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.

Words of love truly are the best gift (and they keep on giving...)

As I was packing yesterday for our upcoming move from the 'Burbs to downtown Columbus, I came across a stack of letters & cards that I received last fall after my mother passed away from breast cancer. I ended up sitting on my kitchen floor (surrounded by boxes and clutter) reading the entire stack...

I was so struck by the wisdom and love in those cards. They lifted me up last fall when they were originally sent and reading them for a second time yesterday gave me another opportunity to grieve the loss of my mother while feeling supported & loved by my friends.

I am continually reminded of how powerful it is to tell people why you love them and how they make a difference in your life. THANK YOU to all my dear friends who have done that for me so many times in my life, but especially the past 18 months.

- Heather

Giving Back

Almost three years ago Kerry and I sat around my parents’ kitchen table and brainstormed about plans and ideas for our new company. We both agreed that using our product to “give back” in some way should be a top priority. We have accomplished that goal and we couldn’t be more excited about it.

www.BellflowerBooks.com has become charitable partners with www.PinkRibbonGirls.org The Pink Ribbon Girls is a Cincinnati-based non-profit that was founded to support young women dealing with breast cancer. The organization offers education, awareness for early detection, support and an outlet to express fears.

Kerry’s mother-in-law is a breast cancer survivor and my mom passed away from Triple Negative breast cancer 18 months ago, so this is a cause that is very meaningful to both of us. One of my mother’s defining characteristics was her ability to recognize the good in people and to make sure they knew why they were loved and how their lives made a difference. That is exactly what a Bellflower Book does for somebody…it allows a group of people to tell somebody exactly why she is loved, supported and appreciated. We believe from first-hand experience that this is the best gift for somebody going through breast cancer treatment or achieving a survival anniversary milestone.

A portion of the proceeds from each Bellflower Book sold will go towards donating books to the Pink Ribbon Girls. These books will be given to women currently undergoing treatment, women reaching exciting milestones (like 5 years of being cancer free!) and amazing volunteers. In addition to donating books, www.BellflowerBooks.com is also extremely committed raising awareness about The Pink Ribbon Girls. Our wonderful software developer, Jared Saunders at www.LittleGreenCube.com, donated his talent and his time to create a special book design to honor this partnership.

Please help us spread the word!
www.PinkRibbonGirls.org

A special thank you to Kerry's cousin-in-law for donating her services as our photographer. Check out her amazing work at www.AngelaDugan.com.

Meaningful Person of the Month

Mac the Bike Guy

The other day I took my daughter to get her first bike. Instead of going to one of the large chain stores, we went down the street to visit “Mac the Bike Guy”. Mac is 89 years old and for the last 17 years he has been fixing up and recycling used bikes and giving them life again. He uses his garage as his storefront and workshop. He has every type of bike you can imagine, but my favorites are the vintage bikes that just need new straw baskets before they are good to go! The best part about buying my daughter’s bike from Mac was his genuine enthusiasm for his product. Not only did a get a great deal on a “recycled bike” but I also had a great conversation with Mac and left feeling really good about my purchase.

People like “Mac the Bike Guy” give a community like mine character. I love meeting people with a passion for something that brings joy to others. Thanks to Mac, old bikes in Perrysburg are rebuilt instead of thrown away!

Vacation Memories

My mom recently turned 60. We celebrated her birthday where we always do, Rehoboth Beach, DE. The Corrigans have been visiting Rehoboth for over 30 years, so it was the perfect place to celebrate such an important birthday!

Since I am in the business of supplying people with meaningful gifts, I could not let my mom's birthday pass without the creation of a Bellflower Book! I decided to put together a collaborative book of vacation memories from Rehoboth over the years. I contacted all of the friends and family who visited us there and received a great response. In addition to the pages the contributors created, my sister and I created many wonderful pages full of our own favorite memories, photographs and traditions.

The Bellflower Book I created ended up being a gift not just for my mom, but for the whole family. I can't wait for my children to read it so they can relate to the traditions we are now doing with them. One of my friends liked the idea behind this book so much she immediately started one for her own mom honoring their family traditions in Harbor Springs, MI.

Now that I am a parent myself I see how much work goes into family vacations. Until around five years ago I think I thought the cottage magically cleaned itself and that my mom actually enjoyed grocery shopping and making dinner. I now know how much work goes into making a family vacation special. I am so happy I could create a book for my mom honoring everything she has done over the last thirty years to make our family vacations happen!

A Little More About Us

Let's just say we're not your typical CEOs...

There are just two gals behind Bellflower Books- Kerry (Corrigan) Wellstein and Heather (Waring) Smith. We became friends at age 3 and business partners at age 6. It's pretty crazy to think that we're already celebrating our 25th anniversary as business partners and we're only in our early 30's...

