Some of you may know that I’ll be doing the AIDS Ride this year. What that means is that in two weeks time I’ll be schlepping my sorry ass up to the SF Bay Area, then riding my bike back down to Los Angeles. I’ll be undertaking this journey with about 2,000 other riders, all raising money to help in the battle against AIDS/HIV.

I’m trying to raise $10,000 for this ride, and I’m about halfway there. I have about 2 weeks left to raise the rest, and I’m hoping you can help me get a little closer.

Here’s how you can help:

1. BUY A PETJA PALOOZA SWAG BAG

We have a very limited number of bags left over from the meet up in New York last week, and we have put them up for sale in our WePay store. We’ll donate the proceeds from these bags to AIDS Lifecycle.

These bastards are filled with a metric assload of great items:

Priced at $30.00, but you’ll swear you were getting $32.50 worth of value!

Just look at all that amazing swag. Don’t you want a Regretsy fortune cookie and a vibrator? Of course you do! Stop being weird.

- Click here to buy a swag bag from our WePay store

2. MAKE A DIRECT DONATION TO BRONC’S LIFECYCLE PAGE

You can make a direct donation at the AIDS Lifecycle page. It’s quick, it’s easy, it’s tax-deductible. Donate as much or as little as you like.

Which brings me to…

3. GET AN AD ON THE REGRETSY MAIN PAGE AND SAVE LARGE PILES OF CASH

Make a donation of $100 or $200 to Bronc’s Lifecycle page, and in return we’ll give you one of these ads on the Regretsy main page for two whole weeks!

That’s some serious exposure, right there. And since you’re donating directly to the AIDS Ride, it’s tax-deductible gift. Plus you’ll be doing a good thing for a lot of people. Who can resist?

Make your donation here.

Check the amount you’d like to donate, and in the message box write “I’d like a Regretsy ad.”

Then just e-mail me, and we’ll make the final arrangements.

Please note, we can only offer a small number of these ads due to limited space, so order early!

Regretsy Theatre: LADY ROTHERWICK’S CORNBURY STAG PARK CUFF

As you may know, one of my very favorite topics around here is the feeding frenzy that kicks in on Etsy whenever someone of note dies. I call it, TragiCrafting™.

But let’s be clear about one thing: TragiCrafting™ is not fueled by the desire to make a buck off a dead celebrity. That would be so very cynical and wrong, and not at all steampunk and upcycled and covered with mass produced octopus pendants.

No, TragiCrafting™ is different. TragiCrafting™ is all about healing.

It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Yes. Yes, it is.

And yet, TragiCrafters™ can be so very fickle. They’ll tag a cake dish with “Steve Jobs” faster than you can download another iTunes update, but Thomas Kinkade dies and no one even plugs in their glue gun. And only one person bothered to put together a treasury for George “Goober” Lindsay.

So when Donna Summer hustled off her mortal coil, I didn’t know what to expect. Would the sensitive crafters of Etsy come through? Or would we keep refreshing this page to no avail?

Well, I’m sad to say that the TragiCrafting™ I’ve been hoping for on this one has not materialized, aside from the obligatory shitty plastic wall clocks with unlicensed photos:

It’s not much, but the important thing is, CRAFTERS BE GETTING THEIR HEALING ON

BONUS: It’s hard to believe that someone actually used “Last Dance” as the name of a treasury, but God love them, they are made of stronger stuff than I am.

Extra points for the inclusion of Doc Martens, which as you know, were a staple of Donna Summer’s wardrobe in the ’70s.

ROCK ON

SUPER BONUS: TRAGI-TAGGING: This is the act of taking a completely unrelated piece of crap that’s been mouldering in your Etsy store for months, and finding some pathetic connection to the recently deceased.

I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU, HOT STUFF

BEEP BEEP

More Tragicrafting™:

- Amy Winehouse
- Davy Jones
- Steve Jobs
- Whitney Houston
- Dick Clark