Tuesday's Tip: Fostering a Sense of Community

Handwriting is a dying art.  The importance of penmanship is being replaced with typing skills in schools.  My son's baseball coach, a grandfather of another boy on the team, said he would be sending out team updates via text.  In the current digital age we have replaced thoughtful, personal contact via letter and even telephone in favor of the instant gratification of technology and its many forms.  I even use a web-based program that has apps on our smart phones for the family calendar.  It allows my husband and I to update our calendar instantly and to check for family availability without checking with each other first.  It has eliminated the need to actually talk to each other.  While my husband and I do make it a point to talk to one another, our world is decidedly turning away from personal means of communication in favor of (although faster) less personal technology. 
The result of this trend is a well-informed but disconnected population.  With that move we often lose the sense of community that comes when we make personal connections with the people around us.  But we have the opportunity to fight this and strive for the sense of community we all felt growing up.  The next time you find yourself in charge of an event or a group, take the time to call each person individually.  Pick up the phone and call your friend instead of sending them an email or a text.  Even better, grab some fabulous stationery, dust off your address book and send a "thinking of you" note.  I promise it will give the recipient (and you, too) a warm and fuzzy feeling, fostering a sense of community. 

Giving It All Away

 Marker & Mud recently made two donations to worthy causes.  One to the American Red Cross chapter in Vicenza, Italy and one to a family seeking to adopt a child from the foster system.  I don't put that on here to receive any kind of pats on the back for either of us, but to let our clients know that profit is not our first priority.  In the early days of a new business there is no such thing as profit.  Every penny that comes in right now goes right back into our business as we get on our feet.  Why, you ask, would we then spend money we aren't making to make donations?  Simple, it's not ours to start with.  As women of faith, we firmly believe that nothing we have is our own.  We can't take it with us.  While we hope to some day help support our families with income from Markers & Mud, that time is still far off in the future.  But Jesus doesn't call us to wait until we are financially profitable to make donations.  Instead he asks us to give generously, to care for widows and orphans and those around us in need.  So that's what we're doing.  The American Red Cross has chapters at military installations across the world.  They offer support services for our men and women in uniform and their families.  This is, of course, close to our hearts.  Adoption is an expensive undertaking, and this family is willing to take in a child who needs a forever family.  This is how we can help to take care of the orphans.  So today's post may not seem like much of a tip, but in all of this I hope you'll walk away with this tip:  Do What You Can, even if it doesn't seem to make sense.  Be a blessing to someone else, through a phone call, a card, a financial donation or your time.  Much like marker scribbles on walls that our kids sometimes leave behind, THIS is how we can leave a mark on the world.

Blessings,

Tuesday Tips: Beating the Birthday Party Blahs

My kids are all late spring and summer babies so it's time for good ol' mom to start thinking about birthday parties again.  Having four kids, I've had parties that included almost every cartoon character imaginable.  After a while cartoon characters, cake, pizza (or hot dogs) and the like start to leave me feeling like this:

I'm so tired of the usual cartoon characters covered in cake and ice cream.  And I talk to other moms like me everyday that suffer from the same cartoon character overload.  So we're going to lose the cartoon characters and explore some party ideas that will thrill your kids and their friends while avoiding the cliche of the cartoon character.

-Pick a theme based on your child's favorite activity or the activity your child has been asking to do.  My oldest son loves to play paintball and has been asking to play paintball with his friends for his birthday for months.  We are using the splattered paint concept for much of the decorations.   If your little guy is into pirates (including the popular pirate character on TV right now) then a perfect theme (with activity) would be a treasure hunt.  Gold coin candy can be purchased online and I even saw plastic treasure box shaped storage boxes at my local discount store recently. 

-If your sweet girl wants to have a sleepover, use a color instead of a theme.  If her favorite color is purple, then make everything purple.  Serve purple food, purple drinks, and let them leave with a purple party favor. 

-Base your child's birthday on what he or she wants to be when they grow up.  Let your sweet baby go to his own party in costume. 

-Is your little person into certain animals?  Use that to create your theme.  Perhaps they love sharks.  A beach themed party is a fabulous way to incorporate that.  Are they into lions?  Then perhaps a safari themed party should be in order. 

-Turn the usual party food into delightful munchies when you rename them.  Having a space-themed party?  Try renaming hotdogs something like "rocket dogs" or calling the kool-aid "jet fuel".

The smallest of details can make the simplest party ideas fabulous.  If you have an upcoming party and need some help, Markers & Mud is at your service!  Contact us and we can help you with theme development or custom items to make your party fantastic.

Graduation

Looking for something that is as unique and special as your Graduate?  We would love to design a custom package just for them.  From invitations to the ceremony complete with pictures and modern style to traditional announcements, thank you notes and total party decoration.
Contact us today to get on our calendar.

When you SHARE Markers & Mud we are offering a Friends & Family Special on Graduation Packages.
*All details on the image below*

From the sweetest Kindergarten Graduate to those of you ready to take on the world after College,
and all the High School Seniors in between...Congratulations on such an accomplishment!

Tuesday Tips: A Family Valentine

 *This is the first of an on-going series entitled Tuesday Tips where we share some kind of party or entertaining tip to help you live life more beautifully*

Valentine's Day always brings thoughts of this:

Or this:

Valentine's Day, in reality for most of us, is more like any other day, covered in red and pink sticky substances on children's clothing and store-bought greeting cards, hastily signed then tossed in the general direction of a passing spouse.  Some years there are flowers, some years there might be a dinner, but rarely both.  So does this mean as adults who have been married for a time or parents of children that we can no longer enjoy a holiday about love?  I think NOT.  
Valentine's Day originally celebrated romantic love, but has evolved over time to include love of any kind and even friendship (my youngest son is having a friendship party where they are celebrating all the friends they have made in Pre-K this year).  
So if Valentine's Day celebrates love and we love our spouses and our children, why shouldn't we celebrate it?  
Here at Markers & Mud we wanted to share some tips to bring all the Valentine love home to your family.  

