the journey to five hundred necklaces.

this weekend, we celebrate mother's day (I have a great one by the way. she has given me a gift of such compassion. hi mom.)

two great ones, really. hi lisamom (she shares with me so much of her wisdom and teaching). love you both so much.

but this weekend, for the past few years, has also marked a big weekend for the Freedom Center, our home church in Michigan. they have been putting on this amazing women's conference, where hundreds of women from the surrounding areas are blessed, empowered, and sent home with a greater sense of self worth and love of the Father.

I have been involved a few times in the past years, and this year they asked me to be a part of it even though I'm twenty hours away! what an honor.

each year, the women attending receive a gift. and this time, they wanted it to be a hand made gift but also something that would raise money for an outside ministry. so thankful (not lucky) me, my shop already donates to Firm Foundations, and they wanted each woman to be able to take home a necklace.

you might remember me quickly sneaking this photo in a wednesday without words post..

maybe you don't. but that was one of the beginning stages. and I didn't want to ruin the surprise so I just posted the photo. Chad has been my amazing financial coordinator through all of this, since "I just wanted to do it and didn't care how much it would cost!" which was a lot. because it was 500 necklaces. the first thing Faye texted me after my quick yes answer was, 'you know that it would mean 500 of them?!?!" yeah, I knew. I was just really excited about it. thanks, Faye and Miss Dena, for thinking of me and asking me to do this.

five hundred. I am a crazy person.

but I really loved every minute of it. I love using my hands for work like this. and knowing that I would be able to give a pretty big chunk of change to my friends in Romania made it so worth it. what in the world will I do with my time now? (: (I know, I know.. "get a job, ali!" okay, fine.)

so ladies in Michigan, I hope you enjoyed the conference and I hope your life was forever changed for the better. Jesus will do things like that at these kind of events. I pray you left full. and I hope you love the necklace. maybe you don't. that is okay too. (: really, it is.

{believe it or not, there are five hundred of those little nests in that jar right there}

thanks for reading my journey to five hundres necklaces. to the few of you that knew it was happening, thank you for the encouragement along the way (thank you, Tina, for using your crafty hands to help once in a while too!). and happy mother's day to all of the mothers out there. you're a blessing. if you're technically not a mother, I'm sure you have acted as one to someone in some way, and that will be passed down generations just like it is with moms. so you're a blessing as well, and deserve a great day too.

even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she can have her young-a place near your altar, Lord Almighty, my King and my God. psalm 84:3.

jazz fest anniversary.

for our second anniversary (which was Monday, by the way. yay!), Chad bought us day passes for Jazz Fest on Thursday. Jazz Fest is in full swing  every weekend for a few weeks but he decided on Thursday because Florence + the Machine were going to be there! it was a very hot and sweaty day, full of lots of walking, new foods, and some really delicious iced tea, but we were so grateful for these intimidating rain clouds that kept hovering but never let out any water. they were a nice break from the sun. Florence is very fun to see live. she is so soft spoken and sweet but the noise that comes out of her mouth when she sings is larger than life. such a whimsical show. the photos on her albums do her absolutely no justice. she was so beautiful and lovely and weird and I loved it so much.

we were pretty far away, but we're not really front row concert people anyway, so it was nice to not be elbow-to-elbow with lots of other sweaty people. (: and we could see her on the screen just fine. that said, I don't have a photo of her loveliness that day (here is one from someone up close), but I can show you how far we were, ha.

 have a great weekend.

wednesday without words continued.. on friday: paris.

after getting over the initial shock of what was happening in Paris (which I don't think ever really happened, but I calmed down a bit), we decided to take some photos.

wednesday without words: romania.

{an everyday favorite}

{babycloset romania: before + after}