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Here is the final Toys for Tots post for 2015! This might not look like a ton of toys but that's in part to my amazing placement skills. This year was the biggest year yet in terms of funds collected and toys purchased! This year makes the 7th year in a row that I've done the TFT Fundraiser. I LOVE doing this each year and am so happy I took the chance to see what would happen that first year back in 2009. It's a lot of work but it's so worth it and I couldn't do it on such a large scale without so many awesome people supporting me through paypal, cash and toy donations. This year I was also able to round up some awesome prizes to give away to all the awesome people that donated something which made me even more happy. I appreciate you all so much. I really wouldn't be able to buy this many toys without all of you helping out. This years totals: $950 184 toys That averages out to about $5 per toy. I'm so serious every year when I say it only takes $5 to make a difference and help. A few people have asked how the shopping part works and also about the items I buy so I'm going to explain a little bit. Skip this next two paragraphs if you're not interested in reading that. ;) I plan it out so I can take advantage of sales and coupons so I can really maximize the amount of toys I get with the money raised. I actually do a lot of planning with this so I can stretch every dollar. Each shopping trip also takes me at least 90 minutes to get through so I can carefully look through everything and take advantage of any coupons, sales or deals I have available to me. This year, I waited until Target was doing a buy one get one 50% off sale that included brands like Barbie, Marvel and Disney. Another question a good number of people have asked about is why I include makeup, nail polish kits and items that look geared towards "older kids." That's because most TFT campaign sites are able to assist children up to the age of 12 and nail polish, make up, craft kits, model car kits and board games are things they request but tend to not get a lot of. Also, several local communities (mine included) offer extended support for ages 13-16. Most people tend to focus on younger children and the 10+ age range ends up being the group they need more things for because they don't get much donated for that age range. They do use their cash and online donations to help fill in the gaps wherever the needs are as well but I like to include a variety of everything. If you want to see final results of the fundraiser from years passed, you can check all of those out here: The final results from 2009: Here The final results from 2010: Here The final results from 2011: Here The final results from 2012: Here The final results from 2013: Here The final results from 2014: Here Ready for some 2015 pictures? Of course if we're Facebook friends, you may have already seen these since I uploaded them there the day I delivered the toys. I've been so busy with work (because bakery jobs in December are HELL) that I haven't had time to get this up here yet. I've been doing it a little at a time as I've had the free time.
If you want to see the full album then just *click here* to take a look at the Toys for Tots 2015 Flickr album to view the rest of them. I think there are 60 photos total. As for the prize giveaway, most of the prizes were mailed out last week (or given out for the people I know IRL that won stuff) although there are still a few I need to get sent out (I promise, soon!) to people. I want to say thank you (again) to those of you that donated this year. Whether it was the first year you donated or the third or the seventh, thank you so much! Whether it was $5, $10, $25, $50 or more; it doesn't matter. I appreciate it and I know the families that benefit from Toys for Tots doing what they do appreciate it, too. I have so much fun being able to do this. I've donated to Toys for Tots since I was a little kid and my mom let us each buy a couple toys of our choosing to give to them and kept doing so for as long as I can remember. So blame her for getting me started into this one. ;) Doing it on such a large scale the last 7 years has been so awesome. I couldn't do it without all of your help so thank you. I also want to say thank you to everyone who posted on their blogs, tweeted links, pestered people on Facebook and otherwise badgered told their friends and readers alike about what I had going on in hopes of getting more donations. To everyone who donated or helped in some way... thanks so much! You're wonderful and I heart you. :) Until next time! XoXo
I have done this fundraiser in 2009, 2010,2011, 2012,2013 and last year in 2014 making it the 6th year in a row. In 2014, I received $615 in donations (including the cash I personally put in) to buy a total of 95 toys& games for Tots for Tots. Then another person who is great but won't let me thank him by name made a $100 donation directly to Toys for Tots in my name since he forgot which date he needed to donate for me to get my shopping done & the toys delivered. Last year was a super successful drive especially given the short time frame I did it in because I started so late. I LOVE doing this each year and am so happy I took the chance to see what would happen that first year back in 2009. If you want to see final results of the fundraiser from years passed, you can check all of those out here: The final results from 2009: Here The final results from 2010: Here The final results from 2011: Here The final results from 2012: Here The final results from 2013: Here
Here are a few photos from the 2014 Fundraiser:
If you want to see the full album then just *click here* to take a look at the Toys for Tots 2014 Flickr page to view the rest of them. I want to say thank you to those of you who donated. Whether it was $2, $10, $25, $50 or more; it doesn't matter. I appreciate it and I know the families that benefit from Toys for Tots doing what they do appreciate it, too. I have so much fun being able to do this. I've donated to Toys for Tots since I was a little kid and my mom let us each buy a couple toys of our choosing to give to them and kept doing so for as long as I can remember. So blame her for getting me started into this one. ;) Doing it on such a large scale the last few years has been so awesome. I couldn't do it without all of your help so thank you. I also want to say thank you to everyone who posted on their blogs, tweeted links and otherwise badgered told their friends and readers alike about what I had going on in hopes of getting more donations. To everyone who donated or helped in some way... thanks so much! You're wonderful and I heart you. :) Until next time! XoXo
I apologize to those that have been patiently waiting for the Toys for Tots post to come up. I haven't been slacking on it, I literally just haven't had time to get on the computer for long enough to get it done lately. With the holiday madness plus 50+ hour work weeks and other personal issues going on, life has been hectic. Though I did get the images uploaded to Flicker and posted the link on Twitter about a week ago and sent it to many people that e-mailed asking so I don't feel as bad about not getting this posted in a timely manner.
