A WHOLE WEEK of Giveaways in honor of MOMS!

GIVEAWAY #1 is now CLOSED, but come back in the morning for a new one!

Yippee!!!

This is the week leading up to Mother's Day!!!

And we're celebrating all of you hard-working moms with a giveaway from "This Thing Called Family" EVERY DAY this week!

Starting TODAY!

SEVEN giveaways!  One winner every day!

Today's giveaway is this piece of wall art from our new mom rules: "Try New Things!"

measures 9x16, made from wood composite and canvas

Trying new things is always a bit of a challenge for 2 out of 3 of my boys (if we're talking about food.) My most adventurous eater is strangely enough the one most likely to be nervous or hesitant when it comes to new experiences.  Sometimes you never can tell who's going to do what or what new thing will be an issue, kids are notoriously surprising like that!  Recently it was our 5 year old who struggled with a new thing:  he started soccer (which he LOVED and seriously rocked at last year) and was super pumped all the first day right up until he got into the van and then it was tears all the way there and "I don't want to play soccerrrrr!!!"  But we carried onward, quickly realizing we were not even going to keep talking about it. We weren't going to get an answer as to why (we never did figure it out and sometimes there is no reason why!)  Once he got there he dried his tears, jumped right in and was back to loving it again, just as we knew (ok, hoped) he would!  He even got picked up and spun around by a little teammate when he scored a goal!

TO ENTER:

*Tell us about a time when you had your kids try something new.  

OR 

Tell us about a time YOU tried something new! (We think it's good for everybody to try new things once in awhile, don't you?!)

*Share this giveaway via facebook, twitter or pinterest.

     

*One entry per person, please.

*Be sure to leave a way to contact you, or we'll have to choose a different winner!

*Winner will be chosen randomly by the random number generator.

*Winner will be chosen at 10pm TONIGHT! 

*A new giveaway will start tomorrow! So come back in the morning!

Our Favorite Mother's Day Gifts

If you're looking for a unique gift for the moms in your life OR you want to put a bug in someone's ear about what they can get YOU for Mother's Day then listen up!

There are 2 great online resources that we highly recommend.  They both have TONS of awesome ideas for Mother's Day gifts from our line "This Thing Called Family."

Check them out:

Clevershoppers.com 

Here you'll find all of the new mom rules (above) - even one for Dad and Grandma!  You'll even be able to preorder a few pieces from our new Christmas collection, which will ship next month!

Gabby's Gifts

Here you'll find LOADS of cool home decor from TTCF (below) like the word blocks, a weekly chalkboard to help Mom stay organized, our magnetic family tree for all her favorite photos, and the family mobile.

We love, love, love BOTH of these fine retailers - can't say enough good things about them - and are so thankful that they believe in what we're doing!

*Up until Mother's Day, we'll be pinning all of our favorite Mother's Day ideas, (gifts, cards, homemade projects for the kids, family activities and quotes) from anywhere and everywhere, and all over the internet!  (It's not all about us - I promise!)  Come join us on Pinterest and get inspired! 

(But do feel free to pin these collages if you see something here you like! :-)     

What Does Our Silence Mean? and Something Good is Coming Up!

Wondering if we're still alive?

Our blogging silence only means that good things are in the works!

We've been hard at work designing for DEMDACO's 2014 release of LOTS of wonderful new products for "This Thing Called Family."   I know we always say this, but these really are going to be the best yet!

We have some new adventures in the works as well that we can't wait to tell you about, but it's still just a little bit too early to say just what!

Unsettled by all of the terrible, weird and sad things happening lately all over the world, it makes us hug each other tighter, be a little more patient, and appreciate each other just a little bit more.  Despite it all, we still believe in the goodness of people and that Love will always, ALWAYS win.  We hope you still feel that way too.

This time of year is also busy with all of the end of the year school stuff that the Powers That Be always insist on cramming into a short time period: field trips, projects, concerts, programs, conferences.... makes us almost long for summer vacation!

Plus, me (Jill) and my family are nearing the end of our house building experience (right down the street!) and got an offer on our current house the first day it was on the market!  Preparing to move the end of May --yikes!  It has been a totally life-consuming experience: decisions, de-cluttering, negotiating, keeping the house clean and more decisions!  Here's a little peek into one of my favorite parts of the new house!!!

I could go on and on about house stuff- but it would get obnoxious!

So anyway, we hope you haven't given up on us, because we've got something exciting coming up and it's going to last a whole WEEK!!!  It involves you and our new mom rules and a certain holiday that's coming up soon that honors the most under-appreciated, overworked, misunderstood, but yet gorgeous group of people.... ok I might be biased.  But you see where I'm going with this?!   So keep coming back and hanging in there!

