So we finally submitted our adoption paper work.  We officially have some skin in the game.  There is no turning back.  So I am in adoption fundraising mode.  The adoption will cost about $20,000-40,000 by the time all is said and done. So we are in the process of getting some fundraisers together.  Being the little creative person that I am, I decided to make some shirts for one of these fundraisers.  I designed the shirt for the Philippines originally, and have already had friends ask about shirts for other countries.  So far I have designs for Philippines, Africa, and India. 

The logo is my own.  I was inspired by the different adoption shirts I saw on Pinterest.  But as I've been reading more adoption books and going through this process I am realizing the different ways love is used.  I was impressed with how God did more than just say He loved us.  He actually did something about it.  He sent His son to die for us and paid the penalty for our sins so that we could be adopted as His sons and daughters.  As we submitted our paperwork and our first payment, I started to understand the high price God paid to make us His own.  It was His loving actions that make the good news of the bible compelling enough to change the hearts of sinners.  His loving actions drive us to our knees in humble adoration of what a great sacrifice He made on our behalf.  I'm reminded that He did all of this while we were still His enemies, yet He loved us anyways.   I want to follow Christ's example while we go through this adoption process.  It is a high price to pay for the adoption fees, but it will be worth every cent to bring a child home and give them a forever family.  I want to put love into action and change the life of a child through adoption.   

So after a few days of being frustrated by craft shows, I signed up for another one.  I am going to be at the TierraFest in Tierra Santa this weekend.  Hopefully it will work out better than the last two.

I'm so excited about this new line up. Last weekend, I was talking with my cousin and she said that I should make flower headbands because she saw several at a the Queen Bee Market Craft show that she had gone to.  I've always seen them and thought they were cute, but didn't really know how to make them or even what to charge for them.  Being the teacher that I am, I did a little research and found out that they were selling these head bands for as much as $60 on Etsy.  I watched a few tutorials and realized that I already had most of the supplies, so I set out to make them.

The day before I decided to make them, I had seen these display heads at the thrift store for $1.95.  I passed them up because I didn't have a use for them.  After I decided to make these headbands, I went back to the same thrift store praying that they were still there...God is so awesome they were still there and I picked up 4 heads to use for my display.  I headed over to Joann's found some floral tape and some wire to make the bands.  My military skills finally came in handy...I used  my safety wire wrapping skills to twist the wires together and make the head band shape.  I had a huge box of flowers from an old craft show that I did.  I think I had paid $5 for the entire box thinking that I would be able to use them for something.  Those flowers stayed up in the closet for about 2-3 years before they ever found their purpose.  With new knowledge, I was able to finally use these flowers,  tons of ribbon and the lace that I had stashed away in a drawer. 

The first one that I made wasn't very good.  But I was able to undue it and I tried it again with a different flower arrangement.  I've gotten better just in the day or two that I started making them.  I'm already up to 8 headbands.  I think they turned out super cute.  They would be great for a wedding, photo shoot, costume, or Renaissance fair.

After a day of making them, I realized that it would be a perfect adoption fundraiser if it works out.  You know the "f" sound in flowers and Philippines.  So before I went to work today,  I designed a sign that I will use to promote the adoption fundraiser at the craft fair this weekend. 

