New Things... Sharin' the Love

My sweet friend Nicole rocks! Knowing that I was selling bead necklaces to raise funds for my next trip to Ethiopia, and knowing that I still have lots of puzzle pieces to sell, Nicole emailed me to help. It's a way that she can get involved. Thank you Nicole! Nicole loves to upcyle and make domino necklaces. So, let me tell you a little more about them.

The domino is hand picked to be used. Her hubby drills the hole (it's more delicate work that you'd think) and she does the design. After the design is on the domino, she coats them with a thick resin and then cures them under glass for several days.

So, here's the deal.

With your $21 donation towards 3 puzzle pieces, I will send you one of these cool necklaces. I have the following domino necklaces ready to send to you:

• two "worth the wait" (pictured on the left)
• two "ethio flag" (pictured in the center)
• two "family hope love" (pictured on the right)
• one "love forever" (top picture on the right)

But guess what, Nicole is so creative and cool that she also offered to make some custom necklaces. Those look pretty awesome too. This one below she sent to my friend Megan:

So, if you want one of these cool custom domino necklaces, you can make a $35 donation and send the pic you want on the necklace.

Again, Nicole, I can't thank you enough for how you've participated in serving others. You may not be able to go to Ethiopia, you may not have a million dollars to donate to the organization, but you can use your gifts and talents. Nicole, you're doing just that. What a treasure you are!

On another note, I have a bunch of bead necklaces to get rid of. Donating $26 will get you a sweet necklace that directly supports my next trip to Ethiopia. But, it also impacts the ladies in Ethiopia who make the magazine beads. This one I just added. The magazine beads are interspersed with colorful glass beads.

This might be a little lengthy, but hang in there with me. I have one more very important thing to share.

Meet one of my sweet friends in Ethiopia. This is one of my widows. She's a beautiful lady. A hard working lady who serves FOVC in many ways. You are impacting her life. You are changing her family tree. As a widow in Ethiopia, she has nothing. Except her children to care for. With the assistance of FOVC, she has a job and an income. She's one of FOVC's widows. And when I was in Ethiopia in October, I would often find her preparing food for the children or working on a craft project. In this picture she's working on bracelets which can now be found on FOVC's website.

Our FOVC widows receive training in other areas too. While some are in the livestock program, others are in the crops program, and others are working on crafting. Check out these baskets they made that snuck into my luggage on my return flight. The sell of these baskets directly benefits my widowed lady friends in Shanto, Ethiopia.

As I've mentioned above, I have a few new things on my necklace tab here on my blog. Check them out and see what you can buy. If you order in the next two days, I can probably get it to you by Valentine's Day.

P.S. my birthday is coming up soon. One of my birthday wishes is to get everything on my necklace page sold so I can add some new stuff...