It's That Time of Year

It's that time of year, when all you can think of are the holidays. Finding the perfect present, giving the best hints, securing that secret hiding spot. And forgetting about the wrapping paper, of course.

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!

That's a lie, I already have those. I want wishes! I want piles and piles of wishes! I want so many wishes that I can't keep up with them.

So, what do you hope you're getting for loot this year? What do you wish you could buy your favorite friends and family? What miracle do you dream about?

I'm exploring a bunch of options to make the Wishing Star Collective an even bigger success than it already is. Kickstarter has gone well, and rewards are being sent out, and ideas are breeding like crazy. Each idea starts as something crazy and then slowly matures into a maybe and then eventually turns into a Tada! I'm hoping for one or two more tada's before the end of the year.

More pictures to come, of the rewards being sent out, and other potential goodies.

But I can't do it without you.

Facetweets

Every day, when I sit down at my computer, I do at least three things. I check my email, I check my facebook and I check my twitter. I watch people post multiple status updates a day, right alongside their tweets. It's easy, takes two seconds, everybody does it. (Or at least a lot of people do.)

I have been trying to come up with a way to make submitting a wish just as easy. I haven't come up with anything yet, short of commissioning some brilliant designer to set up a page for me. Until then, the idea sits and waits for a stroke of genius.

Until then, I wish every person who wakes up and goes to their facebook or their twitter will take the 2 minutes to come to this blog, and submit a wish. Even if it seems like the most insignificant wish in the world. How insignificant are some of your status updates? The whole world won't know it's you, but every wish I get works towards the goal of a thousand stars.

Make this your mission for a week! Make other people make it their wish!

Fundraising?

Remember that time I started a Kickstarter thingy to try and raise at least $700 dollars so I could do things like, oh, buy paper and gumball machines and try and get the word out there in a fun an interesting way about my blog?

That. Just. Happened.

I now have a bajillion things I need to go organize, besides catching up on my NaNoWriMo which I am horribly behind on, so. More blogging at you all later.

I'll leave you with some wishing requests:

What city do you wish you could see a gumball machine in?
How many people do you hope will take home a tiny capsule full of tiny stars and share their wishes with us?
What did you dream about last night?

You, are all amazing. I am completely silly excited.

Thank you. Thank you.

5 Days Left!

Well, since there are only 5 days left to add funds to my kickstarter project, I feel like it's time for an update.

5 days to go and $725 dollars raised - which is excellent. The more money we raise, the better (tell all your friends), but the goal has been met, so the project is officially a win. Thank you, one and all.

Halloween is tomorrow and one of my favorite people is getting married, and so I have a ton of wishes for her, one being that I hope she and her new husband spend the rest of their lives enjoying one anothers company. Another is that I wish they go on grand adventures.

Some hopes I have are mainly for my project. I hope I can do everything I want to do, and thrill my supporters. I hope the gumball machines generate the kind of interest in this site that I can barely keep up with all your wishes.

Most of my dreams are dreams, and I will leave them on the stars and you can all imagine fun things.

Who deserves wishes in your life? What hopes do you have for the future of your projects? What dreams can you imagine and breathe life into? Keep sharing - you aren't limited to one posting per day or lifetime. I love your submissions and I love your support. Because, you, are all, amazing.

Hello!

Hello the internet!

I have lots of wishes about the weather lately. And continued funding for my kickstarter shenanigans. And hopes for beautiful gum ball machines and finding that special jar to house the thousands of wishing stars I will get between now and the end of the year.

Talk to me! School just started, which teachers do you wish would disappear? The economy is terrible, which jobs do you wish would appear? Who do you hope will discover their dreams, where do you go in your own dreams?

I have recently started brainstorming about other sites I can explore and encourage to check us out. This was after a kindly soul threw a link up at a near by knitting website. Follow this wonderful person's example and tell all your friends and link it to the least mention of anything related to this project! The idea is for it to grow, but I can't do that without your help.

Kickstarter!

It has begun!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1559128309/the-wishing-star-collective
Help me raise money to get the word out about this project! Tell your friends! Donate a dollar! Every little bit helps. I have 60 days to reach my goal and I need every little bit of help that I can get.
I am terribly excited and nervous all at the same time. I want this project to explode and take root and expand into awesomeness. You like awesomeness, right? Everyone likes awesomeness. Help this be awesome. You have to admit, gumball machines full of tiny origami stars sounds pretty awesome.

UPDATE!

Kickstarter is going brilliantly - already half way there, and 50 plus days to go! Tell your friends! People on the street! Anyone! And Everyone! This project is going to be amazing! And thank you to everyone who has already helped - much appreciated.

While I'm waiting on that to succeed, I have already started selling little capsules full of tiny stars. Portland Pins has generously allowed me to use a the right side of the machine they have set up in SPACE Gallery, check it out!
Last night at the Bloc Party I sold $10 worth of these little guys. Doesn't sound like a lot, but it's ten more dollars towards the project goal! Totally worth it. And totally fun - go get one of your very own!

