Welcome 2013.........

There is just something about ringing in a new year that brings hope and optimism to my heart. Over the years, it always seems that no matter how dark things seem around me, the Lord abundantly makes it clear that He has had His hand on me, and that I should walk in the peace of that.

This year is no different.

No matter what lies before me, I rest confidently in the promise that He hems me in behind and before.

Where are you tonight, reading this?

For those of you who are new to this blog, and have not traveled with us this last year, let me introduce myself. My name is Heather, and I have been building and developing The Welcoming House blog seriously for almost exactly a year. Tomorrow, in fact, is our one year birthday, and that is such an amazing cause for celebration around here that I am not sure you would believe it.

Until January 2012 this blog was actually rarely used, with simple postings occasionally about our family, our adoption of our two littles, things the Lord laid on my heart, etc. It was rarely read, and rarely shared with anyone, almost an online journal if you will.

But late last Fall, around the same time as us finally seeing the answer to a 9 year old prayer to own our own home again, the Lord really began to lay on my heart that what HE had taught me, needed to be shared.

You see, we are not exactly your conventional family. We live in a small town where everyone knows one another's business, and even here, we stick out. Why? Well, because I may be 37 years old, but I can almost everything we eat for the year. I lovingly raise two HUGE gardens, and was one of the first people here to ever consider using raised beds instead of digging in the ground. Add to that we heat with wood, use a dehydrator, make a million things that we use, just planted a mini-orchard this fall, raise rabbits, and ALL WITHIN CITY LIMITS, causes a lot of people around here pause.

I am a mom to three beautiful girls with a heart to adopt as many as the Lord lands on my doorstep. This passion of mine has been woven into the fabric, and even the name, of this blog. As sister to two beautiful ladies adopted from foster care, and a few others never "officially" adopted, friend to others who were adopted into forever homes, 

adoption is simply at the core of who I am and how I think.

 I want my home to always be the place where people can come in and feel welcome.

This blog has been no different. I try to write the way I think and speak, opening my home, my life, my family, and all my crazy passions and pursuits open to you. In December last year, when the Lord laid on my heart to begin using this blog as an outlet for sharing, teaching, writing, encouraging, and talking with others, it has gone from only 800 readers that month to over 25,000 this last month.

I would say that is a pretty incredible thing for a simple piano teacher who loves her kids, loves to teach, loves to can and preserve, and loves to share. Never in a million years would I have thought a single year would be such a crazy, fun , and wild ride.

What does this next year hold?

 I don't know,

but I am just going to keep doing the things that I do, 

sharing them with you,

 passionately encouraging you to step outside the box,

 to think about each thing you do and the impact you can make, 

and to approach life 

with your arms wide open to receive the blessings God has for you 

in the year ahead.

I want to encourage you to join with me here at The Welcoming House, and check back often. I never know what will be coming a week down the road, but it is always a ton of fun to share with you! This is normally how we run things, although I promise you, I am really great at all of sudden changing things up and taking a serious rabbit trail. Mondays are mostly Make it Yourself Mondays (DIY and Preparedness Topics), Tuesdays are ALWAYS tasty, as I share my favorite kitchen recipes and chat about my WonderMill. This year we will begin having new Linkups on Wednesdays where YOU will get your chance to share what is going on over where you blog or write. Thursdays are my day where I take a moment to share the thoughts of my heart for the week, and Fridays are my Fabulously Frugal Fridays, where we talk about mixing up frugality with fun and how to do things that would just not occur to most people in today's world. :)

I hope to see you back here tomorrow as we celebrate our first BIRTHDAY!

May this year be so full of blessings in your life, that the dark moments of the last are completely forgotten.

Many blessings to you and yours,

Heather

Top 5 AMAZING Master Mix recipes from 2012---Reading this hungry is just as bad as shopping while hungry!

What would a countdown of the Top Five posts be like here on The Welcoming House if I did not feature some of the amazing recipes that we have covered here in the last year?

