Myrtus

Myrtus Keepsakes Charity Fundraiser - see anything you like?

In these tough economic times charities are having the toughest time raising funds and doing great things to help keep our societies afloat and empowered to sustain themselves, so I thought I'd chip in with a little fundraising of my own to help some of my favorite charities.  Fundraising is not exactly one of my fortes, I find it a heck of a lot easier to give than ask people for donations, so I thought it might be a good idea to give stuff away in exchange for donations, stuff that I have no use for myself, but might mean something to someone else.

These are not your ordinary dust collectors, they are practical and functional keepsakes, most of which have never been used, just sitting in my garage taking up space, but have a collectible value that keeps going up over the years, because they're hard to find discontinued collectible items. 

I'm pricing them at about 30% - 50 % lower than their original price. (let me know if these are fair prices)

I'll pay the shipping fee if it's in the US.

Waterford Crystal Spirit of America Champagne Flutes $75 

Waterford Crystal Clarendon Amethyst Hocks $75

Waterford Crystal medium size Metropolitan Candlesticks $65

Waterford Crystal small Make-up Brush $35

Waterford Marquis Crystal Ice Bucket & 2 D.O.Fs $50

Kosta Boda Crystal Tulipa Vase $75

Kosta Boda Crystal small Bowl $20 

Kosta Boda Crystal Large Atoll Bowl $60

Kosta Boda Crystal Candle Sticks, medium $60, small $50

Kosta Boda Crystal Dish - Days of the Week - "Sunday" $20

Orrefors Crystal Raspberry Votive $15

Orrefors Crystal small Bowl $15

Orrefors Crystal Discus Votive $10   

Click to view larger image for better scale.

I originally started out thinking of having a yard sale for the the 4th of July holiday weekend and make one big party out of it.....but then I thought the fundraising aspect might make some people uncomfortable, so I decided to go virtual instead.  This way I can at least help raise awareness for the charities in a ton of places online, even if I don't sell anything. :)

 

All proceeds from this sale will go to PreventHate.org's Witness Humanity program, which is a conflict resolution and reconciliation program where friends and adversaries experience each other in a productive and compassionate manner by working together to help others in need of urgent assistance.

PreventHate.org’s Witness Humanity program has designed original, transitional housing for homeless people living with disabilities. Inexpensive, sturdy, and eco-friendly, these houses are designed to be powered with solar energy and are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). They can be used in communities recovering from war or disaster that have populations needing shelter, or for any municipality that has people living with disabilities in immediate need of  housing. 

You can find more details on this project at Crowdrise.

If you would rather make a donation than buy any of my dust collectors that's fine too and there's several ways to do it.

(1) Donate via my page at Crowdrise

(2) Donate via my Paypal Tip Jar which is located on this blog's left sidebar

All transactions have to be first confirmed via email before making the donation.

And if you see a different fundraising project on my Crowdrise page you would rather donate to, please also indicate that via email.  Each and every one of them is a great cause I believe in and I'm hoping you do too.

For more on the BEST fundraising site on the planet read the following article:

Edward Norton's Crowdrise website goes the distance - USATODAY.com

Crowdrise.com is not your typical charity site.

Its slogan is "If you don't give back, no one will like you." Dollars raised earn donors such titles as Doctor, Tsar, Sir and Dame.

And donating $17 toward scholarships for cancer survivors earns you a bottle of Will Ferrell's "Sexy Hot Tan" sunscreen, emblazoned with the likeness of his Speedo-clad body.

Created by actor and activist Edward Norton, producer Shauna Robertson (Superbad, Knocked Up) and Robert and Jeffrey Wolfe (founders of the quirky online retailer Moosejaw), Crowdrise is harnessing the appeal of social networking to make giving go viral.

"Allah Made Me Funny" poking fun at Geert Wilders

The American Muslim comedian trio going by the stage name "Allah Made Me Funny" is currently giving away free tickets in Holland to everyone named "Henk and Ingrid" who wants to see their show.

So what's the catch?

