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.

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!

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