Here is a sneak peek at the big Mary & Martha Event I am hosting this Friday...

We have someone from our corporate office coming in...

This event is a BIG DEAL for me...

I am pulling out ALL the stops!

Party Favors...

A touch of spring which belies the snow falling as I type this! 

(These have a purpose but I will have to tell you more later!)

Homemade name tags on homemade ribbon lanyards...

Why homemade ribbon lanyards you ask?

Because I couldn't find any cute ones in the colors I needed...

Why not?

Thanks for listening,

Hello...

The other day when we were running errands I came out and found this on the window of my car...

It wasn't "stuck" on hard... In fact it looked like it had been riding around all day on someone's sweater... I kinda think I know who left it, but I could be completely wrong. Anyhow, it blessed me.
My vehicle is easily recognizable by the Mary & Martha logo I put on the rear window. I even have had people come into stores looking for me because they saw it... It was kind of weird at first but I have adjusted and occasionally you find a fun surprise like this one!

Of course now I have this Matthew West song stuck in my head...

Of course, I LOVE having this song stuck in my head...

While I am sharing YouTube videos, here are a couple more of Allison's videos...

Here is her latest one...

And this one she did a couple weeks back but the editing turned out really good so I wanted to share...

Isn't she beautiful and talented? Hahahaha... Not that I am biased at all!

Thanks for listening,

Yesterday...

Yesterday this adorable little girl turned NINE months old!!! 

Say WHAT?!?!?!

Didn't that seem fast to anyone else?

It was also her mother's birthday yesterday...

We decided to do it up big as I know sometimes as a new wife and mom it can feel like your whole life is about everyone else. We did an all out birthday week starting last Saturday. For a full seven days she had presents and surprises everyday!

Not big gifts, a makeup palette she wanted, a couple of those Alex & Ani bracelets everyone seems so nuts about, a new travel cup for summer... That kind of thing... Her big gift was the full day with her husband in Portland (Our Portland Carrie!) with her hubs, sans baby! (Plus a little spending money of course!)

But yesterday was her actual birthday and she was convinced that the surprises were over...

Then she arrived at our house for dinner and found this...

Yes, an Olaf cake! How cute is he? 

"Winter's a good time to stay in and cuddle, but put me in summer and I'll be a.... Happy Snowman!"

(I think Frozen is seriously my new favorite Disney movie!)

We also had "taco night" which is in everyone's (but mine) top five favorite dinners...

Everyone sits around and passes the topping dishes around and it's messy and we get loud and laugh a lot and I enjoy that part, it's the clean up that seems to take the joy out of it for me, but last night I didn't mind.

We sat around the table long into the evening, talking, laughing, telling and retelling stories...

A good night was had by all! (Oh and there may have been a little visit for Katy by Vera Bradly in one of the brand new spring colors... Just to have a final surprise!)

Thanks for listening,

Be BOLD...

(I posted this on our consultant Facebook page but decided to post it over here so I could find it easier... I know this is written towards us Mary & Martha ladies but it can apply to other areas of life too!)

I read a quote lately that said "Timid salesmen have skinny children" and it made me chuckle but also think about the truth in it...

We are called to be BOLD not timid ("Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9)

Then why do we act so timid? Why are we afraid to promote our businesses? Doesn't Proverbs 31 call us to be wise in business? (She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard. Proverbs 31:16) Our "field" is Mary & Martha and the fruit of our hands is the work we put into it. How are our "vineyards" fairing?

Be BOLD in tending your vineyard... If EVERY teller at your bank doesn't have a new guide in her hand you are not bold... If EVERY hairdresser in the salon or nurse/receptionist at the doctor's office (plus one in the waiting room) doesn't have one when you leave you are not being bold... (I heard recently, if your hairdresser is not your customer, you need a new hairdresser!) How about EVERY teacher at your child's school? But catalogs cost money... No, catalogs sitting on a shelf or in a box in your home "cost" you money... Catalogs in customer hands MAKE you money! Trust me, it all adds up over time! The Lord will bless your business if you do the work. My constant prayer is for the Lord to bless my efforts and make them fruitful!

BE BOLD ladies... You bought the vineyard now buy the seeds, plant and tend them or else it will never grow!

Thanks for listening,

Productivity...

I spent way too much time on Pintrest this evening...

