Etsy friends street team is haveing a team wide sale. For Oct the sale is the sweet treat sale and runs form Oct 16-19.

In my shop the sale is 15% off everything in my shop, please put sweet treat sale in notes to seller to take advantage of this sale. I will refund through paypal or convo me and I will revise the invoice for you.

Thanks for looking at my shop and do check out all the other etsy friends for some wonderful sales this weekend.

my shopit store

Have You Ever Seen An Angel

Have you ever seen an angel? I am not talking about some spirit ghost or apparition, I am talking about one of God's angels come to earth in human form. I have and it was quite amazing.

One night in the summer on a lonely stretch of road north of Beaufort, NC, I ran out of gas. I had my 2 sons sleeping peacefully in the back seat of the car. It was somewhere around 1am. It was muggy and I decided to get out of the car to stretch my legs and try to figure out what to do.

I was at rock bottom, no money, no milk for my babies, they were 18 months and 9 months old at the time, and out of gas with no where to go. We were in the middle of nowhere, USA.

I looked around and I had pulled off the road at a beach on the ocean. I went down to the water and took off my shoes to walk in the sand. I had no answers for what to do next. I started walking along the beach keeping the car in sight at all times, I didn't get to far away from the car in case the kids woke up. It was dead still, no traffic, not a sound.

I guess you could say I was praying, I thought what do I do now, I don't have a clue what to do. I heard a voice behind me. "Hello there, how are you on this fine night."

I turned around there stood an old gentleman, he wore a long black windbreaker coat, a floppy wide brimmed hat, and high wader boots. His face looked weathered. In his hand he had a worn rope attached to a large row boat. I wondered where he had come from, I didn't see any boats in the water before.

I said Hello and he started talking about the moon shinning on the water, the stars in the universe and how God made it all so beautiful. I agreed it was a picturesque sight. He went on to say God new the names of all the stars and pointed out the different constellations. He talked about God creating nature and all the animals and that God new each one by name and if I listened closely I could hear the crickets praising God. I listened and it was the most beautiful music in the world.

Time seemed to stand still, the more he talked about God I lost sight of my situation. My heart became so peaceful, I wanted to stay and listen to this man forever. He spoke about God like they were on a first name basis. He finely came to end of his praise and said Goodnight.

I said goodnight and God bless to him. I turned to head back to my car and realized I hadn't asked him his name, I turned around to do that and the man was gone. I walked back down to the water looking for him. There were no foot prints in the sand, no drag marks where he had pulled the boat ashore and I could see out into the ocean to the horizon and there was no sign of him anywhere. I shook my head and went back to the car, climbed inside and locked the doors.

I said God you have not forgotten me, you know where I am and the situation I am in and I know you will take care of me. I closed my eyes and had the most peaceful sleep I had had in a long time.

To this day I believe God sends His angels to mentor us and help us in our greatest times of need if we only take the time to say Hello.

If you have ever had an experience like this or one similar I would love to hear about it. Leave a comment and share you story.

How I got into chainmaille

My nephew talked me into going to a ren-faire in Wichita, KS. There was a seller there that sold chainmaille head pieces and jewelry. I fell in love with it, but, I couldn't afford to purchase anything as the prices were quite high.

My nephew said you can make it yourself if you want to learn how. When we got home he came over every evening after school and brought his rings and pliers. This started my education on chainmaille. He thought I would help him make chainmaille armour, I had other ideas.

I had been making jewelry for years from the tiniest seed beads to large beads and I wanted to make jewelry from this new craft. He said OK, he would help me get started. He showed me web sites with tutorials for different weaves, were I could get rings and pliers. I started stocking up on all the things I would need and I learned how to make chainmaille.

I have been addicted to chainmaille since. I have sold many pieces at ren-faires locally, to family and friends and then I started selling them on Ebay.

One time when I was ordering rings I got on a group discussion about making chainmaille and one of the members of the group stated he had started a shop on etsy. I had never heard of etsy so I thought I would check it out. I opened a shop on etsy 2 years ago come December and have been on etsy since then. I now sell my chainmaille world wide and love the craft.

I am still learning different weaves, there are so many different ones it would take a life time to learn them all. I use the basic weaves to enhance my jewelry.

I have even gotten to the point of creating my own designs with chainmaille and am incorporating beads into the designs. I have the best of both worlds, I do bead work and chainmaille to create some remarkable necklaces and bracelets, I also do earrings and key chains.

Stop by my shop and see all the different things I make with chainmaille, it is not just for armour anymore.

http://hildeguardslair.etsy.com