Thank You: Christmas, A New Year & A Coupon!

Happy New Year! I still can't quite believe it is 2013. What a strange number to have for a year. I always thought we would be flying around in jet powered cars by now. The end of 2012 was so full and busy. I'm really enjoying the beginning of a new year with it's clean, white slate of time stretching ahead of me. It's January 15th and I'm just now feeling like things are back to normal. We had a wonderful time traveling for Christmas, and the shop was very active right up until the day we left town. In fact we even carried some orders in our suitcases to be hand delivered. Now, it is time for planning, for dreaming up new things, for organizing, and for the dreaded accounting for January quarterly taxes.

I owe a big thank you to everyone who supported The Ambrosium this holiday season, and also to those who purchased things from my other shop, PhaedraJean ArtMachine. Thank you for purchasing, for spreading the word, blogging, liking, and giving gifts from the shops. It blessed me to know that so many of you responded to the things I was creating and dreaming up. Thank you, thank you!

 

 

 

I was delighted to watch more Advent Calendars than I ever expected fly out of the shop. One 5 am found me still putting stickers on bags and addressing packages, having been up all night to keep caught up with the orders. A great reason for being up that late (early?) but one I hope doesn't happen too often. I'm so grateful to everyone who purchased a calendar, and I hope that they helped you journey through Advent in a thoughtful way. The calendars are not in the shop anymore, but will be available again after some tweaking and re-design. I'm hoping to have have a 12 days of Christmas calendar available next season, and Advent Calendars with different themes: service, prayer, family, etc. They were so fun to put together, and it was wonderful knowing that other people were turning over their cards each day along with us.

My other shop was pretty busy also and I got to send out many Hobbit and Lord of the Rings prints from PhaedraJean ArtMachine. I know that many of you were excited about giving these as gifts, and I hope the recipients were delighted and surprised! Some new ones will appear soon in the other shop, as I just finished re-reading the book. I am all fired up about putting those good words into prints. I've just added some simple motivational prints to that shop as well. Great items for helping you kick start your year with a bit of pretty visual encouragement.

This year I'm excited about developing items that could be used for each of the seasons of the Church calendar, not just for Advent and Christmas. It helps me to have visual items in my home to remind me what time it is in the year. It centers me see things that tell me that, for example, it's Ordinary Time, and I can turn my heart toward the things God has for me in this season, or that it's Lent, and I'm reminded to pray.  My house is full of quotes, and art, and other little visual items to help me focus my heart and stay connected to Jesus and his Kingdom.

Keep an eye out for things like this to pop up in the shop. Hopefully they will help you travel through Lent, celebrate Easter, delight in Pentecost, and rest during Ordinary time. I'd also love to hear your ideas. What do you want in your home to help you be present to the seasons? What helps you keep a devotional heart during the day? What resources do you wish you could find?

If you purchased something from the shop during Advent or Christmas, or if you received something as a gift, I'd love to hear how it was used in your home or life. I'd also like to hear how you think it could be made better. I'm constantly tweaking ideas and items. Receiving input from people who are incorporating the cards, prints, calendars, and art works into their lives is invaluable to this process. As always, I'm happy to help you in any way I can. If you have questions about items in the shop, or ideas for custom things, please don't hesitate to get in touch!

Lastly, I've added a new coupon code to the shop for everyone who has ordered something this past year. If you're a returning customer, you can enter "backagain" into the coupon code box when you check out & receive 10% off your order! Hurray!

Blessings on your head and Happy New Year!