So where are we at in the adoption process anyways.  We are at the very beginning.  I am in the research and information gathering phase.  We went to an initial adoption information meeting back in February.  We filled out all the paperwork.  It took some time, because we had to wait for our taxes to be filed before we could answer all of the questions on this pre-application form.  I wasn't planning to tell people that we were going to adopt so soon, but I had been pinning some adoption stuff on Pinterest and that info popped up on my facebook account.  People started asking me about it before I even told my family.  I told my mom about our plans, before I ready to let her know because I didn't want someone on Facebook to tell her.  Fortunately, I had read all of those articles about what not to say to someone that is adopting first.  I think my mom said every single one of them, but she seems ok with it now.  I attended the Empowered to connect conference in April....I also found out those hours counted towards our number of training hours required.  Awesome adoption conference....but I was able to use the information in my special education class and it has made a huge difference.  A friend of mine coordinated meet up for some adoptive families.  It was great to learn more from them.  I felt like I was really far behind in the process, but it was great to know that I wasn't alone and there is a huge support group for adoptive and foster care families in San Diego.  I've been reading a lot of adoption blogs and books and talking to people that have done this before.  I got a stuffed dog to remind me to pray for this child and wrote a letter about why I am doing this.  Reading Psalm `139 in light of adoption has amazing new insights for me now.  So I still haven't turned in my pre-application.  Why?  I lost my passport and the paperwork said that I needed it.  I picked up the forms at the post office and started filling them out.  Last week, I overheard someone at work talking about getting passport pictures at Costco really cheap.  We went there on Sunday after church and took passport photos.  On Mother's day, both my inlaws and my parents asked about how the adoption was going.  It seems like I haven't done much, but I guess I have.  It started getting more real when I realized that selling crafts might not be the best fundraising opportunity for this adoption.  But I actually found an adoption team on Etsy and joined that.  I also figured out one of my worst fears about adoption last week.  I'm a special education teacher and there are a lot of days that just wipe me out.  At the end of a long day like that, I sometimes get irritated being in a store where a kid is just non-stop crying...and I was afraid of my reaction to a kid after one of these types of days.  So last week, I had a horrible day at work and then went out to dinner with some friends that had an 8 month old and a 2 year old.  The baby would not stop crying and I had a headache and little patience.  My friend handed me the baby...she kept crying, I kept my reactions under control, and I was able to get the baby to stop crying.  I went home finally having the confidence that I would be able to handle this if I ever became a parent.  I finally contacted the agency about whether we could submit the paperwork without the passport info.  It is ok...so the pre-application is going in the mail tomorrow morning.  Yes I am a dork---I tried to do a fundraiser before I even sent in the application....no wonder it didn't work.  I know God is laughing at me.  But it is incredible to think that if it is a 2 year wait for the adoption process---this might be the year that the child that God has prepared for us to bring home may be born now and can't wait for me to get all this paperwork done so they can be with their forever family.  It is still strange to have people ask us about the adoption process--mostly because I have no idea what we've gotten ourselves into.  But I'm looking forward to seeing how this next chapter in our lives unfolds.  It is amazing how God is weaving all of our days and the days of the life of a waiting child into a new story that will point to God's amazing love and grace. 

Psalm 139:13-18
For you created my inmost being;you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17How precious to me are your thoughts,a God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand--
when I awake, I am still with you.

So I have been off the craft fair circuit for awhile.  I recently attempted to go back on it.  I forgot how tough it can be selling your stuff out there.  In the past month I've done two shows and failed miserably at both.  I was disappointed to say the least, but not surprised.

The first was more of a flea market at the Vista Elk's Lodge.  I didn't make back the $25 booth fee.  But I was able to make a few sales and had a chance to hang out with my cousin for a bit.  So this show was the first in over 6 months.  It was a disaster on so many different levels.  I had done this show awhile back and knew that it wasn't good for me, but went ahead with it anyways because the booth fee was cheap and I was determined to raise some funds for this adoption.  My first mistake was being overly optimistic about selling at a market that I had failed at before.  The second mistake came when I went to load up everything into the car.  I have a cart that holds these plastic bins with some of the products I sell at the shows.  When I went to put this box into the car, the whole bottom of the box broke.  I had to go out and buy another one the day before the show, just so I could transport everything.  I decided to go get ice and water to sell at the show.  I packed the car the night before and in the morning I packed up the loose ends.  I forgot to put the ice in the cooler with the water.  So I was able to buy some ice at the show from the Lodge.  It was the most expensive water/ice I have ever had considering I only sold 3 waters.  The rain held off.  But it was really difficult to load and unload everything out at the show.  I was so exhausted after it was done.  The one good thing that came out of it was that an old man sold me a bunch of children's books and cookbooks for $20.  There were about 10 boxes full of books.  So I went home took out the books that I wanted, and took the rest of the cookbooks to Book Off and sold them to this recycled book place.  They bought the books for $24 so I was able to make a profit off all the books that I didn't want and made up for the difference in the booth fee.