The pictures are not awesome, since I took them from my phone, but you get the idea. This is what I want to set up - machines just like this, set up all over Portland, and maybe other cities one day too. Full of tiny little adorable stars, to help get the word out about needing these wishes! You can donate as little as a dollar, and I will put that dollar to good use.

Don't forget to keep giving me your wishes! It only takes a minute, and it's totally anonymous.

UPDATE!

We made it! $700 dollar goal reached! 12 fantastic backers and ten days combined to reach a level of awesome this town has not seen. But! It doesn't stop there! There are still 45 days left to go. I'd like to see just how much money can be raised - think of it. More gumball machines in more cities around the world. Get the word out to people in California, Michigan, Massachusetts, just as a start. For just a dollar you can help support an exciting project. Tell your friends!

And keep those wishes rolling in! Right now I wish I didn't have a headache. Simple enough. Totally going into a star. I also hope I get this job I am interviewing for. Another star. One of my dreams is that I'll wake up one morning and have raised $1,000 dollars. $1,000 dollars for a 1,000 stars. Another star. Simple things and silly things, give them all to me.

And thank you. I am thrilled.

Back to School

I do not have a brain right now so this posting will be mostly bullets and rambling:

I have two gumball machines! They need a little work, but I am excited about them! I also have capsules and have been filling them! I have been giving everyone I know a capsule - they have 10-15 stars in each one with a little slip of paper that says wishingstarcollective.blogspot.com on them - I cheated and printed them out on paper because writing that out a million times, while more hands on, would be ridiculous. Also my handwriting is tiny and I want people to actually be able to read it.
I also have permission from Portland Pins to share one side of their SPACE machine for a bit.















And I submitted a proposal to present at PechaKucha - they are considering it. If you don't know what that is - check - it - out - http://www.pechakuchaportland.org/

Whoa. Yay.







I got approval from Kickstarter to set that up! Whooo! Also a little bit terrifying. Trying to calculate what I would need to get this started and then write up things so people will support is...daunting. What if I forget something? Like...machines, and paint for them, and locks and stands, and paper and a new paper cutter, and capsules and uhm...buying my blog site! What else? Goodness. This is all getting serious.

But on that note I took pictures of things! Look! So much better than the last pictures!






I am terribly excited about these. I want to use them for the Kickstarter stuff and the PechaKucha stuff. People seem very entertained whenever I hand them one though. The plan is working perfectly, they immediately want to open the capsules up and play with the stars.

Speaking of stars - I have over 200 wish stars! I think the count as of this afternoon was 226. I am even keeping the story writer wishes in a little separate jar just to see how far it goes - keep it up story writer!

That goes for the rest of you too! Today my wish suggestion is Back to School. What do you want to do with your school year? Even if you're not in school! What's on your plate for the next few months?

Funding?

I'm thinking about expanding!

I have a number of friends who have used a fantastic website called Kickstarter, http://www.kickstarter.com/. The site is focused on creative project funding, with an all or nothing philosophy. You have a target goal, and either you reach it and get all the funding, or you don't, and no one who invested loses anything. It seems to work really well. I was immediately intrigued.

I was toying with the idea to use this site to raise some money for this project, but couldn't really justify setting something up just so I could buy more paper.

There is another project in town called Portland Pins, http://www.portlandpins.com/. "We ask local artists to submit their own hand-made designs for 1inch buttons, then we mix the end results all up in a gumball machine so people could buy great, unique artwork." I have always loved this idea, and in fact listening to them talk about starting up the project at a Pecha Kucha night at SPACE Gallery was the catalyst for me to set up my own blog and really get going on the project.
In recently talking to one of the creators of Portland Pins about my project he mentioned the idea of putting the stars in the little capsules he put his pins in.

Imagine a little clicking noise in your head of something dropping perfectly into place...

Now imagine a gumball machine full of little capsules, in turn full of mini origami stars and a slip of paper with The Collectives website on it. An interesting way to reach out to the public and get them involved in my project. I was immediately enchanted with the idea.

And now I am thinking about using Kickstarter to fund the purchase of these types of materials and setting up gumball machines full of awesome. I could also use the money for more business cards, more advertising, and purchasing my domain name - the .blogspot is so cumbersome. I could pay someone to take gorgeous pictures of the stars, get more interesting paper, and maybe even expand the idea outside of the state. The possibilities are endless!

The only thing I am worried about is that I feel like I am copying the idea of the gumball machines from Portland Pins, and I really wouldn't want to do that. I like and respect both the creators and the project. It's just such a GOOD plan. It would work SO well. But then again, maybe they'll share...

So I am still thinking about it.

I wish I could figure out a way to distribute this idea better.

I love all the wishes I have gotten! You guys are all amazing - remember to tell your friends, and continue visiting and adding your wishes to the pile! I have quite a number now - more pictures of the wishing stars specifically soon.

Wish Idea of the Day: give me wishes about project ideas you have and how you wish you could make them happen, or happen better or make them easier or more interesting! Go!

The End of a Beautiful Summer

It is raining here in Maine, and while I was wishing I could just curl up in bed with a good book and some hot chocolate all day (writing...that...down...) it also occured to me that I had a whole list of things I had meant to do this summer, and never got around too.

