25 SEP 2014 :: The weeks are flying by!

I was checking my Facebook today and there was another  "weeks to Christmas" post. I share them as a way of remembering and reminding that the giving season is almost upon us.

I am never ready for the big day, and I always wish I could give more. When my kids were small, I tried to give a "Giving Tree" gift that was their age and gender. I love Operation Christmas Child, the shoebox ministry that reaches all over the world with happiness for kids. I sometimes did the same with them, three shoeboxes in the same categories of my kids. As a poor family, we often had to receive gifts from the community. The organization that has always stood out in my memory is Toys for Tots...because they allow the parents to choose the gifts for their children, and I believe they were the only group that you had a chance to get your kids bikes. I would love to do all my regular giving and then give more to these groups.

Now that the kids are big and gone, I find that finances are harder than ever. I have had years go by when I didn't have a thing to share. I use to give holiday food as gifts because I had food stamps. These things, hand-crafted gifts, things that aren't seen as expensive, don't go over well. Not too many appreciate the efforts...and there are health issues, taste and style issues, etc. I am still searching for good, home-made, hand-crafted, personal, unique, and classically designed gifts for a lot of giving events.

Having an Etsy shop is helping me to see the wide variety of hand-crafted possibilities. I think Etsy and me will be a good match as I develop my shop and explore all the hand-crafted things I have wanted to do all my life.  I am looking forward to next Christmas, and just trying to learn as much as I can about selling online this year. I will put as many products for sale as I can, but I have always wanted to create things to sell during the year for the Christmas season. My goal is to make enough money by Christmas to survive the next year. Currently, I have a goal to make $300 net a week, through all my various efforts.

If GOD allows me to live a decent time longer, I will be able to include making charitable gifts for the groups I support. I am fond of donating to annual auctions. I think my artworks may help that goal, but I have other projects in mind for that, too.

I think Christmas has always been my favorite time of year. Many years ago I created a writing to go with my gifts. Then I decided to use it for all my Christmas projects, make a gift tag out of it. Finally, I decided to use it exclusively for my planned Christmas collectible ornaments.  I will have to think about whether I want to share it with you...maybe closer to Christmas, if at all. I am planning to sign and date copies of it to go with my sales items every Christmas. It has become a "secret" now. :-)

Time to go for today.  May GOD help us all to have a wonderful holiday season, thankfulness in November, giving in December, and planning for the next year in January. :-)