Char – Page 3 – Delight Design

May Update!

Somehow May has arrived with it’s usual whirlwind of spring and end of school activities, and there’s so much to tell you! We have been finishing up grad party and Mother’s Day custom gifts, designing new home decor and nursery signs, AND gearing up for a fun, crafty, delightful summer! Here’s what’s coming and what’s been happening…

PAINT PARTIES

Join us for a night out and paint a fun “Hello Summer” door hanger. These are 11 inch round and you can paint it using your favorite ice cream & summer colors! Choose from two nights:

Thursday, May 23rd or Thursday, May 30th at 6:30 p.m.

Price is $25, with a portion of the proceeds going to HUGS For Hugs 4 Tomorrow , to feed and educate kiddos in Malawi, Africa.

Click on over and reserve your spot now!

HOT OFF THE LASER

We were part of York General’s second annual Baby Fair this year, and I had so much fun designing new baby wall/door hangers and nursery decor. Below are a couple of the designs, and you can see more in the shop or on the website

Don’t forget – custom is my FAVORITE, so if you have an idea for a door/wall hanger, inspirational sign or anything else, just stop by or text/email and let’s create something fun!

NEW CRAFT KITS

To go along with the Baby Fair, we have added several new Baby Safari Door Hangers craft kits. You can choose from a Giraffe, Hippo, Tiger, Elephant, and Monkey! These 10 inch round door hanger kits are available in the shop now, and will be up on the website by next week. (Elephant not pictured, because we sold it before we took a picture!)

And we added to our list of Stitch Kits too! We have several new flower options, and dinos too! Stitch kits are SO popular with kiddos, and we hope to keep adding to our available designs. (AND I can’t wait to show you what’s on the drawing board next for adults – think larger wood wall hangings/embroidery combos!) But for now, these new stitch kits for kids are available in the shop now, and I’ll get them on the website by next week. Email me if you need a link right away! 🙂

WEDDING SEASON IS HERE!

I read the other day that there are a record number of weddings happening this year. Apparently May and October are the busiest months this year for weddings. I have definitely noticed an uptick in wedding sticker and favor orders online. And we recently made six wedding signs in one week for local bridal showers! Here’s one of our new custom designs for wedding gifts. You can order these custom signs in the shop or on the website:

SPECIAL GIFTS FOR MOMS/GRANDMAS

And finally, while I didn’t get this new item advertised (by email) in time for Mother’s Day gifts, I am SO excited about this new design that is perfect for Moms and Grandmas, ANYTIME. It’s a custom Birth Flower Bouquet Sign, with the flowers of each child or grandchild included in the bouquet. We have both sepia and white cardstock options available, and the dark brown frames are gorgeous. I have made several of these this month, and it’s SO MUCH FUN to digitally put together a beautiful bouquet. Each one is completely custom and unique, and I just love how they turn out.

I feel like there are a million more things to tell you, but I’ll close for today. It’s been a BUSY, fun month of designing and creating. I hope you’ll join us in the shop or online, to shop or craft soon!

Shop Updates

April Update

April is flying by so fast! It’s been a great month for custom designing – we’ve made 100 custom wrenches for a local club, donut ornaments for our friends at the local donut shop, custom cupcake toppers for grad parties, and several wedding signs! We’ve also scheduled some fun events and private parties this month, and the craft/party room is staying busy! Check out what’s coming and what’s new…

PAINT PARTIES

There’s still time to reserve your space for a Paint Party this month. Join us on either Thursday, April 18th (tomorrow!!) or next Thursday April 25th at 6:30 p.m. to paint and assemble this beautiful Scripture Floral Frame. Price is $25 and you can send me your favorite scripture ahead of time to have ready for the paint night. The frame can be painted in so many ways!

Click on over and reserve your spot now!

HOT OFF THE LASER

We’re always working on several fun new kits for the shop and the website. Here’s what just came off the laser – an Axolotl! (I have to google every time I try to spell that one!) This kit is currently available in a 6 inch round, and includes jute for hanging.

