Garner Blue

I am so excited to share with you about this next vendor! Lisa Garner, creative mind behind Garner Blue, is seriously one of the coolest people I know. I remember knowing of Lisa before I actually met her and I knew I wanted to be friends with her. She is so sincere, so thoughtful, and so creative. Anytime I chat with Lisa, I always leave the conversation feeling refreshed.

One of the things Lisa is passionate about is helping others find their creative niche. This is one of the things I absolutely love about her. Last year, I ran into her in the aisles of Goodwill and we stopped and chatted about this idea I had for the A New Thing marketplace. She may not even realize this, but that single conversation was just the encouragement I needed to take the next steps to make this dream a reality.

I sent a little questionnaire out to Lisa and I'm just going to post here what her responses were to those questions. Sort of like an interview! I feel these answers gives such a glimpse into her heart. So grab a cup of coffee or tea and read about this sweet friend who has a love of creative processes and people....

Can you tell me the story behind your business?

 "Well, ask any of my friends and they will tell you I’ve been making/sewing/creating so many things for awhile-- but I normally would try out a new skill and then get bored. Or like in the case of felt food-- go overboard and make an entire grocery bag’s worth of items and get burned out and be done with it. But, in the Summer of 2013 I found myself preparing for a CAMP weekend getaway, a collaborative effort with kindred Keely Beasley. Curating Artisans Method and Provisions (CAMP)—one element of the weekend is a series of Method Workshops and I was preparing to teach the basics of dying with indigo. The more I dyed in preparation for the weekend, the more fascinated I became with the simple beauty in the process of binding, dipping, dipping again (and again) and then the reveal of the final pattern. So, right before last Christmas season I thought it would be fun to dye a few scarves and offer them for people to purchase as Christmas gifts. But, I had to start right and that meant thinking through logo and all branding/packaging details. I loved that part! I also had to think about where I was sourcing my materials from, business basics and several other logistical things. After that first batch I just wanted to keep going with indigo. I think part of what keeps it interesting is that each dye vat and each pattern created is in some way a bit of a surprise. Also, at this point I’ve expanded to cloth napkins, wall hangings, a stuffed animal, pillows and even jewelry but the constant is the indigo."

Does your business support any initiatives/use any percentage of profits for anything? If so, please explain.

 "Honestly, the business primarily supports my desire to create, but throughout this process I’ve learned that one of the things I care a ton about is encouraging that same desire in others. So, I’ve connected with IOI and am working directly with a couple in Ethiopia that weave one type of my woven cotton scarves. I love knowing that when I buy these natural cotton scarves to dye here in Jackson, the money is going directly to them and that it helps to support their craft and their livelihood in Ethiopia."

 

 

Why are you passionate about your products/business?

 

"I’m passionate about it because it allows me to create-- everything from my logo and all branding to creating the pattern for my BlueBelly animals to textile design with the actual indigo dying. It’s all interesting to me-- it keeps me on my toes learning and making."

 



 What inspires you?

" I’m inspired when I see people around me thinking about making something and actually doing it. Practically, i’m inspired by patterns and textures in nature, and vintage textiles."

Tell me a bit about yourself (give me a bit of insight into your everyday life and your creative process):

"I have a full time job that I started back in the Spring at theCO (check into it if you haven’t already!) and I’m loving working to help stir a creative/tech/entrepreneurial culture here in West TN. So--lately a lot of brainpower has been spent on that. Most weekends are Garner Blue times-- split between dying, sewing, packaging and more. Everything is done out of our little brick house-- my husband Joe is amazingly supportive and offers a bunch of creative insight (he’s the one that thought of using old cassette tapes as a resist to create a unique pattern). And our little pup Lou often curls up at my feet while I sew away."

Will you be offering any specials or incentives during the marketplace?

"I’ll be debuting my Garner Blue earrings -- using dye fabrics and woods I’m actually still working through some of the designs, but I’m excited :)"

So listen. Believe me when I tell you that you do not want to miss meeting Lisa and seeing her amazing products! Make sure to check out her booth!

The Marketplace is only FOUR days away!!!

Fig Paper Company

I asked one of my closest friends, Angie, to write this blog about Fig Paper. I wanted to hear it from someone else's perspective. You see, Fig Paper is very dear to my heart. And it's a project I've been working on for awhile. But honestly, I have doubt as a constant companion. I want to walk confidently in this vision the Lord has given me, but I also sometimes feel like I'm just a dreamer and my head is up in the clouds. And I second guess everything. I asked Angie to write this because I couldn't form actual words to communicate what this is. I'm thankful for what she wrote. Sometimes you need the right word at the right time, even by her putting together this blog post....it has encouraged my heart to "Be strong and do the work."......

