Thrilled beyond measure.

Since my missions trip to Haiti was cancelled a few months ago, I've been trying to figure out WHAT to do with all these OTC (over the counter) medical supplies that were intended to go with us for our trip in December.

Well...this weekend (at our Missions Conference) we met this lovely couple (Allan & Patsy Myshrall who are with Ambassadors for Christ Canada).  They travel the world doing good with several of the poorest countries - Peru, DR & lots of time in the Amazon Jungle).

During our visit on Saturday, they told a story about medical supplies that they had purchased for a price per pound (I think something like around $500 for 200 lbs of supplieis).  After they purchased, they realized that the in fact had supplies equalling about $15,000 worth of medical supplies!  THAT'S when my friend leaned to me and said, 'what about the supplies for Haiti that we have no way of getting there'.

OH MY....I got all excited and thought 'too bad Dianne isn't here'?

AND...this is the home we found for all the supplies.

Monday, Allan & Patsy leave for Iquitos, Peru where they will be ministering to many people in the Amazon Jungle and distributing lots of these supplies.   Then, in December they will be taking a trip to the Dominican Republic and distributing the remaining supplies.

Thank you SO much for those who have donated....it was a great success (too bad they couldn't have gone to Haiti, maybe next year) and Patsy and Allan walked away feeling SO blessed!

Progress

What's up these days? 

It feels horrible not visiting this blog so much and writing updates :(

I miss all the excitement I felt at the beginning when our trip first got booked.

Here are some updates:

• I'm continuing to take Creole (official language in Haiti) lessons - in hopes that one day I will travel to Haiti and if anything else, to help our instructor out and to learn!
• Roland & Bernice are (most likely) going for almost 2 months in September/October time frame, VERY excited for them!
• We're preparing for a garage sale with LOTS of donated items to sell with ALL the proceeds going to New Missions - in Haiti to buy rice or help rebuild or help buy medical supplies.
• We are continuing to make jewelry - earrings, bracelets and now necklaces to sell (and getting a few orders here and there)...all this money will continue to go to buy rice & beans through New Missions in Haiti

So you see...even though I am no longer going on my trip, I can still do lots to help out!  I love doing it!

Pay Pal button now working

...for sending me money, please message me to find out the correct amount then you can pay through Pay Pal using your bank account or credit card. 

NOTE:  you do NOT need to have a Pay Pal account in order to pay through Pay Pal.

9 months to go

I am so excited...9 months until we travel to Haiti and my dream becomes a reality!


There is SO much to do until then...starting with our earrings!  We need to make more earrings to sell.  Plus, now we have bracelets and just starting to get into necklaces - with the help of so many wonderful friends!!!    We are finally caught up and there is a slow down in the sales - which sadly to say I am thankful for.  Now that I am working until the end of the school year, it's proved to be 'quite the adjustment' for time management!!!

Now we're working on our original ideas we had for selling our earrings.  I have contacted our Town Manager and he gave me many great ideas!  Some of our ideas are setting up a booth/table at our local mall, farmer's market and radio station on a given day to sell the earrings.  Some ideas I got from the Town Manager is to contact local business's (specifically Walmart) to set up a table to sell earrings there, or possibly door-to-door campaigning.  WOW...he was ever so helpful.  He even offered that if we had to get a 'pedlars license' to sell on the street, that he would 'waive the fee' because he believed in our cause!!!

BUT first thing is first, we have to have a BIG supply of them first - which is what we are working on right now.  Thanks to all my 'working bees' while I'm at work - namely Dianne, Bernice and Julia (who is making us our necklace 'prototypes'!!!)  I really couldn't do it without them!

Other projects we are working on are making sacs for the rice (for distribution) - sewing them and feeding the draw strings, a summer garage sale of donated items where ALL the proceeds go towards projects for our trip (but NOT any of our travel expenses), Noah's special project to sell and the collection of donated medical over the counter supplies.

In all of this, I need to get in to get all of my shots for traveling, etc.

So you see...I am convinced that 9 months is going to FLY by like a blink of an eye!

Earring ART (and lots of it)!

Yesterday afternoon, our pastor allowed us to gather in the basement of our church to make earrings.  In all we had a turn out of 15 ladies, some of whom had NEVER made jewelry before (what great troopers they were)!!

I am so thankful to my church family and friends who took 3-4 hours out of their busy schedules to help in our mission.   In total we made 240 pairs of earrings.  AMAZING!!!

THANK YOU so much for your help!  It's truly appreciated!

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!

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.

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!

Un'hired Help!

The jewelry making business is BOOMING.  Not only is the jewelry making project, the WHOLE project is booming!!!

I would have never thought that we would have sold (or have people willing to sell) so many pairs of earrings, for little ol' me!  To date, we've made just over 200 pars of earrings.  Out of 200 pairs, we've sold or have shipped to people in groups of 10, 15 or 20 pairs to sell, 172 pairs of earrings....WOW.