As a stay at home/Work at home Mom, I absolutely love finding delicious, frugal recipes that I can bless my family with. I have shared so many of them over the last year, that I had to go into my stats and find the top five that way since if I had my way, we would be talking about anything with chocolate and coffee involved. :)

I find that simplifying prep time by making Master Mixes is SO much easier, and such a more efficient use of my time here at home, as I am busy homeschooling, teaching piano student, blogging here, and watching over my Welcoming House FaceBook Page and my other pages I am an admin on. Add in all the fun and crazy stuff we do around here, and I am one busy lady, loving life, and loving my family.

For all of those who are new to the blog and to the site, a couple months ago I published my first book, The Master Mix Way, in which I shared almost 50 recipes using Master mixes and how to make them work for you to spend less time in the kitchen, and less money at the Grocery store.

As things continue to go up in price, I find they are even more important, and I would encourage you to check out the book by clicking here. If you use the code Delicious2012 you will be able to purchase the book at 35% off through the end of the year, before I publish my newest one in January!

There is also a new giveaway starting over on the FB Page this afternoon, as I want to usher in our second year as a blog with 1000 members over on the page that supports this blog. Have you been over there and entered? Hope you do! Someone is going to get one of my books for free just for entering and sharing!

SO let's talk about the top five recipes I shared here on
The Welcoming House ...

2012 Top Recipe Number Five:

  

Straight out of the Making Do Without Missing A Thing Series, comes one of the most popular recipes I have posted in the last year---my Master Cookie Mix. This is a staple in our kitchen, and can make just about any recipe you can come up with for cookies. The only cookies we do NOT use it for are sugar cookies, and shortbread, but everything else fits right in. This recipe, along with about four more variations than are listed here, are included in my Master Mix Way book, and if you click this link, there are more suggestions in the comments. My VERY favorite ones are the gingersnap cookies, rich and full of sweet spiciness, but the chocolate chip ones are amazing too!

 Check out this post from January!

Master Cookie Mix From Making DO Without Missing A Thing

2012 Top Recipe Number Four:

Like I said, finding the top recipes was difficult at best, but it goes without saying that my mother's Farmer Bread recipe was one for the memory books, with over 4,000 hits since its posting earlier this year. This is the recipe for homemade bread that I make twice a week, on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and which provides us with bread, rolls, sweet rolls, and sometimes even pizza crusts depending on if I am in the mood to make it other than on Saturday. For me, it is the taste and smell of childhood, as this was the bread my mother made every holiday as far back as I can remember. I hope you enjoy it as much as our family does each week:

 Farmer bread Recipe Featured on Tasty Tuesday's Posts

2012 Top Recipe Number Three:

Always looking and creating new Master Mixes to streamline my time is a passion and hobby of mine here at the Real Welcoming House. I was thrilled with a great result after tinkering with my favorite quick bread recipe a couple times, and finding I could create one that had endless possibilities. This recipe was carefully crafted, and then placed in my E-book for my readers. I have gotten more mail and fantastic feedback from this recipe that I could ever have imagined, and I am glad to share it again with you here as this fantastic year draws to a close! So far my favorite combination includes chocolate, Craisins, and coconut----see what combinations you can come up in using it, and post  back here!

Fabulously Frugal Master Muffin Bread Mix

2012 Top Recipe Number Two:

 What would a countdown at the end of the year be without mentioning one of the most fabulous and fun bake-offs I have ever been a part of? I was blessed to be approached and able to participate in a challenge earlier this year that put over 20 blogs to the test in creating new and fun recipes made with whole grains. I was also blessed to be given a brand new Wonder Mill by the same company to participate with, and it changed my approach to baking in a wonderful and fun way! We entered five recipes, and my GingerBread Sweet Rolls had over 5,000 readers, got pinned all over Pinterest, and got rave review from everyone who tried them (including my kiddos). Every Tuesday is Tasty Tuesday around here, when we are not in the middle of some series, and I love sharing recipes I have made with my WonderMill with  my readers. I hope you enjoy this one, and be sure to search under the "Grain Mill Wagon Challenge" to read the other four amazing recipes we entered into the contest! Next year, we WILL win--we were super super close this year, which is fantastic for our first year out of the chute!

GingerBread Sweet Rolls for the Grain Mill Wagon Challenge 

 2012 Top Recipe Number ONE:

 But the very BEST recipe that was shared, that went viral, that got picked time and time again for being featured on other blogs,

 was my post on how to make your own coffee creamers.