Yesterday I went to another craft fair in Ramona.  There was so much drama and chaos, I don't know where to begin.  In an attempt to raise funds for this adoption, I tried to sell at this market.  I lost money because the booth fee was $60 and I didn't sell enough to cover the fee.  I probably shouldn't have done the show, but I was chasing a dream...thinking that I could actually help earn some extra cash to help pay for the adoption fees.  What was I thinking?  So here is the way this day went down.  The lady next to me set up her tent.  I let her borrow a tarp because it had been raining and they had us set up our booths on the dirt.  That same lady noticed there was used cat litter at the back of the tent area where she had just set up.  When she went to complain, the director said she could move her tent forward and refused to do anything about it.  The lady got so mad she wanted to leave the show.  She ended up moving her tent to the other side of me, but I think there may have been some cat poop on the tarp that I let her borrow.  The show was so slow, there were hardly any customers.  So in my boredom/frustration, I made some signs out of the lids of my boxes and put them out in front so people would actually stop by.  I can't believe I paid $60 for a space and they didn't even have any signs out in the front of the building letting people know there was an event going on---come on people.....they put out more signs for garage sales.  So that generated a few more people passing through.  Then a small gust of wind blew over my display with all the onesies on it.  They got dirty in the mud.  But the people in the booths next to mine were sweet and helped me pick up the display.  At least it wasn't the glass Christmas ornaments broken into a thousand pieces again.  At the end of a very long and boring day, I packed up everything and when I went to put the dolly back into the van it broke a hole into the lid of another box.  Needless to say I went home tired, disappointed, and upset about the whole ordeal.

On the way home, I just started crying.  I realized that it was going to be so hard to try to raise funds for this adoption.  I kept thinking, that it was so very frustrating to try to raise money just so we could bring home a kid when so many women have babies they abandon or abuse. Other families don't have to have raise support to have a baby, or have to have their lives investigated and go through an interrogation to get pregnant.  Some days it seems so unfair kids get placed in abusive homes when there are so many people that would make excellent parents...and yet can't have kids of their own.  If God really wants us to bring home a child from the Philippines, then He is going to have to raise the funds for all of the fees.  This craft business was never that successful to begin with, more of a hobby.  It generated some funds, but nothing like what we are going to need for these expenses.  It is going to take God's provisions to make this happen if He wants us to raise up one of His kids.  It is hard waiting, but I know it will all be worth it in the end.  I long for the days to tuck in a child and kiss them good night and thank God for all that He is doing in our lives.  It is just hard waiting and being molded into His image.

This week I decided that I would dedicate more time and effort into this blog....it's about time.  So this past week, I took some pictures of some products that I made for one of my Etsy customers.  She saw one of the items in my shop that she wanted customized for a tea party that she was hosting for 50 people.  Through a few convos (Etsy e-mail system), I was able to customize an existing listing to fit the needs for her party.

She liked one of the dresses in the pictures, but I didn't have that paper in stock.  She gave me a description of what she was looking for.  I went to the store to look at the paper options that were available.  Gave her a few different options.  She chose one of the options.  I made up a few different samples based on her requests and sent her the pictures.  She chose the ones she like out of the picture above.  I went on to make the ones that she chose. 

In a matter of 4 days of our initial contact, I took her order, customized it, assembled 50 favors, and shipped them out today.  So in a little over a week, she will be able to have a handmade product in her hands.  These items are already assembled and ready to be used.  All the customer has to do is add the candy or gift of her choice.  About 3 tootsie rolls can fit inside.  Some other ideas to fill them include lip stick, chap stick, tea bags, or tickets.