I pinned a bunch of cute ideas but also I found a bunch of things that made me chuckle...

Thought I'd share...

You are welcome!

Yep...

Why do we do this? Then we are just sad that we have nothing to watch again!

Refer to the post you read a few posts ago...

Truth!

More truth!

That's pretty much my job description...

Plans for tomorrow after my pinning marathon tonight!

AMEN!

I don't wear them but my girls do and they are ALWAYS buying them... Where did they go?

All day... Every day!

The end!

Thanks for listening,

Brain Dump...

Time for a trip down random thought lane... Buckle your seat belts, my mind can be a very weird place! 

The grand baby is standing! Like full fledged, ready to take a step, standing... She will be 9 months old later this week. Where did the time go? She is also in the midst of her first cold, or else I'd take a picture of the a fore mentioned standing. I watched her for about an hour today so her mom could go to the grocery store. She is in good spirits but wants to snuggle a lot more... Extra snuggling... Darn! 

Katy's birthday is this week and her gift from us is a full day of child care (really a gift for me) and spending money to head down to Portland for the day with Jed. She is looking forward to her day and sick or not I am looking forward to a full day of Gigi duty!! 

~Subject Change~

Mary & Martha is sending someone from corporate to Maine to do a special event. No just anyone but they are sending the person who has become my corporate mentor since I promoted. She has helped me to realize some really cool goals and I can't wait to have 48 hours of her! This event is kind of a big deal... I get a budget and there are boxes of things to give away arriving soon! I am SO EXCITED!! 

We are having it at a local inn in Rockland... The Berry Manor Inn to be exact... It is everything you'd expect a quaint, coastal Maine inn to be. Here look...

Of course these pictures are from their web site and it will not be summer here next week, but it still looks quaint and inviting. 

The actual event will be in the coach house...

Here is a look at the event space... 

Of course we will have it set up way less formally.

I will take pictures... I promise!

(If you are in the area and you want to come let me know!)

~Subject Change~

I used to cook all time... I loved cooking but when I was working full time at the school and dealing with my parent's health issues I got out of the habit of it. Now I am having a hard time getting back into the habit. I want to have nicer meals again... Meals worth sitting around the table and eating... I am just out of the habit. I need to figure out how to get back in the habit... I don't know why I am telling you this as it is in no way interesting that I am in a quickie meal/casserole slump.

~Subject Change~

I am a night owl and I keep trying to reform my ways. For years I have envied those early bird friends who wake up early and have their quiet time first thing over a cup of tea. The seem to greet the day with a smile on their face and I envision little chirping birds flying around them... I on the other hand have always been a night owl. I am rarely in bed before midnight and could easily stay up until 2 AM everyday  as long as I could sleep to 9 every morning... And when I do wake up I am chronically groggy until coffee is flowing through my veins. I frequently forget where we store the mugs (same cabinet since I was a child!) or leave out a step in the oh so confusing 3 steps it takes to make a cup of coffee! I am so groggy I need a full 45 minutes to hour to fully wake up and start my day. If I need to be somewhere in the morning I get up a full hour before I need to start getting ready just to sit and ease into the day. 

If you are still reading this post, you are a better friend then necessary! 

Thanks for listening,

Lucky Me...

I am going to share something with you I don't talk about a lot... I am a very "lucky" person, and here's the crazy part... I inherited it from my father and Allison inherited it from me!!

I know a lot of you are shaking your heads right now and wondering what I could possibly mean by that, so I will explain. First of all, on one level I don't really understand it and my faith dictates that "luck" doesn't really exist since everything that happens is part of God's plan. Yet, I am very lucky in a few specific ways.

The one primary way I am "lucky" is in drawings of all kinds... Door prize, raffle, you name it... If it is something you put your name in for, I win an extraordinary amount of the time. A few years ago Paul kept track for one year and I won 69% of the time in drawings of all kinds! I entered every drawing and raffle we came across except the obvious "scam" drawings. (You know the ones, they have a motorcycle or 4-wheeler in the mall and/or movie theater and you enter then get called for carpet cleaning, etc...) Door prize style drawing I did the best at 83% wins... Larger raffles were 54% and 50/50 drawings were only 8%...

