Category: Family

First Week of Winners - Spring Raffle

4/8/2014

Our first week of winners and a special drawing winner have already happened!! So exciting and the majority of these items have already been mailed out too - thanks to some extra running around we've had to do in our personal world and was able to swing by the post office on those trips too.
We're excited to start another week of winners - after I draw today's winner - we still have 22 awesome days of prizes left to give away and another special drawing prize if we can still 200 tickets in total (we're at 117 right now). Lots of great Pampered Chef and Scentsy items are being given away and you're not going to want to miss out on the upcoming prizes for sure!

Our first winner was Debbie - her items were from The Pampered Chef!

The items for this day in the raffle were sponsored by Marie Snyder - a local Pampered Chef consultant to Gracie's Gowns.

You can find Marie's business page on Facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/PampChefLady

And her business website is:
www.pamperedchef.biz/foodisfun

Our third winner was Patricia - her items were from The Pampered Chef!

The items for this day in the raffle were donated by Audra Smith - a Pampered Chef consultant that is close friends with a gown recipient's family.

Audra's business website is:
www.pamperedchef.biz/audra

Our fifth winner was Ellen - her items were from The Pampered Chef!

The items for this day in the raffle were sponsored by Marie Snyder - a local Pampered Chef consultant to Gracie's Gowns.

You can find Marie's business page on Facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/PampChefLady

And her business website is:
www.pamperedchef.biz/foodisfun

Our seventh winner was Becky - her items were from The Pampered Chef!

The items for this day in the raffle were donated by Audra Smith - a Pampered Chef consultant that is close friends with a gown recipient's family.

Audra's business website is:
www.pamperedchef.biz/audra

CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE!!

To purchase your ticket(s) you can visit our website under the events tab - www.graciesgowns.org/events.html
and purchase them there using the Add to Cart button through PayPal.

A Time to Remember - Two Years

3/25/2014

This past weekend we celebrated our two year anniversary in making hospital gowns for children across the United States and around the globe. What a great accomplishment, what an amazing experience, what a blessing for my own life the past two years have been (even with the crazy times)...but we also took the time this year to celebrate the lives of the children we have made gowns for and remember those that have passed away over the past two years.

Each child we made a gown for that traded in their super hero capes for angel wings had a lantern with their name, date of birth, date the became an angel, diagnosis and anything else the family, us, or the person who purchased the lantern in their memory wanted to say on it.

This year we released 45 lanterns - there were a few duplicates from where Gracie's Gowns had a lantern for the child and someone else wanted to purchase a lantern in memory as well, but overall there was one lantern per child. We had a few lanterns as well for children that we did not make a gown for, but were warriors as well - and we gladly added remembering their courage, strength and smiles to our ceremony.

Due to some weather related issues, we started later, but lanterns went in the water around 8:00 p.m. and the final one went out about 10:00 p.m. It was a very cold night, but watching the lanterns float in the water, seeing their reflections and just how they illuminated the water was breath-taking. Even more so, it was very, very emotional for me. Too have a visual of the children that lose their lives battling illness was heart-breaking...to know that this is only the children our organization has personally worked with in two years was devastating. There are so many more children who pass away each day, week, month and year that if we lit a lantern for each of them - we'd have to worry about them catching themselves on fire...there wouldn't be enough water for them all to float.

Watching the candles go out was probably the most emotional part of the whole night.

The lanterns - if the wind didn't blow them out - started to sink as they were wet. They are biodegradable, which is the point for them to get wet and sink/fall apart/etc. But as they did...you would see this light, barely above the water...like it was holding on unto the last second. Fighting until the very end to stay shining. They flickered, almost went out, flickered some more, got brighter and held on...and then once the water came closer, the flame disappeared without any warning. Just like our little warriors.

They fight until the very end, giving it 100% and then some - they have so many close calls and yet still manage to pull through and almost make a complete turn around and then...in a blink of an eye, they are gone.

Here is all of the lanterns we released out in the water - a beautiful tribute and celebration of their life.

Over the next few months, I will be creating an angels/in memory of page here on our website. It is my hope to get each child that we know has become an angel and learn about the ones we do not already know, on that page with their parents permission and help.

This will become an annual event for Gracie's Gowns - and for those that may not be able to attend at night, it is in my plans to do a balloon release during the day and make that a family event as well.