No catch really, just poking fun at Geert Wilders who recently hit a home run with one of his typical divisive remarks as an attempt to drive bigotry down the infield.  In his remark, he used the names "Henk & Ingrid" to describe the average Dutchman/woman and "Fatima & Ali" as the average Muslim immigrant, basically saying that he wants to see to it that the native Dutch are taken care of for a change instead of Muslim immigrants all the time.

As outlandish as Mr Wilders often sounds and as much as I'd prefer to dismiss him as Ahmadinejad and Kaddafi morphed into one and nothing but a clownish hater that makes me laugh with some of the insane things he says, he really does bring up sensitive issues at times that do call for further examination and objective scrutiny.  Too bad his populist ideas are mostly ill-intended and always aim to alienate and marginalize specific segments of the population.

To all the girls with the letter "N" ~ "ن" {noon}

Hey did you know that the letter "N" has a spiritual meaning in Sufi philosophy?

Well, neither did I till I stumbled upon the works of Moroccan artist Hakim Ghazali, who has dedicated an entire collection to the letter "N" = "ن", titled "For the Love of Noon" (as the letter is pronounced in Arabic), combining mixed-media and Arabic calligraphy.

Ghazali's artwork has been showcased in many countries and received numerous awards.

Muslim hugs for Geert Wilders

In response to Wilders' anti-Islam movie (which is now delayed for at least another two weeks), Moroccan website Marokko.nl and Muslim organization Academica Islamica say that Geert Wilders is just hungry for attention, so it's time for us to give him some lovin'. 

They launched this new website encouraging Muslims to log on and send Geert Wilders a bear hug: Knuffel Geert Wilders

Previous Posts:

Moroccan community responds to Wilders with "open house"....

Ayaan Hirsi Ali speaks out against Geert Wilders anti-Koran film

Blog Post of the month: Muslim Preacher Preaching Compassion and Tolerance Towards Homosexuals

Muslim Preacher Preaching Compassion and Tolerance Towards Homosexuals!

Want me to say it again?

Coexistence and Sectarian Love

An Iraqi man tells his story about how difficult it has become for Iraqi singles to find love because of sectarian hatred in Iraq.  He talks about how Venus TV is providing a dating service to help Iraqi singles connect by displaying their text messages on the TV screen.

latimes.com

It has never been easy for a divorced man to find a new wife in Iraq, where many people view people who have divorced with suspicion and disdain. It has become harder since the war, something I discovered when I stepped up my quest for love and bumped up against the religious hatred that has taken over many Iraqis' lives.

It all began after a distressing conversation last month with a good friend, who warned me that no father would approve of his daughter marrying someone like me, a divorced man with a 5-year-old son.

"You are not trustworthy enough to marry a girl, because you are divorced and have a child," my friend told me in a scornful tone. "If someone agreed to let you marry his daughter, it would be as a favor."

His words were crushing because I know they are true. I am 33, well educated and employed, but I have been rejected by many traditional Iraqi women's families because of my marital status. Now, because of the sectarian tensions caused by the war, I also have to worry about being rejected by Sunni women because I am a Shiite.

America's newest magazine to sell sex........uhhh I mean, to help people from the Middle East satisfy their urges, has recently been launched:

COEXISTENCE Magazine is now available at various book stores and news stands.

Wiesenthal Center Honors One of Shoah's Righteous Arabs

Remember this post about Arab heroes during the Holocaust? It seems that Robert Satloff's research is gaining wider recognition because the Simon Wiesenthal Center is getting ready to honor Khaled Abdelwa7ab from Tunisia.

After Hitler conquered France, the French colonies of Algeria and Morocco remained under the control of the collaborationist Vichy regime. While the Jews of these countries suffered under the anti-Semitic Vichy-imposed laws, their lives were not at risk.

Tunisia was the exception. In November 1942, German troops and their Italian ally occupied the small country, forced its 100,000 Jews to wear yellow stars and confiscated their properties.

...