This post received more than 2,000 hits in a single day when it was picked up and featured by one of my very favorite blogs, Homestead Survival. I also find it is one of the recipes that I get a lot of mail about as it is listed in my book, with ten variations on how to use to it make you own creamers at home and ditch those expensive bottles we drop a ton of money on as a nation! So click away, and read our top recipe of the year at the link below!

Make-It Yourself Monday: How To Make Your Own Gourmet Coffee Creamers!

So, just a word to the wise, but if you want to find 45 more recipes with amazing results and recipes that you can share, make for your own kitchen, or use to make frugal and delicious gifts for family and friends, just click on this link and use the Code Delicious2012 for 35% off your purchase of my E-book, The Master Mix Way.

 

And join us back here Monday for our quick countdown and FINAL recap of our first year here at The Welcoming House!

Many Blessings to you and yours,

Heather

Top 5 Series Posts for 2012---this is ONE post you simply dont want to miss. :)

One of my favorite things about writing is being able to extend an idea onto paper, and then flesh it out, filling it with information that helps, teaches, and shows others how easy some things are to do with a little help.

Above and beyond many of the posts I have written this last year, the different mini-series I have come up with have been my favorite. Not only does it keep you reading, but it allows me to extend out over a couple days, and teach you as much as I can in a small time frame.

This was the year for series'.

I am very excited to share a recap of many of these with you so that you can read, enjoy, and perhaps take something new away with you before the end of the year.

 

Mini-Series Number One for 2012: 

I came out of the chute in January with an incredibly popular series titled Making Do Without Missing a Thing,where I tried to teach you all how to DO what I DO, and how we managed to only spend around $200 a month (now we spend roughly $300 a month on groceries due to price increases). The information is SO valuable, SO critical, that I had to feature it here. Even more so as we face an ever-increasing uncertainty about our future economically here in the greatest nation on Earth.

 

Making DO Without Missing A Thing Mini-Series 

Mini-Series Number Two for 2012:

 Next was the series that absolutely exceeded my wildest expectations. I have been growing and using my own herbs for the health of my family for years, and never in a million years did I realize how many people wanted to learn more about it. I read constantly, and at the time of writing "Growing Your Own Medicine", putting it into a mini-series form over a couple weeks allowed me to have everything all in one place, categorized, and such. Little did I know the overwhelming response it would get from you, as readers, or even spin off into a book that I am in the final stages of completing. I plan on adding to it again this year with even more things I have learned and practiced, and I hope that you are able to get even more out of the visit to this in-depth mini-series than you did the first time. A couple posts from this series have had over 11,000 hits each since April.

Growing Your Own Medicine--a primer on herbs and healing 

Mini-Series Number Three for 2012:

One of the most fun mini-series I wrote about this year was focused on how to learn the art of pressure canning, with the hilarious title of "Canning Everything but the Cat". Again, little did I know the response to this series, as I just wanted to show how easy and fun, and PROFITABLE to your family home canning can be! If you are new to canning, or want to learn something new, check out this series full of picture tutorials, and how to do everything from meat to anything else! :

Canning Everything But the Cat--A Series on Pressure Canning Basics

Mini-Series Number Four for 2012:

The Number four most popular mini-series was "Through Their Eyes"---when I covered the Derecho storms/Midwest Drought and gave folks ideas and strategies to cope with unexpected situations. Blessed to be able to interview others from all over the nation, I learned SO MUCH myself, and changed the way I was approaching some things even here at my own Welcoming House.

"Through Their Eyes" --------Perspectives from All America in a time of crisis

Mini-Series Number Five for 2012:

Meals in a Bag was also one of the most popular series covered her at the House this last year, as I talked about how easy it is to dehydrate things with a little time and effort, and how to put those things together for meals. I will be doing another series later this coming year as I have recently been gifted with a new FoodSaver, and my mind is spinning with all its possibilities. Until then, check out the Meals in a Bag series, because you just might be inspired to pick up a dehydrator and get started!

 

Meals In A Bag Mini-Series: Fruits, Veggies, meats, and recipes! 