1.  Keep it simple.  You don't have to go overboard just to make it special.  Cook your family's favorite meal or serve desert if you normally don't.

2.  Make your food red!  Serve spaghetti and meatballs with strawberry shortcake for desert.

3.  Use cookie cutters for everything except cookies.  Cookie cutters make great sandwich cutters.  You can also use them to cut shapes into slices of pound cake as the base to the strawberry shortcake I mentioned.

4.  Dig out some of your Christmas decorations.  What?? Have I lost my mind? No.  Many of your Christmas decorations will be red.  Is there something you can use, like a red table cloth or napkins?  

5.  Use your "good dishes".  Whether its Grandma's china or just your everyday dishes, skip the paper plates.  Nothing makes someone feel more special than a completely set table.

6.  Spend time with your kids doing some kind of craft that doubles as table decorations.  Nothing shows love like spending time and the craft doesn't have to be complicated.  You can buy pretty beads in a red or  pink color scheme and florist or jeweler's wire at your local discount or craft store for less than $10 and make a set of jeweled napkin rings.  Let the kids do the beading and you twist it into rings.  I did this with my kids (ages 4-11) at Thanksgiving and they loved it (and I still have the napkin rings)!

7.  Let your kids drink their punch or milk out of your "good" glasses or stemware if they're big enough to use them.  Making your kids feel "fancy" is worth the risk.  At the end of the day, stuff is just stuff.  

8.  Make time for your spouse.  After the kids are in bed, share a romantic moment without the TV or other electronic distractions.  (And yes, I'm suggesting you skip the Olympics for one night)

9.  Speaking of distractions, turn 'em off.  Before the evening starts pass a basket and collect all electronic distractions from your family.  This is especially important if you have teenagers.  They may pretend they hate you for it, but knowing that you care enough to want their attention and to give them yours will pay off in other ways.

10.  The most important thing to remember is to love your family.  If the tips above cause you anxiety because you want them to be perfect, then skip all of it, order pizza and snuggle on the couch with your kids, spouse and a great family movie.  Time together builds strong families and THAT is love.


 

~FREE VALENTINE CARD DOWNLOAD~

Hey Moms (and Dads too)!

Your kids have their Valentine Party Friday.  You forgot? You didn't make the zillion card ideas that you've been pinning on Pinterest for months?  It's ok. We've got you covered...
Here is a FREE Valentine Card Printable!
Just print (card stock OR paper) add something that *STICKS*, and your child's name.
Valentines are done!

*pack of gum, stickers, glue stick, cheese stick, band-aids, pack of tape (cute tape!)*

{We can add your child's name to the download & do a background color change for you (5.00).
Message us (contact form or markersandmud@gmail.com)  and we will get that to you ASAP!}

Open the link & Print for FREE!
{Safari users feel free to email if you need additional support to download}





{GREY FREE CARD DOWNLOAD}

{PINK FREE CARD DOWNLOAD}

{PURPLE FREE CARD DOWNLOAD}


Happy Valentines Day!
xoxoxox

New Adventures

Welcome back to some of you and welcome for the first time for a few more!
I want to take a moment to introduce myself.  I am Haley and I am the business end of the perfectly decorated stick around here.  Lesli has a gift for design.  My gifts tend to be less beautiful, but just as important.  I am tasked with making sure her beautiful designs get to you!
A little history lesson for you:
This partnership was born over 25 years ago in an elementary school and a girl scout troop in a dusty little town in the middle of nowhere, west Texas.  I was the new girl, she would turn out to be my very best friend for life.  Fast forward some 20 years and we find ourselves married to soldiers who happen to also be best friends (talk about making life easy!).  A few babies, a couple of states and countries, and maybe even a pound or two later, we find ourselves on different continents, still leaning on each other for support and encouragement.  She had owned a design business, but hated the business end of it.  I had a work history in (you guessed it!) retail sales management.   My children were now old enough I was looking at going back to work, but wasn't sure I was ready to give up being home for them.  We both wanted to work toward something that would truly benefit our families long term, not just put extra money in the bank.  And a beautiful partnership was born.
If you've been here before, you'll notice a few changes.  However, one thing won't be changing and that is beautiful custom design created just for you.  If you're a new friend of ours, you can know that you will only receive the highest quality products and a unique design made just for you.  While we may sell pre-packaged (yet still exclusive) items at craft shows and vendor booths from time to time, you'll never receive a cookie cutter product when you order from us.  Many companies claim to sell custom party items and in reality you get the exact same thing as the other customers with merely a personalization.  With Markers and Mud you ALWAYS get a completely custom product.  You can know that no one else will have party decorations, Christmas cards, announcements or stationary like yours.
Lesli and I both believe that beautiful design and high quality doesn't have to be out of reach.  That's where this blog comes in.  Along side the usual business of contests, sales, up coming events, and exciting announcements, we will offer party tips and design ideas geared toward the woman with good taste AND a budget.  Fabulousness doesn't have to be expensive!  And while design and beauty are certainly life-enhancing, they are far from the most important things.  That is why Markers and Mud contributes to charities close to our heart.  Up first:  helping fund families who have chosen the path of adoption.  Lesli and I don't just share childhood memories, we share a faith that calls us to care for orphans.  This is one way we can help.
With so much going on and so much to offer, we encourage you to keep up with us on social media.  You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.  We are MarkersandMud at all four places!
We have many exciting days ahead of us.  I, for one, am super pumped to watch this take off!

Blessings,

Haley