Happy April! Also known as Donate Life Month!In honor of this month, Mom and I are excited to announce our launch of Hope Wins Boutique.

We’ve been busy since Fall 2023 getting ready for today. Together, last fall, Mom and I established a small business called Hope Wins Boutique to offer a variety of curated fashion finds online through poshmark and Hope Wins and transplant related designs on Etsy, created by yours truly.

I was already a Poshmark seller (which is an online resell website featuring fashion and other items), for many years and sales were going so well, that with a $100 investment I purchased some items to resell and with that $100 worth of clothing plus my already listed items, our sales have allowed us to continue to shop for awesome items to resell from our profits. Last fall, we were able to pay some medical bills and my tuition for my masters out of our sales.

We have so many awesome items and brands and Mom and I have enjoyed working on our small business together, finding the items, photographing and posting them. Because its all online, it allows us to work at our own pace. I can skip the days I don’t feel well and enjoy working on finding new items on the good days. Thanks to some friends who knew about our venture, we have even received items that they were cleaning out, to post and sell, this allowed our sale to be straight profit and go directly into the medical bill fund. Be sure to check us out on Poshmark. You will need an account to access poshmark. We also co-list items on ebay, but I will let you in on a little secret, additional items are listed on poshmark, and prices on listings are generally a little higher on our ebay, due to the fees they charge, so I’d encourage you to checkout poshmark.

Looking for a way to help us out? Drop off our spring cleanouts to us and help us raise money for medical bills. We add several new items a week.

We also sell on Etsy! These items include our custom dog collars, custom medical bracelets (coming soon), transplant related items like vinyl stickers, mugs, totes and apparel (coming very soon). But even more exciting, is I also designed new Hope Wins items, like mugs, small tumblers, hats, journals, sweatshirts and t-shirts, totes in two new designs. Vinyl stickers coming soon! These items are all printed by the printer on demand, so they take care of all the work of printing and shipping for us, which allows us to defer the physical labor, other than creating the custom and original designs. Mama Bear even came up with some of the designs! We are always adding new designs so be sure to follow our Shop on Etsy, Hope Wins Boutique.

We have really enjoyed working together on this project turned small business. We share the work and someone you all know and love, demanded to be named Vice President of Shipping, as she is the post office runner and also requested a secretary, so I acquiesced and gave her the title and two secretaries, Gracie and Finley, but they generally sleep on the job.

While it has allowed us to pay bills, this has also given me a purpose each day. It has given my creative mind somewhere to work and allowed me to focus on something beyond how well my body is behaving each day. We’ve had fun memories doing the shopping and spending some Saturdays getting things organized and ready for today.

We’d appreciate your support, but also know this maybe outside some people’s interest. So we have a few other ways some local friends could help us out:

-Are you handy and love Ikea Furniture? We have 4 ikea Cube Storage Shelves to build. They’ve arrived, but my arthritis in my hands prevents me from building and I can’t send mom in on this project alone.

– Its spring! And our backyard could use a reset and cleaning of our outdoor furniture. We could also use some assistance attaching some trellis to the bottom of our deck stairs to hide our off season items. We were gifted the trellis, it just needs to be attached.

-Are you handy and said no thanks to the ikea furniture but would be willing to install some wire shelving inside one of our upstairs closet? My medical supplies and equipment continues to grow and instead of one shelf, we could use some additional shelving to store these items. This would include a trip to the store with yours truly, so we can pay for the material. This project is just beyond our skill set.

-Have some college kids or young adults who would want to make a little extra money and help us clean and re-organize our garage? Or our storage room? We mostly need muscle power and probably some encouragement to let somethings go for our late spring yard sale or to donate. This requires no judgment of the state of either room or the amount of junk. We realize they arent quite home yet, so we can wait a few weeks on this.

-Do you have two men or college kids who could give us 10 minutes to lift a sofa bed off a rug? The girls destroyed the rug but we can’t lift the sofa bed to get the rug out. Its beyond washing and just needs to find new residence in the trash can.

Do you have plumbing experience, also known as, can you figure out and help us fix our upstairs toilet that has a mind of its own and sometimes won’t refill or flush. I’d love to learn whats wrong and how to fix it, if you’d be willing to teach me.

Lastly, sadly, I can’t plant flowers due to the bacteria and dangerous particles in soil. But I love fresh flowers. I realize its not quite time yet, but would you be willing to plant some flowers for us in our front yard? The boyscouts took care of our mulch for us last weekend, but some color would be great.

We don’t like asking for help, but the burden of my health issues right now after the last kidney scare, is heavier than it has been in a while and we could use some help. We are flexible and can work with you to find a time that is convenient for you. We’ve learned a few skills, but also realize that some of our projects are beyond our skill set and our physical abilities. We can supply food and drinks to keep you nourished, a lending hand and a laugh to help.

Finally, an update on things. We re-ran my labs twice last week and my kidneys are staying stable. The true test will be on this weeks labs, as we reintroduced the medications that effect Kidney function. While we could pause them, we could not discontinue them, so we are hoping for the best and appreciate your prayers.

Alright friends, if you made it this far, congrats! And we hope you enjoy puruising our items today and in the future. No april fools jokes here, its officially donate life month and launch day! The ability to get to today and make this happens, just shows with a little hard work and some hope, that Hope Wins!