Compassion Bags

After much prayer I have decided that from now on I will be doing MORE with the money from Carlykins. I felt so honored to be able to help my friend April earn money to help 3 orphans from the Ukraine this year for Christmas! I want to keep the Spirit of giving going.
A few weeks ago I found a post/pin on pinterest.com about "Compassion bags" (Compassion Bags are basically anything you can fit in a ziploc bag that a homeless person could use. i.e. soap, toothpaste, tooth brush, crackers, apple sauce, juice, note about Jesus etc......). Later that night after the kids went to bed I talked with my husband about it and told him I wanted to start doing this with my Carlykins money. He was very supportive. I then sent an email to my DGL (discussion group leader) at MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) about somehow doing this as a group for the area homeless.
Long story short, she talked to the other leaders and as it just turns out one of them does this with her children. The next MOPS it was talked about with the whole MOPS group AND a sample bag was sent home with everyone!! So everyone could make their own decision with whether or not they want to do it and not feel forced to do it as a MOPS activity.
How cool is that!! Even if just 5 of the women in MOPS decide to do it, and if they make 10 bags each with a little prayer card in there, that's 50 homeless!! COOL COOL COOL!!!
Please pray for this mission!!

Bigger Cause

In my last post I posted about how Blessed I have felt recently with all the Carlykins Sales.

I have decided to do something more with these sales.
Carlykins is taking on a little mission to help a friend raise enough money to host 3 orphans from the Ukraine for Christmas this year.
After chatting with this friend a little this morning I spent most the afternoon in prayer listening to Christian praise music and just pondering what to do and how I can help. The Holy Spirit put it on me to use Carlykins to help. I have always wondered what people meant when they said "The Lord spoke to me" for years I have always wondered what "his" voice sounded like, and why I have never heard it. Since being baptized I have realized it is not a "voice" per say. For me today it was an over whelming push/feeling into what I can be doing to help this friend raise money to meet her goal of helping these 3 children.

Here is her blog address for you to read about their journey thus far.
You can donate straight through this blog and not even bother with a Carlykins purchase. Please understand that I am not doing this to boost my sales in any which way. I am only doing this to truly and honestly help raise money for April and these 3 orphans!!

http://bringhomesasha.blogspot.com/

   This is April, her husband Danny, son Coby and Lidiya.

                                     

This year they are trying to get Lidiya and her 2 brothers Andre & Vlad. 

 Lidiya and her younger brother, Andre













Lidiaya and her older brother, Vlad

Blessed

I have been feeling very blessed with Carlykins recently!!
Orders are coming in daily!!!
God truly knows what we need when we need it!!
Life has thrown us a few financial obstacles here recently and with only one of us working in the world of paychecks sometimes 5 kids, 2 dogs, 1 cat and 3 fish can be a little much!!
God really knows how to take care of His children and I am so glad to be one of them!!
I just had to take a second to share.
Thank you to all my friends, family and clients for your constant support!!
Thank you!!

BIG NEWS!!

A huge thing is happening for Carlykins!!!
I am so excited about this!!
Do you remember a few blogs back I posted about a girl friend who wanted something "Girlie" for herself.
She got her Carlykins Flower clip the other day in the mail and loved it! Said she got a "gazillion compliments on it"!!
How cool is that!!
So she has placed a Large order of 100 of them to give her clients as a Gift!!
She owns www.BasilTheCat.Etsy.com
This has been one of the biggest learning experiences yet for myself with Carlykins. I am using math that I swore I would never use ! HA HA
I haven't even really gotten started on the project yet but everything is ordered and on its way to me! Actually the clips got here today, now we are just waiting on the flowers!
This is such a huge compliment to me/Carlykins I just do not know how to take it all in just yet.
Pictures to follow!!

PARTY

 Does your Princess have a birthday coming up??

IMAGINE THESE ON YOUR 

BIRTHDAY PRINCESS!!

Carlykins can even do gift bags for all the invited Princesses!!
Let Carlykins go through the trouble of putting together "Goodie Bags" for you. I can do as little as 3 separate bags of hair accessories all the way up to 100!!
If interested just send me an email to discuss details.  

Newbie to Carlykins

OK, so yesterday I was inspired by a dear friend from my high school days to make HER something.
She is raising her two boys and has no girls (yet) and wanted something "GIRLIE" for her!!

So I thought and thought and thought and it came to me.

I threw the baby and toddler in the van and headed to Apex to the Craft store. Little did I know Mr President was heading to Apex, NC too. The girls and I ended up spending the rest of the morning in Apex and having a fun lunch date due to the roads being shut down so Mr. President could make it safely.

Anyways long story short, got home, put girls down for their nap and plugged in my glue gun!!

The end results were AWESOME!!

But Thank God I bought 2!! My first one ended up with a bit too much glitter!! But with so much glitter my 5 & 7 year old loved it!! Carly ended up wearing it to school today!! I wish I had snapped a picture cause she looked PRECIOUS!!

Here is a picture of Paityn my 5 year old modeling it.
What do you think?

TRACK IN SPECIAL!!

OK so 3 of my 5 kids tracked back in today!!
(for those that dont know what this means, here in NC we have this awesome thing called YEAR ROUND SCHOOL, kids are tracked in for 9 weeks out for 3 in for 9 out for 3. Get it??)

