My Overthinking

Philly Area mom, Life forever changed by adoption

{Purposeful Giveaways} Olive Handmade

Please can I enter my own giveaway?

fooey.

Olive Handmade is one my new favorite haunts. Can pillows be delicious? I think so.

Fallon taught herself to sew and just opened an Etsy store “for fun.” But, she’s realized she could actually make this a career. What is now her 2nd job after working in retail with her family will, hopefully, become a full-time gig for her soon. And, at the rate of how much she is selling there, I think it will be soon.

What makes her things even more beautiful to me is the generosity that comes with them. A portion of shop sales go to her local Rescue Mission which houses a few hundred homeless folks in Las Vegas and feeds many more than that daily. They care for their physical and spiritual needs there and help them get their lives on track again.

And, Fallon has another special project–all of her With Love pillow sales are donated to the family of a teen girl named Kassidy who is battling brain cancer. Her treatments cost nearly $10,000 a month, and Fallon does what she can to give to help defray that cost.

And, just to encourage you to head over to her shop and remember it when you need a purposeful gift, she’s offering an Olive You pillow to one very lucky winner here (again, fooey it can’t be me)

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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
  
You don’t have to be a blog follower to enter. But, I’d love to see your cute little picture over there with the other cute little pictures.


To enter, leave a comment here with the name of your favorite item from Fallon’s store Olive Handmade. Things are selling like crazy right now, but there are plenty of delicious pillows still there.


For a second chance to win, go like 16 year-old Kassidy’s FB page called Kassidy’s Army and leave her some love on her wall! I’m sure it would encourage her! Leave a comment here to tell me you did to get the second entry counted, okay?
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That’s all you gotta do to enter.
And, you have through Monday the 12th to do it. 
I’ll choose a winner using random.org after that.

We still have a few more giveaways next week!
And, make sure you enter all the other ones from earlier this week: Ru K’ux Na’oj, the Braniff family, High Strung Designs, and Gneiss Spice!

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Anyone know how to buy lottery tickets?

I’m on a hot streak.

And, for me, a hot streak is enough to make me feel like I just drank a pot of coffee–which is good right now since I fell asleep at the computer the other night and didn’t wake up until morning (big editing job on my plate right now)

Tuesday morning, I got an email from one of the ladies at One Mango Tree. They had hosted a giveaway for the month of November that was for $100 at their store for the winner and $100 for the winner’s friend. Entry? Write a 250 word little dealie telling them why my friend deserves a gift.

So, a few days before the giveaway ended, when I was waiting up at night for the Cyber Monday American Girl doll sale to start, I wrote about my kindred spirit, Stephanie, and emailed this in —

Christmas just got a bit more fun for my friend Stephanie.

After struggling to become pregnant, miracle baby number #1 arrived 3 ½ years ago and turned this couple into a family. Wanting to grow their family again, they were called to adoption and traveled across the world to China in June 2010 to bring home a little girl born with cleft lip/cleft palate. Lots of adjustments and some surgeries too. But, confirmation all along that they were right where they were supposed to be.

Then, something happened. They learned of a baby girl in a remote city in a country many people have never even heard of who was also born with cleft lip/cleft palate. And, she needed a family.

Unsure and a bit anxious, they took steps forward to discern if this little girl was their little girl. And, every step led to an open door; every open door to the next step.

On Black Friday, while most mothers were running around the mall, this mama was on a plane with her husband and her new baby girl. While we were eating turkey dinner leftovers, they were uniting 3 sisters for the first time.

Christmas is going to be interesting for them this year. Two international adoptions in less than 18 months = a lot of money spent. But, I have a feeling they won’t be worrying about how many or how few gifts are wrapped under their tree this year. They’ve got 3 precious gifts to celebrate.

So, the email I got from them Tuesday? We won. Super fun to call Stephanie and tell her she can have a mini-shopping spree for Christmas gifts or to get her self some goodies from One Mango Tree as a pick-me-up as she settles into their new normal as a mommy to 3.

I was still pumped about that when I got another call which put me a bit over the top (some screaming, some jumping up and down, lots of laughing–for those of you who want to know what Kelly “a bit over the top” looks like).

A store at the mall called. I had thrown my name into a box to enter a drawing for one of two American Girl dolls.

And, yup, my name was drawn.

Just like a pot of coffee, people.