We are doing several private parties in the next few weeks – birthday parties, Red Hat Society craft party, paint party nights… and here is one of our new kids’ birthday party craft options… BABY YODA (aka Grogu). This is also a 6 inch round mini door hanger/wall hanger.

Don’t forget – custom is my FAVORITE, so if you have an idea for a party or a craft kit you’d like, just stop by or text/email and let’s create something fun!

GRADUATION IS ALMOST HERE!

There is still plenty of time to order your Graduation Party Favors! Check out the samples for round stickers, cardstock tags, cupcake toppers, water bottle labels, candy wrappers… And I am ALWAYS happy to create other items if you need something specific, but don’t see it offered.

In case you still need invites, I’ve got another sample of a custom grad INVITATION design. You can get digital designs that you email or print yourself, OR I can offer printed with envelopes as well. The listing is for 5×7, double-sided photo invites, but I can do other sizes as well.

WEDDING SEASON, ANYONE?

Do you know anyone who is getting married this year? I think we have four wedding showers to attend just in the next couple of weeks. It is totally that time of year! I’m always curious to see what trend or theme will be popular each year, and this year it appears to be TEA! We sell tea bag favors year round, but we’ve had several custom orders recently which makes me believe this is a trending party theme this year! We offer them in a variety of designs and as always, can customize! Here’s a lovely sample that gets lots of looks!

And sunflowers are ALWAYS popular – year after year!

HUGS FOR TOMORROW

I am so happy every time I’m able to send more money to feed more kiddos in Africa through HUGS for Tomorrow. We’ve been able to give almost $1800 this year so far because of our special paint parties, regular sales in the shop, and our online sales. I was looking through the recent videos, and thought I’d share this one of Esther. Your orders and purchases help feed and educate sweet kiddos like her!

Shop Updates

March Update

My family took a trip to Vegas last week for Spring Break. It was a whirlwind of a trip, and very bittersweet, as my husband’s sister is not in good health. Besides visiting with family, the kids and I spent a few hours each day going to locations around town that my daughter had chosen for taking some of her senior photos. Even though we’ve been in Nebraska for almost 6 years, she still feels like Vegas is “home”, and it was important to her to get some photos there. (She’s a junior, but senior year will be here before we know it, and we’re not likely to be back in Vegas again before she graduates). I had so much fun reliving memories with my kids, and watching these two almost adult kids laugh and enjoy time together, being silly and grown up at the same time. Anyway, ALL that to say – I’m a little (lot) tired this week! But, we’ve still got some new items for you, and some updates about party plans this month. Check it all out…

PAINT PARTIES

We had to make some changes to our Paint Party plans! Paint Parties with Sam will resume at a later date, but for now check out the Door Hanger Paint Party we’re doing instead.

Join us on Tuesday, March 19th at 6:30 p.m. to make this adorable Spring Highland Cow Door Hanger. It’s a 10 inch round, price is $25, and 25% of the proceeds go straight to HUGS For Tomorrow. You can choose between two options for the wording when you sign up – “Spring Is Better On the Farm” or “Home Sweet Home”

We have several spaces still available for March 19th, so click on over and reserve your spot now!

PARTY PACK CRAFT KITS

I’ve added several new items to the Craft/Paint Party Packs page (say that three times fast!)

We will be offering all these paint/craft kits in sets of 5, and I’ll be adding more options every week. If you see a kit on our website or social media that you’d like to get as a Party Pack, just let me know and we’ll get it set up! Any questions, just ask!

BIRTHDAY PARTIES

For our local friends, I wanted to remind you that we can host birthday parties in our Craft/Party Room. One of our new Craft Kits in the shop is a mini wood Unicorn Door Hanger Kit (6 Inch), and these would make a GREAT birthday party craft! These are 6 inch rounds, and require quite a bit of painting/gluing, so recommended for kiddos around 8 and up, (or a party with a couple extra adults available to help with the crafting). 🙂

Check out the details on our Birthday Party page, and get in touch if you’d like to plan a party!

