Where it all began, and where I'm headed

So the conception of this, I began document my journey started so many years ago.  Working on a mission to help those around me.  What I thought was going to be travelling on my first mission trip to Haiti in December 2010, has changed so much since our trip got cancelled after the earthquake.


With this news, I have agreed to continue what I have started.  Even if I can't go on a mission trip I can still do mission work, right from home! 


This blog will be my mission adventure, even if there is NO travel involved!


SO, here I am!  Making jewelry 'on a mission'!!!


I will continue to make and sell jewelry to provide for a 'better good'! I've been at our local farmers market for 4 weeks now and it is going amazing.  I have all remaining Saturday's booked until the end of October, come by and see me.  Click HERE, to see all the dates I will be at the market..  If you mention this post or my blog, I will give you a FREE pair of earrings with the purchase of any other item at my table!


So here's how it will work:


ALL jewelry made to raise money for RICE for Haiti, will remain being sold with profits going to buy RICE and help in Haiti.  This consists of most earrings and several bracelets.  I will continue to make earrings to raise money for Haiti.

Earrings     $2

Bracelets    $5

ALL necklaces made to raise money to provide INCOME for women in Kenya, will remain being sold with all sales being sent to the Kenny family for this project.  I will continue to make necklaces for Kenya, until my beads run out!

Solidarity Necklaces    $10

There are 5 colour pendant beads for the Kenya collection.

Tan (not shown)
Earth Brown (top left)
Light Green (top right)
Royal Blue (bottom left)
Light Blue (bottom right)


I will get some better photos of these necklaces as soon as I can, to better reflect the colours of these beautiful pendants!


MANY new pieces of jewelry will be sold to help support an international adoption.

Most necklaces    $10

Wire work rings     $5

Glass pendant rings (top right corner)     $10

There are SO many more designs of necklaces and these photos are not the 'best' as I had several requests to get them posted (so I did them quickly).  I will be working at taking some better pictures of many of the designs just as soon as I can.

So as you see, the beginning of this blog until now - my focus has changed slightly.  In the end, it's all to do a better good for the world in which we live.  So has it 'really' changed?

If you're interested in any of the designs, please email me at tara.morin473@gmail.com.

Blog Badge?

Can anyone direct me to 'fool proof' instructions on how to create a blog badge???

Sale Progress

So far, the earring BLOWOUT Sale is going amazing.  I was at the market today and sold over 40 pairs of earrings, 8 bracelets, 4 rings and 1 kids necklace.

Lots of feedback as to what customers want - VERY excited.

Like I said, I am transitioning away of fundraising for Haiti & Kenya sales, but are still going to be having lots of new stock.  Check back from time to time to see what's new. 

I will now be at the market the following weekends:

• August 21
• Sept 4
• Sept 11
• Sept 18
• Sept 25
• Oct 2
• Oct 9
• Oct 16
• Oct 23
• Oct 30
• Dec 4 (Christmas at the Market)

Each week, we will be selling lots of jewelry.  Come and see us at the market.

If you quote this email:  "I read it on your blog"

Get a FREE pair of earrings,

with the purchase of any piece of jewelry!

BLOWOUT SALE

on all earrings & bracelets

The time has come and I am going to 'close out'

all our fundraising for both Haiti  and Kenya.  

We will be at the 
Grand Falls Farmer's Market
on

July 24 and July 31.

After this, I will be posting all remaining earrings

(close to 200 pairs)

as a "LOT" 

on either etsy or ebay,

for a VERY good price. 

 If anyone is interested in a LOT price,
please contact me:  tara.morin473@gmail.com.

Until then,

ALL earrings - $2 each
ALL bracelets - $5 each

Contact me if you are interested in

purchasing either or both.


Some samples of earrings ($2 each):

Some samples of bracelets ($5 each):

Some samples of Kenya Necklaces ($10 each):

NOTE:

I do not have photos for each type of earring, bracelet or necklace.

SO....

If you are interested,
please specify your colour preference 
and
 your style preference
(example, do you like longer earrings or more simple).

Email me your mailing address and I can send you a quote for shipping.

For most, it is $1.22 or $2.00 (depending on the quantity ordered).

Also,
I will be away from today (Fri July 16 thru to Fri July 23) and NOT have access to a computer.

New Opportunities

Well life in the mission field has been pretty grim lately...I still have lots of ideas, just not too much is being executed.


I'm excited to announce that I will begin selling the Earrings for Haiti (and then some) at our local farmers market tomorrow morning!  So excited!


Now, a while back I told you something that I was really excited about.....I will tell you today!

The new 'fire burning' mentioned in THIS POST, I will finally share.

We met a young missionary family (through our church) living in Kenya.  When they delivered their presentation, I was excited to learn that they had recently started a 'Jewelry Ministry'!  How cool is THAT!!!

