The Day of Small Things {Noonday Giveaway}

First of all, if you’re visiting from the Noonday Blog Train, welcome!  This is a first for me and my new-ish blog, so I’m really glad that you’re here.  If you’re a regular, fellow Noonday Ambassadors and I are celebrating the launch of our Spring Collection with blog posts and giveaways.  You can catch a ride here, go back to yesterday’s post and then onward and upward to tomorrow.  All aboard!

I’ve talked a little about Noonday Collection here before.  In short, Noonday uses fashion and design as a tool to help empower vulnerable people around the world by creating sustainable economic opportunity for them, as well as providing other assistance as needed.  This is done through the creation of a market for the jewelry and accessories that these once-vulnerable artisans make with their own two hands, often in their homes.  You can read story after story of their lives at the Noonday Collection blog.    I am loving the opportunity to be an Ambassador for this world changing company.

What I am not loving?  How long it takes to BUILD a business.  Thomas Edison said it best.  “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”  And it starts small.  Noonday Collection as a company began three-and-a-half years ago as an adoption fundraiser where the founder, Jessica Honegger, sold paper bead jewelry made by one family in Uganda to fund the adoption of her own son from Rwanda.  The family in Uganda, Jalia and Daniel, made this jewelry in order to keep food on the table for themselves and their two children.  It was a small, desperate operation.  Today this small workshop in Uganda has grown to employ and support over 300 families and Noonday Collection has similar operations in 10 other countries.

Back to my partnership with Noonday.  I joined as an Ambassador in November and, to put it quite plainly, it’s a roller coaster ride.  Business is up and down.  Because, 1-I’ve just started and 2-let’s be honest, I spend my days taking care of three little people, so I have to work on things in small windows of time.  Also, let’s be VERY honest I get discouraged.  I feel like everything is I do is small.  Cutting grapes, wiping noses, zipping jackets, buckling car seats, unbuckling car seat, unzipping jackets, you get the picture.  Sometimes I feel like I’m on a hamster wheel.

But.  (Oh that word!) Ever since I started this journey, God has been whispering to me, “Do not despise the day of small things.”  No matter how much my cynical self wants to get discouraged, that’s what I keep hearing.  I do small things.  My business is small.  But do you know what?  We all do small things.  Everything starts small.  I won’t despise it.  I’m going to embrace it because, small things add up to big things.  For us and, most importantly, for our artisans.

And as my mom always says, “You know how to eat an elephant right?  One bite at a time.”

In honor of this, I’m GIVING AWAY FREE NOONDAY!!!  That’s right, I’m giving a $50 Noonday credit to one lucky winner.  To enter, go to the Noonday website, check out the collection, and comment below (or on the FB link) with what piece or pieces you would spend the $50 on.  For an extra entry, share this link on FaceBook.  The winner will be chosen out of a basket by Eliana on Thursday, March 27th.

COMMENTS ARE CLOSED, WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED SHORTLY!!!