These little favor box dresses are perfect for bridal showers, baby showers, tea parties, birthday parties, or any other special occasion that you can think of.  If you are interested in having some of these favors at your next gathering, you can order them in my etsy shop here.

Wow I can't believe that I haven't posted anything since before last school year started.  It has been crazy busy. 

In addition to teaching at a new school, I am now in the process of trying to start the process of adopting a child overseas.  There's so much paperwork.  So all the proceeds from all my craft sales will now go towards helping to fund the cost of our adoption.  We will be trying to adopt a kid from the Philippines.  They gave us a two year waiting period.  Right now we are filling out the pre-application papers and applying for passports. We've been to a couple of meetings and it still seems so out of reach, but I think this is what God is calling us to do right now.

So I just recently updated my etsy site and I have been getting a few more orders in. Yah!!!  One of the orders was for a graduation book.  I had so much fun putting this one together, I thought I would share it with you.  The customer gave me a few details of what she wanted:  colors, daughter's name, the year, Jer 29:11, and the college she would be going to.  I took her ideas and turned it into a graduation gift that they can add pictures to.  I really enjoy making these books because each one is different and it forces me to think in creative ways to include all the elements that the customer wants.  These unique gifts are a great way to celebrate all the great milestones and are highly prized by the recipients.  They are available in my etsy store for $25.  If you are interested in having a book made for you, drop me a line with the basic details and I will make something up for you.  Enjoy

It has been so long since I've written here, I decided that I need to get better at this blogging thin and share some of the stuff that I have made. 

This spring I went to a friend's baby shower.  She was having a jungle themed party.  So I had this crazy idea to make a carousel diaper cake with different animals.  The result was so amazingly cute.  It was so much fun to make because it gave me an excuse to use some of the cricut cartridges that I hadn't really used yet. 

Instead of rolling each diaper individually with a rubber band, I tried a technique my friend Eva showed me.  I layered the diapers and overlapped them to form a circle.  I used a round 9-in cake pan to help keep the diapers from falling down while I tied it with some string.  I made 2 layers like that and covered them with paper.  I had some stripped paper that looked like really cute ribbon, so I used that as an accent cover and added some monkeys for extra cuteness.  For the top piece, I used chopsticks as the posts for the animals.  I cut out some animals from create a critter, Noah's Animals, Animal Kingdom.  The cone shaped top was the most difficult.   Let's see if I can remember what I did.  I drew a large circle and cut it out.  I folded it in half, then again, and one more time.  I used the crease lines as a guide and cut a half inch snip at each crease.  On one of the creases, I cut the line all the way to the middle and formed a cone shape by overlapping and gluing it to the next crease line.  Then I made little snips and folded them down and glued on the 2 in paper to  the cone shape.  I had some yellow ribbon with little yellow balls on it, so I glue that on the seam lines.  Then I hot glued the chopsticks to the topper and stuck the bottoms of the chopsticks between the diaper. (it wasn't very stable and it kept falling off---so I just pushed them further down.  I made each of the little animals and glued them on the sticks.  I kept adding little touches here and there.  Then finally I added the word "Congrats" and hot glued it to stay up like that in the picture.

This was one of the more complicated diaper cakes I've made, but I had 2 showers that month and I was using up the rest of the diapers from the other cake.  I have so many pregnant friends right now.  It really keeps me on my toes when I try to find what to make them.

Hope you like it as much as I enjoyed making it.

For several months I have been seeing all these cute pages on pintrest for these quiet books.  I am not the best seamstress in the world, but I really wanted to make one of these books for my nephew that is gonna be four years old in March.  I thought it would make a great Christmas gift.  It was a great way to learn some new skills and modify ideas to make it my own.   It isn't perfect, but I got better with each page completed.

