Handmade Weddings

This month I've had so many great & original requests for weddings. Each request is great because it gets me creating something I hadn't thought of to offer selling in my shop.

Like this beautiful Church Pew decoration for a bride whose colors theme is cream, pink & wheat.
She will have 20-30 of these beauties lining her aisle.

And these ivory card stock tags with teal printing and hemp ties. Finished off with accent pearls. She was giving handmade snacks for her favors.

Church Circus

Two years ago I was given a beautiful glossy card Welcoming me to attend an all FREE event at a church with wonderful digital design, it was given to me by my friend Ann & I attended with the 3 kids by myself. I packed up 3 very small toddlers in one stroller. The kids got balloons, ice cones, prizes, played games, we won a cake and if I looked like I was having trouble someone was there to help. It was called the "Church Circus" at Morning star Church near my home.
I mentioned it in a post here.

It was shortly after I had read an Annette Smith book "A town called Ruby Prairie"
I felt more comfortable inching my way into a church surrounding.
After the church circus I was thrilled to go to a service. I was very welcomed and my kids were each in classed they really enjoyed.
It was free, spiritual, it was a break for me and a socializing opportunity.
This year I'm in Mops and the Co coordinators deciding our group would offer a Tent to be a Changing and nursing station at the event. Offer home baked goodies and free changing supplies as well as a comfortable and somewhat private place to nurse.
It was like a full circle moment for my experience at church. What had brought me to this comfortable place of fellowship was this Circus and now I was working to do the same for someone else. It turned out great and our group's ladies each volunteered to work certain shifts. Our community brought over 4,000 people to this event. Even on a chilly rainy day people came.


That was in October ..by December of that year I had thrown myself into a outreach project our church was doing called Christmas Wishes. In which families adopted a family or single person to buy gifts for. The church helped 260 families have a gift filled Christmas and I met a new friend named Stacey who was in charge of outreach at our church.
This year I'm so excited to say I will be helping Stacey by being Co-coordinator of Christmas Wishes!!
So you will see and read a lot more of this outreach program. Can't wait to show you the volume of thoughtfulness this program induces!

Trim Tags for Operation Christmas Child

TRIM TAGS.... 25 sets and counting at my ETSY shop ......
7 very pretty sets at my Lollishop


As I am planning out the next couple of months I find myself committed to some absolutely great and fun things!
I am co- coordinator of our church's program called Christmas Wishes that helps 300 families have a present filled Christmas, I am Room Mom for My son Jaedin's Kindergarten class so I get to work with some lovely Mom's to create Fall & Winter Parties, Date nights with my Husband and Hospitality Leader at mops. Fun, Fun stuff!!

But there is one last Fundraiser for the year I'd like to do in my Etsy shop.

It's kind of sad for me but the I will be phasing Trim Tags out of my Etsy shop for a while to be brought back for a few months next year. I have almost 50 Trim Tags made up. These will be sold individually and some will be in sets of 3. Some I've shown and some that have yet to be revealed. What I would like to do is mesh Operation Christmas Child and selling out of Trim Tags together and make it so that these tags will buy at least 10 Operation Christmas Child Boxes.

Operation Christmas Child ~ Sharing a message of God's Love in a box full of blessings for children in poverty stricken areas.


To make an Operation Christmas child box I will buy a plastic container for .97 cents at Walmart. The reason I will buy plastic tubs instead of using shoe boxes is that some of these children in such poor conditions they will be able to use these plastic boxes for carrying water or using them to carry their belongings as they travel from home to home.

The boxes will then be filled with socks, shoes, crayons, coloring book, toothpaste, toothbrush, stuffed animal and other gift like items. I'm planning for each box of gifts to cost about $28.00 total.
Multiply that by 7 boxes and our fund raising goal is $200.00


The funds raised from Trim Tags will be used to pay for the $7 each box costs to ship to it's country. I will then receive info on what country my boxes have gone to and will be able to share that with you on my blog.
Doesn't that sound fantastic!?

