Donation to ICAN

For the month of April I pledged to donate 10% of my total sales to ICAN.  For those of you unfamiliar with ICAN it is the International Cesarean Awareness Network and a non profit that is very near and dear to my heart.  ICAN's mission is to improve maternal-child health by preventing unnecessary cesareans through education, providing support for cesarean recovery and promoting vaginal birth after cesarean.  There are over 150 ICAN Chapters across North America and internationally, which hold educational and support meetings for people interested in cesarean prevention and recovery.

ICAN has been a very big part of my life over the past years, and since a lot of us have had or will have children (I know most of you are women, hehe) I think it is important to all be aware of the growing cesarean rate (one out of three births in the US will be via major abdominal surgery) and it's implications on the health and safety of our women and children.  Really, you should all find your local chapter and check out a meeting!  Not only will you likely learn something, but I bet you will meet some pretty awesome people too!  A very brief history of myself with ICAN and then I will get on to how much money we raised for this awesome non profit!  

My first child was my little stinker and she was persistently in a modified footling breech position.  I was young and uneducated and didn't really know what to do to try to get her into a more appropriate birthing position...so I regretfully showed up for my major abdominal surgery.  It should have been a very joyous day in my life but I was scared, actually quite petrified and felt completely alone in my feelings.  I knew when I was pregnant with my second child that a repeat of this experience was NOT something I wanted.  So I read and read and took a natural childbirth class, hired a doula...did everything I thought I could within my current comfort zone (and my husband's) to insure that I would NOT be having another cesarean.  My  second child, my first son, was born after 55 plus hours of natural labor in the hospital.  A VBAC.  When I became surprisingly pregnant with my third I knew I was not meant to be a hospital birther.  It was just not for me.  The first 50 hours plus of labor that I did at home was glorious...but once I got to the hospital it was all quite horrendous for me.  So, we planned a homebirth.  My second son was born at 41.5 weeks in my living room, an HBAC, at a few minutes shy of 24 hours of labor, less than 5 minutes of pushing.  His brother and sister, my husband, my baby sister and my very good friend and doula were all there to welcome him on his day of birth.  

So enough about me...I'm sure you are all super bored by now!!!  On to the good stuff!!!  I was able to raise $75 for ICAN.  Since no one stated where they wanted the money to go, I have chosen to send the $75 to ICAN Lincoln, the chapter that I started after the birth of my second baby.   So, the money will be on it's way soon!  Thank you again to everyone who placed orders during the month of April.  I'm sad that I had to put my shop on vacation half way through the month, as I would have loved to raise more money...but I was SWAMPED!  Love you all and thank you so much for supporting my business and helping me raise money for a very important organization!

<3 Kristen

AND THE WINNER IS.....

ERIN SIMMONS!!!!

you have been emailed

if i have not received a reply within 48 hours, I will redraw.  

Thank you all sooo much for participating in my giveaway!

Getting to Know the Vendors PART VI: Miss Khloe's Bows, Accessorize Kait, Cookie's Bow-tique and My Precious Angels

Let's get to know some of these fabulous vendors!  Read through and at the end there is a way to get an additional entry into the giveaway!  (and, tune in daily for more chances to get to know our awesome vendors and get more entries!)

ALL of these lovely vendors take me back to being pregnant with my middle son.  We all met when we were growing our baby bumps back in 2008/2009.  So fun that they are all awesome mommy crafters and participating in this awesome giveaway!!!


MISS KHLOE'S BOWS:

Let's just say I have a couple bows from Terra ;).  If you are familiar with her and know her comment games...well, yeah, it is sooo easy to nab up some goodies!  I started to develop a BIG problem!  Little Miss Khloe and my middle son are the same age and I met Terra back when we were growing those sweet baby bumps...so I have known her for getting close to four years now.  WOW!  Where did the time go??? Here is a little more about Terra!

