Happy Monday! It snowed here in Utah, not a whole lot, but let me tell you it is COLD!!! Are you getting all your holiday decorations up? Shelley sure is! Let me tell you, her front porch is something out of a Martha Stewart magazine, the girl has mad skills. If you’ve never visited her blog, you must! It’s loaded with free tutorials, gorgeous pictures and all kinds of other good things.
I swiped this from her blog….does your front porch look like this? Yeah, mine doesn’t either. A girl can wish though, right?
Many of you may or may not realize that Shelley’s patterns benefiting One Heart Bulgaria funds a youth sewing program. Why is this important, you might ask? To answer this question, we need to ask an important question. When a child “ages” out of it’s orphanage, where do they go? They have no family. No skills. They have nothing, I know I am always saying that, but it’s true, they have nothing. Imagine having nothing. Not even the clothes on your back are yours, everyone shares them in an orphanage.
The program we have chosen to fund with One Heart Bulgaria is a sewing class held once a month for some wonderful, bright, teens. They are learning a life skill, something that can allow them to use as a profession or trade. More importantly, they are learning a skill that will give them confidence and joy. Sewing is fun! Creating is so important to the human psyche, in discovering talents we learn more about who we are and what we are capable of. I also believe that the time they spend with the sweet woman mentoring them is invaluable. It’s important to understand that these children live in very large institutions, much like warehouses. They are understaffed, run down, awful places to call home. Many of these children act out to get attention or even sadder they just shut down and resign themselves to the fact that they are just orphan #___ and nobody really cares. Why it is a surprise to the government that these children turn to prostitution, gangs and suicide when they age out is beyond me. Once again, I just love Kristin’s thoughts on the issue…”All children really need is love and a soft place to land”.
We received these great pictures taken at the most recent sewing class! Look at those boys! There is just something special about a teenage boy, I have four, so I might be a bit biased. One look at these pictures and you can see that they are having a good time, working as a team and soaking up the attention of the camera and instructor. I know the resolution is awful, but you get the idea, right?
She’s concentrating really hard, making sure those lines are straight and probably thinking…”hey, this is pretty cool!” I can’t really tell, but it looks like she may be repairing some jeans?
Learning to measure twice and cut once!
Awwww….we love you too! Seeing these pictures made me feel so good! It’s nice to see where the money goes and to know that it’s making a difference even though it’s very little. Be sure to visit our store and pick up some of Shelley’s patterns if you haven’t yet, they are written so well, an amazing value at only 5.00! Thank you for helping us to make this happen, we hope your week is amazing and full of good things, because you certainly deserve it!
Remember you are everything to someone with nothing!
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