Anyways, I need to keep myself busy so my husband doesnt talk me into another baby!! hahaha

FOR TODAY ONLY

Place an order and get FREE SHIPPING!!!
Go to www.CarlykinsBoutique.Etsy.com , when you check out there is a section to leave me a note if you simply write FREE SHIPPING I will reimburse you for your shipping!!! 

You gotta get one!!!

If you have a Princess but you do not yet have a Tutu
YOU HAVE TO GET ONE!!
I mean seriously what are you waiting for!!! ;)

go to http://www.facebook.com/maddiepiestutus

I have gotten both Katrina and Abigail one and maybe a few more!!

These tutus are so well made!!
And made with LOVE!!
She will make them to your princesses measurements!!
When you get it in your hands you can feel the love that went into making it!! Pictures just do not do these tutus justice!!   


Funny story how I met the maker of these precious tutus.

I was posting on the neighborhood facebook page and came across her ad. I thought to myself well those are cute. I gotta get one. So I did. She was having a sale and offering a discount to buyers in the neighborhood. So I emailed her and placed an order and we got to chatting and figured out our sons had played together before and she lived right the heck behind me!!! HA HA HA Funny how social networking works!! HA HA HA

Oh Happy Day!!!!!!

I woke up this morning feeling

"today is a good day to give something away"


How about a FREE Carlykins Hair Bow!!

Hmmmmmmmmm..............

Now,

• How to do it?
• How do I tell everyone about it?
  
• What to give away?
• What would I want as a FREE gift from Carlykins?
  

think
think
think


OK,
Go to
www.facebook.com/CarlykinsBoutique

LIKE the page
(if you haven't already)

Guess:
MY FAVORITE ANIMAL


Write your guess as a
POST on the Carlykins Boutique WALL
first 5 to guess correctly WIN!!!

AND

Get a FREE Animal Print Hair Bow!!

(OF my choice according to what Animal Print Ribbon I have "in-stock")

Anniversary Month

This month I celebrate 10 years of marriage!!

Carlykins is celebrating by offering their first ever COUPON!!

10% off your order!!

Coupon Code: 10YRANN

Head over to www.CarlykinsBoutique. Etsy.com to enjoy this celebration with us!!

Thank you to all of my loyal Carlykins fans!!

Faces of Carlykins

When I started I only used Carly as my model, and boy was she ever the cutest model! Chubby cheeks and little nose with absolutely no hair!!

Thus the reason I started with headbands.

For today's blog I am going to try to just add a bunch of pictures of some of my models through my 7 years of doing Carlykins! Thank you to all you moms out there that have helped me with my Model Search ;) Keep those precious pictures coming!!





.............with many many more to come!!
I am so grateful to all you moms out there that take the time to send me pictures!!
THANK YOU!!

"Sleeping in Ribbon"

My husband told me one night that he felt like he was "sleeping in ribbon"!!

It then became our mission to figure out what to do with all my ribbon!!

As a man, my husband took to this mission a bit stronger then I. I think he was truly ready to stop feeling like he was sleeping in ribbon.
I have a ton of ribbon and fabric stashed every where!!
This whole house lives and breathes Carlykins. I think there is honestly a stash of something Carlykins in every room of this house!!

Here is what my husband came up with to store my ribbon!! It has been GREAT!! I have a portable stash of ribbon!! I can take it where ever I can find to work, with 5 kids that is not always easy!!
It is a long flat (under the bed) Rubbermaid storage bin. He drilled holes along each side, stuck dowel rods through the hole then put some black electrical ribbon at the end of each dowel rod to make it so they dont slip out of the holes.

TOO many to choose from!!!

Sometimes I wonder if I have too many things to choose from.

• Headbands
• Satin Bow Clips (in 2 sizes)
  
• Tuxedo Bow Clips (also in 2 sizes)
• Blankets
• Pacifier Holders

I always try to go to my shop and look at it from a buyers point of view.

Is it easy to navigate?

Can I find what I am looking for quickly?

What can be done to make it more customer friendly?

I know I totally have an issue with looking too deep into things and over analyzing, and I find myself checking myself often.

BEST COMPLIMENT

To me the BEST COMPLIMENT I could ever receive is not something said with words, it is when you come back and get seconds and or thirds!!
Nothing makes my heart happier then knowing some one enjoyed Carlykins enough to come back for more!!
I also LOVE LOVE LOVE it when people send pictures of their princesses enjoying their Carlykins clips and you see the big huge smile on their face!! Absolutely precious!!


I feel so blessed to have this little business!!
Even more blessed to have my four little reasons for creating this business and who keep it going for me on a regular business!! No one wears out my supplies quicker!! HA HA And they are constantly full of new and different ideas!! I may need to start paying them ;)

Catch Up!!

Wow it has been a while since Carlykins has Blogged!!!
In all honesty I totally forgot I had this blog.

I am now a Stay At Home Mother to 5 children, 2 dogs, 1 cat and 2 fish!
Carlykins Boutique is my tool to keep me sane!

I am trying my hands on Twitter as well, but must admit to only tweeting when I have a new listing to show off.

I do most to all of my advertising on facebook.
Carlykins has its own page: www.facebook.com/CarlykinsBoutique

Carlykins Boutique specializes in Hair Accessories but we have added to our items. We now make Cuddlekins blankets, Pacifier holders to match any Carlykins Headband, Carlykins Clip Organizers of all sorts, Hand Knit scarves, etc.......

You name it and Carlykins will try to create it! My favorite creations are special requests!