We also decided to test my abilities for the lottery... We decided about the third week of January of that year to do this and I bought a "quick pick mega bucks" ticket and won $2. I used it to buy another ticket and a $1 scratch ticket. I lost the lottery that week but won $5 on the scratch ticket. I bought one more lottery ticket and 4 more scratch tickets. I lost on all of the scratch tickets but won $150 that week on the lottery. We decided to hang onto $47 of that to buy lottery tickets for the remaining 47 weeks of the year. We put $50 towards scratch tickets and went out to dinner on the rest... That week we tried to let Paul pick half the scratch tickets and I picked the other half. I scratched them all... The ones I picked had a much higher "win" ratio then the ones he picked. (We didn't do the math on that for some reason.) Anyhow we kept the scratch ticket streak going until September when I thought I won $80 but actually won $800 and decided we were feeling uncomfortable with it so we quit the whole "lottery" experiment. You see, we had both been feeling uncomfortable with it for sometime... We were less and less thrilled with the up weeks and the down weeks left a bad taste in out mouth. I never invested anymore then that initial $1 in the experiment but sometimes it just "felt" wrong. We "won" enough that year to have to claim it on our taxes but never won "big" depending on your definition. We decided that we are okay with small drawings and raffles but the lottery wasn't for us.

I have won big prizes and small prizes... I won an entire cow one time, quilts THREE times, a scooter, 50 lbs of lobster, lifetime car washes, weekend getaways, gym memberships, a small BBQ grill, new dishes, a stereo and countless other items big and small.

Here is the thing... My father was the same way. People used to be amazed at how much he would win. His best friend told me years after he passed that if my father put his name in for a drawing he didn't bother because my dad would win. I don't know if he ever played the lottery but I know he had the same "lucky" experiences I do... AND Allison has the same "Luck". (Interestingly my brother isn't "lucky" like this and neither is Katy.) Allison goes with me to vendor fairs for Mary & Martha and they have raffles at all of them... We used to enter them but we were winning so much and so often it was getting embarrassing. Seriously, imagine that they are raffling off 25 items and Allison & I each put in four-ten tickets each (depending on how many you get for a few bucks) and win 2-4 prizes each... An average of  FOUR prizes per show at the first several shows we did... We now are very strategic about what we enter and how many tickets we put in...
Here is our winning from one vendor fair last fall...

Plus a Starbucks gift card that did not make it to back to the motel that night for it's photo op! We each bought the four tickets for $1 option... We both put our names on our own tickets but I let Allison decide what to enter for... She is sure she didn't enter for the necklace so we don't know how we won that. (It made a good "white elephant" gift at Christmas time!)

I do not know what "luck" is and why it seems to be hereditary... I don't pretend to understand any of this... You know how people say they "never win anything"... Well, I would guess that is because some of us win almost everything! So today I do not wish you the "Luck of the Irish" since looking at their history I am not sure they are all that lucky... Plus my father's family is mostly Scottish so today I wish you the "Luck of my family"!!


Thanks for listening,

Brunch Gathering...

It is SNOWING right now... 

They say we will get 8"-12" today and then end with up to a 1/2" of ice... 

Yay us! 

I meant to say... BOO!!

 I decided to start planning my next Mary & Martha Gathering for my home... 

Something fun for April. Last fall I did a Brunch Mary & Martha Gathering at our house... 

It was so much fun... I think it is time to do another... 

Here are pictures from that gathering.

The Penguin was part of our children's line from last year... Cute as he is, he isn't a permanent resident of our sofa! 

It was the Lord's timing that we were in the process of a bit of re-decorating when I signed up since all the walls were freshly painted and blank... It really allowed me to decorate Mary & Martha style! 

The owl lamp is from a little shop in downtown Rockland that carries unique new and vintage items. We named him "Hector" because, why not?

Since I had so much of our products around I didn't put up much of a display... One of the many nice things about hosting my own gathering! (Please ignore the cat toy that ended up under my chair!) 

Clipboards & gifts for guests...

Since our parent company is DaySpring they provide us with beautiful greeting cards to give our guests among other cute and inspirational items for our guests & hosts!

But Brunch is about food...

Like mini-doughnut towers...

Coffee cake & croissants...

Coffee & fun flavors of creamers...

Quiche & orange juice...

A make your own waffle bar...

It was a huge hit...

We had so much fun that day... I do think it is time to do it again.

Any ideas for ways to mix it up? I am always open to new ideas!

Thanks for listening,