This is a catalog of the things I miss having in my life so I can strive to add them back in.
Today, I am missing scrapbooking retreats.
This is me and my friend Mandy at a weekend retreat in TN. I miss her and I miss our craft times together.
Ribbons and Blessings
I am a terrible procrastinator. I seems to always be caught at the last minute when it comes to gifts. But I am also very good at coming up with something at the last minute and on a budget. With the extended unemployment this year, the budget was very low to almost non-existent and I got a last minute notice that friends were adopting twins and their church was throwing a shower. I absolutely love and adore the couple and I had to do something for them. They have been wanting children for years and this was just such an extreme blessing that I couldn’t miss out on it. I want to cry just writing about it now.
So, what do you do when you want to make an impactful contribution but you have absolutely no money? Here is how I did it.
During the Spring/Summer, I did some cleaning out around the house and took a lot of movies, books and my Kindle Fire to my local used book/movie/music seller and came out with a ton of credit.
You can check out that post here
. What better way to welcome little ones than with books? Actually, just about every gift I give includes a book.
I had no idea what kind of book to get and I thought about getting a couple of movies as well, but kids are so picky about movies once they get to a certain age. These boys are two and starting to recognize what they like so I’ll let the happy parents deal with that. But books are a little different in my opinion. Books are more universal and as long as the pictures are super pretty, the story could be about anything.
Well, if you want pretty pictures, you can’t go wrong with Doctor Seuss. I combed the Doctor Seuss section and picked no only titles that I know and love but some that I had never heard of. I didn’t know about the body part books.
And since these are all used, the prices are super affordable. But just to spread the reading love a little more and allow for some movie shopping as well, I asked the store to split my credit so I could give the boys credit to come back. I think I was able to give $50 and still have plenty of credit left over for myself.
So, that takes care of the gift. What about wrapping? For that, I went into my supply closet and pulled out my bucket-o-ribbon.
A gift bag would have been a little too impersonal so I pulled out a mix of ribbons in lengths long enough to wrap around the stack of book a couple of times. I mixed different fabrics, textures and colors. I wanted something that was fun to look at and fun to get in to.
I was thrilled with the result and mommy was too.
So what do you think? Any fast thinking gift giving you want to brag about?
Could You Be A Blogger?
While 700+ Blissdom attendees are still coming down from such a high HIGH, there are quite a few of them that are sitting down at their computers and starting their very first blogs. Not everyone that attends these conferences are actual bloggers. Some are thinking about it. Some are writers that want to use social media to sell their books. Some are crafters that are looking to expand. Some are going through life changes and want to do something new.
Blogging brings all kinds of people together to a common medium and gives them all a space and a platform to display their voices. Could you be one of those people? Do you have a voice that needs to be heard? I am always encouraging the people around me to start blogging, especially women. Blogging is such a wonderful outlet for creativity and frustrations but also a wonderful way of finding people that share your interest. It could even lead you to the interest that is or is to become your passion. I am an avid book reader but there aren’t many in my closest groups of friends that read or strive to carve out the time to read. The same goes for my love of technology. I can’t exactly discuss rooting an android device with the people around me. That conversation would be lost on them. But with my blogging and other online mediums, I can find just the crowd that will understand the projects and gadgets and interests that are floating around in my life.
The first thing I typically hear from people when I encourage them to blog is “I don’t know what I would write about”. There are three people in particular that I’m trying to encourage. For the sake of this conversation, I will call them D, K and R. They may not think they have anything to share but I learn so much from them each time I’m around them.
D is a stay at home mom that home schools her children. She is a beautiful Christian woman that counsels and teaches and has so much to share about religion, family, homeschooling, container gardening, vegan cooking and so many other things. The dinners I share with her family are fascinating and I always walk away with so much inspiration if nothing else. I think that is worth writing about and sharing.
K is a stay at home mom who prior to staying home specialized in working with kids with disabilities. She is such a fun and interesting mom and she is often the person that is learning right along with me when I am looking to learn something new. I love people like her because they never stop learning. Not only could she share her love for children and working with kids with disabilities, she could also teach you how to have the best kids playroom ever, how to start a small garden at home, how to entertain and how never to be afraid of learning something new.
R is a beautiful young girl with a quiet spirit that just draws you in. She is a young professional that is about to set off on the greatest adventure. I won’t speak much about it but meeting her and hearing her know exactly what she wanted out of life and marriage influenced me greatly. She is young but she has so much to share and I think she minimizes the impact she could have on the world. I met her at a time when I was struggling with the idea of being a wife and being able to talk with her about it brought clarity and comfort to my situation. She is a budding photographer and I can’t wait to see the shots she takes as she treks around the world learning about her heritage.
These are just three of the women that inspire my life everyday. They don’t think they have much to share but I see a multitude of possibilities in each of them. They fuel me to keep going if for no other reason than to find others that need to have their voices heard. Are you one of them? Do you know people in your life that could be sharing so much? Make sure you tell them how much value you get from them and maybe they’ll be encouraged to share that value with the rest of us.
Blogging brings all kinds of people together to a common medium and gives them all a space and a platform to display their voices. Could you be one of those people? Do you have a voice that needs to be heard? I am always encouraging the people around me to start blogging, especially women. Blogging is such a wonderful outlet for creativity and frustrations but also a wonderful way of finding people that share your interest. It could even lead you to the interest that is or is to become your passion. I am an avid book reader but there aren’t many in my closest groups of friends that read or strive to carve out the time to read. The same goes for my love of technology. I can’t exactly discuss rooting an android device with the people around me. That conversation would be lost on them. But with my blogging and other online mediums, I can find just the crowd that will understand the projects and gadgets and interests that are floating around in my life.
The first thing I typically hear from people when I encourage them to blog is “I don’t know what I would write about”. There are three people in particular that I’m trying to encourage. For the sake of this conversation, I will call them D, K and R. They may not think they have anything to share but I learn so much from them each time I’m around them.
D is a stay at home mom that home schools her children. She is a beautiful Christian woman that counsels and teaches and has so much to share about religion, family, homeschooling, container gardening, vegan cooking and so many other things. The dinners I share with her family are fascinating and I always walk away with so much inspiration if nothing else. I think that is worth writing about and sharing.
K is a stay at home mom who prior to staying home specialized in working with kids with disabilities. She is such a fun and interesting mom and she is often the person that is learning right along with me when I am looking to learn something new. I love people like her because they never stop learning. Not only could she share her love for children and working with kids with disabilities, she could also teach you how to have the best kids playroom ever, how to start a small garden at home, how to entertain and how never to be afraid of learning something new.
R is a beautiful young girl with a quiet spirit that just draws you in. She is a young professional that is about to set off on the greatest adventure. I won’t speak much about it but meeting her and hearing her know exactly what she wanted out of life and marriage influenced me greatly. She is young but she has so much to share and I think she minimizes the impact she could have on the world. I met her at a time when I was struggling with the idea of being a wife and being able to talk with her about it brought clarity and comfort to my situation. She is a budding photographer and I can’t wait to see the shots she takes as she treks around the world learning about her heritage.
These are just three of the women that inspire my life everyday. They don’t think they have much to share but I see a multitude of possibilities in each of them. They fuel me to keep going if for no other reason than to find others that need to have their voices heard. Are you one of them? Do you know people in your life that could be sharing so much? Make sure you tell them how much value you get from them and maybe they’ll be encouraged to share that value with the rest of us.