I took my girls over to the mall last night and surprised them as we were handed Cecile WHO we learned is their character who lives in New Orleans in the 1850s and volunteers in an orphanage.

Can it get any better than that?

I have never bought a lottery ticket in my life. But, this might be the week for a first.

I’m feeling very thankful despite the dark circles under my eyes for the sweet blessings to me, my family, and my friends. During a week of high stress and late nights, these blessings that I did not deserve are sweet encouragements from Him to keep plugging away.

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{Purposeful Giveaway} Gneiss Spice for Microfinance Loans

Our popcorn will never been the same.

As, Lydia would say, “Deeeeee-licious in my belly” 
(her version of “yummy in my tummy”)
And, it’s all because of these nifty little things
How come anything little becomes cute? 
These are cute. 
Sweet, spicy, and savory spices to put on our popcorn to spruce it up a bit and make a real treat out of something simple. 
Simple turns Extraordinary. I like that.
Beth has a great shop where she sells these awesome magnetic spice sets that I am so envious of. 

If you all don’t “pin” this organizer set, you all are crazy. So cool.
And, Beth has a heart for people and getting others engaged in helping others. She teaches at an inner city school in Brooklyn, NY and works hard to rally the kids for giving. She runs a knitting/sewing club in the high school and organizes a community service project each quarter for the kids involved. They knit bears for orphans in Haiti, sewed sanitary pads for young women in East Africa, and made gifts for women living in a domestic violence shelter. 
Beth, can you move to my neighborhood? 
In addition to all that, she uses her Etsy site Gneiss Spice to help a great organization–Kiva. 
Beth sells this great salt set with gourmet salts from around the world–Bali, France, Hawaii, India, Nepal, Peru, and Salish. And, honestly, the set simply looks beautiful–look at the colors.

When you purchase this Salts of the World Gift Set, Beth uses $25 of the $48 purchase price to finance a microloan to a low income entrepreneur, a real person somewhere across the world who would not otherwise qualify for a traditional loan at a bank. You can even tell her what part of the world you’d like the person you support to be from. Or, you can go to Kiva’s website and choose the individual yourself from their listing.

Beth loans the $25 and donates 15% ($3.75) to help Kiva cover operating expenses. Beth then will post to her blog about the individual you both have supported. You get your awesome salt set and can follow the progress of your entrepreneur together.

Now, THAT is a good Christmas gift people.

Perfect gift for the person who has pretty much everything already. And, a perfect way to give PURPOSEFULLY.

To get you over to her site and supporting this cause, Beth has offered one salt set here as a giveaway.

You all are so lucky.

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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
  
You don’t have to be a blog follower to enter. No pressure! But, would love to have you!


For one entry, leave a comment here sharing your favorite set from Gneiss Spice.


For a second entry, visit Kiva’s listing and tell us which project you’d most love to see totally funded.
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Only takes one entry to win. But, two entries make your chances better. And, purposeful giveaways are about supporting great causes–so, please do go see the various projects these folks are working towards around the world.

And, please share the link to this giveaway so we can spread the word about this great gift opportunity, okay?

You have through Monday the 12th to enter. 
I’ll choose a winner using random.org after that.

Oh, it’s not over yet, people.

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{Purposeful Giveaways} Week 5 Winners

Oh boy. Choosing winners tonight was especially fun (maybe that’s because I’ve been on a winning streak myself!)

So, drumroll please…

I love when friends happen to win. Sweet Cydil who will be a roomie of mine for the Created for Care conference in March (woot woot) won the beautiful Scripture print from Hermias Wishes custom made for The Sparrow Fund AND the necklace and earrings of her choice from The Sparrow Fund’s Nest. And, Traci, who is working hard to fundraise to bring her little Isabella home, won the second print from Hermias Wishes. I have a feeling that will be pretty special to her right now.

Ruthie won the tee from Dandelion Dream–enjoy! And, fellow adoptive mommy of a blessing from Baoji, won the skirt and headband set—oooo, can’t wait to see pics of L’il Empress in that set.

And, last but not least, 123 comments to win the amazing nest necklace from Agape Love…and the winner is…Sandra who is also waiting to bring her adorable sweet little girl home from China.

Yay for the 5 of you!

And, the rest of you, keep checking out the ways you can shop purposefully, okay?

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