Choose Thine Option

I have no idea how it happened.  One day I was just doing the usual peruse of facebook statuses and the next thing you know I'm enrolled.  Well, there were some phone calls, some prayers, some emotionally charged internal conversations, and a lot of day dreaming, but I did it.  I signed up.

I love that this happened for several reasons.

1.  It goes to show you (and me) that when you say, "I would never" you might actually find yourself in that exact situation.  Humility is a life-long lesson.  

2.  It challenges me to think about decisions through the larger lens of God and his purposes.  I really had to push this decision past the fear of man/what will people think of me and into the realm of 'I trust God even if this totally flops.'

3.  Failure equals a collection of 10 really cute bags. . .unless I give some away as presents. . .and then I have five really cute bags.

Here I am, at the threshold of my own little mini adventure, and it comes in dots, flowers, and denim (no sparkles. . .yet.)  As of last week I have stepped into the tote-ally awesome world of thirty-one.  Yeah, I said tote-ally.

All my southern friends are all getting out their fold and go organizers in shades of minty chip and aqua circles and putting another tick mark under "Friends I've Lost to Thirty-One."  While out here in Colorado everyone is scratching their heads saying, "Is that Vera Bradley?"

A few things.  First, southern friends, if you're going to keep score, consider changing the title to "Friends that can change my life through organizational bliss and get me free stuff."  I understand that is a little long.  You can call it FTCCMLTOBGMFS for short.  Second, all my Colorado friends, consider what a thermal lunch tote could do for your romantic relationship; a little sparkling wine, some seasonal fruit, all tucked away in a chilly black perisian pop fabric cooler.  Ooh la la!

The Ooh La La Luncheon.
Pictured with a thirty-one thermal tote (wedding present from the wonderfully fun Michelle W.)
and our lonely tomato plant.

I'm not sure what this mini adventure will hold.  My friends back home own half the thirty-one catalog and my friends out here are wondering where their nalgenes and chacos would go.  (I mean these things in the most sincere way.)

But there is something so exciting about this to me.  Maybe it's the fabric.  I am a sucker for cute fabric.

And also for organizational miracles.

Organizing Utility Tote with my foam core roller posing as a swimmy prop.

My reasons behind joining were simple:  connect with more women, share God's love, and hopefully learn skills and ideas to launch A Ruffled Heart into whatever creative dreams that lie ahead.

Thirty-one is named after Proverbs 31 about the wife of noble character, or the "virtuous woman."  I love the verses that talk about how her trading is profitable, and how she bought a field and planted a vineyard.  She also sold linen garments and supplied the merchants with sashes.  I won't go into other details of her extraordinary life, but oh how I hope to do half of what she did.

I really appreciate the entrepreneurial spirit of this godly woman captured in this passage of scripture.  The motives of her heart were to contribute to the needs of her household and support those around her through providing goods and services.

I'm not totally there yet.  I still don't know how to make a sash, although I have been working on bunnies. Not too many merchants lining up to purchase them.  Thirty-one does seem like a stepping stone into a world where I could potentially contribute something to the needs of the Hlushak household if ever God blessed us with a precious baby Hlu-Hlu, and that gets my heart going pitter patter.

"M" is for Mommy. . .let me rephrase. . .future Mommy. . .let me rephrase-I'm not pregnant.

Casual Cargo Tote-with home-made bunny waiting for her merchant.

So the moral of the story is, never say never (unless you are referring to drugs), trust God always, and consider adopting a cute bag to bring organizational restoration to your household, bedroom, bathroom, laundry room, craft space, behind the couch, in your car, on top of the fridge, under the counter, and wherever else you can picture temporal bliss.

I don't want to get sales pitchy or ever loose a friendship (these did not make it in the top three reasons of participating in thirty-one) but I would like to invite you to browse the virtual thirty-one store on my site:  www.mythirtyone.com/aruffledheart/

I will say three things about this:

1.  If you host a party-whether a catalog party, an online-visit my website party, or a cheese dip wine tasting shindig at a home party, you will be richly rewarded with fun textile treasures.  And this comes from friend Lauren, not sales crazy-eyed Lauren (she actually doesn't exist).

2.  Gift ideas abound and can always be personalized.

3.  There are always monthly specials.  That means a deal.  And who doesn't love a deal.

Cheers to our adventures, no matter how mini they may be!