Behind the Scenes

It’s time for you to meet the lady that makes it all happen!

Dana and I at our booth at the "Christmas Shop" we recently hosted here at our home. It was so much fun!

It was about 5 years ago (I really can’t remember!), one Christmas as we struggled dreadfully with our finances after my husband’s business collapsed, that I decided to make homemade skin products to save money on Christmas presents.  I really can’t help it, but everything I make I immediately think of selling.  (That bothers some people, I suppose, but ’tis my bent.)  Especially since we needed extra money that Christmas, I launched “Nurtured by Nature”.

Several years ago with several more little ones underfoot, we were drowning in brown sugar scrub and shea butter.  Making the products was fun but very challenging with my increasingly busy life.

Enter my friend, Dana and her 3 sweet girls!  We spent a few days together helping them learn “the secrets” of the process, and they have been making my products ever since.  Not only that, but she does everything except the marketing.  She orders, makes the products and ships them out to you–bless her sweet heart!

She is the only reason Nurtured by Nature still exists and I thought you should “meet” her

And now we introduce our

CHRISTMAS SPECIAL

for this year:

Dana and her girls are busily filling these beautiful baskets full of our (limited-time-only) Peppermint Body Parfait (made with Aloe Vera), Peppermint Soap (this is scrumptious!) and our improved, Peppermint Lip Balm made with bees wax!

All for only $10!

We’ll be happy to ship this to your gift recipients–just send me their address!

ALSO….GET FREE SHIPPING ON ALL OTHER SKIN PRODUCT ORDERS FROM NOW UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!!

Simply enter the coupon code “freeship” at checkout!

(Does not apply to the gift set.)

More pictures from our “Christmas Shop”"

Strangest/Sweetest Reaction to Dress I’ve Ever Received

It was too precious not to tell.

My oldest daughter and I went for a grocery outing/Hobby Lobby stop yesterday. It’s always so fun for the two of us to get out and chat together.

As we were headed across the parking lot, a gentleman was walking in our direction. (I feel that his race is important to note–he was black–because of the warm, jovial, southern tone in which he spoke that a typical white man doesn’t normally use…it was simply endearing.) He literally stopped in his tracks, looked at us and said,

“Well, praise the Lord, look how nice you look! Are you sisters? (Yessssss!)”

“No, we’re mother and daughter.”

“Look at those smiles! You look so nice…it’s so wonderful! It’s just wonderful!  God bless y’all!”

It really made me think more about my dress and how much our outward appearance speaks (or should?) about us.  We can’t get it backward though–”white washed exteriors with dead men’s bones within”.  But don’t we “speak” with our outward appearance?

Was it the refreshment of simple feminity displayed? (I’m not pretending to be “all femininity”; I don’t always wear skirts and dresses, but more often than not.)

I don’t know.  I do know that once there were clear and obvious distinctions, that women gloried in their femininity, and that even the most feminine-loving of us have grown up in a culture where it doesn’t seem to matter much and we struggle ourselves over appropriate dress.  Lines have definintely been blurred and the blurring defended so vehemently that even talking about dress gets people all bent out of shape.

Still, it was an interesting experience that made me think.

Need a Mother’s Day Gift Idea?

From our mailbox today:

“I ordered your Mother’s Day special a couple of years ago for all 3 moms and it went over so well I decided to do it again. I love being able to patronize a business that I know the basis behind (Godliness).” ~Tracy

Order yours now!

Winner of the Washer Necklace Give-Away!

You cannot know how helpful all the comments were and I truly thank each of you for taking the time to give me some much-needed feedback. I will be studying those comments more closely and making adjustments where I feel necessary (and have made quite a few already!)

As promised, my daughter wrote out every name and drew for me the WINNER of the washer necklace…

Congratulations, Luci!

And for the rest of you, look for a discount coupon in your inbox for any GC product. I will be using the email you left your comment with, so if that isn’t the right one, let me know! (It may take me a day or two )

Thanks again for the incredible help!

Frugal Living: The Tightwad Gazette Author, Amy Dacyczyn

“Our first child was born nine months (and fifteen minutes) after the ceremony. I set aside my career in graphic design to be a Mom. It was during this time that I discovered daytime talk shows and first heard commonly held myths expounded by intelligent audience members.

“Nowadays, a family has to have two incomes to make ends meet.”

“Nowadays, it is impossible for a young couple to get into the housing market.”

“Nowadays, families cannot afford to raise more than two children.”

As if the message could magically be shot back through the television tube, I raised my fist and shouted, “It is not true, it can be done!” And so began my quest to prove that it could be done – that it was still possible to raise a large family and buy a house without two full-time incomes….

Over the years our average income has been less than $30,000. In less than seven years we saved $49,000, made significant investment purchases (vehicles, appliances, furniture) of $38,000, and were completely debt free! That is an annual savings/investment rate of over $12,500 per year, or 43% of our gross income.”

The Christmas Jar: Original Story

Jason Wright, author of The Christmas Jar, tells with tenderness and passion, what motivated his family to begin this simple tradition, and recounts the details of their first Christmas jar experience.