Jitney's Journeys : Custom Nap Mat for Kindergarten

A dear friend, Rebekah, asked me to make a nap mat for her little niece Brylee a couple of years ago. It blows my mind that Brylee's little sister, Ruthee, started Kindergarten this year and needed a nap mat too!! [Rebekah -> they are seriously growing up too fast!!]

I followed Jenny Garland's nap mat tutorial but made a number of adjustments.

(1) I have a disdain towards velcro. I don't know what it is. Maybe it reminds me of a velcro wallet and it makes me cringe a little. I'm just not a fan. Then again, I'm not a mom yet so I may fall in love with velcro when that wonderful day comes to fruition. But back to the tutorial, instead of using velcro along the sides of the nap mat, I made an envelope casing across the back for easy removal of the foam. 

(2) I'm also developing a distaste for fiberfill stuffing. It always seems to get a little wonky when I use it to stuff pillows, etc. Instead of using fiberfill for the pillow, I created a pillow using a comfy, soft batting and created a little pillow case for that. I made another envelope casing for the pillow insert so that it could also be easily removed for washing purposes. I can only imagine that it will cut drying time significantly!! 

(3) Unlike the tutorial, I didn't use elastic for the arm strap. Instead, I added two buttons and created an extra buttonhole (room for growth). Thanks to my two tiny neighbors (Ava, 3, and Alyssa, 6), I was able to measure the strap accurately while still keeping it at a good length for the parents to carry too. 

(4) Instead of using the patterned fabric for the pillow, I used the minky fabric. It's so much softer than the regular fabric!!!

It looks super comfy, right?! Oh, how I miss the days of opportunities to take naps in Kindergarten (but if we're real here, we all know that more giggling and / or staring at the ceiling happens than napping at that age)! 

Jitney's Journeys : Proverbs 31 Fabric Collage

A sweet friend, Halee, asked me if I could make something special for her mom's birthday, specifically a piece focused on Proverbs 31. After brainstorming different ideas, we decided on a fabric collage with a neutral color palette and pops of pink and turquoise, as well as burlap and lace. I embraced the theme of threes (because of her mom's three daughters) then adorned the collage with three vintage brooches and three ivory buttons.

When my great-grandmother passed away, she left tons of boxes filled with lovely sewing supplies, lace, zippers, fabric... anything you can think of in the sewing department. I, of course, wanted to incorporate several of those things into the collage (this theme reminds me so much of her) so I used one of her unfinished fabric squares as the first layer of the collage as well as lace and some of the crocheted doilies I found in the stash.

Halee sent me two pictures to use, one of her and her two sisters when they were younger, and the other of her family at Disney World this year. A vintage spoon is the center of the piece with "mother" engraved into it (in hindsight, I was I had used larger-set metal stamps but I used what I had) and a vial of pink flowers laid on a paper flower made of tissue, sheet music and kraft paper.

My absolute favorite part of Jitney's is being able to make personalized gifts like this. I've yet to meet Halee's mother, but what an honor it is to create a piece for a woman Halee loves so dearly! 

Jitney's Journeys : Original Handlettering for Wedding Envelopes

Remember those lovely burlap centerpieces I made for Ashley, one of our Etsy clients? Well, after she received the package, she sent me an email kindly asking if I would be interested in addressing the envelopes for the Aguiar wedding. 

You better believe I responded with a resounding "YES!" From what she's told me, she and her fiancee love the outdoors and their decor will feature beautiful autumn elements (I don't want to ruin the decor surprises for her guests!). The wedding will be held at a charming, rustic lodge in a local state park (one of their favorite hangouts). With all of the inspiration she gave me, it was easy to come up with a quite a few options for address formats. After much deliberation, this was the design she decided on... 

Trying to Catch Up

I've gotten into a terrible habit. Procrastination. At one time in my life, "deadlines" meant that I should turn in the assignment days before it is due but now I'm relieved if I complete something by the due date / deadline.

Yet perhaps, maybe it's not so much about procrastination, but more about feeling overwhelmed and not knowing how to place things back in order. I push things aside because I begin working on something that I think is more of a priority at the time, not because I'm simply putting it off. Then things begin to pile up.

After we returned from Hawaii, I had grand plans to write biweekly posts but it just didn't happen. It's been difficult to simply "catch up" on everything. Unpacking. Laundry. Hanging out with friends. Eating healthy. Emails. Jitney orders. The blog. 

