A Project in Progress....

Last weekend, I was in Springfield, IL for a conference.  I took this shot of the capitol building from my hotel window.  When I was in high school, I lived in Springfield for a semester (maybe I'll write about that one day when I have no crafty stuff to write about...) and was in or near the capitol nearly every day.  I had hoped to have the opportunity to walk down and around capitol building, but I didn't.  I might just have to ask my husband if we can plan a road trip.  

Anyway, after the first of the year, I wrote about wanting to do a service project of sorts.  At least I'm pretty sure I wrote about that, and if I didn't, I certainly meant to.  I had thought about making a bunch of the peek-a-boo pouches and donating them to a local women's shelter (and I still may do this later in the year).  However, I decided to do something that goes along with my real life job of teacher for students who have hearing loss.  We (my work and several other districts/cooperatives in the area) have an annual day/program to honor and promote students (high school ages) who advocate for themselves and their needs related to their hearing loss.  At our program, there is always a raffle of sorts and some students are able to win prizes.  

I decided that in this technology age, what could be better than some Circle Zip Earbud Pouches?  Conveniently, these pouches could hold earbuds.  The pouches could also hold a pair of hearing aids, hearing aid batteries, or any other number of small items.

I've set myself a goal of 25 pouches to give.  Friday night, I spent a bit of time cutting out all of the batting I would need for the pouches.  Last week, I also ordered 25 small zippers from Zipit.  I wasn't really sure what colors I would need, so I ordered 15 neutrals (black, cream, gray) and then 10 random colorful zippers.

Today, I have finished up 6 pouches, so far:

I want to make an equal selection of boy-ish/girl-ish pouches.  Of course, it is MUCH more difficult to find fabric that I think would appeal to the males of the group...that's why I started with these.  I am going to try to finish up 5 more pouches tonight, too.  Then, I'll be nearly halfway done.

I'm also counting down the days until spring break... 10 work days.  I also counted today and figured out that there are only 11 weeks left to my school year.  I am looking forward to summer.  The past two summers, I have worked summer school.  I have decided to take a break this summer.  I need it.