What can I say? Its been a great year around here, and these are just the top five mini-series I did in the last year! Have you signed up for our posts to be sent directly to your email? Saves you a lot of time searching for just the right ones each day! Click the ribbon above on my picture, or join via Google Friend Connect on the left side of the page! You can also join us via the Welcoming House Facebook Page--another ribbon on the picture will take you right to us.

And please know, you are WELCOME here! :)

Many blessings to you and yours,

Heather

   
Linked up at Growing Home, Above Rubies , MercyINK, Be Simply Better, Teaching What is Good, 

The Top 5 DIY Posts of 2012 from The Welcoming House!

While we are still in the recovering part of everyone being sick with the flu or a nasty head cold, it feels WONDERFUL to back here, with you, blogging my heart out about the last year.

What a wonderful year of blessings this has been for our family here at the Real Welcoming House, and I am seriously amazed at how far this blog has come in just a single year.

We will be celebrating our very first birthday on January 1st, right along with the New year, and I have so many wonderful things in store for you 
as we head into our second year!

I thought it would be a sweet reminder to take the next couple of days and focus on some of the many fun posts we have had here over the last year. Today's theme is the top 5 DIY posts from 2012, and boy, was it fun choosing! There is such a sense of accomplishment when you get to scroll through your posts from a full year and look for the very best ones you offered to everyone! Sometimes I feel like ones I really liked did not get the response I hoped, and then other times I feel like it got a response beyond my wildest dreams!

Doing things yourself is really at the heart of The Welcoming House. While others may opt for the convenience of running to the store and purchasing something made by a factory, or even another person, I love the satisfaction I receive when using or enjoying something that was made by the hands of someone I love. Perhaps you feel the same. It might even be the reason that you were drawn to The Welcoming House in the first place. Whether from Pinterest or Facebook, we have a collection of readers that are all over the world, and from different background and persuasions.  
What has been one of my favorite parts about writing for
 The Welcoming House,
and seeing it grow and flourish?

YOU.

So grab a cup of coffee or tea, and take a short walk down memory lane with me into the past year here at The Welcoming House.

DIY Post #5 from 2012:
This was a fun post on learning how simple it is to make those expensive little bottles of extracts you purchase at the store. Having finished these now, and bottled them up, I am thrilled to report that everything turned out super amazing, and both the vanilla and mint extract received heavy use for my Christmas baking. I used the cinnamon extract (which is so strong it makes your eyes water when you open the jar) for baking my Christmas bread, and the family could not believe the difference in the taste and how rich it was in comparison to last year. So do yourself a favor and break out some vodka and some vanilla beans, mint leaves, or cinnamon stick. You will be glad you did! Read on!

 

The Fun of Homemade Extracts

DIY Post #4 from 2012:
now who could forget one of the most popular posts of the summer? Well, honestly, me. :)
This amazing post covered how to use things that would otherwise be discarded and turn them around into useful items for your garden or around the house. In this post, my Handy Hubby and I took a useless, twisted frame for a swingset, and changed it into an amazing, thriving living wall of heirloom beans for the garden. Using the frame as a vertical growing frame with a little work, made for an amazing harvest, and a lot of fun! Check it out!

 

 From Trash to Treasure--A Fabulously Frugal Friday Post For the Garden

DIY Post #3 from 2012:
As many of you know, frugality and The Welcoming House go hand in hand. But just being frugal does not mean things are not beautiful, or something that you want to keep for the rest of your life. I love sewing for my three precious girls, and finding a project that combines frugality, beauty, and making something for those I love is a winner in my book any day. In this fun picture tutorial, I showed you just how easy it is to take a pillowcase or tube of fabric, and turn it into a beautiful nightgown for a precious girl in your life. I actually used this same style for making Christmas nightgowns for my girls this year, and will be doing an update on it later this winter for those of you who are interested in making these with long sleeves! Just seeing the picture of one of my Littles with her big smile at the end will make it worth your time in heading over there!