From Angie:
When I walked into the A New Thing Marketplace last year tears welled up in my eyes. “I can see it now,” I thought. I had heard about this vision for months and had watched Marcie labor through the brainstorming process, endless planning and crunch time-last minute tasks. It struck me that I was just now seeing what she had seen the entire time. I knew the Marketplace was going to be awesome, because Marcie only does things that are awesome. But, when I walked into the building and saw this gathering of people who had come to share their stories I was more than impressed, I was overwhelmed. Because it was clear to me in that moment this was not of her.

 

Turns out, the Marketplace was only the beginning....

As I wrote last year on this blog, Marcie hears from the Lord. And she listens. So, it’s really nothing unusual for Marcie to call up one day out of the blue and be like, “Hey, I was praying this morning and the Lord told me to start a non profit paper making business based in Ethiopia that will create a sustainable income for women there and will weave together a lasting bond of sisterhood between Ethiopian and American women as Gospel partners.” That is the newest vision the Lord has given Marcie, but it didn’t really come together like that. Not all of it in one moment. It was like this, “Hey, I think the Lord wants me to learn how to make paper.”

Not only does Marcie hear from the Lord and listen, but she also waits. If you only knew how much waiting the Lord has required of this woman. But she has been given a gift of great faith, so that when God tells her that she needs to learn to make paper, she takes that one instruction and follows it. And He leads her down an unbelievable road of answers revealed, until one day she can finally see it… Fig Paper Company.

 

Now she is able to look back at the path that brought her here and marvel at The Lord’s providence in orchestrating this plan of Fig Paper Company. In preparation for writing this story I asked Marcie to send me a bulleted list of the events she sees that led to the development of Fig. I can think of no better way for you to see how this process unfolded than to simply copy and paste her thoughts here because this is how the Lord speaks to us, through scripture we are soaking in, notes we scribble in journals, unlikely meetings, seemingly insignificant conversations, and (oh yeah) mission trips to Ethiopia: 

I have filled in a little to provide context, but here's Marcie's list:

2013:

• God kept this verse before me… 1 Thes. 4:11 "make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you”
• Hosted a Spring sale at my house, which ended up leading to A New Thing Fall marketplace

2014:

• trip to Ethiopia with Indigenous Outreach International
• made connection with caregivers there, specifically the mom of the boy we sponsor through Indeginous Outreach Interntational’s TLC program
• flying home from Ethiopia, began dreaming of a way to connect women
• kept feeling the weight of the Mother Theresa quote "If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other”
• Commit to pray about whatever the Lord is stirring within
• March 26 journal entry "research making homemade paper" 
• March 30: The Lord gives me this verse: 1 Chron. 28:9-10 "Be strong and do the work" 
• Go to Thistle Farms and hear about social enterprise
• Begin really dreaming about what could happen if we could connect to each other through a shared trade. Wrote this in April: "Women/Mommas/Life givers who advocate for each other....one collective voice...when our sisters suffer, we suffer. When they rejoice we rejoice. Let's empower women to care for their children, to lay down their lives/open their hearts to the full potential of their created beings!”
• 4-15-14: I made a list of people I needed to meet with
• Design/start up: Talked with Courtney (who is now helping Marcie with design and paper making with Fig). She randomly sits next to me at a dinner we attended together. I ask her if she knows how to make paper. She says no. The next week her teacher told her "Courtney, I really think you need to learn how to make paper. I know a woman in Nashville who teaches workshops." Courtney let me know.
• All we know is we are learning to make paper. Our dream is to be able to take this craft to women associated with the TLC program in Ethiopia. We have made many plans, but it is the Lord who is directing us
• Side note: I used to own a stationery business, somehow I think that could have been the groundwork for this....maybe I've been preparing for years for this and I didn't even know?

Can I just say - I love the “side note." It’s just a little afterthought - "Oh yeah, and I used to own a stationery business." La de da... 

Here’s the official purpose of Fig Paper Company, as stated in their business plan…

We are a developing social enterprise that seeks to connect women through shared trade to mutually benefit the communities in which they live. Our goal is to help provide a sustainable income by working to develop consumer products that can be sold to a global market. This social enterprise exists to connect women around the world, women who advocate for each other, who can share in the joys and hardships of life. We seek to provide jobs, dignity and purpose. As they work with their hands to make paper, package products, ship packages, or take orders they are giving to their communities and providing encouragement to each other.

