In April I cringed when the trusty husband mentioned the word truffles. Just the thought of all that chocolate in my house and spending 2 weeks doing nothing but looking at it and smelling it nearly brought tears to my eyes. The crowning jewel was when I was done and our last bar of soap was chocolate scented. However this year I’m excited. I have lots of new readers, I’ve had people ask when we are starting again and well… it is more of a Christmas thing anyway.
So for those new readers asking what the hell Sweet Hope, is I’ll tell you.
We did an adoption fundraiser in 2005. We made and sold boxes of handmade chocolate truffles. Off the top of my head I can’t remember how much money we made. The people who bought the truffles loved them so much they begged us to make them again. It takes me about 2 weeks and roughly 15 pounds of chocolate to make the quantity that we sell. As you can imagine, that’s a lot of chocolate, even for someone who really really likes it. I wasn’t so much into making truffles again so soon.
That wont to give back to those who helped us bring our son home and the need to help other families struggling with the financial mountain of adoption kept tugging at my heart strings. So last Christmas we made and sold truffles again. We added handmade caramels to the mix also. In December 2006 we made over 400 truffles and 600 caramels. We raised $1000 and gave a grant of $500 to one family. The other 1/2 of the money went to cover the cost of making the candy and to buy graphics for many of those lovely Elle Designed blogs you see out there.
The Winter 2006 go around was so successful we opted to do it again for Mother’s Day this year. In May we sold over 500 truffles and nearly 170 caramels (you guys totally slacked on the caramels). We were able to give a $375 grant to another family.
Here we are again. It’s almost Christmas and it’s time.
The way this works is first you get to vote. I never said this was a dictatorship did I? There is a poll under the links over there <——–. Vote on the flavors you would like to see in the Sweet Hope mix. The top 4 will be chosen for the final cut. You only get to pick 4* because it’s Christmas and we love to make the Candy Cane ones. The 6th is a surprise.
Voting will end on Friday the 9th and sales will start Monday the 12th.
You can order your truffles and caramels through November 30th and will ship on December 14th. We ship USPS priority mail and only take paypal.
The prices are the same as they’ve always been:
2 dozen caramels (gift boxed) – $12
1 dozen mixed truffles (gift boxed) – $15
1/2 dozen single variety truffles (gift boxed) – $8.50
Shipping is not included on those prices. We ship to anywhere in the US (sorry kate) and orders can be shipped to multiple locations. If you have questions you can always email me at elle at lifeofelle dot com. I will get the Sweet Hope site updated shortly to reflect the new dates.
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*in the event of a tie for 4th we get to pick.? You can vote as many times as you want.
sniff. this is the main reason i’m ready to move back to the US. no sweet hope truffles.
maybe i should send some to my grandmother…
Me too kate! But I will get them for someone else.
Reading your post brings tears to my eyes because of your thoughtfulness. It has got to be a big project and you keep persevering on your goal to help adoptive families each year.
There are no words for your awesome generosity. I hope you have a big sale this year!
Okay I’m buying this time. And I’m voting for my beloved Hazelnut again, though it looks like I’ll be thwarted again. Good thing I’ve never met a truffle I didn’t like.
You’re going to trash my end of year resolutions to lose weight, aren’t you? 😉 I’m hoping that next year (or maybe for Mother’s Day) I can take Oleg for the day, or at least come over and torment you and distract the kids, while you make truffles! I can help wrap caramels! Wait. Did I really just volunteer to do that??? Must be payback time for you and D helping my parents wrap caramels in past years!
I’m looking forward to the candy cane truffles, and will be ordering this year (I’m still not sure what happened last time… time flies when you’re not paying attention to the calendar)!
I have got to get my order in early this year…I have to keep kicking myself to remember…
Don’t forget the super cute packaging!!! I loved the boxes and ribbon last time around.
Mmmm, with the cool weather, truffles sound yummy!
Mmmm, truffles … and by the way, I so totally managed to turn the whole blog into ELLE PURPLE!!! I should get a free truffle for that! 😉
hey, elle–how ’bout shipping to apo? AND, what if i win the purple blog prize?
What about the coffee ones with the little bean on top? The ones that you couldn’t make enough of, but whose name I can’t remember…. I need caffeine and chocolate together. Wah!
Any chance that any of your goodies are gluten-free for the celiac-disease ridden?
If not, I’ll have to eat them all myself.
Last spring, we were in Russia right around the time the orders were due and I missed out. I was bummed that I let that happen. Always happy to eat chocolate for a good cause. I will most certainly have to make up for it and order extra this time around! Assuming you be sure to get some dark chocolate of some sort in the mix…
OK, off to vote again.
Yummm… truffles! I’m all about the dark chocolate. Afterall, didn’t some very, very brilliant person determine that it’s GOOD for you to have dark chocolate each day? That must have been the same wonderful person that said a glass or 2 of wine a day is good for your heart. I love smart people. 🙂
anytime candy is involved, I’m so in.
I eat anything, so whatever you make will be PERFECT.
the candy cane truffles were to die for last year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The caramels were fabulous, but the truffles were my favorite.