My First Sale

I know that I posted about my first sale before but I haven't really posted in detail and when I saw that Nicole over at Three's 4 Me was having a link up, I had to join in!

Oh my first sale.  What a happy night that was.  I was sitting on my laptop, hubby was on the desktop and we were just talking, and then I saw someone had favorited an item of mine on Etsy.  So I did the usual, send a thank you for liking something I made bit, because I truly am thankful when people favorite my items, I also like to let people know that they can contact me with any questions they have.  Well, this person did.  She wanted this item, but she wanted a sea mist instead of pink blossom.  

OH, I forgot to mention, this was right after this clip had been featured on Casey Wiegand's blog.  If you don't follow her, you should. She's the SWEETEST EVER!

AARON!!! I think I MIGHT BE MAKING MY FIRST SALE.  I couldn't wait, I was so excited.  The very next morning I got up and made my custom order photograph.  

I set to work making her custom piece.  And got myself to the post office.    
This first sale, also led to my 3rd sale, as she came back to order another custom piece.  I was sooooo excited!!! I pray that God will continue to grow my business but in the meantime, I give Him thanks for the growth that I have seen!
OH and you can read her review on the testimonial page. 


Thanks for letting me share again my excitement about my first sale.  And remember, if you ever want a custom order, just let me know!

A birthday gift was my crafty day

I'm linking up with Laura, from 

For Saturday is Crafty day.  
This week I made a gift for my friend Liz who has a birthday tomorrow.  
Liz is a teacher and always dresses super cute and has super adorable jewelry.  So when thinking of what I could make for her.  I thought, well what about an interchangeable necklace so that she can wear it with different outfits. 
Here's what I came up with.  A silver chain with 9 different interchangeable pieces.  All of the pieces are on a hair clip so that they can be used in your hair or on the necklace. 

Pretty in Pink Plumeria

White as Snow Plumeria

Black Beauty Plumeria

Polka Dot Pazazz 

Vibrant Violet Plumeria

Vibrant Violet Blossom

Sea Mist Blossom

Sherbet Plumerias

Red Wine Mini Plumerias

Athough I made this gift with Liz in mind, after I made it, I thought hmmmm I wonder if this would be a good item to add to the shop?  I took some pictures of it this week so that I could get some feedback as to whether it would be something you would like to see in the shop. What do you think?  Should these make an appearance in the shop???
Also linking up with Jana for Glam Party Tuesday

Bible Study: The Book of Esther (Week 1)

So I've been meaning to write this post for a few days but have kept myself busy with other things.  Making birthday gifts, baby shower gifts, laundry, getting distracted on pinterest, etc. 

Now that I have the time I'm going to sit down and get to writing this post.  YAY!

We started the night with a huge history lesson basically, which went through and talked about the history of Israel during the time of captivity.  So I'm going to include a BRIEF outline of that here so that you can understand how to read the Bible a bit better, because it certainly helped me.

• 720 BC The Assyrians took over the 10 tribes of Israel and dispersed them. Prophets during this time included: Isaiah, Amos, Nahum, and Jonah (Ninevah was the capital of Assyria (interesting no?)).
• 650 BC Babylon overthrew the Assyrian Empire. Isaiah predicted Judah would fall to Babylon in Isaiah 39. Jeremiah predicted the Babylonian captivity 100 years before it happened.  Jeremiah 25, states there would be captivity for 70 years and then Babylon would be punished.
• 606 BC Judah goes down to the Babylonians (the start of the captivity) Scripture during this time frame includes the end of 2 Kings, end of 2 Chronicles, Jeremiah, Daniel and Ezekial
• 536 BC Babylon falls the Medo persian empire.  The captivity ended during this time as Jews were allowed to return to their home lands but were still under the rule of MedoPersians. 
• 538 BC Cyrus became ruler and in 536 BC issued the decree to start the rebuilding of the temple (once a decree is made by the king it is irrevocable). Prophets during this time: Zechariah, Haggai, Malachi
• 535 BC work on the temple starts.
• 520 BC Darius funds the building of the temple
• 516 BC Temple is completed
• 478 BC Esther is made queen
• 457 BC Ezra made the trek from Babylon to Jerusalem

To help you better understand these parts of Scripture, Bill (our leader) recommended reading the books of Scripture in this order:  End of 2 Chronicles or 2 Kings, Daniel, Ezra, Esther, Nehemiah (and that's basically the end of the old Testament). 