The Nazi takeover immediately affected Jacob Boukris, an affluent household appliances manufacturer, as well as his wife, Odette, and their 11-year-old daughter, Anny. German troops gave the family one hour to evacuate their spacious house in the coastal town of Mahdia, then the soldiers turned it into a barrack and took all the valuables. The family and two dozen Jews found shelter in a nearby olive oil factory, but a few days later, another visitor appeared at midnight.

He was Khaled Abdelwahab (the transliterated Arab name is also spelled Abdelwahhab), a notably handsome man of 32, whose father was Tunisia's most eminent historian. The visitor told the startled Jews that they must leave immediately and explained why. Young Abdelwahab served as liaison between the local population and the Nazi occupiers. He used the position to ingratiate himself with the Germans and, like Oskar Schindler in Poland, frequently treated the officers to meals and endless rounds of wine.

continue reading ...

Abdelwahab died in 1997 at the age of 86. Standing in for him at the Memorial Plaza of the Wiesenthal Center will be one of his two daughters, Faiza Abdul-Wahab. A long-time resident of Paris and active in the French film industry, Abdul-Wahab said her father rarely spoke of his wartime experiences, but she was not surprised that he had aided Jews. "My father was a shy person," recalled Abdul-Wahab, speaking from Madrid. "He mentioned occasionally that some Jews had lived on his farm." More vividly, she said, he recalled that a young German fighter pilot had been killed when his plane crashed near her Tunisian hometown.

"All the Jewish women cried because he was such a young boy," her father recounted.

Growing up in Tunisia, "at a certain social level there was no difference between Arabs and Jews, and our home was actually in the Jewish section," Abdul-Wahab said. In retrospect, she felt that her father was quietly frustrated that his wartime deeds were never recognized. "He seemed a little sad," she said, "but whenever he visited me in Paris, he wanted to go to the Jewish neighborhood." As for herself, Abdul-Wahab mused that "I've always tried to bring Jews and Arabs together. I felt like a link, but I never knew why. Now I understand."

Imagine

All we are saying.......is give peace a chance

The spirit of John Lennon's 1971 peace anthem "Imagine" will join the peaceful message of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when Lennon's piano arrives today for the anniversary of King's death at the National Civil Rights Museum.

The piano, owned by pop singing star George Michael and his partner, Kenny Goss, is on a world tour as a symbol of peace, arriving in Memphis on the second stop of a journey that began in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, site of the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The piano, a Steinway upright on which Lennon composed "Imagine," is being photographed at each site for a possible book and a documentary on world peace.

My dear Valentines...

umm Happy Valentine's Day.

What??? Not in the mood for love?

Yea I know, love can be both a beautiful blessing and a terrible curse at the same time, but hey it's what we choose to make of it. How about we share our favorite (old & new) love songs, movie or video clips for this special occasion huh?

As a young teen I used to have a huge crush on Spandau Ballet's saxophone player, so much so that I had to go see him live....sighhh oh the butterflies!

STOP! In the name of love.

aaaah shit!

Please!  No more love fore me for a while! heheh

I feel like a terrorist dammit! 

I was barely awake yesterday, enjoying my first cup of coffee in the morning when I opened an email that appeared to be sent by my friend Stefania at Free Thoughts. 

The note said:

Stefania has invited you to connect as friends on LoveHappens.

Accept this invitation by clicking below:

So I clicked on the link and it took me to some stupid ass love site where you can either choose to be there for finding a love match or be there "to help". 

Of course the unsuspecting little matchmaker that I am I chose to be there to help and boy did I help, I helped a lot! 

Little did I know that I agreed to help spread a worm to other people's computers with a simple click of a button.  The worm got hold of my address books on two of my email addresses and within seconds I started receiving replies from people who accepted the invite and others asking me if it was indeed me sending them the invite.

OMG suddenly I realized that some very important people at my job must have received the same invite from me, including the company owner!  At this point I thought only my AOL email address got affected, so I started emailing people to warn them.  It wasn't until a couple of hours ago that I found out that my gmail account was affected too.

Guys I'm really sorry about this, it's such a pain and so embarrassing!

I hate LoveHappens!  I need to get back at those bastards somehow!grrrrr