To view all the photos and lanterns from the event - you can visit this link below:

Gracie's Gowns Two Year Anniversary Lantern Release

Tickets on Sale - Spring Raffle - Just for Mom

3/19/2014

Gracie's Gowns is hosting a combined Pampered Chef and Scentsy raffle fundraiser just in time for Mother's Day!

We started selling tickets in February and will continue to have them on sale through April 30th, 2014. Tickets are $5.00/each.

Payments can be made by cash, check or PayPal - we will also have an "Add to Cart" button on our events page.

You can mail payments to the address below - please make any checks out to Gracie's Gowns, Inc :
Gracie's Gowns
c/o: Jessica Kidd
159 Ordinary Road
Mineral, VA 23117

They are two part raffle tickets, we will be keeping the part that has your name, address and phone number in order to contact you should your name be drawn as a winner during the raffle that will start on April 1st. The second section also has the same ticket number and that will be mailed to you once your payment has been received.

Each day in April, we will be drawing a winner for one of our Pampered Chef or Scentsy prizes. They will alternate each day between the two companies. All prizes will be valued at $30.00 or more!! We will post the winners each day to Facebook and to our blog with a picture of the item won and the number drawn. Numbers will be drawn using random.org starting with the number 1 and ending with the total amount of tickets sold.

Your ticket can win more than once, but to have the best shot at winning an item, multiple tickets are encouraged.

Prizes will be mailed out weekly on Mondays - tracking numbers will be available as well once they are mailed.

So make sure to share with your friends, family and everyone you know who loves Pampered Chef and Scentsy to help support Gracie's Gowns - all funds raised (after the purchase of the raffle items and shipping costs) will be put specifically towards our Christmas Box Program for this year

Here are some of the items we currently have in our raffle prizes!

We still have a few days left for any Scentsy Independent Consultant that would like to contribute towards our raffle prizes! All of our Pampered Chef days have been covered, but we have six Scentsy days that we need covered with item(s) valued at $30.00 or more. They can be bundled together to create the $30.00 value and we will be advertising your Facebook page and/or website each day that the item(s) you donate are given away.

Our Facebook event for the raffle is here - we will be posting winners every day to the event, as well as, our Facebook page itself:
https://www.facebook.com/events/631836276853318/

We have 60 tickets sold so far, we'd love to sell many more, so please share this with your family and friends so we can make this fundraiser really successful! Our biggest expense for the Christmas Box Project is going to be shipping, so the better start we can get on collecting the funds we will need helps us greatly!

Fabric with Lots of Love - Lilahroo's

3/12/2014

I have the wonderful opportunity to help out another great organization with some fabric to continue their mission. This time it is for Lilahroo's! Monica makes these precious, cozy, comfy and just wonderful blankets for children fighting medical challenges.

Do we have one? No - but my, oh my, you can just see from her photos and stories of children that have received one just how comfy they are! As someone who has made blankets for years, these are great quality, with wonderful fabrics. Cozy flannel on top and super soft minky on the back...perfect blanket ingredients!

Here is Autumn with her gown and Lilahroo while at her clinic appointment! Doesn't she look super cozy there?!

There website to learn more about what they do, who they are, how to support and even all the stories from families that have received a blanket from Lilahroo's is:

http://www.lilahroos.com/

They are also on Facebook at:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lilahroos/621064347914209

So since the kiddos and I are getting a lot closer to moving time and we've been holding onto some of these fabrics for a while now, without any requests to use them for, here are the cozy flannels we had to send Monica's way and even a minky fabric too:

They will be on their way shortly - as in probably tomorrow's mail!!
Can't wait to see what little ones get wrapped up in a cozy blankie made from these fabrics.

Lucy's Bunny for William

3/12/2014

I know we posted about this on Facebook, but I just really felt like I wanted to write and post it on our blog as well - especially since we have followers here, that don't Facebook.

Every so often (and much more than I ever want to admit or think about), we have a little one that passes away before their gown is received. Sometimes even before we have started their gown request. While I know it is always a possibility, it is still the hardest part about operating Gracie's Gowns.

Lucy is one of those precious little ones. I had just completed with sewing on her gown and the next day her mother Rinda messaged me through Facebook saying her precious little girl had passed away. She was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome and the complications from her heart defect gave her a beautiful set of angel wings.

I asked her mother if she still wanted Lucy's gown as a keepsake and she said yes, but then I had another idea in my head and heart to make it a little more special - Lucy didn't just leave her parents behind, but also an older brother named William.

