mothers day, a missions trip and a winner!

hello, friends!

first off, i just want to say thank you, thank you, THANK YOU so very much for your sweet and encouraging words about our new little shoppe. 

we are completely humbled and BLOWN.AWAY. by your kindness and love.  

super excited, too!  i'm not gonna lie!

taking the plunge to hang the open sign on the door was a scary one, but you have all made it SO fun and such a blessing!

i just keep saying, "to God be the glory!", because it is what it is and it's ALL HIM!

now that i said all that, i would like to give a little something back to YOU!  

it started like this...

this morning i was sitting at the dining room table(my work space) while the kids were (supposed to be)doing school, picking at each other, begging for breakfast(at 9:30am...YIKES!), emptying the pencil sharpener all over(loathe), and sprinkling eraser shavings to kingdom come.

i had ORDERS TO FILL!  i had INSTAGRAM to check!   gah!

basically i was getting a little stressed out and i started to grumble, but the Lord quickly reminded me
NOT TO MAKE MY BLESSINGS A BURDEN.  do you ever do that?
i mean, i am SO blessed in so many ways, but i always seem to find the negative! yuck!
i had to repent  for being so silly and selfish and the Lord is always so gracious to forgive.
 then HE gave me the thought to do something fun for you guys.
because you bless me so, so much, i am offering 15% off all items currently in the shoppe
with the code::::YOUBLESSME!
just enter it in at checkout and there ya go!
how fun!!!
(i also fed the kids hash and fried eggs, so they did actually eat)

shop til your little hearts content so that i can fill it right back up!

yay!

did you have a nice mothers day?

we sure did. 

my kiddos and honey spoiled me GOOD! 

i even survived the elmers glue-a-thon in my KINDERGARTEN sunday school class. 

 it was a close one for sure.  ;)

we also managed to squeeze in a few pictures of me and my brood.
there WERE tears from a certain little red headed person in the group whom will not be named.

even so, i'm so blessed to be their mama.

now, let's get onto the giveaway/missions trip/win-win situation all around! 

my friend, jami, from Call Me Blessed, is raising money to help send her husband to uganda on a missions trip happening VERY SOON!

when God calls, we have to answer, and they are taking that step of faith in a BIG WAY.

i'll let jami take it from here...

today is the day! the day you get to see all the goodies up for grabs.
aaaand, i'm nervous. there i said it. i feel better already.

if you read my post from last week you know that hubby is part of a mission team going to uganda this summer.

we are thrilled to be able to participate and can not wait to see what the Lord does.

the team will be traveling with children of the nations spending time teaching and loving on children in group homes. they will also be visiting refugee camps, building a laundry facility and planting fruit trees.

the children they will be spending time with have been displaced by AIDS and war.

just the thought of it is heartbreaking to me. so many children with no parents and without a home. i long to look into their little faces. to tell them Jesus loves them. to tell them i love them.

for the time being, however,  i feel called to send my hubby off with as much support and prayer as possible.

will you pray for him and the entire team? pray that everyone they come in contact with will see and feel the love they have come to bring.

we are also in need of financial support. some wonderful friends have rallied behind me to make this fun giveaway possible. i am beyond grateful for and humbled by their support.

please give what you can. a little. a lot. every dollar is appreciated.

here are all the entry details:

*all of these items were donated by the shops and persons listed. this giveaway is open to US residents only. anyone of course, is free to give, however the gift sets will be shipped to US winners only. everyone can enter this giveaway once by leaving a comment with your name here and telling me that you shared this giveaway via twitter/facebook/instagram.

after that? $10 per comment/entry. click the "donate" button at the bottom of this post to donate through paypal. donate $20 leave 2 comments. donate $100 leave 10 comments. easy peasy right?

**please leave your email address with at least one of your donation comments so i can contact you if you win. the winners will be chosen using random.org and announced on monday, may 20th.

ok! let's get to the good good stuff.

there are 2 sets of prizes. so 2 winners! holla!

set #1

set #1 includes:
- color pop necklace, feather necklace & aqua vintage inspired earrings from happy days
- gray and white polka dot infinity scarf form lovelylittlewhimsy
- 1 necklace from heathers happys, winner's choice
- 2 prints from blossom&vine, winner's choice
- 10" teal wreath with fabric flowers from small town joy
- $20 target gift card


set #2

set #2 includes:

-2 necklaces & 1 needlepoint from hope homemade, winner's choice 

- 1 print from blossom&vine, winner's choice

-1 7" twig & flower wreath from florero

-1 necklace from heathers happys, winner's choice

-1 print from katygirl designs, winner's choice
- key necklace from salvage517

-$20 target gift card

bonus set
ok, a little bonus for you. because we are so grateful for everyone's support there will also be a winner of these fabulous items!

