Good morning, dear and kind friends of baritone-voiced British thesps with sophisticated silver temples. The anatomical ones, not the sacral edifices. Let’s be honest, I am fuseling a bit. Not as in “booze” (although alcohol might help?) but as in “procrastination”. I have a bit of a day ahead of me. There is some (paid) work I’ve got to do, and then there is my labour of love, which is getting the Etsy orders on the road. But before I do either of those things, I am starting off with the morning update.

1. The fan-fronted auctions will finish on eBay in about 5 hours time!

The first of the 50 fan-donated auctions will end at 16:25 GMT; the last one at 17.35 GMT. A whole hour of fun and excitement that I will attend and watch for the last minutes of the auctions. Please join for some live-tweeting, if you have time, especially as I will most probably not be able to do all individual auctions justice, between watching the count-down and monitoring the invoicing. So feel free to tweet “last chances” and “congratulations” and generally celebrating an extraordinary week of kindness and generosity. If you want to watch, simply go to my eBay page which lists all auctions in order of time ending soonest (default). From there you can also click into each item individually.

As for the auction proceeds so far – since last night, we have come across a smaller milestone, a half-way point, so to speak. New bids have come in and pushed the total across the €3,500 threshold.

Have resorted to “threshold” theme for lack of suitable pictures of Guy with rocks and stones…

Based on previous auctions, we can assume that bids will increase today, in the last hour and minutes of the auctions. Whether we will catch “the big 4-O”, I don’t know. But the amount generated is already so good, we will in any case have a never-before-seen final amount, even without Guy’s jacket. Quite frankly, the total amount “scares” me 😉. After all, I have been entrusted with all this money that doesn’t belong to me, and I want to pass it on as quickly as possible.

There has been movement on items, but I’ll spare you individual prices on the top sellers so far to which I have linked before. You can look those up via the link above. But here is the gist of things:

• We currently have 15 items that have reached or exceeded the €100 price tag! Add it up and be blown away 😉
• I’d like to draw your attention to a few hand-made items that are still relatively moderately priced and *could* deserve a bit of love:
  • The hilarious facial hair toy and coaster set made by Jane, currently at €21
  • The naughty Claude Becker table top frame made by Kate, currently at €23
  • The delectable Dr Track charm, made by Ani but donated by Anne, currently at €39
  • The adorable Red Dragon crochet set, made by Certifiedmoody, currently at €40

I have just noticed that *as I type* bids are still being made… In any case – see you later today for the showdown 😉. Meanwhile a big thank you to all bidders. Please remember – whether you win the item or not, you have contributed to the final price by making a bid along the way. So you have a part in the final proceeds! Thank you! 😘

I mean, *who* could resist those puppy eyes???

2. The fixed-price sale is almost cleaned-out

Overnight, more orders have come in, and I am thrilled to say that our stock is almost completely gone. Thank you for your fantastic shopping response, all! I am so delighted that the wonderful crafty work of the contributors has been appreciated so much by you that everything sold out so quickly. We have only 13 mini book pins left. I’ll leave the sale open until the end of the auctions. I can now say that the net proceeds on Etsy will be a four-figure number!!! Thank you to all buyers, and also to all those of you who DM’d me re. combining postage with potential eBay wins. Great help!

3. Monetary donations continue to grow

Funds have also continued to accumulate via Paypal. At this point, the donations by 26 lovely people have accrued a – wait for it – four-figure sum. This is great – because there will be no deductions from this 😉. No further arithmetics nor postage and packing required by Guylty 😄. Thank you for your generous donations to the fund. It is bumping the proceeds to unprecedented heights!

Right, final sprint! Love to all!