 

Heirloom Quality Pillowcase Nightgowns for the Little Loves in your Life

:

DIY Post #2 from 2012:
And what would a DIY post list of the top five be like if I didnt show all of you the TOP favorite homemade cleaner that we use around here, along with variations that you can make at home? Move over all you bloggers who blog about homemade Laundy Detergent! We blog about how to take things you would otherwise discard, and make it into a cleaner that you will love for both its simplicity and its powerhouse abilities to kill germs and bacteria on contact! Check it out!

 

All-Natural Citrus Cleaner for the Dirtiest Jobs

and the top DIY Post from 2012 here at The Welcoming House was:

 

Make it Yourself Emergency Candles

This single post received over 2,000 hits since its writing in September, which just about blew this simple author away.
I am happy to say we have used one of ours, and have a couple tucked away in the car for use in an emergency on the road. It burns clean, and lasts a very long time, and I am glad the simple idea helped so many of you along the way!

Tomorrow I am going to be featuring the Top 5 series that we have covered this year here at The Welcoming House, and I hope to see you back here tomorrow as we count down the days for our birthday celebration on the 1st of January!

Many Blessings to you and yours
Heather   

Day 13 of A HomeSpun CHristmas---Sweet Memories and a Giveaway with Becky of Bumstoppers Cloth Diaper line!!

How is your Tuesday today?

If mine is anything like my last couple of days have been, I will go to bed exhausted but so happy for  all the wonderful memories that we are making this year, my girls, my sisters, and my mother.

The Handy Hubby and aka Mr. Awesome are making memories too, but I think for the most part, they are overwhelmed by all the girl talk, and silly giggles, and crazy fun we have been having that is definitely NOT male centered. They have been such good sports though, and we are proud to have them around adding a little balance to the hormones. :)

just a sweet shot of the three sisters and our mamma. :)

Yesterday was a really fun and crazy day as we spent it doing silly things with the Littles, taking family pictures in front of the Christmas tree (ALWAYS an adventure with small children, and a camera that no one can figure out how to set the timer on). It has been a long time since the Welcoming House family has actually had a family picture taken, and so we laughed our way through it, picked the best one that no one was picking their nose through, or making a weird face, and will put it on our yearly cards to everyone on our list. I dont know about you, but no matter how hard I try I simply can not get out "Christmas" cards in the mail. Perhaps it is too many things I am trying to balance this time of year, but by the time I have everyone's picture ready to go, it is too short of time to do anything other than hand them out at church.

This year is certainly no different. :)

We still have another giveaway continuing on into its second day today, and that is for the Just Jolly chevron apron AND gift certificate for a BowDacious twirly skirt that is simply adorable. Please be sure to enter today before it closes and we will announce the winners. I cant wait to showcase Laurie's creations in a few weeks as we celebrate the grand opening of her online store, and the first birthday of The Welcoming House the first week in January! 

Be sure to scroll down to yesterday's post and get entered!

Well anyhow, today we are having our next to last, Fantastic giveaway with Becky Fabric, creator of the Bumstoppers Cloth Diaper line. She makes amazing diapers, and has SO many different, fun and trendy fabrics, that for a cloth diaper mamma like I was for each little I was blessed with, it is hard to choose just one. She and I have known each other just under a year, again through groups of similar interest on Facebook, and found that we both love our families, and cloth diapering our babies, which of course leads to some great conversations.

Becky was gracious enough to answer questions like all the other amazing ladies,
and here are her comments to my questions.

How long have you had your business? 

 I opened the business in March of 2007.

 Has your inventory changed over the years?

 In other words, did you used to sew and now you crochet?

 I have always had sewn items, but the inventory has definitely changed over the years.

I went straight from 4-h projects at 10 years old to "diapuhs".

 Why did you start your business in the first place?

 I couldn't afford the fancy prints that I really wanted to have, so I found a free pattern and made one. I then decided to make my own pattern as it fit horribly, and after that was completed I thought man that was something that I enjoy and it looks nice too 

Tell me more about yourself. What does having a small home-based business allow you to do that otherwise you would not be able to do? 

My home based business allows me to add to the household income in a way that wouldn't be possible if I was a full time working mom. I'm home to get the kids off to school, here when they get home. I"m around when they need their forgotten homework or when they need to be picked up. Yet I"m able to offer some funds to the budget.  