 

These are pictures of Marcie and Courtney making the first pieces of Fig Paper. Imagine if these images captured Ethiopian women, strong and doing the work. 

 

This is where it all comes together. This year a portion of the proceeds from each vendor's booth, the Marketplace ticket sales, and profits from the Fig Paper Company booth will all go to support this newly developing social enterprise! I know you want to be a part of this, quite literally from the ground up. Courtney and Marcie (and sometimes her little five year old boy!) are busy as bees making paper to sell at the Marketplace. It's beautiful paper. 

 

And it's beautiful because of the hands that craft it and the God who set those hands in motion for this work.

That's the beauty of the A New Thing Marketplace, too. Every piece of merchandise sold represents a person and the beauty of his/her story. The dollars (YOUR dollars!) that purchase these goods will go on and on to bring new life where it is needed most. Fig Paper Company is a perfect representation of the heartbeat of the Marketplace. All things new. Taking what was or might be wasted or discarded, raising its value, making a new creation. The Gospel story told by a simple piece of paper.
 

 

   

 

Kinship

I want to share with you about a collection of vendors who will be represented at the Marketplace who have seemed to grasp the idea that we each belong to one another.

The idea that "There is no us/them. There are humans fighting for each other, humans more aware of each other, humans believing God wasn't playing games when he called us His family, effectively binding us together despite the barriers that always made us think we were meant to stay apart." (Father Greg Boyle)

Imagine for a moment what it might be like to be a stranger. To be in a place where you don't know anyone. Don't know how to communicate with anyone. Don't know how to get around anywhere. To be totally misplaced.

According to Jonathan Sacks, chief rabbi of Great Britain, "the Hebrew Bible in one verse commands, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself,' but in no fewer than 36 places commands us to 'love the stranger'."

In Barbara Brown Taylor's book, An Altar in the World, she asks the question "why?". "Why should we love the stranger"..... "Because we have been strangers ourselves, the Bible says. Because if we have never been strangers, then that is because we have never left home......You shall love the stranger first of all because you know what it is to be a stranger yourself. Second of all, you shall love the stranger because the stranger shows you God."

We are so thankful that there are ministries like Ekata Designs who take the calling to love the stranger very seriously.

Ekata is on the ground in Memphis, TN working diligently to teach refugee women how to make beautiful jewelry, a small step to helping them become independent in their new life.

This is an excerpt from their website:

"Ekata Designs currently works with Refugees from Bhutan.  These women are ethnically Nepali, but for the past few generations they have lived in southern Bhutan.  In the 1980s and 90s the Bhutanese government began to discriminate and threaten these southern Bhutanese.  Fearing for their lives many fled to refugee camps in Nepal. After spending up to 20 years in these camps without being accepted into Nepal and unable to return to Bhutan, many families were relocated to the United States with hope for a new life.  Yet life in America is not without challenges.  Overcoming trauma from the past, learning a new language and culture, finding a job and becoming self-sufficient is a difficult process.

The Bible says that God defends the cause of the fatherless, widows and strangers in the land.  As followers of God, we are instructed to love the strangers living among us and to fear the Lord (Deut 10:18).  Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a refugee from Somalia, once said: “There are times when silence becomes an accomplice to injustice.” Ekata Designs was started to break the silence surrounding the plight of refugees and empower them to succeed in their new life.  We are privileged to work with several strong, beautiful, and talented refugee women in Memphis, TN teaching them to make and sell high quality jewelry. This is a small step in helping them become self-supported."

 





Aren't these jewelry designs beautiful!!! I have only seen them online, I can not wait to see them in person! And you should totally click here and see the beautiful faces and read the stories of the women who handcrafted these pieces. And I can't help but wonder if the women behind Ekata, the founders and the artisans, have somehow both learned a little something about strangers becoming friends, learning of their Kinship. How taking the time to be with one another regardless of background or even the ability to speak the same language has allowed them to witness in each other Jesus on earth. I am so excited that these women will be selling their wares at the Marketplace this year.

The next vendor I want to tell you about has learned that she has sisters on the other side of the globe. Her name is Tara and her motto is "Do for one what you wish you could do for all" (Andy Stanley). Tara founded No.41. No.41 uses fashion to provide sustainable employment and empower vulnerable women in Rwanda to create change for themselves and their community.

