Nie Nie Day

When tragedy strikes someone we love, our hearts swell, and the urge to take action is almost relentless. I know many of us are feeling that way about Stephanie and Christian. We want to take action. To do something. Some of us know them personally. Some of us know them through Nie Nie Dialogues. Some of us just heard about them and can't seem to think of anything else.

Well. I am still feeling that urge to take action. So here I go. I'm officially declaring next Thursday, August 28th, Nie Nie Day. The plan: instead of my usual Giveaway, I'll be hosting a silent auction at Design Mom. With all proceeds going directly to the Stephanie & Christian Paypal fund. What's the prize? Well Ms. Impatient. You'll just have to wait until Thursday to find out. Although I promise it will be great. And something that Stephanie would love.

But that's not all. I'm assuming you're feeling the take-action-urge as well. So here are a few things you can do to celebrate Nie Nie Day:

1) Host a silent auction* on your own blog. For sure you have something awesome hanging around your house — in your gift closet, under the bed, in the pantry. Auction it off already. And relieve your house of clutter at the same time. Or. You could contact your buddy who's an etsy seller and see if she'll donate one of her fabulous creations. Just think how fun it will be if there are a whole bunch of auctions happening in honor of Stephanie & Christian at the same time!

2) Not up for hosting an auction? Then how about writing a special post on Nie Nie Day. You could include a link to your favorite article on Stephanie's blog in celebration.

3) Spread the word via twitter or blog or email or facebook about Nie Nie Day so that more people can get involved. You can use the cute banner above — designed for Stephanie's blog by the talented Lyndsay.

4) Send a card to Stephanie & Christian. There's just something about putting pen to paper. I'll contact the family to find out the best address to send these to and post it on Thursday.

5) Get spendy. And have fun bidding on some silent auctions.

How will anyone know you're participating? That you're hosting a super-cool auction? Problem solved: on Thursday I'll write a post about Nie Nie Day. And I'll include a list of anybody that's celebrating. Just send me a link to your post or auction (or mention on your facebook page or tweet or whatever) and I'll add your link to my Nie Nie Day post here on Design Mom. And we can all visit each other's sites and share the love. How's that sound?

It's like the internet was born for stuff like this.

*I want to note that the silent auction suggestion was given to me by Lauren Beatty of Sweet Bean Shop.