3 countries

I am SO excited...I just noticed that I have visitors from 3 countries now.

First was CANADA!  Of course, because this is where I live! 

Second was the USA!!  Of course, considering this is our neighbouring country and because I have friends there. 

And now third I have a visitor from RUSSIA (Moscow).  I am so thrilled and more inspired than ever.  So to my blog visitor from Moscow "WELCOME" and 'THANK YOU'!!!  Visit as often as you want and feel free to leave comments!

Again, thank you to all of my friends & family who are so supportive and give me so much encouragement to keep plugging forward with this dream!

Shopping for supplies to make 'earring art'

It's so much fun to shop when you have money to buy what you are looking for, right?  Usually, I am not a big shopper for a 'woman' that is!  When I want something, I know what I am shopping for, I go out and look for this specific item. 

Well last night I had a blast and a half.  Not only did I get to go into Michael's (one of my favourite stores on earth, next to Walmart of course) - but I got to go buy tonnes of beads for our earring making session this coming Monday.  I had so much fun!  I knew that the beads I bought would be made into beautiful earring art, and each time someone purchased a pair of these we would feed 20 people.   This is just SO rewarding.

Though sales have slowed slightly, I know there is a big market out there that we haven't touched yet (due to not being able to keep up with the demand).   During this week, I am going to start pushing forward with this.

So Monday is our big day.  We have permission from our Pastor to use the church basement to get together with a bunch of women with one goal - make lots of earring art!!!  So far,  I have 10 confirmed women (and 4 or 5 unconfirmed).  In total, we could have up to 15 women all contributing to our cause! 

Keep posted, because I'll be posting photos of our 'rendez-vous' to make earring art on Monday.

Earring Supplies

Weeefffwuuuuu....I was getting worried that we were going to run out of supplies for making earrings.  But I know for sure we won't now thanks to a few reasons.

Earring sales have slowed slightly which (for now), I am secretly happy about considering I am working pretty much full time for the next couple of months. 

Running low on supplies (both beads & earring hooks and posts), but over 900 earring hook & posts came in the mail last week, tonnes of wooden beads came in the mail this week and I'm getting away for the weekend (alone with my honey) and get to go shopping at Michaels Craft Store to buy some more colourful beads!

I'm really excited about this because on Monday afternoon, a bunch of women (possibly up to 12 or 15) are getting together in the basement of our church to make earrings!  I'm so happy that we're going to have lots of supplies for them to use!

PLUS, I'm excited that we'll have lots of earrings made next week.  This will allow me to start reaching out to some of our local businesses!

Can't wait...but I really shouldn't stay long and chat cuz my honey isn't coming home today (stuck in Toronto cuz of bad weather in his flight path) so I have LOTS of stuff to get ready for our weekend away and alone.

Will get caught up next week over our March Break when I have some more time!

Donated items (so far), Garage Sale planning

We started off by making a small list of items that we could bring (much of each) to donate, thinking that we'd collect ALL year and fill most of 2 hockey 50 lb duffle bags each.

Well, in all honesty I think we may be close to filling our bags already.  With all of the clothes we had donated to begin with (filling , I think 2 X 50 lb bags) and all of the donated/purchased items we will probably have to consider paying for extra 50 lb bags at a price of $125 per bag.  We are committed NOT to let this stop us... 

Things I have collected or purchased SO far (just by cutting my grocery bill by $20 per week):

• * tylenol (acetaminophen) - 2 pkgs of 500 per pkg (on sale for $9 each one week)
•   PLUS - 4 pkgs of baby asprin - 250 per pkg on sale from $22.99 to $9.99 one week)
• * advil (ibuprofen)  
• * motrin (ibuprofen)  
• * benadryl (diphenhydramine)  
• * multi vitamans for children - 8 pkgs of 250 per pkg (on sale for $5 each one week) 
• * multi vitamans for adults - 4 pkgs of 250 per pkg (on sale for $9.99 each)
• * cough medications  
• * cough syrups  
• * peroxide  -  10 bottles (4 donated, 6 purchased from the Dollar store for $1/each) 
• * rubbing alcohol  - 10 bottles (4 donated, 6 purchased from the Dollar store for $1/each) * cotton balls -  10 bags (purchased from the Dollar store for $1/each)  
• * tooth brushes - 312 (all donated from our Dentist, Dr. Alain Cyr in Grand Falls) 
• * tooth paste - 48 tubes (all donated from our Dentist, Dr. Alain Cyr in Grand Falls) 
• * band aids - 10 boxes (3 donated, 7 purchased from the Dollar store for $1/each) 
• * maxi pads - 25 pkgs (20 donated, 5 purchsed from the Dollar store for $1/each)

I have filled almost a full rubbermaid of donated items, including a BIG bag of clothes for our sponser daughter - Jully.

If you know of ways to collect any of these items, or see them on sale - can you be so kind and send me an email to let me know.  It would be so appreciated!

Summer Garage Sale Planning:     Sometime in the summer, we are going to be hosting a garage sale that ALL proceeds will go to our mission (but let me clarify that ALL of our travel expenses are NOT coming out of ANY donated money or proceeds)  If you have any items you wish to donate for our garage sale, please contact me tara.morin473@gmail.com.

Busy, busy, busy...

The same thing I wrote I my family blog, I'll write here too. 

Life has been really busy and I'm not liking it too much.  There is SO much I want to do for our trip to Haiti and there doesn't seem to be enough time right now.  I started working at the school in the Kindergarten class (30 hours a week) from Feb - June.  Though I love the kids (most of the days), I am SO tired out at the end of the day that I feel like doing nothing :( 

I'm thankful it's only until June because I couldn't handle much more of this.  Luckily, once June rolls around I'll be able to focus more of my energies on projects for Haiti.