We dabbled in a bunch of small creative businesses growing up such as our annual summer carnival, the monthly publication we called "Kid's News," the year we ran a summer camp, and our participation in numerous craft fairs. But, we're ready to try something new and we think we're on to something this time.

We created www.BellflowerBooks.com after wracking our brains to find meaningful, personal gifts for events such as Kerry's Father's Retirement or Heather's Mother's 50th birthday. We both remembered one particular gift we had been given during important times in our lives- a collection of letters and photos from our closest friends and family members, gathered in a box or album. It was one of the most meaningful gifts we had ever been given. We realized it would make a perfect retirement and 50th birthday gift.

As we created the gifts for our parents, we figured out that this gift required a LOT of time and effort - mailing out letters to participants, postage expenses, the effort required for participants to write and submit letters via “snail mail,” and the process of collecting all the letters in a book or album.

We've created www.BellflowerBooks.com as a solution to creating this truly meaningful gift. Whatever your occasion, Bellflowerbooks.com automates the logistics involved with the creation of this collaborative gift, and the end result is a beautiful, professionally bound book which recipients can keep and proudly display.

In the end, this is more than just another business to us. It's a fun way for us to help others spread joy and give back. But, then again, it's also a great excuse to get together and celebrate our 25 years as business partners over a glass of wine (or two...).

The Perfect Pick-Me-Up!

What do you send someone who is sick, recovering from an illness or has just found out they are pregnant? I always struggle with this. I love to give gifts that are both practical and meaningful, so sometimes flowers just don’t cut it.

I have recently discovered a wonderful product called Comfort Crunch www.comfortcrunch.com. A woman in my hometown, Lambie Stout, started creating this product with her young daughter right after she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. I find her story inspiring. It is worth visiting her website just to read the background on this delicious treat.

The Comfort Crunch she created is one of the few things that Lambie found palatable during her extensive chemotherapy treatments. I remember being pregnant and unable to eat much for the first three months. The next time a close friend of mine is in this situation, I am sending them some Comfort Crunch. For years I have tried to find that perfect little gift to send someone who is feeling down, and now I have found it!

The original Comfort Crunch is made with an assortment of peanuts, cashews and dried fruit. She also offers 3 more unique flavors: Pepita-Pick-Me-Up, Toffee Talk and Ginger-In-A-Snap which throws fun items like sunflower seeds, chocolate, ginger and old-fashioned toffee into the mix. Every flavor is low in sodium!

Did I mention that a percentage of the profits from Comfort Crunch go to furthering cancer research projects? Like I said, this product makes the PERFECT gift!

Just what we love to hear!

With my sister's bridal shower coming up, I had been searching for a meaningful gift rather than something off her registry. She had presented me with a scrapbook at my shower years ago, but I simply didn't have the time to manually compile one...that's when I turned to Bellflower Books. It was such a great concept - everything was done electronically and I could watch the letters and pictures be submitted by all of her friends. It was so easy - and I didn't have to check the mailbox, go to a store and buy a scrapbook and all the accessories, it was all done for me! When I received the book in the mail I knew right away everyone would love it! The design was beautiful and the letters and pictures just added to the keepsake. My sister opened it at her shower and was so surprised...it was truly a cherished gift. Thanks Bellflower!

~Jennifer Noel

Meaningful Gift Found on Vacation...

A big thanks to Emma Justice and Corinna Sager from Lifestyle International...two lovely ladies who were semi-strangers before tonight (I briefly met Corinna at the Harbor Springs Zoll Street dog park 2 days ago and my dog, Lulu, fell in love with her!).

These ladies graciously relinquished part of their dinner conversation tonight to help brainstorm ways to position, promote and communicate ideas about Bellflower Books and for that we are very grateful. How's that for proof that meaningful gifts can, indeed, come in small packages???

What a nice reminder to end the day...you never know who you might meet as long as you're willing to strike up a conversation. Thanks, ladies!

Check out their company at www.lifestyleintl.com.

"Lifestyle International is a boutique communications agency for live presentations, marketing events, trade shows, meetings, video/TV productions and digital media, serving a broad spectrum of clients around the globe.

Simply put: We bring projects to Life, with Style.

Live . Video . Digital"

Meaningful Wedding Gifts

When we created http://bellflowerbooks.com we thought our extremely personalized Bellflower Books would be just perfect for weddings. Here are some great ideas for how to use http://bellflowerbooks.com to create meaningful wedding and bridal shower gifts that your loved ones can treasure forever!