I taught myself how to do the blanket stitch by watching a bunch of you tube videos.  Then I got some felt and found a bunch of buttons that I liked from Michael's.  I wasn't exactly sure what I was doing.  I got ideas for the pages from my pintrest boards that I was saving for awhile.  I had a lot of the blue polka dot material so I just decided to use it for all the backgrounds.  I was able to test how well this book would do with kids around the same age.  I work with four year olds that have autism, and I used the book with them to see if there was anything I needed to adjust.  It is actually a great learning tool for the kiddos that I worked with.  Their were engaged in the entire book for about 45 minutes...which is amazing.  It was great for imaginative play, fine motor skills, and some learning activities.  I may have to make another one to take with me to work.

The frog was the first page I tried to do.  I had seen something similar but I didn't have a pattern.  So I used my cricut to cut out the frog shape on a light weight piece of tag board and used that for my template.  I tried to use my sewing machine for the embroidery/applique for the edging.  It looks really "homemade" since I have no idea what the heck I was doing.  I gave up trying to sew the eyes on by hand and decided to use some googly eyes I had laying around.  The rest of the pages I just free hand cut and tried to use my new skill of the blanket stitch.  I think I got better as I went along.  I put some ribbon onto a snap and a snap on the tongue of the frog.  On the four year olds I tested this on, they had a hard time with the snaps on this page and on the page with the shapes.  If you make one of these Velcro or the magnetic snaps might be better options.

The crayon page was more of an idea of how to use the buttons that I found.  I decided to use it at a color matching activity that kids could practice their fine motor skills on.  The kids had a little bit of difficulty taking the crayons on and off, but they did great matching the colors.  It was a good learning page for me because I got a lot of practice with my blanket stitch, and I realized that I didn't have to put stuffing in all the pages...the book was fat enough as it was.  Great page for fine motor skills.

Half way through the book....I decided that this was taking too long, so I decided to take some short cuts.  On the page with the finger puppet animals, I had an old pair of gloves and I chopped off the fingers for the finger puppets and sewed only some felt stickers that I had used for some of the hair clips that I make.  The barn on all of the pages I saw on pintrest had all these cute hand sewn pigs, cows, and other animals.  I didn't have time to mess with all that.  So I found these plastic barn animals and put them in a zippered pouch that came from the dollar store (I took out the nail clippers and recycled it for this project).  I put Velcro on the back and it was good to go.  My barn didn't fit the way they did on my samples, so I modified it to be a barn door with squeeze type clip for my nephew to open. When I tested out these pages, the kids really loved all of the finger puppets.  We used the barn to sing Old MacDonald and to match the animals.  Actually worked better than I thought.

 The road and the train tracks were challenging.  I had no idea what to do.  I had a bunch of black ribbon so I used that to make the tracks.  I was at a really slow craft show one weekend and I had brought this along to work on.  I was able to get the track done that afternoon.  I was running out of pages, so I decided to add the flaps of brown and green so that the roads would lead somewhere and I could use up the buttons I bought.  I tried to get the buttons to move up and down...it kinda works but not that great.  I think a kid might end up breaking the strings eventually.  I made the dump trucks, the zoo animals and the dinosaurs that way. 

My favorite is the doctor's bag.  I made some band aids, a hammer/light to check ears, and a stethoscope.  I thought this was so cool, but apparently the kids didn't like it as much as I did.  I tested the book out with some of the four year olds that I work with.  They didn't like that the band aids didn't stick.  The stethoscope didn't go around their necks because it was too short.  They weren't sure what to do with the hammer thing.  Hopefully my nephew likes it better.

The kids really liked the camera and the cell phone pages.  They did a lot of imaginative play taking pictures and making calls.  It was fun to see the kids that I work with use this book.  I hope my nephew likes it just as much.  It took about two weeks to make while I was watching tv.  Maybe I should start selling these at the craft shows.  It is way more relaxing to do this than to crochet for me.  It is nice to have something I can work on during the shows.  There are a ton of ways to use felt and it isn't super expensive and the results are fabulous.  Have a good one and I hope I inspired you to make one for a little one in your life.