-a custom designed blog header from danielle burkleo worth $35.


  - a custom made clutch from jenni carlisle{@ragamuffinbeauties on instagram}

one more thing...

my dear friend carina has come up with another way you can support us.
for every arrow necklace purchased from her shop she will donate $10 to our uganda fund.
you can't really beat that.

well there you have it!

please visit all of these shops. these are some truly wonderful women.

and will you spread the word? tweet, facebook, instagram, blog about it? we would be super grateful.

thanks friends!

ok, it's mary again.  :)
we are thrilled to be a part of this, so if God is tugging at your heart to help in any way, head over to jami's and enter in.
our prayer is that the gospel will be shared in a big way and that lives are CHANGED by the transforming power of Christ!
amen.

and speaking of giveaways....the winner of the we walk by faith necklace is #16!
miss AMY!  i will be sending you an email VERY soon!
congrats!
now, remember, i didn't want the rest of you to feel left out, so head over and use the 15% off coupon
YOUBLESSME to snag your own 'frosting'.
hahaha...i had to say it.  sorry.
don't forget, we do customs orders, too, so bring on the ideas!  ;)

talk to ya soon.

xo
mary

Road Trip '13: Day 3

Before getting onto my trip recap, I just want to say Happy Mother's Day to my mom! Thank you for being my friend, cheerleader, confidante, shopping buddy, supporter, and partner in crime. I love you!

So back to the recap... Friday was another early morning because I always have the worst sleeps in hotels! Anyone else have the same problem? So we went to the Goodlife gym next to the hotel - I did 45 minutes of incline walking while reading Glamour - then had breakfast back in our hotel room.

After doing lots of touristy things the previous day we decided to have a more chill day of shopping on Spring Garden Road. There are a few bigger name stores there like Roots and Lululemon, plus a handful of independent boutiques and vintage stores. I treated myself to this top because I've been eying it for a while!

For lunch we got some vegetarian/vegan fare (to balance out our meat heavy dinner the night before haha) at the Heartwood Cafe. We were also joined by one of my best friends Allyson who lives in Halifax - it was so great to see her again and catch up!

Source

I ordered the Heartwood Bowl, which was a bed of brown rice topped with steamed greens, roasted veggies, tofu, toasted seeds and sprouts with a basil umeboshi dressing. It was super delicious, but just not enough food for me - I still felt a bit hungry when we left the restaurant!

 

I wanted fro yo immediately after, but we had to help Hayley pack up some of her stuff for the summer first. Then finally I was able to drag them out to Yeh! (Halifax's only frozen yogurt shop). I got honey Greek and strawberry flavours topped with fruit, chocolate sprinkles, and Oreo bits. Oreo bits are always a must for me!

We shopped around the downtown area for the rest of the afternoon and then headed out to dinner at the place I was most looking forward to: The Bicycle Thief, which is an Italian restaurant right on the bay.

The entire menu here was amazing - I think I could have ordered anything off it and been happy with my meal!

I started with the spring panzanella salad with Mache greens, poached green beans, charred asparagus, heirloom red tomatoes, garlic toasted croutons, roasted pine nuts, fresh mozzarella and pesto genovese vinaigrette. There were so many great flavours in this! And oh my gosh those croutons - they were garlicky and oily and absolutely perfect!

For my entree I was considering the pancetta wrapped pork tenderloin or the pappardelle with a chicken and pancetta ragu, but when I heard that the halibut had been freshly caught that morning, I changed my mind. How can you turn that down?

The halibut was infused with porcini dust and fresh herbs and baked in parchment with fresh wild mushrooms, pancetta, cherry tomatoes, white wine, garlic and cream. I never considered cooking white fish with mushrooms before, but this pairing worked so well together! The buttery vegetables and potatoes that came on the side were also delicious.

For dessert we split the torched Madagascar vanilla crème brûlée. It's one of those desserts that isn't my first choice on a menu (I had my eye on the chocolate peppermint semifreddo!), but every time I order it I'm glad I did. This one was delicious!

I also want to say how great the service was. Our waitress recommended me a wine that ended up not liking, so she brought me out another glass on the house. I really appreciated that.

We were all pretty wiped from walking all day, so we headed back to the hotel room after dinner and relaxed. In my next recap I'll tell you all about our looooooong day of driving on Saturday!

Have you ever left a restaurant still hungry?

What is your favourite thing to order for dessert at a restaurant?