It's An Ol' Fashioned "This Thing Called Family" CHRISTMAS!!!

Here is our new Christmas line for "This Thing Called Family!"  We are thrilled with it - We love the color schemes and how everything looks together - and hope you do too!  The collection has pieces of wall art, a garland, ornaments, a count down calendar, nativity and lazy susan!  STILL can't get over it! 

Our Christmas collection debuted at the January gift markets and is already available for retailers to order!  Through March 31st DEMDACO offers special holiday volume pricing!  Just follow the link!

As always, we welcome your feedback.  Is there something here that's calling your name?  :-)

CUSTOMERS: DEMDACO retailers are usually quite happy to place orders, so let your favorite local shops know what you'd like in your stocking this Christmas!  

You can order this collection online from Clevershoppers.com - they've got just about everything!!!

Is your "go-to" gift shop on Facebook?  Share this post with them!

And RETAILERS!  Do you already carry TTCF's Christmas collection?  (And/or do you already have the newest everyday pieces like the mom rules?)  We'd love to know all your deets so we can pass the word along!  We always welcome posts and/or display pictures on our Things With Wings Facebook page!  It's a joy to promote you in any ways we can!

This cute countdown calendar comes with a little polka dotted peg to mark the day!

wall art

wall art

wall art

Lazy Susan!

Nativity

ornament

ornament

ornament

ornament

ornament

ornament

Make your own unique Christmas village with our houses and trees!

garland

Mom Rules - New TTCF for 2013

Here's the thing we love about "family"-  it's crazy and loud, fun and happy, messy and real, with good days and bad days.  At least our families are that way! That's why in our own homes we surround ourselves with fun and encouraging messages to help us grow.  We know we're not the only families who aren't perfect, so we created "This Thing Called Family" for all of the other real families out there: as encouraging reminders, good conversation starters and smile-makers!  Our new Mom Rules feature universal themes that will turn life's important rules into a fun and colorful way to decorate, while still getting your point across!  We hope you will find something unique that will help your family stay close, keep track of life and have fun along the way!

From our Things With Wings family to Yours,

Connie, Jill and Laura

So here the Mom Rules! Do you have a favorite?

Three new picture frames!

And six of these dimensional adorable little houses!

We're also super excited about our new Christmas collection!  You can see the entire collection of "This Thing Called Family" by visiting here.

Happy V-Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

God loves you - in all the big and little ways that only He can - no matter what - today and every day.

To celebrate my honey,  I've been posting this picture everywhere I can think of today that we took of ourselves in Seattle.   He's not a big social media person, but his co-workers always know what he and his family are up to because his wife IS!  So he does have to occasionally check in on the ol' Facebook, just to see if there's anything important/embarrassing/life changing/funny/mundane that he needs to know!

If you want to show your Valentine some xtra love today, consider a social-media love bomb! Post, text, tag and share a pic of you and your honey thru all of the social media avenues you both use, and they'll get likes and comments all day - which will (hopefully) make them only fall more and more in love with you!!! (...and not annoy or embarrass the heck out of them...) You could doctor it up with effects and a quote using PicMonkey - they have a ton of special Valentine effects that are fun to play around with!

Despite having our luggage stolen out of the trunk of our rental, a race against the clock trip to Target to get me through the next 4 days, and all of the hassle with insurance and replacement afterwards, we had a great time in Washington.  Damon was in Seattle for about a month for a work project and since he couldn't get home, I came to him for my birthday weekend! This picture was taken at Deception Pass on Whidbey Island.

And now he's home and all is well!  Busy, but well!

Just to be silly, I decided to take it up yet another notch and see what the photo would look like in our new "I Love Us" frame from This Thing Called Family.  Hee, hee!   :-)

ABC Table

Momma Winger here! I just delivered another ABC childrens table that I painted and sold.  I had it sitting in my living room for 2 weeks after it was finished.  WHY? 
a) the customer was not ready for it yet.
b) It was snowy and icy out, couldn't get it delivered by myself without falling or dropping it!
c) I wasn't finished admiring my work yet.
d) I felt tempted to keep it!
e) It needed to go through my special "be still" waiting period where I pray over it & for the kids who will be using it while it sits still and the finish gets hard and durable.

All of these answers are true.  Here is a photo of the top.  The side edges are dark gray with white polka-dots and the legs are an antiqued mustard color.  So adorable if I do say so myself.