I know plenty of you guys were sick of seeing me post and tweet about it but it really is one of my favorite charities and doing the blog fundraiser is a great way to earn money to be able to donate a lot of toys for it. I do a lot of charity and volunteer work through out the year and it's always sad to see how much more is needed. At least with this particular charity, I can try to reach out to others and get some help with it so some kids who would have otherwise gone without got something to brighten their Christmas morning up.
The first year I did this, I ended up with 83 toys.
Last year was the second year I did it and I was beyond stoked when I ended up getting 105 toys.
The third year turned out even better than last year did with a grand total of 132 toys.
This year? 146 toys. Each year gets increasingly a little bit better. Here they are all laid out, as usual....
I usually lay them out on the bed but I decided after last year being so frustrating trying to make everything fit for a picture, I'd try a different place and luckily I had the house to myself to get this done without interruption.
As much work and as stressful as making this come together really is, I love doing it. And while I generally hate shopping, shopping for this is always so much fun for me despite having to keep track of everything I'm putting in the cart and the cost of it all. I didn't have a friend to help me this year but no big deal there. I try to get a good mix of toys for varying ages and get a good variety of things...
Once I got everything back off the couch and floor and into bags again, I got everything outside to my boyfriend's car. His Mazda has a far bigger trunk than my little two door Civic has so we always use his car to take the toys to the Toys for Tots warehouse. The bags took up all the space in his trunk and part of the backseat as well.
The location for the Dallas area Toys for Tots headquarters changes every year but it's thankfully always in the same general area so it's never too hard to find. Plus, they're always more than willing to give out detailed directions when you ask for them. ;) They're also super helpful in unloading the toys...
If you want to see the rest of the pictures from the shopping trip, more shots of them laid out and more from them being dropped off then you can see the full photo set here. There are a little over 30 pictures total.
I want to say thank you to those
of you who donated. Whether it was $2, $10, $25, $50 or more; it
doesn't matter. I appreciate it and I know the families that benefit
from Toys for Tots doing what they do appreciate it, too. I have so much
fun being able to do this. I've donated to Toys for Tots since I was a little kid and my mom let us each buy a couple toys of our choosing to give to them and kept doing so for as long as I can remember. So blame her for getting me started into this one. ;) Doing it on such a large scale the last few years has been so awesome. I couldn't do it without all of your help so thank you. I also want to say thank you to everyone who posted on
their blogs, tweeted links and otherwise badgered told their
friends and readers alike about what I had going on in hopes of getting
more donations. To everyone who donated or helped in some way... thanks
so much! You're wonderful and I heart you. :)
Now we're done for this year and y'all don't have to hear me go on and annoy the online world with this anymore. Until next year anyway. ;)
I got the pictures to cooperate so it's time for the last Toys for Tots post you'll see out of me this year. I know plenty of you guys were sick of seeing me post about it but it really is one of my favorite charities and doing the blog fundraiser is a great way to earn money to be able to donate a lot of toys for it. I do a lot of charity and volunteer work and it's always sad to see how much more is needed. At least with this particular charity, I can try to reach out to others and get some help with it so some kids who would have otherwise gone without got something to brighten their Christmas morning up.