Like most things in life, the toughest part is figuring out where to start. You're sitting at the bottom of Mount Everest with hundreds of routes to choose between. You can strategize for months and months but you won't get anywhere until you actually start climbing. (Not that I've ever climbed Mount Everest but I would imagine it to be a similar strategic predicament.) You must take those first steps.

So here it goes... I have a lot to write about and I've been debating on where to start. I've tried to plan it out but then I get overwhelmed and push it aside. Over the next few weeks (fingers-crossed), I'll be posting, in no particular order, about what life has looked like throughout July (and some of June). This includes our Hawaii trip, an amazing baby shower I had the pleasure of hosting with some other fantastic ladies, creative days, and lots of finished / ready to post Jitney orders. 

Or at least... that's the plan. Hey, I'm getting started though, right?

What have you pushed aside that you need to start on? It's Tuesday - what better day to pick up where you left off and begin climbing again than today?

Consider it reconstructed.

Happy July!! 

JDWhitHawaii.jpg

Remember when we said we would be taking a break in June for Jitney's Journeys restructuring? Well, the main reason was because we would be spending the month in Hawaii for JD's job (thus, we wouldn't be able to ship any products out). We knew this time would help us to take a step back and analyze our plan in order to keep moving forward at a stronger pace. That was the plan, anyway.

Fast forward halfway into the trip... nothing. No direction. No new plans. No focus. I laid in bed one night praying that God would just let me sleep because as I tried to plan, I was only getting more flustered and confused. I wanted to start from scratch.

I was utterly discouraged. 

But instead of letting me sleep, God began to stir a vision. A plan. A direction. I started working on a new logo design (something that fit our style better) and moved onto laying out the new blog design. A few hours later (JD was getting ready to go into work at this point), it was complete. I would be ready to change up the design on Blogger and introduce our new logo that afternoon. (I will post about the new logo design soon!)

Thanks to JD's wisdom, we decided to hold off until July. (He knows how much I like to tweak things after I've "finished" them.)

The next day, I had the urge to switch from Blogger to learn Wordpress. I've been wanting to figure out the platform for years and I figured this would be the time to do it. I enjoy designing our blog but there had to be a better, cleaner way. As soon as I began trying to learn Wordpress, I immediately got overwhelmed. Then I went back to Blogger. It was my safety zone. At the end of the day, it simply wasn't minimalist enough for me. To add onto that, a lot of our visitors are mobile visitors and our blog looked horrendous on mobile. On the actual site, there were so many "pages" that needed to be changed, and so many graphics and HTML code that would need to be changed. While I enjoy the challenge, my desire to change up our design so often began to take up too much of my time, especially when I could be making new products for our business. It didn't make sense for me to focus so much on the blog design when I could focus on more beneficial ideas.

So I researched Squarespace, completed the 14-day free trial and fell in love with it. Squarespace is officially the first service in Jitney's that we've actually outsourced. Up until this point, it's been all JD and me working on everything without having to pay another person to do it for us. This was worth it though.

Even though it's a few dollars out of the Jitney pocket fund, it feels so good to know that I can "build" the website so easily, change it up whenever I'd like, and create a site people enjoy looking at. The Layout Engine is simple and super fun to play around with. The blogging platform is rock solid with tons of features. I could really go on and on about it.

So, welcome to our new website / blog / marketplace!

We're so glad you have joined us! Browse around and let us know what you think. We'd love for you to email us with any suggestions or "Ahhh!! This needs to be fixed ASAP!!" comments. In fact, you can do so on the Contact page (just so we can make sure it's working properly).

I'm certain there are many things I will need to edit or switch around for a more user-friendly blog / marketplace but for now, I'm overjoyed. 

What platform do you use for your blog? Do you outsource the design work?

Witchcraft

Yesterday I bought a package of sea salt. The cashier and I were talking about the how her day was going; following that, we discussed the tedious task of couponing (which I fail to do); and then she picked up the sea salt from the conveyor belt. She said that sea salt is great for cooking but also good for witchcraft. I thought I misheard her but then she repeated it.

“When you feel an evil spirit in your presence, people believe you can sprinkle sea salt around your room and the evil spirit will go away. That’s witchcraft. I don’t know if you believe in that kind of thing but it’s happened to me before. I get scared so I sprinkle the sea salt around my room.”

I don’t know if I was simply in shock (because I’ve never encountered someone who believes in witchcraft) or if I was… no, I was just in shock.

“Yeah, I gotta be honest with you. I don’t believe in witchcraft. I believe in Jesus.”

I wish I had said more. I wish that I had doused her in the “living and active Word of God, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

But all I could say, “I believe in Jesus.”