Noah is getting really involved and he's excited to be starting his own project to raise money for our trip (whether it's for medical supplies or to bring an extra bag of donatables or for food).  He's really excited for this project, I hope he keeps his momentum on it.  If not, I'll take it over.  Not going to share what he project IS yet, until we have a bunch made but just know that I am SUPER  proud of my boy for the commitment and compassion he has for underprivlidged people of the world! 

March Break is coming up here in New Brunswick, Canada and we're getting ready to have some jewelry making fun in the basement of our church.  Between 12-15 women (bless them) are going to get together for 3-4 hrs one afternoon to help me make earrings.   If the plans come together, we'll be having a little supper after as well too!  I LOVE my church family and am so appreciative of their supportive on this project (among many other things)!  I'm hoping to have close to 500 pairs done and ready to ship by the end of March Break (along with some much needed R&R&R - that's rest, relaxation & reading)!!

Our earring project seems to have calmed down a little, so now we can reach out to all the people we intended to reach out to in the first place.  I even have a MLA (or shall I say he's in the running) that is a salesmen by profession that is on board in helping me sell the earrings.  He suggested I wait to give them to him until I have caught up - leaving me with the impression that he may be selling LOTS for us!!!

Got Pay Pal up and running (finally) after almost a month of it being DOWN.  It took too many conversations (6 conversations on phone with reps, telling them the SAME thing) and WAY too many emails (6 emails requesting info that I didn't have, 6 responses telling them that I didn't have the info they requested and the same response I gave them on the phone).  NOW, I'm a little 'gun shy' to set up a "PAY" button with pay pal in fear of being locked out of my account like this again.  I'll be looking into it today to see what I can do for ease of paying through pay pal!  Keep posted on what happens.

That's where we are today....keep spreading the word about earrings and now bracelets for sale!  To date we raised (or have shipped and waiting for sale money to be sent back) over $2000 by sale of earrings & bracelets!!!

Unhired HELP!!!

Julia (our pastor's daughter) came over on Friday night to help make some earrings. 

THANK YOU, Julia for showing me different ways!!!

Can't wait to get together again - I had a great time!

Notice the bracelets on the bottom of the photo???

THEY ARE FOR SALE NOW....

we now have bracelets for sale for $10.00.

Check out my facebook photo album to view bracelet desings:  CLICK HERE.

We Are the World 25 for Haiti

The remake of this song for Haiti is absolutely amazing.   If you haven't heard it, stop what you're doing and watch this or listen to it.  The video is great and the song remake is 'so' 25 years later in music....love, love, love it!   It brought tears to my eyes and makes my heart hurt for Haiti.

I just can't wait to go!

Supplies

YAY...the supplies have arrived to make over 900 pairs of earrings!  Now to squeeze in the time to make earrings.... LOL

So far - once all the shipments have been sold and once the money is collected - we have raised 'just over' $1900 to buy rice & beans in Haiti.  Each 110 pound sac of rice is $48 (it just went up - again) and feeds about 360 kids.

SO, translated that means that we've raised enough money for about 14,250 meals!!

I just CAN'T believe it! 

THANK YOU!

THANK YOU!

THANK YOU!

Blessed

I can't even begin to tell you just how blessed I feel for being a part of this mission trip this year.

Everything is working out so much better than EVER expected.

With the help and donation of so many peoples' time and resources, the blessings just keep on coming!

My great friend Christine has ordered 30+ pairs of earrings to sell for me now.  Check out what she did at a house party she had the other night.  She made this beautiful display to show case the earrings to sell.  Thank you so much for your effort and all of your ideas and most of all your friendship.  You are one in a million!!

Then, the other day I got a call from our dentist's office.  They informed me that they had some toothbrushes and toothpaste for our mission.  Upon arrival, they played into the 'having a few toothbrushes, etc'.  When they brought the box out of the office, I almost fell over and tears filled my eyes when I saw the size of the box.  In total, over 300 toothbrushes and nearly 50 tubes of toothpaste - WOW!!!  THANK YOU so much to my dentist, Dr. Alain Cyr from Grand Falls, NB for your most generous donation!

As well, many continue to help me make earrings to keep up with the orders - Dianne, Bernice, Amy, Brenda, Isabelle, Katia and more to come!!!  Thank you SO much for all your help.  To date, we have shipped 398 pairs of earrings in 3 weeks!  WOW....and I just got a tid-bit that my cousin wants a THIRD shipment (which will bump us over 400)!  You ROCK girl...thanks for selling so many for me!!!

I tell you....the more YOU do to help, the more I am inspired to do MORE! 

Thank you for all your inspirations!

Earring Stuff....

Lots of new stuff is going on around here.

I started a 20 week job at the school and it's keeping me busy & tired.  When I get home at night, I am pooped right out!  I thought that maybe earring sales had slowed down but how wrong I was.   My first day of school, we had orders for 75 to be shipped and the second day of school, another 35 pairs to be shipped.   Luckily, the third day of school we had none and I managed to make just over 10 pairs with a friend who came to visit!!  Thanks Amy!

Dianne and I will be getting together this weekend to make earrings, hopefully we can pump out another 100 pairs to (hopefully) last through next week!  To date we have now shipped or sold almost 300 pairs of earrings in 2 weeks....who wudda thunk, huh? 

So just a short little note to continue to send my THANK YOU's to all of you who are support our misison.  I just can not believe how successful we've been in the first month....and to think, we still have 10 more months before we travel!  I can't wait!!!

Many Blessings to all of you!