The first year I did this, I ended up with 83 toys.
Last year was the second year I did it and I was beyond stoked when I ended up getting 105 toys.
This year actually turned out even better than last year did with a grand total of 132 toys.
If you're wondering what 132 toys laid out on our bed looks like, allow me to show you.....
It took a lot of creative piling and tightly bunching all the toys together to get them to all fit. It was only a minor frustration when I started laying them out and was almost out of space on the bed yet still had 6 more bags of toys to lay out. I stopped and had to push everything I already had out back. There are some toys you can't even see because I stacked other stuff on top of it. Then after all the stacking and what not, I ended up with barely any space left on the bed. The toys to the left that are almost cut off from view are at the very edge of the bed. I always forget how much work getting the picture proof is until I have to lay out and then bag up and box all the toys again, lol.
I didn't spend more than $10 on a single toy. Most were in the $5 to $7 range. Some even in the $3 - $4 range. I did a lot of price scoping when planning my shopping trips out to find good deals on toys. And as usual we got everything from dolls, action figures, cars, dress up stuff, pre-school toys, learning toys, arts/crafts stuff, legos, a few books, activity books, puzzles, random games, things that light up and a couple things that make obnoxious noises without the requirements of batteries. I try to get a varied selection of gender specific and non-gender specific toys in all age ranges. It's a lot of fun doing the shopping but also a lot of thought and planning goes into it as well.
That box is from a fantastic friend of mine. It's actually rather deep and has around $150 worth of stuff in it. I was quite happy when I got the box of toys to add to the stuff I had already purchased and super happy with the diverse selection of toys inside.
I break this down into multiple shopping trips. So it's not too overwhelming on myself, my helper (I bring along someone to help me shop. Last year it was The Lawyer. This year my awesome boyfriend Shane did it) or whatever worker that ends up having to ring up all the toys at the register. I always go late at night or super early in the morning so there's not too many other shoppers to contend with.
I also always buy the toys I'm donating with my own money first (pictured above) to kind of kick the fundraiser off in a way. Plus I think it helps for people to see I'm actually donating stuff myself and not just waiting for people to give me their money to go buy stuff. ;)
A cool thing for my first shopping trip was the woman working the register that late night (it was after 1 AM) asked what we were doing with all the toys. We explained they were for Toys for Tots and she said we were sweethearts. She had a problem with the register she was on so we had to take all the toys off that one and move them over to the lane on the other side. By then, we had 3 ladies come up who were all going on break and all buying sodas and Lunchables. We let them go ahead of us and the woman ringing the toys up ended up using her employee card to give us an employee discount on the toys because we were so nice and she thought it was such a wonderful thing we were doing. That gave me an extra $40 to spend on my next toy shopping trip and I was incredibly excited by that and so happy at her kindness.
Anyway, here is the slide show for the first big shopping trip:
And here is the slide show for the second shopping trip:
It takes some creative stacking to get the toys all neat stacked in the cart, too. Mainly I have some mild OCD so I need my shopping cart to be as neat and organized looking as I can keep it while I do this so I can easily keep count of what I have. Also so I can keep up with what kinds of toys I've got and what I still need to get. I like to be organized, okay. :)
We had so many toys, we couldn't fit them all in the trunk of the car even though the trunk is actually pretty deep and can hold a lot. So what couldn't fit into the trunk went into the backseat then we headed off to the Toys for Tots warehouse to drop the stack of toys off.
Here's another slideshow. The toys loaded up in the car and being dropped off at Toys for Tots:
I want to say thank you to those of you who donated. Whether it was $2, $10, $25, $50 or more; it doesn't matter. I appreciate it and I know the families that benefit from Toys for Tots doing what they do appreciate it, too. I have so much fun being able to do this. I look forward to doing this again next year, too. :) I also want to say thank you to everyone who posted on their blogs, tweeted links and otherwise badgered told their friends and readers alike about what I had going on in hopes of getting more donations. To everyone who donated or helped in some way... thanks so much! You're wonderful and I heart you. :)
If you want to go look through the photostream of all the pictures I took, just click here. I used all of the photos in this post whether they were posted separately or included in one of the slideshows but if you'd rather look at all the pictures on Flickr, have at it. :)
Thanks again to everyone who donated and helped out this year. That's a wrap until it's time for round 4 next year. ;)
I know a lot of y'all are sick of hearing about this but that's okay. Everyone has something they are annoying about, right? Right. At least one of the things I'm being annoying about is for a good cause. That makes it better, right? Right. Anyway....