Why are you participating in this giveaway?

When I saw this giveaway, I instanely knew that I wanted to be a part of it, simply because I enjoy seeing my diapers on babies. 

 What are you offering into the giveaway? 

 I will be giving away a one size hybrid fitted diaper, as well as offering a 10% discount on all orders purchased thru the month of December. The discount code is exclusive to your readers. 

 What is your favorite thing about your craft? 

 All the different fabric prints. I love to see them come alive on a diaper. 

  If there was one thing you would like to tell the Welcoming House readers, what would it be?

This holiday season I would like help promote both my goods, and the Welcoming House's mission. We both focus more on the natural ways of life.

 I really enjoy canning, and preserving food as well as gardening-

so it just goes hand in hand with this whole way of life. 

 Making re-useable products helps us to be more sustainable, plus helps the environment.

 So----an adorable, hybrid all in two diaper for someone who wins, AND a discount code for every single reader who is interested in purchasing cloth diapers for the little ones in their life, good ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE END OF DECEMBER!

Thank you SO much, Becky, for participating in our HomeSpun Christmas Giveaways!

Are you ready to enter?

Ready, set, GO!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Many Blessings to you and yours,

Heather  

my two beautiful sisters.........

Day 12--A HomeSpun Christmas---Giveaway with Laurie of Just Jolly clothing creations!!!!

What an absolutely wonderful time I am having with my little sisters here for Christmas. Not only did my baby sister fly in from Colorado to spend six days with us, but my middle sister also showed up on the bus the very next day to surprise us as well, and so we have been having a wonderful time playing games, and chatting, and crocheting, and having snowball fights...

Today we went out in the freezing cold and collected wood for the winter months as we were starting to get low. My sister Shannon and I had a blast teaming up on the sled, whisking  heavy loads of wood from the lot to the trailer, and making a game of such hard work. I dont think I have laughed that much in forever, especially when I upended myself face first into the snow because I was pushing the sled and she accidentally led the sled right into a big rock, stopping it short. We sat in waist deep snow and laughed until we cried. 

Best part? She made it up to my by giving me a sled ride from the truck back to the wood lot, with me yelling "mush! mush!" the whole way, both of us laughing hysterically.

So seriously, a great day, AND visit from everyone so far.

I hope and pray that as the holidays near for you, that you worry less about the impression your home and cooking, or even your presents, make on everyone, and just enjoy every minute you have with those you love, because you never know when it will be the last set of memories, right?

I was so busy having fun that it was only today I learned about the school shooting in CT, where those precious children that were in K and 1st grade were horribly murdered by that young man. My heart absolutely broke as I thought of all of the adults who gave their lives to save them, of the parents who were grief stricken seeing other parents hugging their children and their little ones not coming out of the school. I cried for the men and women who responded to the 911 call, and who had to walk into that school and see things that they will truly never forget.

Hold your loved ones close, folks. Kiss you children before they walk out the door and never, NEVER lose an opportunity to tell them how much you love them, and pray for them. Never.

And as Forest Gump always says: "and that is all I got to say 'bout that.".

 Some things just go deeper than words.

I have TWO announcements to make as far as the giveaways go:

For the Checkerboards and Etc giveaway of a $25 gift certificate, we have a winner and her name is

LORI LINDGREN!!!!!!

WAHOOOOOOOOO, Lori! 

Is God Good or what? I know that you can use that gift certificate this year, cant you? She is the amazing mom of, count them, EIGHT boys, and I know she and Mary Larsen are going to have a ball coming up with how she can spend that $25 in support of Mary's shop! Thank you all so much for participating! If you want to run over there and check things out again, here is the link to Mary's shop over on Etsy:

Checkerboards And Etc on Etsy.com

And for the amazingly crafted Angel Ornament from my friend Angie's FlutterBug Creations Shop,

would Diana Pierson Mason pipe up and tell us she sees this??

You won! You won!

Wahooooooooo! :)

For those of you who still have people on your list to buy for, and who are looking for small businesses to support, check out Angie's shop on Etsy by clicking the link below.