I wish I had said that “the Lord is my strength and my defense” (Exodus 15:2). The Father is the One I run to when I’m afraid.

I wish I had said that “even the demons believe that God is the one true God - and they shudder at His name” (James 2:19). Demons are real but God defeats them, not sea salt.

I wish (and I’m aiming for this) that God’s Word was so deeply ingrained in my spirit that I would be able to say these things to her.

But instead I simply say, “I believe in Jesus.”

Today, my prayer is that “I believe in Jesus” was enough. That somehow God would use my simple, not-thought-out-enough statement to penetrate her heart. That somehow, through the power of the Holy Spirit, she heard me say something a lot more life-changing and pertinent than the real words that came out of my mouth. 

While I don’t feel like it was enough, I believe that God can make it enough. I’m clinging to that hope.

I’ve been praying for opportunities to share the Gospel with people. It’s a simple prayer with pure intentions but I forget just how powerfully God can use that prayer to draw others into Him. And my confession to y’all is that I also forget to pray that God will couple those opportunities with the words to share the Gospel with the people He places in my path. I pray for opportunities, but I fail to pray for the wisdom in how to act in those opportunities. Today my prayer is changing. 

And the Winner Is....

Congratulations to the winner... 

KIM!!

Thank you to everyone who entered and shared the giveaway info!!! Y'all are awesome! Also, a big thank you to those who stuck with us as we continued to share the photos and opportunities on all of our social media outlets. Y'all are troopers!

Remember to pick up Shattered Magazine at your local Barnes & Noble and Books-a-Million. Check back on the Jitney's blog and FB page in July for some lovely new Jitney products!!!

A Post-Memorial Day Post & An Attempt at Not Being Silent

I'm always pretty silent on social media outlets when it comes to Memorial Day and Veterans Day. While I am incredibly grateful for our service men and women, I feel like none of my words would even come close to speaking to the sacrifices they have made for us. Throughout the day, I kept trying to write something - anything - but none of it sufficed. So I tried to sleep on it to write as a post-Memorial Day excerpt and instead, ended up writing this at midnight last night because I couldn't stop thinking about it. So here's my attempt at not being silent...

Both of my grandfathers (still living today) defended our country in uniform. But I know very little of that lifetime of theirs. They have spoken very rarely of those seasons in their lives. I've heard the stories of their pre-war adventures, mid-war love rendezvous with their wives (/my grandmothers) and post-war heart celebrations with their families. I know that there was absolute devastation when deploying and absolute joy when returning home. While my investigative nature wants to know the details in between, they gravely sit back and say, "I don't want to talk about that." And rightfully so. I can't imagine the fear they felt leaving their families behind and the pain they experienced physically, emotionally and mentally. They fought beside the brothers they would lose so that we could have freedom. I can't bear to extract those painful memories from them. But I'm thankful for their courage. I'm thankful for their sacrifices. I'm thankful for their strength to fight.

And there's another veteran in my life that I am especially thankful for. Of his military life, too, I know very little. But I know that he was a Navy man. I know that he loves talking about the vessels, the beauties of the sea. I know that he also claims that he got diabetes because of all the cookies he ate on duty. But I'm not sure that I have ever heard him actually talk about the war though. Politics, yes. America, yes. The best Navy ships out to sea, yes. But the hardships of war? Not so much. Once again, rightfully so. I can't imagine attempting to extract those heavy details from him. And I refuse to try.

But my favorite details lie within the sweet stories of his deployment. It was during his service that he shipped out to the Philippines. Upon his stay, he met a sweet little lady by the name of Josie. He brought her back to America and they got married inside of the walls of their first home. One year later, their son JD was born. And 25 years after that, I had the privilege and joy of marrying their handsome son. I'm thankful for you, Mr. Jim. If it wasn’t for your dedication to America's freedom, I fear that your amazingly loving and kindhearted son would not be here.

Moreover, if it weren't for our brave heroes, I fear we wouldn't have the freedoms and liberties we have as Americans today. In fact, I know we wouldn't.

So thank you, Mr. Jim, Papa Charles, Papa Roy, every man and woman who has ever served or is still serving. Thank you for fighting for our country and defending it well. Thank you for making America what it is today. Thank you for your sacrifices. Though we will never fully know of the hardships that entails, we thank you for it. 

- - - 

And on a completely unrelated note...

Have you entered the Take Hope | Share Hope giveaway yet!? Don't miss your opportunity to win a sweet bag filled with lots of Jitney goodies and TWO one-year subscriptions to Shattered Magazine!!