Category: Hope

Precious Angel Bears - Eddie and Sofia

4/18/2014

Remember back to last month when we made Lucy's bunny?

We decided this was a great idea and that we would continue to do such gowns for the children that gowns were requested for, but unfortunately passed away before their gown was able to be made and sent to them.

The first of the three I have been working on is going to the Livingston Family in memory and honor of their son Eddie who passed away from Neuroblastoma in 2013.

His nickname was "Superman" and his gown was actually requested by a mutual friend of the family and myself. Isn't he such a handsome little man? I bet he is an even more precious angel - flying around with his cape and all...having all kinds of fun like little boys should!

We purchased the superman fabric, but two days after having his fabric Eddie passed away, so the special bear below will be headed to his family in Florida.

The second of the three is going to the Scott family in honor and memory of precious Sofia who passed away in March (on my little man's birthday actually) from complications with Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type I.

Her gown was requested by a friend of the family, who also asked that we still send her gown to them as a keepsake. Once again, we decided to make an angel gown with a bear to be sent to them.

And here is the beautiful princess Sofia.

Her angel bear and gown will be making it's way home this weekend as well. Her gown was completed (in her size), but wasn't able to be sent before we learned she had passed away.

So, we sized it down to fit the teddy bear, below is her angel bear. It didn't quite want to sit up on it's own - hence the kinda of squished look in the photo.

Will be working on getting the third one done and posted - it is such an honor to make this tributes to the families we've received requests for and while we weren't able to provide their child with a gown to wear throughout their journey, at least we now have a way to honor their fight.

To the Livingston and Scott families - we are still praying for each of your every day...and while the loss of a child is beyond all words and the hurt will always still be there in many ways, we pray each day you find a little more peace, a little more comfort and a little more love from those surrounding you in prayer.

Much love and many blessings,
Gracie's Gowns

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A Little Break in Routine

4/15/2014

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Okay - so old picture, but had to use something with the sewing machine. I love sewing these hospital gowns, I love sewing them for your little ones and seeing their smiling faces and knowing how it can literally change a hospital experience from bad to at least tolerable.

Sometimes though, I have to break the routine of making gowns and work on other projects, just to keep from crying over how many precious little ones are in need of such an item. It breaks my heart in so many pieces at times, that I have to sit back and remember how much of a blessing each child is, how they have changed the lives of those around them...how they fight, just to make it through another day and while yes, the odds are usually stacked against them, they inspire others to do such amazing things - like Gracie's Gowns and so many other organizations!

One of the items that have been done and still being worked on were these squishy little monsters! We sold them over the course of a couple days in order to raise shipping funds for gowns.

I am happy to say they are almost all done and out in the mail (still have maybe 7 more in total to make I believe). Here is some of the ones that went out last week, as I didn't get pictures of the previous ones made to post. My apologies on that...they are too cute not to picture and post.

These guys come from leftover minky fabric that I have from making millions of blankets over the last few years I have been making for friends and family.

One of the other items that get worked on in those little breaks are some bags for Beads of Courage - I love making these little bags from leftover pieces from gowns!

They are easy enough to make and still give that feeling of inspiration and fulfillment I suppose in knowing the fabric we use won't go to waste and can brighten the days of so many other children too.

This year we have 17 bags made so far to donate to Beads of Courage and will probably have close to 50 by the time the donation is ready to be made. We are hoping to be able to donate them to our local hospital with a Beads of Courage program.

Lastly, whenever I really want to venture out into my sewing fun - I go back to making little items from leftover pieces of fabric and working through my own personal fabric stash and creating other items that we will be taking with us for our craft show in October - last year we raised $900 for Gracie's Gowns with items made from leftover pieces and whatever fabric I had on hand - this year we're hoping to meet and exceed that amount...especially with the Christmas Box Program coming up at that time of the year as well. Right now we've loaded the items into an etsy store (which will be put in vacation the Thursday before the show) to try and sell some of the items throughout the year with all the money being put into our shipping expenses. So here is the etsy mini with links in case you want to browse it!

