Melanie Testa

Covid-19

Gratitude, Donations, More Masks

This mask making endeavor is enabling me to remain centered in gratitude, giving, and appreciation for the labor of ‘Essential Workers’.

Please check out my Go Fund Me.

I get to do this work, while also navigating my response to living in Brooklyn, New York during a pandemic, in a hot spot. Making and giving masks out is helping keep me steady and focused on a task. Living in a tiny apartment, with no access to private or easily accessible outdoor space, while experiencing intermittent access to a laundromat is quite a challenge. This weighs heavily on me, I often feel hemmed in. Mask making is a fitting distraction.

Plus, I GET TO give good quality cotton masks away for free! (I am pretty sure you should order too many masks and try giving them away yourself!!) We could make the thrill a trend! And get all our friends behind masks while we do! 

Also? Masks require smize! Practice your smize, today!

So, this is how it works. If you would like masks for you and your family, consider this pricing structure for your donations: 

10$ per mask

1-5 masks ship in USPS Flat Rate envelope for 7.75$

6-10 masks ship in USPS Flat Rate small box 8.80$

25+ masks ship in USPS medium box 15.$

If you live outside the United States, contact us for a shipping estimate.

We (Flat Retreat and I) are asking for additional donations to ensure Essential Workers, including mental health care workers, produce delivery, postal workers, grocery store employees and park workers, get masks free of charge.

I ship masks from this post office twice a week. Each time I drop of masks to be shipped to individuals, I drop masks into the mail slot! I hope the postal workers can use them.

I have put together an Amazon wishlist of supplies. Some of these supplies will help replenish my personal stash, others will help me offer new and improved designs with cinch toggles and nose bridge strips. And, well, I put two items in there because I really wouldn’t mind having them. A person can dream. 🙂 

I am extremely grateful to Leslie Tucker Jenison, who donated fabrics from Urban Garden by RJR Fabrics for this effort. And, I also give thanks to Lyric Kinard who donated some great thread and more fabric to the cause. And to Jeannette, I have more Snoopy and John Deere to sew! That has been fun to blow through! Thank you. I am glad beyond measure, to use as much of my own stash as possible! I love being able to trim my stash back, but it is great to receive donated cloth too.

Please, if you have yardage you would like to donate, please contact me.

And, last but not least, I can do special orders. They take longer, but I will do my best to accommodate your requests! Specific fabric requests are not always possible. The mask you see above, a neat shield style mask, was made as a special order, using a pattern made by Judy Coates Perez for Makers Space.

Thank you for helping me get masks into the hands of Essential Workers. Thank you for keeping me occupied with good work! It feels amazing to be working with you to get this work done. High five.

Mask making for you and Essential Workers!

Four weeks ago, I was let go from my job as an Arts & Craft Specialist for a local after school program. Covid_19 has arrived and New York City is in lockdown. I have time on my hands and am in need of serious distraction.  

Being a creative person who likes to make things to occupy my time, I began making cloth masks. As I did so, I noticed that my best friend, an Essential Worker, working in a mental health facility, was not being properly supplied with protective gear. My awareness of this need grew when a therapist I know told me she was exposed to Coronavirus in a session. Then my friend, Stacey a mental health care worker and organizer of Flat Retreat, did a jig on Facebook, in a mask, which I had heard, were being rationed by her employer. And I realized, mental health care workers need masks too. 

So, I set out to make masks for those people that I could. So far, I have mailed out 90 masks and I am now receiving requests for even more!

After receiving some of my masks, my friend Stacey wanted to make sure that I could continue to make and mail masks to those in need, so she set up a Go Fund Me, to enable my mask making endeavor. Now, I am requesting your help, by way of monetary donation. 

These masks are made to fit over N95 masks, prolonging their efficacy. Cloth masks are recommended for use by the general population by the Center for Disease Control  in controlling the spread of Covid-19. Please inform yourself as to the benefit and limits of cloth masks. Here is an article titled, How NOT to Wear a Mask. And here is a User’s Guide to Face Masks. 

Please enable me to make masks and distribute these masks.  

When you make a donation, let me know if you need #MellyMasks for yourself or if you would like to supply masks to Essential Workers-or both! Please donate extra money, so that I can make and give masks to the Essential Workers I rely on each day. If you would like to arrange for shipping outside of the U.S., please comment. If you cannot afford a masks, but would like them, please comment. I will do what I can to ensure each person can get a mask.

1 mask 18$ (1 mask and flat rate USPS shipping envelope) each additional mask, 10$ each. So, 6 masks 68$ This is a ballpark figure, to give you an idea on pricing, it isn’t set in stone.

Mask making keeps me indoors and focused on working for the greater good! Living in New York City is not easy right now! So far, I have made and mailed 90 masks. I have 140 masks cut and ready to be sewn. Some are John Deere fabrics!!! I function better when I am driven to an end. Right now? I want masks on everyone I see.

I plan to food shop this week, with the intent to donate 24 masks to my local Whole Foods. Last time we shopped, I saw so many employees with NO masks. If I can bridge that gap? I want to! I am lucky enough to be able to stay home and I have both the skill and the time to make masks and help others. 

Thank you for helping me fund this endeavor!! Thank you for keeping me busy and in a few boxes of pasta, while trying to make a greater difference!! Let’s spread color and good care to the faces of all who contribute and beyond! If you receive masks from me, please post a selfie with the hashtag #MellyMasks and show me your mask wearing mug!!

If you would like to donate cloth, please comment. I prefer yardage, 1.5 yard cuts of quilters cotton, if possible. 

Please, help me get these masks onto the faces of the Essential Workers in my orbit.

 

Melly’s Fitness Hack: Joy in Sets and Reps

We are in the midst of a monumental moment. We are being asked to stay inside as much as possible, due to the possibility of catching Covid-19. If we go out, it is suggested that we stay a distance of six feet away from our fella beings. But getting some fitness on can help lessen anxiety, provides a change in scenery, and well, it’s good for you.

Enter, Dance Walking.

Using a great playlist, put your headphones on, get out there and throw some caution to the wind! You can keep your distance, of course! Crossing the street to keep space provides an additional distance and more time to do those dance moves!

When you don’t care what you look like, and you are dancing for the fun of it, you will attract some attention! Make eye contact! Smile big. Spread your joy, like butter, on hot and crispy toast. 

Since the virus has been a concern, I have noticed folks are less willing to make eye contact. That’s not good.

This morning, during my dance walk, I made sure to say, ‘Good morning!,’ with a big smile and a friendly wave, whenever possible. Fostering interaction while dance walking is a point-making endeavor, if you ask me! One woman received my greeting with a huge smile, saying, ‘Someone looks happy!’, and I was.

Folks need to see joy right now and I am happy to be that for my fellows. Points, point, points!