 

 

From their website: "No.41 started on a whim and a prayer in March 2012, with the intent of teaching young women from the Noel Orphanage in Gisenyi, Rwanda (ages 18-25) not only to sew, a culturally relevant trade that would always sustain them, but to give back to their community through a feeding program supporting local schools.

The first No.41 bag was sold in May 2012 and today we employ 20 women from the orphanage, as well as 10 from the surrounding village. We have 8 mamas better caring for their 12 children and 19 of our young women are now enrolled in university. In February 2013, No.41 opened our first feeding program, providing a hot, healthy lunch to 900+ students and teachers, daily.

No.41 is about empowering young women. Our goal is not to give them the world, but to show them that God has already given them everything they need to go out there and take it. When you join with us, you are truly changing the world FOR ONE"

 

Do you see the picture of those cute bags up there? The purchase of one of those bags provides not only sustainable income to the woman who crafted it, but it also provides 240 meals to a secondary student in Rwanda.

For $75 you get an adorable tote bag AND you provide:

FOR ONE CHILD, FOR ONE MEAL, FOR ONE YEAR

 

 

 

Maybe every lady on your Christmas list would want one?

 

And also check out these adorable aprons....



The purchase of one of these kitchen essentials will provide 68 lunches to one child! Talk about gifts that give! Every time you cook you can think about a child who is offered a free lunch because of your purchase. That is how you begin to change the world FOR ONE.

This ministry is doing amazing things. Not only are they providing the sustainable income to their employees, but it is the employees who have started the food program in their community. Sisters helping sisters helping sisters. I love it.

If you haven't heard of our next vendor then you are in for a treat! Noonday collection works with artisans all over the world... working to help provide sustainable income to it's artisans...helping to make all of us a little cuter....and also helps to raise funds for adoptive families. So many things.

Noonday is sold through a network of folks called Ambassadors. We had the fabulous, Rebecca Daniels, represent Noonday last year. You can read our write up here. This year, Alecia West, who is our very own noonday representative right here in Jackson, TN will be at the Marketplace to share all about how Noonday is using fashion and design to help brothers and sisters in other parts of our world gain sustainable employment.

 

And do you know how Noonday was founded?! Jessica Honegger, founder, had a home show to sell items she had found on a recent trip to Rwanda. Her family was in the adoption process to bring home a child from Rwanda and she thought this would be a great way to raise some funds. The rest is history!

 

A small glimpse into how these products are made:

 

 

 

Y'all. I love Noonday. A Lot. Their products are so unique and so beautiful. True story....I never really wore jewelry at all until I started buying Noonday products. Now...look at me!

 

Big earrings and all! All of that is Noonday. And hey.....I loaned out that adorable belt up there....so you know who you are....I need that back!

In all seriousness, I feel like we have been given the unique gift of affluence here in the west. We can use our money, our influence and our abilities to join arms with our Family here and across the globe.  I want to be a person that turns away from valuing things and seeks ways to value people. In my personal life, over the past two years, I have learned so much about how we don't make decisions in a vacuum. The way I choose to spend my time, my money and my voice can have negative or positive effects. All of those things were never really mine to begin with. I am FAR from perfect but I long to embrace my kinship with humanity. Will you choose to join me?

Let's Talk Food

We desire for the Marketplace to be not just a place where you can purchase one of a kind items, but also an experience.

We want you to grab your girlfriends, or a date, or your neighbor and come downtown to shop, sip on some coffee and spend some time sharing a meal together and chatting about life.

We are so excited that the folks from ComeUnity Café will be providing their yummy menu for our shoppers.

Have you heard about ComeUnity Café and their vision? Their tagline is: to LOVE, to FEED, to DIGNIFY. From their website:

"We exist to build community by providing nutritious and delicious food made with as much organically, locally and sustainable grown ingredients as possible to all people of Jackson regardless of their ability to pay."

 

ComeUnity café is one of my favorites. Not only is their food ALWAYS delicious, but the atmosphere promotes true community and abundant joy! It's a great lunch spot in Jackson, and I feel so thankful for Amy and her vision to make this dream a reality. We are so excited they will be a part of the Marketplace this year!

Also at the Marketplace this year you'll have the opportunity to buy raw, fresh pressed juice from the sweet people of Pour Me Some Juice!

