Celebrating 100

Yesterday as I was completing the preparation to ship out orders that had been placed I realized that I had reached my 100th sale!  Happy Dance indeed over this milestone! It has been almost two years ago that I started filling out all of the information to start My Shining Lights shop on Etsy.  And then a few months after filling out the information I actually started listing items in my shop which would have been in October of 2008.  For some reason reaching 100 sales has been a goal that I have been dreaming of this whole time.  I am so thankful for God's provision in my life!  Thankful too, that I am able to go to work at the hours I am able and that my work is something that I love doing.  I want to thank my customers too as you ultimately are the ones responsible for this milestone.
I hope that your day is a lovely one!  I will put a photo of some of the newest items in my shop with this blog entry. And I would like to invite you to stop by the shop for a visit to see what is new and if there is something that you love.  As I mail out each package I think of my customers and hope that the item I am sending them will help to add joy to their day.

New Vintage Items

It was like Christmas today when a box of Vintage Jewelry arrived in my mailbox!  I am sorting, pricing, and taking photographs as quickly as possible so that I can list them and then my customers can get as excited as I am when they see what is available for purchase.  Most of my Vintage jewelry comes from a lady whose mother collected jewelry for 40 years and she purchased the remaining inventory from a jewelry store that closed in the 70's.  When I acquire items from this lady I am receiving Vintage items that are in brand new, pristine condition. Most pieces have never been worn.  All of those big chunky necklaces with layers and layers of beads that are now the trend well guess what? They have been the trend in the past too! Just check out http://www.myshininglights.etsy.com and you will see what my excitement is about.

I have also started working on wedding jewelry that is made from Swarovski pearls and as soon as I have a few items completed I will be listing them.  Yesterday I was busy making freshwater pearl earrings that could be worn for casual or formal events.  So far I have them in the colors of white, sea mist, and azure. If you are planning an upcoming wedding and would like this style of earrings but in a different color just send me a note or leave a comment on this blog and I will do my best to see if we can work together to make a custom order. Again, I must take photos and I will be listing them as quickly as possible.

That gives you a little update of what is going on with My Shining Lights this Spring! I hope when you get the chance you will stop by the shop. Pour yourself a cup of your favorite Java or possibly a tall glass of ice tea and sit back and enjoy browsing the shop!

Happy Easter

"I serve a risen Savior he's in the world today!  He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way.  He lives, He lives, salvation to impart. You ask me how I know He lives He lives within my heart!" Hallelujah! This Easter Sunday is a celebratory day to remember that Jesus Christ took all of our sins upon himself to suffer and die on the cross on Good Friday when the daylight turned to darkness because of his suffering and death.  When Easter Sunday arrives and we can celebrate that he is no longer hanging on that cross nor lying wrapped in a tomb!  The stone was rolled away the tomb was empty. Christ is alive and interceding for us in Heaven.  We all have an emptiness and a yearning in our hearts and Jesus Christ is the only thing that can truly fill that aching spot.  If you have decided that you can no longer go on by yourself, if you are in need of a Savior and we all are here is the deal this is all that is required:  acknowledge that you have sinned and ask God to forgive you of your sins and wash you clean.  Ask Jesus Christ to enter your life so that you can be born again as a cleaned up new person.  Thank him for this wonderful gift and rejoice in the joy that this brings to your life.  And then tell someone that you have accepted Christ into your life that you are ready to start anew.  The next step for you would be to find a Bible and begin to read God's word.  Start with the Book of John it is a very clear book of what your new journey of walking with Christ will be like.  Then find a Bible believing church where you can grow in your knowledge of Christ and be supported and loved by others who believe in him.  Pretty easy for a completely life changing experience.  If you would like please leave a comment here for me I would love to be able to share in the joy with you as you begin your new life. Happy Easter!  Now I need to go grab a cup of decaf. coffee, perhaps a snack of ham and deviled eggs which will make my palate extremely happy and will get me away from the snoring of my very hard working husband who is finally getting a chance to relax and snooze on the couch!
 And I tell you this daughter of mine makes a Chocolate Chip Cheese Cake and Carrot Cake that is oh so divine and I can hear them calling to me...come to the kitchen, grab your cup of coffee and then eat them! Yum lucky me!

Top of the Morning to You!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Are you wearing your green today? I have My Shining Lights all decked out in green to celebrate my bit of Irish Heritage.  I really do love this holiday it comes in the midst of March which can be a dreary moment of time when the snow is melting and puddles are everywhere and it isn't yet time to celebrate flower buds on the trees and in the flower gardens.  A holiday in March is a good idea whether green beer is involved or not.  For our family as I mentioned on this blog last year, it was a tradition to have green milk, and green pancakes which was thoroughly enjoyed by two of our children, and left the other child feeling a bit green himself just from looking at the milk.

I was at a Womens Ministry Meeting Tues. night and this meeting was based around vintage hats and one of our dearest women named Luverne passed photos around the tables of her grandchildren who were wearing vintage hats that had belonged to their great grandmother.  Their family brings out the hats every two years and the kids take turns modeling them and of course there is a photo session.  I told Luverne that her grandchildren will always remember this tradition and the fun that they had with their grandparents.  Two of their granddaughters are either just teenage or getting close to that age and they are looking very stunning and are at the stage in their lives to try to look glamorous for the camera.  I wonder as their grandfather looks at the photo if he perhaps catches glimpses of the likeness to his own mother?