I am SO thankful for my friends who have pitched in and continue to pitch in to help, encourage, buy & dontate their hard earned money and time!!!  THANK YOU for making this project a booming success (so far, and we've only just begun)!!

First off, Dianne has helped in every way possible.  I can't even describe the gratitude I have for Dianne in my life! She has donated supplies, driven with me to get supplies, encouraged me, picked me up when I was down, and keeps offering her time to come back to help make more earrings with me twice (making close to 100+ pairs of earrings in total). 

Secondly, Brenda - an AMAZING woman with a huge heart!  She invited me into her home to make earrings with her girls TWO weekends in a row.  The first weekend we pumped out 67 pairs of earrings and now I'm going back this Saturday (that has left me scrabling to find enough supplies) to pump out I'm sure lots more than 67.

Thank you so much for those who have purchased earrings and those of you who have offered/agreed to sell earrings for my cause!  I am touched by your generosity of giving yourselves like this! 

And then there is one special friend (I won't name names, but if you read you KNOW who you are), who is gathering women from her church to sew sacs for our rice distribution.... WOW, absolutely AMAZING!!!  Thank you so much!!!

And then there is ANOTHER special friend (I won't name names, but if you read you KNOW who you are), not only did she buy some earrings - but she also donated $40 extra dollars for the rice and beans....WOW, absolutely AMAZING (again). 

I am completely speachless, thankful and utterly overwhelmed with all your generosity....THANK YOU doesn't even come close to describing the JOY and HAPPINESS my heart feels through all of this project.  THANK YOU!

Up to this point, I have been photographing and indexing ALL of the earrings. THIS takes double the time as it does to make the earrings and bag them....I just can't keep up.  For those of you who wish to buy online, I will keep 20-30 pairs posted on my facebook album but I have to just start pumping out earrings to get them distributed NOW while people are crying for them.

Once I get caught up on earring distribution........my next venture is beaded key chains (to get guys involved to purchase) and bracelets & necklaces (1st - because many have asked for it and 2nd - for those of you who can not wear earrings due to allergic reactions).

So I must get back the production lines to keep up with our demand....STAY TUNED and thanks again for the overwhelming support!

Lots of new earrings made today and posted - Jan 22, 2010

Check out my facebook photo album to see all the new earrings made today (we made 70 in total)!


If you'd like to purchase 1, 2 or sell 10 for me, advise me, tag your name to each of the pairs you'd like (but I can not guarantee you will receive the exact items) and pay for the few you buy.  BUT remember if you're interested in selling 10 pairs for me, you get to keep one FREE pair and you do not have to pay the shipping.


Speak fast because they are selling as fast (actually a little faster) than I am making them!!1

Earring SALES

I have a DEAL for you.

As most of you have probably read (if you read this blog), we are selling earrings (and I mean TONNES of earrings) to raise money for RICE & BEANS (click here to read) in Haiti at New Missions.

OK...so here goes:

• If you agree to sell a minimum 10 pairs of earrings, I will give you 1 pair of earrings FREE (as a thank you for selling them for me) AND your shipping will be FREE.

Here's how it will work:

• I'll ship you 11 pairs of earrings, you agree to sell them and spread the word.  You keep a free pair of earrings (as a thank you for spreading the word) for yourself or a gift, then send me the money only once you've sold the earrings (before November 15, 2010)
• If you can not sell the earrings before Nov 15, 2010, ship them back to me along with any money from the ones you DID sell and I will be FOREVER grateful!

I'm already doing this with 3 others (well, once I have the earrings made).....how about you???  Would you be willing?

If you have any questions, please email me at tara.morin473@gmail.com or leave me a comment.  I will contact you for more information.

Thanks for all your support....it's quite overwhelming at this point but VERY encouraging.  The more YOU do, the more you inspire ME to do.

#2 EAR RINGS FOR SALE: $5 each (all sales go to food or Haiti)

Upate Jan 20:  Many new designs being posted later today.

Note: All earrings listed here may 'not' be avaiable. Check out my facebook photos (you do not need to be on facebook to do this) for an up-to-date list of what is available. CLICK HERE.

EAR RINGS FOR SALE: $5 each

Update (Jan 20):  Click here for 2nd posting with more earrings designs

Note:  All earrings listed here may 'not' be avaiable.  Check out my facebook photos (you do not need to be on facebook to do this) for an up-to-date list of what is available.  CLICK HERE.

Earrings for sale for $5 each (Canadian Funds)

(plus shipping - regular post for an irregular pkg $1.22 within Canada, those of you in the US contact me)

All sets are hand made and all materials have been donated, which means:

100% of the sales go directly to buying

RICE and BEANS

for

families in HAITI

Email me your address and I'll ship you a pair or 2 today!

tara.morin473@gmail.com.

Upate Jan 20: Many new designs being posted later today.