book as a child. I have my own, made of velvet and beads. I keep some special trinkets in it: a silver “storyteller doll,” a tiny petrified clam (so I won’t “clam up” in front of an audience), a paper crane a little girl gave me, a shark’s tooth, an ivory elephant, and a religious medallion. All of them hold special meanings to me.

The Soft Leather Studio has handcrafted leather medicine pouches, in case you are interested in one to hold your own “lucky charms.”

With Valentine’s Day on its way, some of you ladies might be expecting jewelry as a gift. You can find lovely cloth jewelry bags to hold your loot at Bags and Bows

But, if you are planning to get jewelry, you’d better tell that significant other about it! If you are a blogger, enter the Valentine Wishes contest at SusieJ.com

She’s got prizes!

Do any of y’all remember the Unknown Comic? What a great way to release your inhibitions. Put a paper bag over your head, and you too could make money. No one would ever know it was you; just learn a few stupid jokes, and you can be the life of the party.

Speaking of parties, for your next movie party, order your own Popcorn Bags at Bagmakers, Inc. Surely you could come up with something a little more exciting than these.

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After you have eaten all the popcorn, you might need Barf Bags from Oriental Trading. Who in the world comes up with these ridiculous ideas?

If your yard is buried in leaves, you can get yourself some Biodegradable Leaf Bags at This Next. Better yet, just let the wind blow the leaves into your neighbor’s yard.

But, be sure to get rid of the leaves before you stick candles in a bags and make luminarias to line your walkways.

Funroom will show you how to makePaper Bag Puppets, just in case you need one. I’m thinking that you probably don’t need one, and if you do then you probably don’t need instructions, but I stole their picture so I thought it would be polite to link to them.

When you have five cats around the house, you have to think about cat litter bags, Unless you have a Cat Genie, which promises that you will never touch litter again,. This contraption costs $369 at Petco. It might be wonderful, but I can buy a lot of cat litter bags for that price.

Want to go green with grocery bags? Re-usable grocery bags are all the rage around here. You can buy bags for $1.99 each plus shipping at Bags On The Run. You have to order a minimum of 10, but if you shop like I do you could fill 10 bags each trip to the store in a heartbeat.

Some women like to buy shoes, but purses are my downfall, especially vintage purses. Yep, I’m definitely a bag lady. You can find a truckload of lovely ones at Vintage in Style. Oh, I’d seriously buy this one. But, I’d still never be able to find it when I want my credit card.

Why was I looking up bags? Well, there have been some of us working on making 140 afghans for children with cancer who will be attending a summer camp this year. Each afghan that we are making has squares from 48 different people. Each person added a tag to their squares to tell their name and where they live.

One afghan was given to “Mr. T.” who is battling leukemia. He was fascinated by the tags. He shuffled them like cards. Wouldn’t it be a shame for a child to lose those tags? We decided to make special bags for them. Sherry at Yellow Rose’s Garden, and Barbara at The Purplemoose Gazette are spearheading the drive to get 140 bags for these children. Please check out their posts. If you are the least bit “crafty,” you might be interested in making a bag.

If you aren’t, you can help us spread the word. PLEASE!

Sherry has some images you can use for your sidebar that are pretty. If you want to use the paper bag, I’ll tell you the code to add the images on the Share A Square blog.

Now, y’all go visit some other Thursday Thirteen participants. I hope your day is good!