P.S. We also have this new Unicorn Door Hanger kit in regular 10 inch size as well.

NEW EARRING DESIGNS

I am so in love with the new pink and purple and gold glitter acrylic that I HAD to make more earrings with it. I was inspired by my best friend who regularly wears Flamingos (on Fridays) with the rest of her family. Check out the fabulous Flamingo earrings! Once again, the photos do not do them justice. Trust me when I say these are
FLA-MAZING!

EASTER STICKERS

There’s just a couple weeks left to get Easter Party Favor stickers! Click on over to check out the options, and order them to be picked up or shipped.

Gratituesday

GRATITUESDAY – A Steady Hand

I had a biopsy today, that required a large needle. (I won’t be offended if you don’t want to read this post, if things like needles and weird biopsies make you squeamish).

In the scheme of things, after going through emergency c-sections and open-heart surgeries, this was a relatively minor procedure. But it involved a large needle and my tongue, and I’d been dreading the possibility for a couple months now.

I have had a weird blister-like growth on my tongue and it would not go away. And it liked to bleed on occasion, resulting in a very expensive ER visit to stop said bleeding. The ER doctor/nurse suggested follow-up and then the regular doctor suggested I see the specialist, and today was finally the day to see what this crazy, annoying thing was.

And that required a complete removal of the growth, and a biopsy. The doctor was VERY reassuring that it was probably one of a few simple things, none of which were anything scary like cancer, so that was comforting. But I still had to get through the needle injection and removal.

I know I gushed about my husband already this month, but as I processed this minor traumatic event, I knew I wanted to mention him again in my Gratituesday post. The man is a rock, steady as they come, and he is such a great comforting presence for me. He has been with me through every doctor appointment with two difficult pregnancies, every procedure, every ultrasound and echocardiogram, both c-sections, and while he couldn’t hold my hand during the open heart surgery, he was there in the waiting room, holding and waiting.

Allan and I approach most tough situations completely differently. He is a jokester, I am serious. He is steady, I can be a nervous wreck. He is calm, and I am often… not calm. It’s a fun life. After almost 20 years together, I’d like to think I’ve learned to joke more and am slightly more calm. And I know he is more serious than he used to be, but only VERY occasionally, and if I INSIST he be serious. (See, here I am, joking a little!) It hasn’t always been easy, this growing together, and growing towards one another. We’ve hit our fair share of road bumps, and have had some significant dips on the roller coaster of marriage.

BUT… when the doctor came close with the (very large) needle, the nurse asked if I wanted her to hold my hand. My husband asked the same question at the same time. I immediately wanted my husband’s strong, steady hand. The needle in the tongue was every bit as awful as you can imagine, and then some, and then my tongue required stitches, which was a completely different needle and thread! It was only after it was all over that I realized I’d squeezed the life out of my husband’s fingers. I didn’t even think about it – I just KNEW I could hold his hand, and he could take whatever pressure I put on him.

Steady. Calm. Present. Comforting. (And always, always there with the jokes).

I am so thankful.

Gratituesday

GRATITUESDAY – 20 YEARS!

20 years ago today, I drove from York, Nebraska to Denver, Colorado to meet up with Allan B Huskins Jr. for the first time. We had been talking, and then “dating” online and over the phone for several weeks, and February 13, 2004 was our first in-person meeting.

The drive to Colorado was just six hours, but it felt like sixty. I was nervous, but also so very excited. Nervo-cited, as one of my kids calls it. I was 99% sure that I was going to marry Allan, but I hadn’t actually met him in person yet! Sound crazy? Yeah, it probably was, a little. But several weeks of talking non-stop (like 40 hours a week talking), and I was certain he was the guy for me. He seemed to feel the same.

But we needed to MEET each other first!