For example:

I wish I had gone camping - I've never done that.
I wish I had gone swimming more - the weather was too nice to sit at home as much as I did. The curse of being busy, I suppose.
I wish I had written a book - haha. If only.
I wish I had finished knitting those socks I started ages ago - the heel is killing me.

But! It isn't over yet. So!

I hope I do actually finish those socks.
I hope I go swimming at least once more, and definitely at the covered bridge.
I hope my yearning for a book turns into a fantastic idea for NaNoWriMo.

And what I want from YOU is the same thing. What do you wish you had done this summer, grand and small? What do you hope to squeeze in before the trees change their leaves, and school starts up again?

And in other news, yes. I will be sitting down to count how many stars I have made with all of your helpful wishes. I'm betting I have at least a hundred, maybe two. Hopes for how many I have?

Pictures!

You're all probably wondering what these things even look like, so. I figured I'd show you.
This is a jar of stars - don't make fun of the picture, I'm having a bad camera day. Or the jar. I like funny shaped jars. And no - that is not a thousand. There are like...two. Maybe three thousand in there. Yeah, I know. Unfortunately, these are not the stars with wishes on them. These are all the ones I have left over from the last year or so, after trying to give away as many as I could.






This is a close up of the stars in the jar.
















And this is a look at the stars with the wishes written on them, before and after. Fortunately I write very very tiny. Some of the wishes are so long I have to continue them onto more than one piece of paper - which I am totally ok with since it gives me more stars.
I'm actually waiting for someone to give me the excuse to write a whole story on a sheet of origami paper that I can then cut into strips and make into stars. I think that would be neat.



I have added a few things to the Collective. We have our own email address now, and business cards. Adorable business cards I might add - the little half ones. Feel free to email me with questions or more wishes, anything really.

As for ideas...
I'm going on an adventure for a few days and it is quite liberating. Who wants to go on an adventure and where? And why? What do you want to get away from or get too and how much does it mean to you?

Excellent Beginnings

An excellent start, thankyou my wishers! I appreciate the time you took to help me with this.

Now, I want to start giving you all ideas for wishes - post as many times as you can think of something! And remember to keep in mind hopes and dreams as well. I'll try and do this once a week. I figure if I say it *out loud* it might actually happen. I think I'm up to 50 or 60 stars so far - which is pretty good but far from a thousand. I'm going to start posting pictures of my progress and process so you can see what I'm up to.

This week I want you to think about jobs. What is your dream job, the thing you want to be when you grow up? Did you just put in for a raise, or a promotion? Is there a position opening up that you desperately want? Is there a life long goal you're working towards?

Tell me all about it. Or post another wish entirely that has nothing to do with jobs - just post something. And remember, it's totally anonymous.

Idea Into Action

I want to put your wishes into mini origami stars! Why?

My biological mother died a little over a year ago. Harsh way to start off a blog, I know, but it's important. To keep my sanity I started cultivating simple repetitive tasks. Knitting was one, and mini origami stars was another. Knitting eventually grew too difficult for my taxed brain to handle so origami stars it was. Learning to cut the strips of origami paper to correct lengths and widths took up quite a bit of my time. Developing the perfect technique to create just the right shape to turn into a teeny tiny star took up quite a bit more. It was simple, time consuming and repetitive.
Perfect.

As you can imagine, my brain eventually turned back on, and could handle things like cooking dinner and knitting complex patterns, among my myriad of other regular activities. But the habit stuck, a simple little thing to keep my hands busy while my mind handled other matters.

It has been over a year and try as I might to give these things away, to everyone I know and people that I've never met, I still have thousands. Literally. In all colors and textures. It's just...well, it's ridiculous.

So! I decided to come up with a brilliant idea to turn what was quickly becoming a bad habit into something at least a little bit useful.

Which is where you come in.

What I need, are wishes. Legend has it that the maker of a 1000 origami stars is granted a wish. I don't really need any wishes right this second, and besides I've spent the last year making plenty. What I want to do now is make stars - and wishes - for other people.

The idea is that I'll collect anonymous wishes, from scraps of paper mailed to me, to comments on this blog, and I'll write them down on the strips of paper I use to make a star. One wish per star. 1000 stars per jar. Then I will try and sell the jar, and donate the money to a charity that is devoted to making wishes come true. You know the ones. (Suggestions are always appreciated.)

Now, I'm sure this sounds downright silly, and I'll give you that. But help a girl out - if I'm going to keep making these damn things they might as well have a purpose.

Wishes! I want your wishes, your hopes, your dreams! You wake up in the morning and wish you didn't have to go to school or work or that it wasn't raining, or that it was. You hope that college acceptance letter comes in the mail today, that your hair will do what you want, that the boy you sit across from on the subway looks up at you. Your dreams of the perfect dress with the perfect shoes for the perfect event, or a daring adventure the Tuesday after next. I want them all.

I know, daunting, both for you, and me. But I will do my best to keep up, and try and give you as many ideas as I can. And it's easy! Just comment on this post or posts to come, plus it is totally anonymous. Your deepest, darkest (or shiniest) secret wishes can remain just that.

And thank you.