It was agreed that my little idea was perfect for her brother William - he is three years old and is having a hard time understanding why he can't see his baby sister anymore...it was to put Lucy's gown on a special animal and send it to him. So whenever he misses Lucy, he can give this animal a hug and send a hug to her as well.

The search began for the right size animal and I found this fluffy bunny that her gown fit perfectly on.

This precious bunny came from our local Build-A-Bear store in the Spotsylvania Towne Centre. I went there knowing their animals were a bit larger and in prayer I would find something perfect.

I got a huge surprise though while there - as the bunny was being stuffed by the manager, we were talking about what occasion it was for and I showed him Lucy's gown and how it was for her brother. He noticed the angel wings right off the bat and I told him she passed away at fifteen days old from a severe congenital heart defect. The manager then took the tag off of the bunny and donated it to her brother William.

I even showed him the little heart snaps that we used on the back of the gown, while we were putting it together.

The manager refused and I mean refused to let me even remotely pay a dime for the bunny - and I couldn't have been more blessed to see this idea become a reality for William and Lucy's parents.

This precious bunny is making it's way to their home in Australia as I am writing this posting and I know it will be received with many, many hugs.

There she is - Lucy's Bunny.

As hard as it is to lose one of our little ones, period, it is so hard for me for them to pass away before we can get a gown to them. But now we have this amazing, heartfelt way to still provide a little something for their families to hold onto. It is a blessing to finally (after almost two years) have a way to remember these little ones as well and their brave fights, however long or short they may be.

Lia Sophia Jewelry Raffle Winners - Week Two

2/15/2014

And here is the recap of the second week in our raffle with our winners!
We were also able to give away a second piece of jewelry in a special drawing because we sold over 200 tickets!!!
We had three winners on Valentine's day too!!!

And there you have it folks!
Our second week of winners - a special giveaway winner and our extra special Valentine's Day drawing with three winners! This has been such an exciting month of raffle items! These are truly beautiful pieces and I hope each winner loves their items!!!

Jessica

Donation to the Little and Dependent

1/25/2014

Eastern Tennessee Children's Hospital is one of the most amazing children's hospital in the country. Not only do they care for a variety of pediatric illnesses and needs, but they have a super special NICU.

The reason their NICU is so special is because they are one of the hospitals that treat the highest number of drug-dependent newborns in the United States. And we aren't talking street or illegal drugs...these are prescription pain medications and most obtained under normal circumstance.

These babies are weaned off prescription medication, by being given doses of morphine until they are able to tolerate being completely off any kind of opiate. This process can take days and week to accomplish. The unit can hold 49 infants and over half of them are born with neonate abstinence syndrome (drug-dependent), these babies have to be watched around the clock for seizures and even worse, in case they stop breathing.

When I was in college, this was a topic I was starting to write a research paper on...it is a personal subject as my youngest was born drug-dependent and not because I misused my pain medication, but because I was given excessive amounts of pain medication between all of our admission during pregnancy for pre-term labor and for the amount of pain I was in throughout the entire pregnancy because of the amount of scar tissue I had and two pregnancies very close together and severe anemia issues as well.

Only problem was, when she was born, we didn't know what was the cause of all the problems we had in the first two months of her life, until I happened to read a forum on drug-dependent babies and all the pieces fell into place. It was scary.

So when Ellen from Socks 4 Surgery posted the articles published in 2013 about Eastern Tennessee Children's Hospital and what their NICU was doing - we decided that some extra comfort needed to be sent to these precious little ones as well.

Ellen sent out socks and hair bows and in her awesomeness asked if we had any gowns that we could send their way as well. I had to wait until I got back to the house and went through what we already had sewn NICU Smock wise and put together a box that we will be sending out the the hospital this Monday.

So in total we have twenty-eight gowns headed to the hospital's volunteer services and some of our brochures to be used throughout the hospital for other children that may want a gown of their own as well.

We will keep praying for the hospital's staff and volunteers that are working with and caring for these precious babies and their families. We pray for the babies and their families as well through this rocky start to their journey and lives.

We hope these gowns find each little doing the best they can and provide them with a little extra comfort.

Clicking on the picture above will take you to a brochure (PDF Format) the hospital has created on Drug Use during Pregnancy and about Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.

Sharing with Angel Love Boxes

1/13/2014

This past summer these little ones of mine got a really awesome surprise in the mail - it was this big box filled with goodies for each of them and something a little extra special, for our special little man.

The organization is called Angel Love Boxes - they provide care packages to children with special needs and their siblings! Each month they have a certain amount of little ones they put boxes together for and they also help with certain medical equipment/items/devices that may be beneficial to them as well.