I will also show you how my kids and I have shopped, packed, and prayed over our boxes.

This fund raising will take place one full week starting October Wednesday 21st & Closing Wednesday October 28th.

I will fill my etsy shop on Tuesday evening with as many Trim Tags as possible! To be ready for anyone that might like to get the best selection on Wednesday :)

Fini Ribbon

God is so sweet to me. He truly takes care of me and listens to my desires. Both serious life altering desires and simple earthly desires.
He provides for me.
Lately, I've noticed how he has brought people into my life to provide me with things I otherwise wouldn't be able to get for myself. (Ribbons from Fini Ribbon)

In life I've asked for humility to learn from the wise, I am learning from my parents and others who have lived life longer than I & who have valuable things to share.

I've asked for patience and a softer voice to use with my children, I've asked for help in teaching me consistency and habit with keeping my home in order.

I've prayed for health and peace and joy in my marriage.

And I have received.



And of course I've wished for simpler things like supplies that my artistic heart desires.
He gave me Martha and showed me how simple my life could be at home. So I came directly home from her Arbonne event & I cleaned for hours and hours until my craft room looked like this. I sorted through what wasn't needed or useful to me and passed it along.

And no more than a week later I was rewarded with this....


I've found friendship with a most generous couple. A god loving couple who resides in their cabin running one of the most successful ribbon shop on etsy! We met when she began using my coffee dyed tags as a staple in her packaging.
They are called Fini Ribbon. All you need to do is see their feedback. You will want to order and see how completely true all of their wonderful feedback is!Thank you Phil & Lisa~!

Martha

You all are such sweet friends! How blessed we are to be able to encourage each other's endevours from afar through this blog world.

I would like to share about a friend of mine named Martha.

First of all, I'm so excited to share a few details about an upcoming feature in Somerset Life about custom fabric pouches . This article will be coming out early next year.

In the article I tell a story of how creating these pouches came about and how they were a way for my friend Martha & I to find that we both appreciated the Arts. Martha was our Mops Hospitality Leader last year and she is the one who encouraged me to step in this year as Hospitality Leader. I'm thankful for it because it is so much fun!
She uses my Trim tags in frames around her home, on her customer packaging and on gifts.

on her blog you can see her beautiful, simplistic ,clean style that I LOVE! She has a beautiful family and a love for God. Her blog is called Butterflies & Dragonflies. All of the above photos are ways that she's used my creations for her packaging and home decor.
Martha also happens to be a successful Arbonne Representative. Her products are always wrapped in the most lovely way. See what she's up to at her blog Butterflies & Dragonflies.

HAPPY FALL!!!

The weather couldn't be more gorgeous here! With windows open and the smell of incense I am energized like no other time of the year. September it seams marks my "Nesting" time for the year. For me Fall is the time I get my house all re organized and cleaned up.
Car rides with the windows down, Warm drinks for breakfast, richer colors, and my personal favorite of fall..the breezy days and cool nights perfect for fires.
Since mid September the kids & I have so much fun on our weekly trips to the Library with Daddy on his days off. We pick out 6 books to read before bed time each night. Since he is such a book lover he reads to them before bed while it's my job to scratch back and sing Jesus loves me:) With that kind of ritual you would think that they drift right off to sleep but since they share one large room I'm afraid that our night usually doesn't end there. They love to play until late at night so I've been busy working out a plan to get Jaedin into his own space. He's going to a bed and Homework desk in my craft room. I asked him about this and he is very excited. He doesn't mind that it's shabby chic. He's such a sweetie!



Septemeber is the month I was married in my parents Back yard. It is the month that his yard is in a beautiful glory! The girls like to assure that there is always dirt pile to play in. And flowers to smash!
Oh Glorious Fall ~ Pass by slowly so we can enjoy every moment of this amazing time of year!