 

 

Tiffany, mastermind behind Pour Me Some Juice, happens to also be a dear friend of mine and my neighbor! In 2012, Tiffany and her husband, Lowe, were pursuing the adoption of a sweet little boy from South Korea. During that time, Tiffany had an idea to juice for a few people as a way to raise money for their adoption. A few people, turned into a few more people and Tiffany realized that there was a real demand for raw juice that possessed so many health benefits. Not to mention her juice is amazing!!! Seriously. I had no idea raw kale could EVER taste good. But Tiffany's juice is SO good! And since this started as a way to help bring their sweet Paul home, they want to use this business to help bring more children home to their forever families. Ten percent of all of PMSJ's profits go to orphan care. Our family happened to be a recipient of a some of those profits and we are so grateful! 

 

 

This family is such a blessing and we are so thankful for their hearts that are poured out over everything they do. Recently they opened their juice and smoothie bar in downtown Jackson inside the Lift center. If you are in the area, you should totally check them out. My personal favorite is the Almond Joy Smoothie.....it's like dessert. But healthy. So that's a total win.

 

And last, but certainly not least, we will be offering delicious Ethiopian coffee by the cup from our friends at Indigenous Outreach International.  Click here  to read our post from last year about this ministry that is very close to my heart. They will also have a booth...you'll hear more about that later!

 

The profits from every cup of coffee that is bought and enjoyed at the Marketplace will go to support what this ministry does. I got to travel with IOI in January of this year to see first hand the work that is being done in Ethiopia. I wrote about my experience here. A part of my heart is in Ethiopia, so I'm asking you to buy as many cups of coffee as you can possibly drink :)

 

So grab a car full of friends and come out to eat, shop and enjoy one another! Come hear about the amazing things the Lord is doing in our city and around our world and take some time out to just be with one another. We want you to leave the Marketplace with a few things checked off your shopping list, a belly full and a heart fully refreshed.

You Don't Want to Miss This...It's A Prize!

I have an opportunity for you to walk home with the mother load of all gifts.

Are you ready for this?!?!

First, let me tell you about Baby University.

From the BabyU website: "Moms who participate in the program meet on a monthly basis to learn more about nurturing brain development in their new babies, and receive practical and spiritual coaching."

Baby University is a non-profit organization founded by Hether Pflasterer of Jackson, Tennessee. This program is offered in conjunction with Birth Choice of Jackson, TN, (which is a crisis pregnancy center) to extend support of new moms past birth. It's sort of a "next-step" program for moms for after the babies have been born.

 Hether just so happens to be one of my closest friends. Hether was a public school teacher here in Jackson for 17 years. During her time, she saw year after year a true need for early childhood education, not just for children, but for parents. She had an idea to come alongside new parents and offer one of the most needed resources.....the resource of a friend.

BabyU meets once a month for six consecutive months. Classes cover everything from brain development at each age, discipline issues and health and nutrition. What we also do, is join together in a big 'ol circle and share stories from the trenches. We talk about all the things the experts say, and then we talk about how this plays out in the day to day grind of raising little humans. And we also spend time talking through things like "how do we pray for our children?". At the last BabyU meeting, Hether passed out little index books to all the moms who were present and encouraged them to search for scriptures that speak to issues with their families. We all partnered up and spent time talking through how we can better love our children by praying scripture with them and for them.

One of the things I'm realizing by attending BabyU classes is how, just as a smile is a universal language, it seems that being momma is also something that goes beyond all the boundaries we can sometimes erect. Boundaries of socioeconomic status, culture, neighborhoods, age.....when we sit down and start sharing how we struggle with these sweet babies....it seems that all of those differences don't seem so large. Over the past several months we have grieved with a sweet momma who lost her baby to SIDS, we've rejoiced over all the new babies who have been added to that circle, we have laughed A LOT at stories of little ones who have their own big personalities, and we have all prayed earnestly together that God would guide us as we navigate this road of motherhood. Being a part of these classes personally has been a true blessing to my soul.

So.....are you ready to hear about the prize!?!?!

BabyU is ALWAYS in need of diapers and wipes. By attending classes, moms get a chance to use mommy money to shop in our resource room. Diapers and wipes are a hot commodity! So, here is a chance for you to not only contribute towards this awesome ministry, but win a prize! Yay!

This year at the Marketplace, we are going to have a booth dedicated to some non-profits who work with children in our city. One of the featured ministries is BabyU! Drumroll please........

If you bring a package of diapers OR wipes and drop it off at this booth, you will get a ticket and be entered into a drawing for a gift basket! This gift basket will feature items from a lot of our vendors! Pocket journals from Inkwell's Press, products from Made On Acorn Hill, pottery from a local potter, a stylish neckerchief from Garner Blue, jewelry, beautiful hand drawn cards, and more!!!!