I went over the weekend and got the first few bags of toys for the Toys For Tots Fundraiser. The last two years I've done the fundraiser, I always go a few weeks before the donation date expires to buy a few toys on my own. Kind of as a way to further enforce that's what I'm really doing. And also in hopes it will inspire at least a few more people to make a donation.
Here's the evidence of said purchased toys:
I got 7 toys for $38. It really doesn't take much to make a small difference in a less fortunate kiddo's life so come on! There's just a little less than 3 WEEKS left to donate. It's for a really good cause and $5 or $10 really will help out a lot. There are a lot of cool toys you can get for kids of all ages with just a little bit of cash. And again, I know this holiday isn't about the toys but when you're a kid, it does give you a little something more to look forward to and be hopeful for. I know the economy is rough right now but it really doesn't take much to help out here. Every little bit helps so donate if you can! :)
Saturday, I got off work a little after midnight. I messaged my friend The Lawyer to see if he wanted to hang out. The Boyfriend was at work until 4 AM or so and I didn't feel like heading home yet. The Lawyer wanted to get food. We ate. Then we decided to go do the shopping for Toys for Tots as the subject had came up while eating at Denny's.
So, we went to the closest Wal-Mart and started shopping. We spent a good chunk of the money donated there but the store was an absolute mess. We decided we'd try another one about 15 minutes away since we still had some donation money left but didn't want to work back through the messy aisles. So, we took our full cart, headed to check out, loaded up all the toys we had, had a conversation with the cashier and then loaded the toys up into the car and off we were to the next one. (The cashier was curious why we had so many toys, lol.)
Round 2. The store wasn't a mess at all and they had more toys to choose from. Sadly, we had spent most of the donation money doing Round 1 at the first store. I honestly didn't get all that many donations from the blogging world this year which had me discouraged quite a bit because I wanted to get more toys this year than I did last year. I'd already got quite a few toys in November with my own money in hopes that it might get more people to donate a few dollars when they saw that a few dollars really was enough to buy something. I ended up spending a little more last night as well during Round 2 because they had so many toys marked down that I really just couldn't resist. I had my notebook with me and was keeping up with how much we were spending. Once the donation money was out, I grabbed another 10 or so toys and then made myself stop there, lol. Then The Lawyer decided he wanted to help out and went back over the aisles grabbing what he wanted and spent quite a bit himself. It amused me because he'd never even heard of Toys For Tots until I had told him about it and he was so careful in his picks because he wasn't sure what to get since he doesn't have kids himself. I pointed out that most any toy wouldn't be a bad toy but he was still very selective of what he got. With a second full cart, we headed to the check-out.
We got dolls, action figures, cars, dress up stuff, pre-school toys, learning toys, arts/crafts stuff, legos, some kid books, activity books, puzzles, random games, things that light up and a couple things that make obnoxious noises. We got a good selection of toys.
I want to say thank you to those of you who donated. Whether it was $2, $10, $25, $50 or more; it doesn't matter. I appreciate it and I know the families that benefit from Toys for Tots doing what they do appreciate it, too. I have so much fun being able to do this. I admit it was a little stressful to keep up with this year since I work such long and crazy hours and only get one day off a week. I almost didn't because I wasn't sure I'd be able to get it done and knew I wouldn't have as much time to put into the online aspects of it because I'm hardly on my computer anymore. Even though it wasn't as easy to get it all done this year, I still enjoyed it and am super happy I decided to do it again. I look forward to doing this again next year, too. :) I also want to say thank you to everyone who posted on their blogs, tweeted links and otherwise badgered told their friends and readers alike about what I had going on in hopes of getting more donations. To everyone who donated or helped in some way... thanks so much! :)
Now, I bet y'all are ready to see the pictures, eh?
Let me say... Last year, I got a total of 83 toys. Which was awesome but my goal for this year was to get more than that. Like I said earlier, I was discouraged about the lack of online donations this year and didn't think I'd meet my goal of surpassing what I did last year.
This is the result last year:
The result for this year were, as I had hoped, better than last year. I ran out of room on the bed for placing the toys and had to push them closer together and do some creative placement to get them all to fit where as last year I had plenty of extra space to spare.
