A Meaningful Gift for a Growing Girl

I spent yesterday cleaning out my kids' playroom. The amount of abused and neglected toys made me sad. What a waste. We spend so much money on plastic toys that are rarely played with, when in reality, our children are happiest with an old sheet over the kitchen table playing "fort".

I was so impressed when my friend Molly decided to make a Bellflower Book to celebrate her daughter's 10th birthday. Instead of picking something up at the area "super store", she created a book full of childhood memories and letters from friends and loved ones. The finished product made me cry. It was beautiful. The best thing about this gift is that her daughter Maddie will now enter her preteen years with a book full of love and encouragement to remind her how special she is and boost her self confidence during what can sometimes be a difficult time in a young woman's life.

Just like Molly told me, "How many toys does a kid really need? I want to do something meaningful that she can treasure forever". I look forward to other parents discovering how Bellflower Books can enrich the lives of their children.

The Gift of Time

For some strange reason my family and I decided to move into a new house the second weekend of December. December is crazy enough with the parties, shopping, baking, wrapping, decorating, etc... Adding packing and unpacking to the list was a bit overwhelming, but it has given me the opportunity to put a lot in perspective. Because my life has been so crazy, this December all I want is time! I would not be standing in a somewhat organized kitchen right now with a stack of finished Christmas cards if it were not for the help of a few of my close friends, a wonderful babysitter and my amazing parents. During such a busy time of year, they have all given me their TIME and helped to pack, unpack and babysit my two small children. It has meant the world to me.

My house is still a bit of a disaster, but I really don't care. I have 5 days until Christmas to spend quality time with my children baking cookies, looking at Christmas lights and watching Christmas movies on the couch while gazing at the tree. I can't wait to spend time with close friends who are in town and visit with my 90 year old grandmother.

So, for those of you who have not yet found that "perfect gift" for someone, stop looking and think about what you can DO for that person instead. Material items can sometimes be overrated:)

Happy Holidays!

How to enlarge photos for your Bellflower Book!

If your photos are showing up small in your preview, here is a simple way to enlarge them!

Go to the website http://www.computingunleashed.com/enlarge-images-without-loosing-quality.html and download the free software http://smillaenlarger.en.softonic.com/ . To make things easy on you, download it onto your desktop. We checked with our software developer and this is a perfectly safe site, but you may have to temporarily disable pop-ups.

To start the program, ignore all the other files in the “Image Enlarger” folder and just click on “image enlarger” and run this program.

When properly installed and ready to use, you will see an image with "wolf" photos in it.

To upload your photo click on the browse button close to the bottom of the page (next to source). Once the photo is uploaded, it should already be sized to the correct size (somewhere between 900-1600).

To create the enlargement click on “Calculate”. This will automatically save an enlarged file for you in the same folder as the first photo. The photo will be saved under the original name but with “_e” after it. For example, our original file was named facebookpic.jpg and the enlarged version is facebookpic_e.jpg.

Go back to www.BellflowerBooks.com and upload the new, enlarged photo!

Give a Gift that Gives Back

In addition to helping to create and run Bellflower Books, I also make and sell jewelry on Etsy donating 100% of the proceeds to a scholarship fund for young women. Before having children I was an art teacher at Maria High School, located on Chicago's south side. Maria is in a pretty bad neighborhood and serves as a daily oasis of sorts for many of the young women who attend. By selling jewelry to raise tuition money, I am hoping to give more girls the opportunity to attend school where they are truly cared for, appreciated and encouraged to go on to college. I work with Sister Clement, also a former teacher, to pick our recipients and distribute the scholarships. Not only do these scholarships help financially, they also boost the self-esteem of the recipients because we are showing that someone else believes in them!

When you are doing your holiday shopping this year, think about giving a "gift that gives back". Here is the link to my Etsy site, Sweet Charity Designs, and several other Etsy sites who are also committed to giving back a large portion, if not all, of their proceeds!

Shopping for Charity on Etsy!

Sweet Charity Designs - Art Helping to Educate - Handmade jewelry from freshwater pearls and natural stone. 100% of the proceeds are donated to the Maria High School Scholarship Fund.

BIC Bands - Adorable fabric headbands, proceeds going to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

One Gift One World - Where giving is at the heart of the art! - Extremely whimsical and unique gift items. I am in love with their ornaments benefiting the Arbor Day Foundation!

Going to the Dogs - Beautiful handmade jewelry. 100% of the proceeds go to helping animals at the Lakes Area Humane Society in Alexandria, MN

Painting Well - A way of living and giving - This artist donates 100% of her profits to cancer research. I have been a customer of hers for a while and absolutely love her work. Her paintings are all created to easily fit into store bought frames and make lovely gifts!