With all that fun being said and shown - no worries, gowns are still being made, still being sent out and Gracie's Gowns is rolling right along like we always do. Sometimes just a little slower than normal, because we are in the process of moving and my health has gotten a little "interesting" for lack of a better word, but we are still upholding and maintaining our mission to provide every child we can a special hospital gown of their own to wear while in treatments, surgeries and hospital stays!

Much Love and Many Blessings,
Jessica

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Half-Way Through Spring Raffle

4/15/2014

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We're at the half-way point now!!
Fifteen days of winners and fifteen more days to go - we still have 78 tickets that we'd love to sell before the end of the raffle to meet our goal for sales. The proceeds from the ticket sales cover the cost of the items Gracie's Gowns had to purchase for the raffle, shipping costs of the items to winners, but also benefit our Christmas Box Program that we've been accepting items for and will continue through early December. The majority of the funds raised from the tickets sales will be put towards shipping of those Christmas boxes in mid December to our families that sign up for the program in late October.

So without further delay - here are some more of our winners in case you missed it on Facebook!

Our ninth winner was Charlene - 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 thirteenth winner was Marla - 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 fifteenth winner was Kim - her items were from The Pampered Chef!

The items for this day in the raffle were sponsored by Dawn Truex - a friend and Pampered Chef consultant to one of the families we have made a gown for.

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

And that wraps up the second week of our winners and brings us half-way through the raffle as well!

Congratulations to everyone who has won and item so far and please don't forget to share, invite, and purchase a ticket for yourself!! We'd love to reach our overall goal for ticket sales, but even more so make sure we have funds available for shipping out our Christmas boxes!

To purchase a ticket please visit our events page at:
www.graciesgowns.org/events.html

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First Week of Winners - Spring Raffle

4/8/2014

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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.

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A Time to Remember - Two Years

3/25/2014

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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

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Tickets on Sale - Spring Raffle - Just for Mom

3/19/2014

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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!

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Fabric with Lots of Love - Lilahroo's

3/12/2014

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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.

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Lucy's Bunny for William

3/12/2014

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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.

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Lia Sophia Jewelry Raffle Ends - Giveaway Posted

3/12/2014

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Our Lia Sophia Jewelry Raffle ended the last day of February - can you believe we're already near the middle of March this year?!
I feel like this year has just flown by and I can't even remember what has happened. Maybe that isn't such a bad thing some days?

Here are the last of the winners from the raffle and something special to share as well!

Ana has decided to give her item away to the mother of one of the children we have made a gown for. She lives in Spain and did not want Gracie's Gowns to pay the extra shipping costs to mail her the bracelet that she won above and would like to give it to someone else.
So we created a rafflecopter giveaway where any of our families can enter to win the beautiful bracelet above! It ends in 4 days and a winner will be chosen and posted to our Facebook page.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Lia Sophia Jewelry Raffle Winners - Week Three

2/23/2014

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And this post brings us to almost our final week of raffle items!
Week three ends and leaves us with five days and items left - can you believe it?! That also means February is almost over - YIKES!! Where has this year gone?

So great items right?!
I know some are my personal favorites and I really hate seeing them leave my house - but alas they must go to their winners! I hope they enjoying wearing them, as much as, I do admiring them!

Congratulations to everyone who has won so far - we still have two pairs of earrings, two necklaces and a bracelet left to give away and they are some really awesome and pretty items too!

Jessica

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Forward>>

Precious Angel Bears - Eddie and Sofia

A Little Break in Routine

Half-Way Through Spring Raffle

First Week of Winners - Spring Raffle

A Time to Remember - Two Years

Tickets on Sale - Spring Raffle - Just for Mom

Fabric with Lots of Love - Lilahroo's

Lucy's Bunny for William

Lia Sophia Jewelry Raffle Ends - Giveaway Posted

Lia Sophia Jewelry Raffle Winners - Week Three

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