Now on to the actually Bible Study:

We only read Chapter 1 so far.  Here's an overview of what happens in that chapter:

King Xerxes has a 6 month long party for his army because they're about to go out on a big campaign. 

After that, he has a week long party for his palace servants.  The palace is described in intense detail (uncommon in the Bible).

King Xerxes commands for Queen Vashti to come out for everyone to look at (not sure if he was being rude or wanted to show of his prized possession but I lean towards the latter). 

Queen Vashti was having a separate party for the women and refused to come when ordered. (Not sure of the reason).

King Xerxes calls his advisers together, they say he should make a decree that Vashti can never come back into his presence.

Now what can we get out of this? Not the entire book of Esther just this chapter?

Here are some of the things we discussed in Bible study, feel free to leave your thoughts!  We were looking for "types" or representations in this passage of Scripture.

• We see that King Xerxes has much splendor (from the description of the citadel or palace); treats his servants well, and punishes those who disobey him.  He represents God in this book.
• Vashti was his bride; she rebelled.  She's representative of Israel's rebellion.  Just like Israel was banished (sent into captivity) and lost favor with God, no longer to see (Isaiah prophesied that Israel would be blinded), Vashti was also banished, no longer to see the King or what was going on in the citadel.
• We also see that Xerxes kingdom had some of every tribe, nation and tongue, because the Medo Persians allowed those under them to keep their culture. (Does this sound familiar?)
• We also notice that sin is far reaching, Vashti's actions didn't affect the King alone but also the whole kingdom.  She was to be made an example of.  
• The advice given by the advisers was a "type" of the law; it was immutable and designed to keep rebellion out of the kingdom, just as God's law was designed to do for Israel.
• Just as it was impossible for Xerxes to go back on what he decreed, God also can not go back on anything He says.
• Just like the rest of the world was watching Israel and they represented the God they served, the world was watching Vashti and she represented the King she served.  
• Xerxes realized that he needed a new queen, a new representative. Which will play into the story more later on.

So what do you think?  Any other insights that you may have?  These were just some of the things that we discussed and were able to pull out of the text this week.  Hopefully next week I'll get the study up earlier. 

It's the Little Things: Fairs, Family, and Fall

I was so excited this week that I actually remembered to take my camera with me more often.  

Last Saturday, I went with a friend from church to the Edinboro Camp Fall Festival.  It was TINY and wet, but you know what I had a great time.  I didn't make much money, but I got to talk to some interesting people!  I also got to practice making displays for the future if I do more craft shows!  Oh and did I mention I only decided to do this about a week before the event. DOH!

Then we got to spend some time with my family after that.  We wanted to celebrate my dad's birthday.  Every year for his birthday, I've decided that instead of buying something (he's impossible to buy for) I will bake him a dessert.  When Aaron and I were dating and I would come visit Aaron I would usually bake him something and dad would ALWAYS ask, "Where's mine?"  So I've kept that in mind and dad now gets his own baked goods for birthdays and usually Christmas too.  This year he got peanut butter swirl brownies.  

Please excuse the poor pictures, we were inside a trailer and people were laughing.

Yup my daddy is bald.  Yup he was going bald before he graduated high school.  Still love him though.

One morning this week I was super thrilled to have peanut butter and jam on homemade whole wheat toast. Yumm Yumm.  I forgot how taste that is!