Lefft - This shop features darling handmade cards and other gifts. I especially love the holiday designs! The artist here is a cancer survivor and donates all of her profits to families fighting childhood cancer.

Future Leader 78 - Future leaders of Ghana - This artist is a 3rd grade teacher who loves crafting and travels to Ghana often to bring supplies, provide lunch, train volunteers and help to improve 4 impoverished schools in Ghana. Pretty amazing! She offers a fun variety of products. I especially love her "Adventure Book".

Gifted Hands NYC -The mission of Gifted Hands is to provide marginalized and broken people in New York City the opportunity to participate in a therapeutic and recreational art program that contributes to their physical, emotional and spiritual well-being. As a former art teacher, I absolutely love this concept. The jewelry they create is from high quality materials and absolutely beautiful!

Wild Strawberry - The proceeds from these original photographs and handmade gifts are donated to Engineers Without Borders. Engineers Without Borders creates opportunities for rural Africans to access clean water, create income producing family farms and have improved access to the services they need to improve their lives.

AWBAR - Abandoned Wild Babies Animal Rescue- What is there not to love about this organization? If you are an animal lover, you will really appreciate these darling cards. I especially loved the squirrel. 100% of the proceeds are for the animals!

Apache Moon - Jewelry for the joy of it!- I love this extremely artistic jewelry and I love even more that 100% of the proceeds go to helping animals!

I really enjoyed researching these Etsy shops. If you have the time, send this list on to your friends and take a minute to read the profiles of the artists behind these wonderful shops and products. I found them all to be very inspirational!

And, don't forget, a Bellflower Book is also a "gift that gives back" because a portion from each book sold goes to donating books to the Pink Ribbon Girls!

Happy Holiday Shopping!!!

Start thinking about giving meaningful gifts for the holidays!

I know the holidays are still two months away, but now is the perfect time to get started on a Bellflower Book for the special person in your life who has everything material and deserves something meaningful.

Last year I worked with my very large extended family to create a book of love and memories for my 90 year old grandmother. This is a photo of us looking at the book together. She is losing her short term memory, so this book has been a wonderful way to remind her on a daily basis of how much her 8 children, 20 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren love her.

Creating my grandmother's Bellflower Book allowed for my family members to share memories and express their appreciation. This book ended up being a gift, not only to my grandmother, but to the whole family. There are multiple copies in circulation and I am so happy that my children will now have photos and documentation of the wonderful time we all spent at my grandparents'.

Seriously, get started on a Bellflower Book for the special person who has truly made a difference in your life and the lives of many others =). It would be hard to give a better gift than heartfelt words of love and appreciation! Learn more at www.BellflowerBooks.com!

Use the code HOLIDAYSPECIAL to save $20 on your order. It expires December 31st!

Meaningful Person of the Month: Deb Buker

Our meaningful person for October is Deb Buker of Perrysburg, OH!

We met Deb (pictured, third from left) through our good friend, Marsha (Metti) Swanson (pictured, second from left) and she has had our backs ever since!!!

Deb is the editor of the Perrysburg Messenger Journal and she does such an exceptional job of highlighting relevant and meaningful stories in Perrysburg any beyond.

Deb just ran a second story about Bellflower Books - it focused on our partnership with The Pink Ribbon Girls, an organization that supports young women who have breast cancer. The day the story ran, the four of us pictured above went out for a cocktail in downtown Perrysburg, during which we learned that Deb, herself, is a breast cancer survivor. So, not only is she a great person and Editor, but she's a fighter and a survivor, too. After seeing my Mom go through chemo and radiation, I now have a much greater appreciation for what Deb has been through.

Thanks, Deb, for being a great advocate for Bellflower Books and for women fighting breast cancer. Your kindness and support are much appreciated!

Bellflower Books and the Pink Ribbon Girls – Working together to provide support!

Kim Henn, a young mom and a three-time breast cancer survivor, earned her spot as the honoree at this year’s 6th Annual Pink Ribbon Girls Wiffleball Tournament. This mother of two was diagnosed in 2002 with breast cancer and learned in 2007 that it has spread (metastasized) to her lungs.

Thanks to our new charitable partnership with the Pink Ribbon Girls we were able to donate a Bellflower Book to honor Kim and her unbelievable strength as she fights cancer for the third time. More than 50 of her closest friends and family members contributed memories, wishes and photos to make sure Kim knows why she is so loved and supported during this ongoing challenge in her life.

It was so exciting for us to see our product “in action” letting Kim know how loved and appreciated she is. Being a part of the book presentation was extremely meaningful for us. After seeing all of the amazing letters and photographs in her book, it was wonderful to meet Kim in person! She was just as incredible as we thought she would be.

We are looking forward to many more moments like this where we are given to opportunity to use the product that we so lovingly created to improve the lives of others.