Here is some of the goodies that were sent in our box. The items they have each month vary based on donations of items themselves, sponsor donated items and the specific needs of the child, but also they are based with the interest of each child the box is for (and their siblings too).

My little red head was upset I wouldn't let her play with her items until I got a picture of everything...mean mommy I suppose. But I knew one day I would want pictures to share and promote Angel Love Boxes through Gracie's Gowns as well.

So here is where we are sharing with Angel Love Boxes - and giving back to the organization that gave my little guys such a wonderful summer surprise!

This Thomas the Train item is a weighted blanket. For those that don't know or haven't read back through, he was diagnosed on the Autism Spectrum and also has several sensory related issues and it was recommended to us that a weighted blanket might be beneficial to him. He loves his blanket (and so does mommy at times even) and it has helped with some of the sensory issues he has at night. If it wasn't for his occupational therapist suggesting it, I would never have thought about it. We received our blanket when Angel Love Boxes first started making them - and the quality is amazing. It washed great as well!

You can see the detail here in the stitching where each section is sewn and filled evenly to divide the weight evenly throughout the whole blanket.

I had tried making one several months prior to even hearing about Angel Love boxes and it was an epic fail...which remind me I need to take it apart and either fix it or just make it into a regular blanket...add that to the to-do list for when there is extra hours in a day.

So for Angel Love Boxes we have several pieces of fabric measuring around a yard and more to send as our family's way to say thank you for our box, but also as Gracie's Gowns and saying thank you for your love and support of us throughout the past year! This box is fairly heavy and packed to the gills with fabric, so once we have some extra shipping money we will be sending it out. Here are some of the fabrics that will be making their way south to Alabama!

Have a wonderful everyone!

Jessica
Gracie's Gowns

Lia Sophia Raffle Tickets on Sale - Raffle the month of February

1/11/2014

Our Lia Sophia raffle starts on Feburary 1st, 2014!!!

We have lots of really pretty items in our raffle - I will share some with you here, but you can see all of the ones we are posting in our Facebook page's album.

Tickets are on sale now through our website on the events page and cost $2.00/each.
Payments can also be mailed.

For every 100 tickets we sell, Kim will also be giving away an item from the current catalog that is valued at $100.00 or less to a randomly drawn winner from all those that purchase a ticket.

Here was our first special drawing winner (we've sold about 116 tickets as of this posting).

Kim is the mother of one of the precious little girls we have made a gown for and she has been so gracious in helping us with this raffle. We greatly appreciate all her help, her support and of course giving us the honor to make a gown for Callista.

Below are some of the pieces in the raffle. We really hope you consider buying a ticket or two and sharing our raffle with those you know. There is a Facebook event created for this raffle as well that you can invite them to and all the information is provided there as well.

Thank you to everyone who has purchased tickets, shared our raffle and just helping spread the word about Gracie's Gowns!
I really look forward to this raffle and drawing our winners in February - we will have 3 winners on Valentine's Day too. So fingers crossed everyone who purchases a ticket wins something really pretty.

Jessica
Gracie's Gowns

Waste Not and Pay it Forward

1/11/2014

This time last month we were gathering fabric to be sent out to other organizations (which we still have fabric that we can do that with) and we mailed it out just before Christmas - well we're at it again with some more of our remnant pieces of fabric.

So where's it going? Well it is going to a lovely family we know, and many of you may as well - they also take stuffed animals and create companions for children, that are just as unique as they are.

If you guessed Healing Helpers then you are 100% correct!

As I briefly mentioned in our last blog - the kiddos and myself are moving early this summer - so operation clean-up, organize and get ready to start moving is taking place...you wouldn't believe the amount of stuff we manage to accumulate in our tiny little house. So in that - we had some very new stuffies in need of a great home! The kids were more than excited to know they would be going to the place that made David's piggy.

Here is some of the fabric remnants being sent for pouches, I am of course partial to the Riley Blake fabric from the Pieces of Hope collection (a portion of the sales were donated to Autism Speaks). I thought it was perfect for the kiddos that their heart will represent them being diagnosed on the spectrum.

Below are the other fabrics we finished filling the box with. Once we have the extra shipping funds available we will send this box on its way to Oregon where Healing Helpers is located.

Pretty fabrics right?!
Hope they make some really awesome pouches for Healing Helpers and make some little ones really happy with their new companions!

Have a fabulous day and weekend,
Jessica
Gracie's Gowns