FlutterBugCreations on Etsy.com 

For both of you, I will be passing on your emails immediately to the shop owners and letting you all connect to receive your prizes!!! For those of you who are interested in the process, I use Rafflecopter for the entries, and then they use Random.org to choose the winners among all of the entries that are given. Easy peasy for me, fair for you! Love it!

I am blessed to have three, amazing and talented friends and business women participating in our final giveaways this week. Today's slot goes to Laurie Hudgins, the amazingly talented creator and designer over at Just Jolly clothing boutique. Her items are beyond adorable, and more than that, she has some of the cutest models you can ever imagine---her own children!

She will be launching her online shop in the beginning of January, and we will be right there supporting her, but for today she is offering some seriously neat stuff for the readers of The Welcoming House.

Just like last week, she responded to the same questions I have sent out, and her is her story, beautifully written, and full of encouragement for anyone who wants to start something creative and individual.

How long have you had your business?

 In my head? Four years. I've quietly dreamed of starting my sewing line for four years. It was never the right time, even when I tried to make it the right time. It wasn't until I gave into God's timing that things finally began to fall into place. 

The launch of the web site is set for the first of the year.

Has your inventory changed over the years?

 In other words, did you used to sew and now you crochet? 

  My inventory has always centered around sewing, but have done some crochet orders before. What has changed was the direction of the sewing. Initially it was only aprons, then aprons and bloomers, and then finally all inclusive of children's clothing.

Why did you start your business in the first place?

  As a stay at home mom, I've felt a loss of personal identity at times. I felt a void that used to be filled with creating, making - something I've always been compelled to do. Don't get me wrong, the most incredibly filling role I have, and ever will hold is that of Mama. 

But, sometimes Mama needs something that's her's, and her's alone. 

 Tell me more about yourself. What does having a small home-based business allow you to do

 that otherwise you would not be able to do?

 Time and opportunities. It allows me to be available to not just my family, but my church family, MOPS family, and friends. It enables time with them I most likely would not have otherwise. It affords me endless opportunities with my children. Yes, I'm at a sewing machine, but we can go over auditory lessons, sing songs, tell stories, and teach. But, more than that, I can listen and learn from them.

Why are you participating in this giveaway?

  I appreciate The Welcoming House blog. 

I like the uplifting atmosphere and wanted to be a part of that.

 What are you offering for the giveaway?

 I'll be giving away a baker's apron in a grey chevron pattern printed on duck fabric with pink coordinating straps. It will feature an adjustable D ring neck, double front pocket, and a removable pink floral embellishment. I'll also throw in a gift certificate redeemable for one of my Bow-dacious Ruffle-ump skirts that are available for girls from 6 months to 10 years.

 What is your favorite thing about your craft?

 That it is my connection to my grandmother who recently passed away. I grew up playing underneath her sewing machine as she watched her "stories" and made my clothes. I passed her pins and thread. I pestered her to know end with my constant chatter as she took the time to show me why she was doing what she was doing with each technique. I had a strange obsession with her pinking shears when she'd break them out to cut patterns. Pinking shears still make me happy.
My favorite thing about sewing is with each time I sit down at my machine, she's there, hand on my shoulder, helping stitch the fabric of memories into a quilt to warm me for life.

 

 If there was one thing you would like to tell the Welcoming House readers, what would it be? 

  Don't be afraid to dream.

 Don't be afraid to breathe life into those dreams and bring them to life. 

 With God's timing and blessing, 

who knows just how big those dreams will grow to be.

 And, most of all, don't let people tell you it can't be done.

 Don't let them steal your joy.
"It is His joy that remains in us that makes our joy full." A.B. Simpson

So did you catch that? She is offering a beautiful, feminine and hand crafted chevron apron for someone incredibly special AND throwing in a gift certificate for one of her adorable Bow-dacious ruffle skirts for  ONE lucky winner. My girls point at her skirts every single chance they get, and ask for one, so I am telling you, you are looking at some serious cuteness there!

So are you ready to enter? This giveaway will continue until Tuesday at midnight, so you can enter both today and tomorrow with some of the choices!

Ready, set, go!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Many Blessings to you and yours,

Heather

Isn't she beautiful? Inside and out! :)