In thinking about this I am wondering what are your family traditions?  And if you haven't put any into practice yet then let me encourage you to do so.  Get creative.  Spring will soon be here perhaps you could purchase some plants with your family and bring out the hand trowels and have a family planting day.  Have this as something you do each Spring.  Your family will remember these special days.  We can get so busy that life just flies by and we find we haven't made those tiny stops to take time to celebrate life along the way. So take time to enjoy your family and make up your own celebrations, whether it be green milk, though nauseating for some, or a tablecloth spread on the Living Room floor to host a cloudy day picnic, or a quilt on the ground on a Summer evening so you can lie on your backs for a little star gazing and story time.

Please feel free to comment on your favorite family tradition I would love to read about it. And stop by myshininglights.etsy.com today to enjoy the green!

Last Chance for Giveaway Ends Tonight

Hurry to register at www.idobudgetweddings.blogspot.com tonight ends the contest but you still have a few hours to enter.
I can't wait to see who the winner is and package the necklace and earrings to send them to their new home!

Quick now stop reading this and hurry to I Do Budget Weddings!

Key to My Heart and Pearl Earrings Giveaway

I'm so excited to be able to tell you that I am being featured in http://www.idobudgetweddings.blogspot.com/

it is a lovely blog about of course Budget Weddings and is created by Hazel who is planning her own wedding and helping others to realize that you can have a very elegant wedding and fulfill the dreams that you want for your own special date yet be able to do so with a budget in mind.  What a lovely idea and help this must be for couples who want to enjoy their own beautiful day yet not begin a new marriage weighed down by debt.  I have agreed to send off my Key to My Heart Necklace and a pair of Pearl Earrings to the winner of the giveaway that is sponsored by I do Budget Weddings.  The Rules of this giveaway are listed below for you to see how to enter and hopefully be the winner! I hope you enjoy reading about this and know that I am so honored and excited to be a part of this contest and to be featured in Hazel's lovely blog. Best of luck to all who enter! And while you are here if you are interested please take a moment  to become a follower of my blog. Remember that to enter this giveaway you must leave your comments at www.idobudgetweddings.blogspot.com

RULES:
To enter, leave a comment with your email address for a chance to win. Each entry without any contact information will be disqualified. For each entry you complete, you must leave a separate comment. To leave a comment, each contestant must:

1) Go to My Shining Lights on etsy and comment on your favorite item for one entry! This is mandatory! Contestants who do not do this will be disqualified. Remember to leave your email address or some way to contact you with each entry!

You can add another comment to increase your chance to win if you,

2) Become a new follower of this blog (1 entry)
3) Become a new follower of Jo's blog (1 entry)
4) Are currently a follower of my blog (2 entries)
5) Become a facebook fan of “I Do” Budget Weddings (2 entries)
6) Blog about the contest and include a link to the giveaway. Each entrant must also include a link to My Shining Lights etsy shop in their post (3 entries)
7) Buy anything from My Shining Lights shop (5 entries)
8) Follow “I Do” Budget Weddings on Twitter (1 entry)
9) Follow My Shining Lights on Twitter (1 entry)
10) Tweet on this giveaway and include a link to this giveaway in your tweet (1 entry)

The deadline to enter this contest is 11:59 p.m., Thursday, February 11, 2010 (PST). A winner will be randomly chosen and announced the following Friday morning. Good luck!

Joyous New Year Wishes

We have survived and enjoyed the Christmas and New Year holidays! It really is my favorite time of year though I can tend to get stressed before Christmas with all of the decorating and preparations. My wise son Dirk told me that I was bringing this on myself and that I just needed to relax and enjoy! Great advice maybe not so easy for me to incorporate but I tried. This is the first year that we haven't sent Christmas cards. That was a little difficult for me to process and that won't be the case every year but it sure made this Christmas so much easier! We really enjoyed having our daughter home for Christmas plus her boyfriend came from England to visit and that was delightful. We missed not seeing other family but made the best of enjoying our time together.

I decided today that it was time to blow the dust off of this blog and greet 2010! My wish for this year is to find joy in the small events of each day. A great cup of coffee! My sweet husband washing the dishes! Sunshine streaming through the window, well not right now as it is snowing and even in that there is joy to be found! Life can get too busy and too tense at times and I know those things will happen but I'm hoping to focus on the blessings that God so richly places in front of me each day.

As far as My Shining Lights jewelry business I am busy each day and new opportunities are coming up for a new store opening that will have some items in it. A blog feature in the near future. I was so honored last week to discover that one of my pairs of earrings were featured in the Christian Artists Street Team Blog! I have also been adding a Vintage line to my shop. Ideas are constantly in my head looking forward to Spring and Summer Weddings I am really hoping to develop more Bridal items. And I can thank my sweet Sister- in-" Love" Peggy as she is placing an advertisement for My Shining Lights in an upcoming Beauty Pageant that my niece Elizabeth is entered in. I do love being able to be creative especially with sparkly things!