I pulled into the parking lot at Cracker Barrel, with little almost 2 year old Samuel in the back seat watching “Blues Clues” on a borrowed VCR/TV combo. He was happy as could be (he almost always was), with no idea that this night might change our lives pretty drastically. I arrived just a couple minutes before Allan, and then I saw his Jetta pull in and park right next to my car. I took a deep breath, and jumped out of the van. It was the moment of truth. And the moment Allan got out of his car and enveloped me in a hug, I KNEW. I won’t ever forget that moment, the smells of his leather Indy jacket, the absolutely gorgeous smile and dimples, the warm, comforting, strong arms.

I was home. He proposed before the weekend was over, and I said yes.

And for the last 20 years, Allan and I have been “home” for each other, traveling this life together through the best of times and the worst of times. We have been through very difficult life-threatening pregnancy, babies and toddlers, special needs with our kids, severe grief and loss, moving across the country, and the teenage years with our three kids! So much of it has been HARD, and yet there has always been laughter in our home. We have struggled mightily in many ways, but we’ve continued to overcome, thanks to God’s grace. And God has been SO GOOD to us, through it all.

This last year has been one of the toughest, AND one of the best. I can’t even put into words how much Allan has been there for me. (If you know me, you know I’ll try to find the words anyway). He has been a solid rock of support, encouragement, help and love. The vows “in sickness and in health”? Yeah, he has lived those vows with me for all 20 years, but most especially this last year. I am certain I would not have been willing to go through the surgery without his help (and I mostly agreed to have the surgery FOR him). The days at home following the surgery were again some of the hardest AND the best. I was totally vulnerable and helpless, dependent on him for everything. As a Type-A personality, control freak, I hated it. But also so thankful for my husband.

Over the last year we have also discovered what time alone feels like. For six weeks after my surgery, we went almost nowhere, and sat together in our living room while I recuperated…talking, eating, resting, and talking a little (lot) more. And now, with two kids out of the house, and the one left at home that is SO busy, she’s hardly ever here, Allan and I have found ourselves with a lot more time to continue to sit and talk and eat and relax ALONE. It has been a sweet preview to what an empty nest will look like, (and I’m totally ready!)

20 years. I had no idea what ALL was to come when I made that nervous drive to Colorado, but I will always be thankful that I did and that I found my HOME in Allan B Huskins Jr.

Gratituesday

GRATITUESDAY – Paint Parties!

I’m a day late, but better late than not! So, it’s GratiWednesday this week!

We had our first acrylic painting Paint Party in the shop last night, thanks to Samantha Jewell. Nine of us painted the Floral Heart Painting last night, and it was SO. MUCH. FUN! Besides all the fun we had, the party raised money for HUGS For Tomorrow, feeding and educating kids in Malawi, Africa.

Floral Heart Painting, Paint Party image at Delight Design

When I opened the Delight Design shop, one of my main objectives for the Party Room was to fill it with not only lots of crafting, BUT to use it in ways that would glorify God and share His good news. Partnering with Samantha to gather people to paint WHILE raising money to feed kiddos? THE BEST!

Paint Party at Delight Design in York Nebraska

And we are just getting started! This Paint Party is one of THREE we scheduled for the Floral Heart Painting. We filled up the first party in less than a day, so we added a second one. And then a third! And Samantha is already working on the painting for March. The excitement and positive energy filling the shop and the party room is electric, and I’m so incredibly grateful for what God is doing.

Besides paint parties for adults, we are also making plans for paint parties for kids, AND so many other crafting type events. I can’t wait to see what 2024 brings, and we’re off to a great start.

Now, if you missed last night’s party, do not worry! You can still join us! There is ONE spot open for tomorrow, Thursday the 8th, and THREE spots open for Tuesday, the 13th. We originally thought we could get eight spots, but when we set up, we were able to make it nine. So, SIGN UP, come join us, laugh and have fun, paint a fun picture, and feed some kids in Africa at the same time!