The women in this ministry (or program) - make their own beads out of clay from Kenya, make the necklaces and sell them.  The Kenny's (the missionary family) brought (I think) around 250 necklaces with them to sell.  If they sell all of these, the money raised will provide 10 women's annual income for the coming year!    I bought a few necklaces...but the more exciting news is that they gave us many of the single beads.  In return, I have told them I would make the necklaces and sell them for their ministry! 

Starting on June 12, I will have a table at our local Farmer's Market to sell both these necklaces and Jewelry for HAITI. 

My friend Dianne has been working hard at jewelry making, while I've be working hard at the school.  She has created several beautiful pieces, from necklaces, bracelets and even some rings.  They are beautiful.

I really looking forward to talking to customers 'face to face'.  Over the summer, I have booked 4 Saturdays to sell at the Farmer's Market.  I hope this will produce much income for these women in Kenya and much food for families in Haiti!

New fire burning...can't wait to share!

Remember THIS POST, you know about the not so great news of our trip to Haiti being cancelled. 

Well I said (and I quote):

At this point, in terms of making a decision I feel like I am at a fork in my road. Obviously, it's not time for me to decide so I'm excited to see what the year brings. I am going to pray about it and I KNOW that God will lead me in the direction I am supposed to go. I trust this.

Since this post (on April 18), my prayers have been: 'God show me a new path, open up a new road and show me the direction you wish for me to go, help me used all I have learned in a way that will serve you'  

GUESS WHAT....God has answered my prayers.  

My family and I will be busy on the long weekend (here in Canada), so stay tuned (it may not be until next week)!!!

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!

Not so great news...

We found out this week that the mission group we were traveling with has cancelled ALL mission trips for 2010.  This means that our trip from Dec 4 -11, 2010 has been CANCELLED.

It was really tough to hear initially, considering all the time and effort we have put into our fundraising efforts as well as how excited I was to be going on my first mission trip with such a great friend. This happened on Thursday afternoon....

I had a headache and bible study was on this night.  I SO didn't feel like going but SO glad I went, considering what I learned!  The first verse we studied was James 1:2-4 (NIV) and BOY, did it bring so much perspective to how I was feeling.  Read:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

or translated from the New Living Translation (which is much easier to understand and how I applied this to me)

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

When I left our study meeting, I knew that this was one of these trials the bible speaks of!  So, I' going to consider all we've done up to this point a pure joy for my journey to my first misison trip.  I have gained so much experience with fundraising and witnessed people helping out when they don't even know me.  All of this expience will be so useful for when I DO get to go on my first mission trip.  And when I left, I had a pretty positive attitude about what has happened. 

That said, Roland & Bernice are looking into other options to travel to Haiti.  One of them would be going to work in an orphanage in Port au Prince.   I would LOVE to work in an orphanage and love on a bunch of kiddies, but this option requires much physical work.  If we do travel to an orphanage, Dianne will not be coming with us.  And though I completely understand her reasons, I had my heart set on going WITH a close friend for my first mission trip.  So that leaves me with mixed feelings about what I am going to do about travelling. 

At this point, in terms of making a decision I feel like I am at a fork in my road.  Obviously, it's not time for me to decide so I'm excited to see what the year brings.  I am going to pray abou tit and I KNOW that God will lead me in the direction I am supposed to go.  I trust this.

Trip or no trip, we have donations and money that we have collected and purchased.  At this point, we have a few options to get them to New Missions and to Haiti.  I will even pay for shipping to get the supplies there.  But for now, I'm going to hold off on shipping items.  I will continue to buy & collect supplies to ship and we will continue to make jewelry to sell and continue to send the money to New Missions for them to buy rice and help them rebuild.

So this is my latest 'planning' news...not excactly what I wanted to share at this point, but it's just the way it is.   I'm going to trust that and go with the flow!!!

Trip

A few things to look out for

With our trip to Orlando (see family blog post HERE), I feel like I have been neglecting this blog.  Though I have been neglecting the blog, I have not been neglecting my excitement for my trip to Haiti!  Lots of ideas to 'carry out' and not enough time (with working at the school) to carry all my ideas out!

We've been busy making necklaces & bracelets, I've been busy trying to get a blog badge ready and I'm trying to get an ebay account set up so we can start selling our jewelry online.

One step at a time, is what I keep telling myself. 

My goal of the week is to get my ebay seller's account set up and running to start selling online!  If you have any suggestions with doing this, PLEASE send me your suggestions!

So that's what's been going on here....life couldn't be better!

To Jenny:

I don't have your email address to say 'THANK YOU' for your suggestion!

A blog BADGE!!!

Keep on the look out for a blog badge that you can post on YOUR blog if you'd like to support my mission!

Thanks so much Jenny for your suggestion - ALL suggestions are SO appreciated.

NOW, if you'd only send me your address so I could thank you with a pair of earrings!!!

Either way,  THANK YOU!!!

PS...can anyone lead me in a good direction for help in creating an AMAZING blog badge???