I was able to get a total of 105 toys this year. :) 22 more than I got last year. I was so excited after we added them up. (Thankfully the total items were listed on the bottom of each receipt, including the one from when I got toys in November. So, we didn't have to count each toy individually. That would have sucked. And yes, laying all of those toys out and then bagging them back up took some time, lol.)
I did a slideshow of all the pictures from shopping, laying the toys out, close up shots of the toys, loading them up and delivering them to Toys for Tots. Yes, we put most of the toys into white forceflex trash bags. I had over 25 Wal-Mart bags and figured it would be easier to load and unload larger bags instead of having tons of smaller bags full of toys. The Marines that unloaded the car for us agreed that it was a great idea to use the forceflex bags. ;)
To see the slideshow on Flickr's page, click here. You can see the full sized images if you view it on Flickr's page which makes it a lot easier to look over and see details. :)
Thanks again to everyone who donated and/or helped out in some way. Y'all rock!
TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO DONATE TO THE TOYS FOR TOTS FUNDRAISER!!!!!
If you are one of the few that have donated this year, thank you! I appreciate it and I'm going to have fun spending the money on toys when I go shopping on my day off Sunday. :)
Today is my dad's birthday. He doesn't read my blog, thankfully. I'm pretty sure he's one of the few people left in my family that hasn't seen it. Hopefully anyway, haha. I digress. We haven't always got along. He wasn't always around when I was growing up. I didn't always understand why and I didn't always understand him. I still don't always understand him but I know he's caring, hard working, loving and a damn good man. I see a lot of traits in myself that I know I get from him and they're things I admire about him for the most part. :) I'm lucky to have him. Happy Birthday dad!
The Stars play tonight. Against the Sharks. They played the Sharks Monday in San Jose. They won the game in a shootout. You see that game? Jamie Benn's shootout goal was fucking awesome. I suppose if you're not into hockey you wouldn't appreciate it but dude, it was beautiful. Hopefully they can win tonight in regulation. I like when they win in OT/SO because fuck yeah winning but I much prefer a win in regulation so they're not still giving up a point to the other side.
Some people have asked what I want for Christmas. Merely for curiosity purposes so I'll post a little bit of what I want.
Tickets to the Stars/Canucks game on New Years Eve. I actually have NYE off (I usually work) and I've never been to a game where we played the Canucks before. I so badly want to see them since we don't play Vancouver often and they're one of the few times I've yet to see.
Gift cards. I know a lot of people say they're impersonal but the Boyfriend and I will be getting our own place at the beginning of the year again. Only thing is we have very little to take with us so I wanted gift cards to various places to help buy items we need. Then I was informed it was rude to ask for stuff like that since I should be asking for things I want not things we need.
New shoes and clothes. I have a pair of shoes, a pair of flats, a pair of heels and a pair of flip flops. My shoes take a beating since I have one pair and wear them constantly, lol. And clothes is something I just don't spend money on so I need some stuff that isn't worn or torn.
The other stuff on my list are books, CDs, DVDs and minor kitchen stuff.
What's on your wish list this year? :) I always enjoy seeing what other people ask for. I don't think it gives insight into that person always but sometimes it does. It also sometimes unveils interests I might not have otherwise known a person had. So comment and tell me what you want, please? ;)
I'm going to try my hand at making gingerbread cupcakes on Sunday after I do the toy shopping. Or before I do the toy shopping. Either way, I'm trying out the recipe I found. I've never made gingerbread cupcakes before and also never even eaten a gingerbread cupcake before. I LOVE gingerbread cookies, though. So when I saw an easy recipe for gingerbread cupcakes and saw that we already have the stuff to make them? Totally couldn't pass up trying to make them. Here's hoping they turn out well, lol.
Sexy yet supportive bras for chicks with really big boobs are hard to find. Bra shopping always irritates the fuck out of me. I've said before that I just need to make my own line of bras for busty chicks but I've never really been serious about it. I think I need to give it a real shot, though. It's not a bad idea and there's a definite need for it out there. I just have to figure out how to go about doing this.
The title of today's post doesn't have anything to do with anything in the post, so to speak. It's a line out of this song... "Time To Take My Drunk Ass Home" by Luke Bryan. Give it a listen. Though, it's a country song so if you hate country you probably won't dig it. The song amuses me and I like Luke Bryan. Yes, I like country music and no, not everyone in Texas does so shhh.
That's enough rambling. Remember, today is the LAST DAY to donate to the Toys for Tots fundraiser. Even if it's only $2 or $5, you'll be making a difference. :)
