Holiday Expo Giveaway – Personalized Mother’s Bracelet

(Entries for this drawing are now closed.  Thank you to all who joined.  Please read my post above for the winner announcement and for a special for only those that have entered.  THANKS AGAIN!  This was fun!)

I am joining along with Christian Women Online at Café Holiday Expo with each participant giving something away on our blogs.  I am giving away a personalized Mother’s Bracelet (or memory  bracelet, anniversary bracelet, etc.) from Bracelet Stories.  Pictured below is one of my most recent bracelets I made for a mom of three children, but you can see over 100 different bracelets I’ve made.

The winner of a bracelet will have the option of up to five (or less) Swarovski birthstone crystals and the choice of silver, gold or a mixture of silver/gold tones and the choice of a toggle or lobster closure.  OR you can also choose the little feet charm (silver or gold) and two birthstones instead of  the 5 birthstones. I’ll need your wrist size in centimeters or inches to the nearest 1/4 inch.

Bracelet Stories began as a memory item for moms who had lost a baby to miscarriage, stillbirth or early infant death.  The little feet (pictured below in logo) are the size of a baby’s feet 10 weeks after conception. Bracelet Stories has grown to making bracelets to tell women’s stories of their life, be it remembering a special friend, showing off their family, bringing awareness to a special cause (such as breast cancer) or given as a gift for graduations, bridal showers or whatever the story may be.

I recently had another bracelet drawing, and Carol won a bracelet and shares her story and a picture of her bracelet on her blog.

Here’s how to enter – and you can actually qualify for three entries.

1.  The simple way – just leave a comment  in this post only of what you’d want your story to represent in a bracelet.  Anyone can do this – whether you have a blog or not!  Be sure to leave your e-mail address as well.

2.  For another entry (must still do #1), copy & paste the logo/info below to put on YOUR blog and/or Facebook and leave the link in this post only with a link to your blog/Facebook.  (If you leave a post on both your blog AND Facebook, this will count as TWO entries.) If you are the winner, I would greatly appreciate you sharing a picture of your bracelet and “your story” on your blog after you received it.

Submissions for this will end promptly  Thursday, December 11, 2008 @ 11:59 p.m. and  the winner announced both here and at the Internet Cafe on Friday, December 12th. (I will be using the Truly Random Number Generator by numbering each entry).

I have entered to win a personalized Mother’s Bracelet from Bracelet Stories.  You can enter too by going to Writing Canvas for details & entering  by 12/11/08!

Holidays at the Cafe ~ Day of Gratitude

H

ow can I even begin sharing all the things I am thankful for?   Right at the top is my salvation and knowing I am a child of the King, purified by His blood, and have a room in heaven waiting for me.  Could I ask for more?  I am so thankful for my husband of 23 years, that we have made it through the roughest valleys and still love each other.  I am thankful for a dozen children I am so blessed with, even though two of these will not be joining at our Thanksgiving table but feast at His table.  I look at the ten blessings filling our home every day, with laughter, squablings, loud music, dirty clothes, dress-up clothes, schoolbooks, diligent journal writers, artists, never filled stomachs asking what there is to eat moments after a large meal, Bible readers and verse memorizers.  Life is full in our home.  For this too, I am I am filled with gratitude.

But as I write this, I know there are hurting hearts.  Personally, I have several friends who have or are going through deep valleys, with the loss of a baby, loss of a spouse, a baby that has serious eye problems, health problems, severed friendships, lonliness, and just looking for things to be thankful for.  I am reading a book by a local author that has really blessed me with her openness and honesty.  I would like to share some excerpts that I am hoping will give anyone passing by here a measure of gratitude, no matter where you are. 

“There are things that explode in our lives and we call them curses, and then one day, a year later or ten years later, we realize that they are actually something else.  They are the very most precious kind of blessings.” (p.176)

“When we stood in a circle to pray and close our night together, we held hands and thanked God for the darkness, and for the way the darkness had become light, and in that moment we practiced Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving for the uncomplicated happiness of babies and friendship, and for the complicated joys that come from loss, from failure, from reaching the bottom and pushing back up to the light.  That’s a Happy Thanksgiving.” (p. 213)

From Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life by Shauna Niequist

I am hoping this gives you encouragement, even if there is a dark cloud over your day.  Joy will come again.

 

 

P.S. Though I enjoyed reading this book, I must give a caution with it.  I appreciated the author’s honesty and openness, however, I did find it not quite theologically correct, possibly leaning towards the new-agey movement.  For me it lacked “God” in a lot of her finding answers and peace – though it was not void of God. Rarely was Scripture used. I found it read somewhat like a journal (which is not bad).  I did glean touching and shared emotions with the author.