A Giveaway from My Shop and a Sale

Hi everyone! It's that time again - giveaway time! Most of the month I feature other artists, but the first week of the month (or last day of the previous month I guess!) will be my shop :) Why? Well I know you guys love me so I have to give you a chance for prizes out of my shop! Let me share the giveaway - then I'll explain my new banner :)

An Outdoors Bracelet

This bracelet was a lot of fun to make! It uses my new paper beads and I made them in orange in honor of my brother! :) Yes, the brother that my banner says I'm supporting right now. I would love to see a lot of entries for this and I would be really honored if the winner of this bracelet prays for or thinks of my brother when they wear it :) Click on the bracelet title for more information.

So How Can You Win?

1. Leave a comment on this blog = 1 entry

2. Visit my FB page and "like" it. Leave a comment there to let me know your a new or returning fan! = 1 entry

3. Visit my Artfire page or Etsy page, come back and leave a separate comment with your favorite piece = 1 entry

4. Follow this blog or let me know your already following = 1 entry

5. Announce this contest on plurk or twitter, come back and leave a comment with a link = 1entry

6. Blog about it! Since this is means monopolizing your blog space it = 2 entries

7. Make a purchase in either of my stores (Artfire or Etsy) = 5 entries! 

That's a total of 12 possible entries! Please remember to leave separate entries for each entry to make my job easier! I'll be keeping track in a spreadsheet and each entry will be given a separate number (based on order received) and I'll pick a winner using the random number generator. *Winner to be announced Saturday, March 5th*

Now to Explain my Header...

And a Sale!

This is my brother, Gordon, also know online as Psycho or Psycho4Jesus. Now often called Cancer Boy. Yes, he has cancer. Stage 4 T cell Hystocite Rich B Cell Lymphoma. That's a very rare form of a type of Non-Hodgekins lympoma. It's very extensive and he's had one chemo treatment so far. The shot above was taken with my phone the first day he was in the hospital.

He was in the hospital because he had a really bad reaction to the chemo and ended up being in the hospital for 2 days and nights. It was hard, but being there was probably the best :) He's been home since Saturday and is slowly recovering! Today, for the first time since he was hospitalized, he actually asked for a second serving of food! That still wasn't much, but very exciting still. 

His next treatment is on the 16th and he will have at least 5 more treatments, possibly 7. We'll know more at the end of April! 

So what am I doing? Well, a lot actually. I'm his secondary caregiver right now. So, when Mom's at work I hang out at the house and help out with medications, food, and anything else he needs. I also took shifts while he was in the hospital and have been coming and helping out whenever needed. This means I'm not going back to work at this time. I will be doing odd jobs to help with my husband and I's finances, but I can't really look for work until he's doing a lot better. My family needs me to much! 

What does this mean to you? I'm looking for your support! There's two things you can do:

1. Your Prayers - If you don't pray, whatever it is you do :) But this is going to be a really rough road. We all covet your prayers right now. I will be providing awareness charms soon to use as prayer reminders that I'll be selling for cost. Also, Gordon's biggest wish right now is that the people would know that he has cancer, cancer does not have him and he hopes that others would be blessed in their relationship with God right now. I'm not going to shove that down your throat - don't worry! I don't want to drive any of you away, but I do feel that its very important to share, and if you have any questions let me know :)

2. I'm doing a sale! All proceeds from my shop will be split between me and Gordon. I need to help pay for my husband and I's bills, and Gordon has no other source of income right now. So I'm doing 15% off in both my shops! On Etsy you'll need to enter the code "cancersupport15" for the discount, and on Artfire it has already been applied. I appreciate your support :)

Now don't forget to enter the giveaway :P


*Update 3/2*
Jujube Jewelry asked a great question! If you want to make a donation you can make a donation through paypal to the e-mail jedimarri@gmail.com :) Please let me know how you want the money to be used. It can go towards his bills, supporting both of us as (since I'm not working and money is really tight), for him to buy something fun, or for Mom to pay his bills. :) Just let me know!

*Update 3/3*
There's been an addition to this week's giveaway! Meri of Elfling Creations wanted to help raise awareness and support my brother - so she volunteered to giveaway an earring!

Leave a comment with your favorite item from her shop  for an extra entry :) Now here's what she has to say about it: The earring dangles about 1" from the ear cuff, which is silver-plated and 3mm wide. The sun bead has a crescent moon on the reverse side. That bottom bead is a cats eye- that's hard to see in the photo, so I figured I'd mention it. 


I'll be drawing two winners now on Saturday - make sure you check back - and enter!