 

So basically a $10 pack of diapers could win you a gift basket valued at over $150! AND....you'll be giving diapers to new momma's who really need them. WIN!

 

Now, go get those diapers!

Vendor Spotlight: Inkwell's Press

I am so excited to tell you about our next featured vendor who will be at the Marketplace this year. Ryan and Elyzabeth are dear friends of ours. And they are the creative fuel behind Inkwell's Press.

 The amount of thought and creativity that this couple puts into every aspect of, not only this venture of Inkwell's Press, but also in their lives as a whole is awe inspiring. I have witnessed first hand the craft and care that goes into each item they sell. I have sat in their home studio as Elyzabeth hand stitches each journal with a carefully selected wax thread. The pace that this couple takes to care for and deeply love not only their products, but every person who is in their life is a refreshing breath of air in our hurried, digitized culture.

Inkwell's Press exists to create beautifully printed 'artifacts' designed for everyday life that beg to be pondered, explored and discovered by future generations. Ryan and Elyzabeth are a wonder-struck, creatively determined husband-wife duo with a passion for telling stories.

"Everything that gets designed and printed in our lifetime will eventually be a small piece of the big story that gets told to our children, and our children’s children, and so on.  We want to humbly play our part in telling that story through the timeless beauty of tangible goods and services we can still touch, and see, and share with each other in our local neighborhoods.”  

 

 

Ryan and Elyzabeth hope that Inkwell’s Press will become a social enterprise supporting gospel initiatives that enrich the life and culture of local communities.  For now they want to get started by designating a percentage of their profits from the A New Thing fall marketplace to go toward Aarik and Brooke Danielson’s adoption.  

Inkwell’s Press will currently be offering a collection of hand printed, hand bound pocket notebooks and journals, along with limited edition screen printed posters and woodcut prints, as well as a few decorative pillows.

 

 

 

You do not want to miss this booth at A New Thing fall marketplace! And those pocket journals would make such great gifts!

Vendor Spotlight: Made On Acorn Hill

If you've been around Jackson, TN any length of time, then you've probably heard of these two mama's who make all natural goat's milk soap and other products. I remember the first time I heard about these ladies and their soap. I was at a Holiday event and they had a booth set up. When you walked by their booth the aroma would follow you! I turned around and followed my nose back to their booth and purchased my first Made On Acorn Hill product. It was a bar of soap and I was hooked! And honestly, I can not live without their chapstick. Ok. That could be a bit overstated. But we are some chapstick consumers in this house. MOAH chapstick is by FAR my favorite.

Their products are absolutely amazing. And more than anything, I love the heartbeat of this business. They say "Made on Acorn Hill is an overflow of the lives of two mamas and their families that has grown organically into what it is today." These mama's met for lunch one day and shared a desire to make handmade, all natural gifts for their friends and families for Christmas. From those humble beginnings this amazing company began. Their friends and families couldn't get enough and now we all get to purchase these products! But this business is still a family affair! Ashley's husband is a counselor by day and a goat milker by night. Mandy's husband is a lawyer by day and a label designer extraordinaire by night. And they say you can even spy a few of their 11 children helping to assemble products! That's right.... 11 children between the two of them! Their "real job" is that of mother and they also get to make soap on the side.... We're all so glad they do!

This past January when I went to Ethiopia, one of our main objectives while there was to speak to a group of pastors wives at the pastors conference that was being held. The women that I was going with had met and decided that we wanted to be able to present gifts to all these precious women. Soaps and lotions are not things that are readily available in Ethiopia. In fact, they can be quite difficult to come by. So we thought bars of soap would be a great gift. I was sharing this idea with a friend when she said, "You should check with the Made on Acorn Hill girls!". But here was the kicker....we needed 50 bars of soap! That's a lot of soap! But these ladies graciously donated it all! And NOT ONLY did they donate 50 soaps, they also put a gift set together for each of the women who were going on the trip! Complete with my fave....chapstick! This was such a blessing in many ways. The pastors wives were so incredibly thankful, and also......my suitcase smelled AH MAZING. And not only my suitcase, but our whole room carried this sweet aroma. And let's just say in Ethiopia....well.....the smells.....maybe not so pleasant always.

We shared with these ladies about how God has created women as life givers. What a gift to share these soaps, made my two mama's who are living out their life giving rolls with women across the globe who are also living out their life giving rolls.

So, come check out Made on Acorn Hill at the marketplace! Get some for you and stock up on gifts! You will be so glad you did!!!