Document the Engagement

A close friend of mine created the most priceless wedding themed Bellflower Book that I have ever seen. She put together a book (as a surprise!) documenting her sister's year long engagement. She started with the engagement story and a photograph of that night and finished with a beautiful love letter from her fiance. She used the collaboration function to collect meaningful letters from family, close friends and future in-laws. The finished product was amazing! She managed to capture every special detail from dress shopping, to choosing invitations, showers, the bachelorette party and every other important event. I would have killed to have someone put together a book like this for me!

Creative Bachelorette Party Gift

Honestly, how many pairs of cheesy under ware does a girl really need? The bachelorette party usually consists of the bride's closest friends, so what a great group to work together and create a book full of funny memories, sentimental stories and good wishes. Make sure to include the moms in this one and any other friend or family member not able to make it to the actual party. You can all have fun looking through the book together and sharing funny memories! Make sure to split the cost of the book up between all the girls! This makes for a great personalized gift for around the cost of a greeting card!

Book of Love and Advice - Perfect for a Bridal Shower

Marriage is an adjustment for everyone, so a book full of love and advice from experienced loved ones is just what every bride needs! Have Moms, Grandmas, Aunts, Cousins and close friends all contribute letters of love, advice and encouragement. Even those who have not been married can write about the special qualities the the bride possesses which are sure to bring her happiness in the future!

A Group Cookbook

I remember trying to cook after I first got married. What a nightmare! Luckily my mom had put together a cookbook full of special family recipes. She even included photos of our friends and family eating together. I think that this would be such a wonderful thing to do for any bride and the collaboration function at http://bellflowerbooks.com makes the creation of this special book extremely easy. Invite friends and relatives to contribute their favorite recipe. They can choose to add a photo of themselves, the food or of family and friends eating the food! This way every time the new bride goes to cook dinner she is not only aided by a book full of great recipes, she is reminded of everyone who loves her!

Wedding Memories

This is one of my favorites! The bride or a bridesmaid can send out a Bellflower Books invitation to contribute to all of the wedding guests a few days before the wedding. This invitation can tell the guests to have their cameras ready to snap their favorite moment from the wedding in order to contribute it to your collaborative memory book. How fun would it be to have memories and photographs of your wedding from the guests' perspective! I think this would be especially fun with destination weddings! A good photographer can only capture so much, it tends to be your friends and loved ones, who know you the best, who take the most intimate photographs. This would be a priceless record of the most important day of your life!

Celebrate Teachers!

We hope to do a lot of good with our product. We figure that a nice way to start spreading the word is to donate books to outstanding people who truly deserve to feel loved and appreciated.

A good friend of ours is a teacher at the local elementary school that we both attended. A few months ago she was talking about the upcoming retirement of two of her favorite co-workers. We thought that a Bellflower Book would be the perfect way to honor their educational career. Kerry and I decided to donate books to these teachers and we were fortunate enough to have our friend Molly coordinate the effort.

The books turned out beautifully. We both had teachers for parents so we know how hard teachers work and how much they deserve to be appreciated. It made us extremely happy to be able to use our product to honor such wonderful women. Kerry also coordinated efforts with the parents of the students in her son’s preschool class. They worked together to produce books for the preschool teachers as end of the year gifts. These books were full of poems, letters and memories from the school year and priceless photographs of the students. They made enough copies of the book for each teacher to receive one. Using www.bellflowerbooks.com was a great way for people to communicate their appreciation for these extremely special people!

Let's bring meaningful gifts back!

With so much bad news dominating our media each day, I think it's time to focus on the positive and get back to what really matters...LOVE & RELATIONSHIPS. That's what this blog is all about. Telling people why they are loved and doing it in the form of a Meaningful Gift.

"Huh?" you say. "I don't get it..."

As a bit of background, I'm starting this blog in conjunction with a web-based business that my good friend & I started about two months ago. It's called www.BellflowerBooks.com and it's all about creating a custom book to tell somebody why they are loved and appreciated. I challenge you to think of a more Meaningful Gift than a collection of letters and photos from all your closest friends & family members bound into a beautiful, hardcover keepsake book.

Since we're in the thick of wedding season, I'll give you one example of how to spread our Meaningful Gift Revolution when you need a special bridal shower gift. Imagine the soon-to-be- blushing bride at her bridal shower. She opens a gift and it contains a hard cover book. She is stumped and thinks to herself..."What is this?" She opens it to find that all of her dearest friends (many of whom are present at the shower) have taken the time to share their favorite memories, advice for a happy marriage, and affirmations of why she is so important in this Bellflower Book. And isn't that just what the joyous times in life should be about...spending time with the people you love and knowing that you are loved in return???

I hope to inspire YOU to slow down and think about what is going on in the lives of those who mean the most to you. Is somebody going through something particularly challenging? Is somebody celebrating something wonderful? If so, join our Meaningful Gift Revolution and shower them with love, support and appreciation in a Bellflower Book.