The SG Notebook

Welcome! Are you here from the summer blog tour? We’re so glad you stopped by.

First of all, on behalf of my mom and myself, I’d like to thank The Work At Home Woman and Living My MoMent for hosting this tour. If you haven’t already visited the other blogs and giveaways featured, it isn’t too late to start! You can find the list here.

So to introduce ourselves, my mom started Speakable Gifts many years ago, and now I get to work with her!

We sell gifts with a message, whether they be publications, favors, or gift packages. Feel free to browse around our site.

Ah yes, the giveaway! We are giving away one of our “My Cup” Gift Boxes.

You’ll receive a gift box with a teacup and tea light candle, a framed message, and a couple extra candles thrown in

Here’s how to enter:
1. Leave a comment (1 entry)
2. “Like” us on Facebook (1 entry)
3. Follow us on Twitter (1 entry)
4. Sign up for our newsletter (2 entries)

Please leave a separate comment for each entry.

Happy entering! This giveaway will end at 8PM EST on July 19th.

Warmly,
Beverly

Isn’t that a nice name for a table setting? Actually, it’s a nice name for anything. I wanted to share with everyone, and especially brides, that DaySpring is having a sale on their Ever Grateful 4 piece Wasabi place Setting, which I think is absolutely charming. But then, I’m partial to taupe and beige things, whatever they may be. So practical and useful, with a beauty that fits into any situation, I thought you’d like to take a look at this DaySpring collection, just in case it’s of interest to you. Go to their site and see what you think.

Ever Grateful products have inspirational messages! That’s right up our alley, here at SG.

What a nice gift this would make! I don’t think DaySpring has a gift registry, but maybe there is a way you brides could figure out a way to let it be known if you’re interested in this collection.

Enjoy,
Maxine

Quick note: I’ve been having trouble accessing this blog from my computer for a few days now and I’ll have to troubleshoot. Also, we won’t be doing a newsletter until September, Lord willing. With the technical issues here and Beverly having much on her plate these days, we may have to neglect this blog a bit. That will probably mean no wedding tip this week. So sorry!

If you happen to stop by, thanks for your patience!

Blessings,

Maxine

Bible.org has quite a few samples of wedding vows. In case you haven’t seen them, here is the quick link.

Sample Number Three is very simple, and is the one that my husband and I used at our wedding. It’s perfectly fine and there is beauty in its simplicity, but in the years since, I have heard some extremely touching vows being exchanged which were written by the bride and groom themselves. Maybe this site I’ve linked to will help some couple to get ideas.

Happy Planning,

Maxine

I think rabbits are the cutest things! But for some folks with a garden, they CAN present a problem. Someone who passes by may find this article at The Old Farmers Almanac.com very helpful. I gave up on my gardening a couple of years ago, because our yard is overrun with squirrels. I wish I’d had this article before. Who knows? Maybe I’ll try again in the future.

Helping your family live,

Maxine

Changes, changes, changes. We’ve had an abundance of them lately, wouldn’t you say? The latest is this: we’re moving our children’s ministry to a new place of its own! It won’t be at our website anymore, and for those of you who appreciate the writing activities, puzzlers, devotionals, etc. for your kids, we wanted to let you know that helping children to grow is still important to us, but it seemed that with all of the expanding we’re doing with our products and scope, having a separate site for the young folks was best.

So, that’s what we’ve done. Well we’re almost done. We still have a few more “rooms” to pack up and move, but the new site (blog) is now up and running and ready for visitors. If you have kids who are still in a schooling situation, home or otherwise, come over and see what we’re doing for them in this new place. Bookmark it or become a follower so that you can know when new things get added.

For those of you who don’t know about our “Speakables” for children, they are writing activities which we offer which have the purpose of getting youngsters to consider writings from days gone by and to respond to them. More than anything, we’re trying to encourage kids of today to gain from the valuable moral and biblical thinking of the past. Now and then, we also have a writing contest using the Speakables.

But that’s not all. We believe in having fun, so you’ll find some of that there too!! You’ll find puzzlers and party ideas.

What’s the name of the new site you ask? Well, what else? It’s called “Helping Children Grow” and we invite you to come on over now!

Beverly and Maxine

Maybe you have a close friend, or aunt, or grandmom who would just LOVE to do this for you. Either you could pay them or this could be their gift to you. It’s just a suggestion of a way to save if you’re on a tight budget, which many folks are! There are many sites about this, but there is one in particular which invites folks to tell their stories about their homemade cakes. After you click on the following link, you’ll find lots of ideas by clicking on “wedding cakes” on the sidebar.

Homemade Wedding Cake

Unless your really great at creative cake baking, I wouldn’t suggest adding to your stress level by trying it yourself though I would love to know if anyone has had a friend make their cake.

Tuesday blessings,

Maxine

Now that we’re doing our weekly tip here at the blog, we thought it might be a good idea to go back and pick up the ones we already did on the main site. Since they couldn’t be archived there, there was no way that a new reader could benefit from the previous tips. We only had done a few, and I believe today’s is the first one that we offered. Other than one in particular that was a tip about a sale going on at a store, they all will now be here in the archives, so they can be referred back to. Aren’t blogs great?

This one is a link. If you’re interested in hymns which would be appropriate for the ceremony, we found this site to be quite helpful. You can check it out here. These are just the lyrics, but if you find one that seems a fit for you, I’m sure you can search out the tune(s) if you don’t know it already.

We LOVE hymns at SG! Many folks know that already. Perhaps some other hymn loving couples will be excited about how some of these old worship pieces would help magnify the Lord and enhance your praise to Him as you are joined together in matrimony on that coming special day.

Blessings,
Maxine

If you are a Christian bride, or you know one, Speakable Gifts would love to help you with your wedding.

We are looking for brides who will allow us to provide the favors/gifts for the following (choose whichever events you like):

Shower
Bridesmaids’ luncheon
Bridesmaids’ gifts
Reception

We will give you a great deal on these favors/gifts in exchange for your promise to write a review (one paragraph) of your experience with Speakable Gifts. You will agree that we can use your review on our website or other sites we may advertise our services on. We need reviews to launch our new line, and we will work hard to make your event special.

You can view some of the favors we have available on our website, here. Click on the bridal tab to view gift packages and more favors. We welcome, even encourage, custom orders.

We have a couple of slots left! Please email or call us with your contact information if you are interested, and we can talk details!

In His Love,
Beverly

This is interesting: Voice of the Martyrs is having a contest for their Facebook fans (over 46,000 btw) where you enter by taking a picture of your family reading the VOM newsletter. It seems they’re looking for creative photos. I thought it might be a nice activity for your family. If you think so, here’s the link to the details at the persecution blog:

Enter VOM’s First Ever Photo Contest

Blessings, Maxine