 This week my husband and I have spent quite a few days at my father-in-love's trying to get his deck stained.  Well hubby has been staining the deck, I'm sorta pregnant so can't be around all those fumes.  So I did laundry and took pictures for the shop.  My FIL has a lot of apple trees in his backyard and they were such great back drops.  Not to mention I was SUPER excited that I was able to get some depth of field with my little point and shoot.  It doesn't happen to often so I was super excited.  YAY for pretty pictures. And fall, yay for apples!

I'm linking up with Lindsay for 

What are you thankful for this week?

From Hobby to Business

Ya know, sometimes Twitter can be a great thing.  Someone I followed posted a link to Three's 4 Me.  I read the blog post and got very excited to join in, so I'm going to!

Today's post is supposed to be about our decision to switch from hobby to business.  While my business isn't huge by any means, I am still glad that I made the switch.  

For me, some of the deciding factors were that: 1. I had a LOT of t-shirt scraps after making tshirt quilts for my sister and hubby (well his is still a work in progress.)  I wanted a way to use them up.  So I started making some necklaces from these scraps.  

2. I needed a creative outlet since I love to create things.  Quilting wasn't filling that outlet for me because I have a tendency to not get fulfilled if I don't see results quickly.  Quilting takes a long time, did you know that?

3.  What pushed me over the edge was finding out we're pregnant.  To me, it's VERY important for me to stay home with our child.  I also lost my job in April.  I would still love to help provide for my family.  Even if in small amounts.  I just want to be able to raise our child in the way that God has intended for us.  

So, when I embarked on this journey, I started with just the t-shirt creations.  Then I decided to expand to other things.  However, one thing is going to be consistent in my shop. Most of the items are made from upcycled materials in some way.  Whether they be scraps from t-shirts, left over fabric from quilting, an old semi-formal dress, old shawls, thrifted sweaters, etc.  I've enjoyed this new journey.  
Thank you Nicole for this opportunity to share my about my shop!

Tickle Me Tuesday Baby Blanket Edition

There is a blanket I have been eyeing up on Etsy for months (like since I found out we were pregnant.)  We don't plan on finding out what we're having (although I think we're having a girl), so gender neutral is totally key right now.  

That's why I LOVE this blanket.

Those colors just make me so happy. 

Then I saw that there were more beautiful blankets from this shop.  I want most of them.  Honestly they're just gorgeous.  I think I'm in love.

The other somewhat gender neutral blanket

If we knew for sure we were having a little girl, I'd have to get this (ok, not really because we don't have the funds, but seriously Stunning!) I love these colors together. 

And this one makes me happy because it reminds me of our wedding

So go visit Bklyn Baby's Etsy shop.  Simply marvelous I tell you. 

What is tickling your fancy this Tuesday?

I'm linking up with Sarah from Yes, Teacher. 

Edinboro Camp Festivities

Yesterday, my friend Lynette from church took Rudy, myself and her grandson Caleb to the Fall Festival at Edinboro camp.  It was a wet and rainy day.  I would have loved it if I would have not worried so much what I looked like and decided to wear my snow boots.  

What? They keep my feet dry and it was MUDDY and WET.  Did I mention wet feet are like my biggest pet peeve?  Well maybe not biggest but certainly in the top five. 

Anyway, enough ranting.  There weren't really many "vendors" set-up.  In fact including myself there were 6 tables set up to sell things.  It's ok though, I still had fun.  I didn't really have any super fantastic displays.  As in Zero budget, so I just used what I had on hand. 

Here are some photos from the day.  (Please excuse the poor quality until I figure out how to set manual settings on my camera.)

 My display for hair clips/pins

I ended up changing where things were, but a nice close up of the bobby pin display.

The final look.  

Yep, it was a very low-key event, but it was still nice.  And I got to eat a soft pretzel.  YUMM! I love those and need to learn how to make them someday.

How was your weekend?