"3 years ago I had my baby girl Khloe Addison. She was the biggest surprise of being a precious baby girl. LOTS of boys in the family so when she came out a girl, mommy was super excited.Well along with having a little girl came all the "pretties". They really started adding up and I was a stay at home so I decided to give it a try. And wow they became a hit FAST!!! Everyone was asking to buy them. My first bow was the "loop" style bow and back then they were not at all around and now they have become such a BIG hit!! I have continued my business for 3 years now and all I can say is how blessed I am with all the love and support I have continued to receive from all of our Fans. Miss Khloe's Bows is a successful boutique who continues to grow more and more branching out from just the hair bows now selling tutus, petti romper, shoes, wedding garters, etc. Thank you to everyone for you love and support, it really means the world to us!!!!"

 And the Goods:

ACCESSORIZE KAIT:

Oh Janel is another sweet friend I met while growing my second baby bump!  And, her and I have a LOT in common.  Plus, I think she is extra cool because she thinks homebirth rocks like me ;).  She was my inspiration to get a better birth for my baby and myself this past time around.  We have become great friends and I'm so glad that she is in my life!  She has inspired me to do more with my crochet skills and my daughter has several pieces of AK jewelry!  We love her!  Here is more about Janel in her own words:

"Hello! My name is Janel. Accessorize Kait was born out of the desire to see my daughter, Kaitlyn,  prettied up in all kinds of things I couldn't afford at the time. So, since we were on a very strict budget, I set out to teach myself how to make the things I wanted for my daughter but couldn't buy. It wasn't long before I decided I wanted to use my talents to bring affordable items to others. So, in October of 2009, I opened Accessorize Kait on Etsy. I started with crocheted items and expanded to bracelets and then bows. Now AK is a productive small business! Please come check me out. I hope you like what's you see."

 And some goodies!

COOKIE'S BOW-TIQUE:

I feel so sad that I am running out of time to get this posted and I have so many fabulous things I want to say about these ladies!  Another March birthday friend, Crystal is incredibly sweet...and I must say that my daughter Emma is through the roof over her Tangled Bow Holder and hair clip!  We have other great accessories from Crystal, but this is by far Emma's fav!  Again, that darn trading problem I have ;)  Here is  a little bit about Crystal in her own words:

"My name is Crystal I've always loved making things ever since I was a
little girl, so I started making bows for my little princess and
everything just blossomed from there! I was buying her bows like CRAZY
because I just loved how cute they made her!! So I thought , "hey, I can
do that!" I LOVED doing it so I thought I would try to sell some and
make a little extra money. I am a stay at home mom of 2 little ones.
My daughter is 3 and my son is 1. Any extra money always helps! I make
bows, bow holders, tutus, some necklaces, and more. I LOVE doing custom
orders, so if anybody ever needs anything just ask! :)" 

And some goodies:

MY PRECIOUS ANGELS:

Whitney is so incredibly sweet, and her babies are even sweeter!  And, one of those sweet babies is modeled several times on the HOOKED {by kristen} webpage!  The chunky bear hat and the sweet little turtle is the newest addition to her lovely group of babies.  I love what she is doing with her business too!  Re-purposing old objects and making them new is so awesome!  Here is a little more about Whitney!

"

We are moms that make custom childrens items including infant and toddler bedding, room and home decor, crocheted shoes, and hair flowers. Most of the items are custom allowing you to choose colors and patterns of your own choice to match an already chosen concept. There is a ready to ship album that will have our sample items in it. A lot of our room and home decor are upcycled items. One of our inspirational angels had taught us to see the good in everything. An item may look rough, used, and ragged at first, but when you do a touch up/make over you can see the goodness shine through.

We dedicate this business to a couple of very amazing angels who have taught us the importance of believing in something and to let nothing stop us from doing exactly what makes us happy. Now all the excuses that have held us back from doing something that we love are gone and we are laying it all on the line to produce a business and product that will bring joy to us as well as customers."

 And some goodies:

Now that you have learned a bunch about these fabulous vendors....let's get you a chance to get another entry into this giveaway!  FIRST Reply to this blog post with your favorite item from EACH of the above 4 shops (it doesn't have to be an item pictured above...cruise on into their facebook pages or etsy shops to really check all they have to offer out!) and then click the giveaway below to say you did the task at hand! :)