AND THE WINNERS ARE...

Well, we hit a milestone at Nini and Ash, so we had a giveaway!!  THANK YOU so much everyone for your continuing support!  We're so excited about everything that we've been up to so far this year, and we are looking forward to seeing what the rest of the year brings!!!

Okay, so the part that everyone really cares about...the WINNERS!!!

So, the winner of the top and bottom set is Kim Ramsey O'Dell!!!   Congratulations, Kim!

However, we had such an awesome response to the giveaway that we decided to give prizes to a handful of other folks as well!!  SOOO, the following individuals were randomly selected to receive a coupon for 20% any item you order from Nini and Ash!!!  If you order multiple items, this discount will apply to the highest priced item you order!  We just picked names based on how many overall entries we had.  In no particular order, here you go!!!

Faith Garrison
Melissa Anders
Annette Eldridge
Ryan R Origon
Doris L. Welch
Linda Vertin
Kyla Mowery
Sarah Coenen
Nicole Hubbard
Terri Dudey
Tee Anderson
Tina Jenkins
Barbara K. Colson
Crissy Brown
Maci Maer
Donna Frazier Davis
Gabby Grostefon
Destiny Groleau
Susan Blackman Sharp
Krystal Medina
Carrie Demas

Trimming it Up

Hi, everyone!  I was recently Facebook stalking, and some of the gals in a group I'm part of mentioned that they have the hardest time with the trim on the Peek A Boo Patterns Hangout Hoodie.  I know that it took me a few readings and staring at the picture to figure out what the heck to do so I did a quick video for the ladies in the group that asked for it.  This was just a quick vid of me while I was putting my daughter's together last night so it's not very exciting, but hopefully it helps you figure out how to do the trim or to figure out a way to make it work for you if you are staring at the hoodie sideways and trying to attach the trim.  After the first one or two, it's pretty easy!

This next video shows what it looked like for me after I was finished with the sewing part.  It wasn't perfect, but hopefully it gives you an idea of how it would look.  On the video, I said PM me or tag me in a comment (I was posting this to FB) but if anything that I said is confusing, please hit me up in the comments and I'll try to explain it for you!  

Here is a picture of what the bottom of the hoodie will look like when you're done sewing!

Not entirely perfect, but my 4 yr old won't notice after the button is on.

Thanks so much and Blessings for stopping by and Happy Sewing!!

--Kim

This is the Way...

So, last week, at around 8:40 in the morning, I heard the familiar little ping on my phone and looked down to see a text from my friend, Donna; our Sunday morning community group was cancelled due to snow.  As we were already en route, there was no way we were turning around.  I took the opportunity to sit in one of the upstairs classrooms at church to spend some time alone in the Word.  As I sat and listened to the music from first service, I stopped and took a moment to reflect on what's on the horizon for our family.  My husband is preparing to retire from active duty service.  After more than 20 years of moving around serving our country's call, the Lord has called us to put down roots and settle our vagabond family down in Moore.  We are contemplating moving the children to Destiny Christian School next year so they will be facing a new school with new teachers, and I'm looking at doing some new things with my business.  

Within the ladies ministry at church, I'm getting involved in some exciting new avenues toward reaching into our community as we start a sewing mission that will provide handmade items to both local and global reaching organizations.  I'm also looking to help with a meals ministry to provide meals to families when they are facing illness, family deaths, a new arrival, or they just need an extra hand.  Cooking and sewing...both things that I dearly love and that have the potential to reach out and touch the community in such amazing new ways.  I'm even hoping to start a monthly women's brunch similar to a men's breakfast that my husband and a couple of the other men in the church plan and organize each month.  I looked at a breakfast option. I really tried to get into the idea of a breakfast, but I really just love eating breakfast food more than I like being up at breakfast time...so, I think we'll do brunch for the ladies.  It's just a really exciting time for our lives.  

This year, 2014, is my year to live life on purpose.  As I've been struggling with where I should be headed and what to focus on with everything happening for us, one of our family's life verses has been running through my head over and over, reminding me that I don't need to know which way to turn. We just need to listen to Him and open our hearts to all that He wants for us.  When He is speaking into your heart, He will pursue you to no end to help you hear what He is saying to you.  Even when you choose to ignore His voice, He will continue to speak into your heart and guide you in the way that He has purposed for you.  There have been when doors have opened and closed, and to me, my world has been turned upside down.  There was no reason in the world for any of it to be happening, and for a while, I sort of drifted along wondering what on Earth was I going to do now.  Eventually, though, that ever faithful and ever loving voice was there again, reminding me to stop worrying because He has this.  He is with me and He knows the way; my job is to follow Him and to listen when He calls.  When you are lost and don't know which way to turn, remember "Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, 'This is the way; walk in it'" (Isaiah 30:21).

I recently came down with an upper respiratory infection, and it knocked the wind out of my sails for a little bit.  It was one of those moments when I hadn’t slowed down in a while so the Lord decided he was going to help me to realize the error of my ways.  Well, during that recovery time, I had some time to reconnect with a friend of mine, and we were talking a little bit about devotion time and how life gets busy sometimes.  Well, okay, let’s face it, life gets in the way a lot of times.  It gets in the way of things you want to do, places you want to go, people you want to see.  I realized that sometimes, you have to get in the way of life and make those things happen that you need to do for yourself.  She mentioned that she doesn’t have much time during the day to do her daily devotionals, and the only time that she really has to do them would be at night…BUT, that’s work time so really, that’s not the right time.  Early morning is when she is getting everyone ready for the day so that’s bad, too.  We’re just always so BUSY, BUSY, BUSY…I was reminded of my Walk to Emmaus a few months ago when some of the women in our group told us that being busy simply means that we are Bound Under Satan’s Yoke.  When we are too busy for the things that are important in our lives, we are giving our attentions and priorities to the wrong things.  That is precisely what Satan wants from us.  He wants us to be distracted by the things that distract us from our time with God and our family because that is what makes us most vulnerable to him.

This year, 2014, is my year to lead a more purposeful life.  Now, I don’t mean that I am going to sit down every day and meditate on every little move that I make, but I am going to be purposeful in what I do to ensure that everything I do is done because it is what God wants me to do.  Things won’t be perfect.  They won’t be happy and easy all of the time, but I am going to do them with prayerful consideration that I am doing them according to God’s will.  This applies to my spiritual life, my family life, friends, my business.  When we give our time to being BUSY, we let distractions come between us and those things that are truly important.  This year, my focus will be less on being busy and serving the things that turn my attention away from God’s will and more toward listening to His pull on my heart and purposefully acting in ways according to His desire for my life.

“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”  Joshua 24:15