BRACELETS FOR SALE!!!

Note: AMAZING FINAL SALES & DONATIONS TOTALS FROM THIS BRACELET SALE CAN BE FOUND BY CLICKING HERE!

Dear readers, This is a big FIRST for the J-M Family Blog!… drumroll please…

For Sale to the highest bidder: 2 beaded bracelets handmade entirely by Owen and Kyle.

All proceeds from the sale of these bracelets will be evenly split between:

1) K & O, and 2) Heartline Haiti.

PLEASE READ FINE PRINT BELOW!

The only time we’ve done a fundraiser on this blog was in the summer of 2009. We raised some money then (it was awesome! click here for link). We’re hoping to raise some money again! The difference is, this time, it is entirely Kyle and Owen’s idea.

Last week was K & O’s school spring break. The day before their break began, I met with their first grade teacher for their parent teacher conferences. She had some nice things to say. She also let me know — loud and clear — that we “really need to work on their fine motor skills.” So, yeah…. they have ridiculously well-developed gross motor skills (can you say ATHLETES?!?!!), but let’s just say they need work in the fine-motor-department. So, I came up with a little fine-motor-project for their school break: these very complex-looking beaded bracelets (pictured above).

Years ago, before K & O were born, I was fortunate enough to go on an incredible 2-week-whirlwind-tour of South Africa. Amongst many arts and crafts that I bought there and brought home, I purchased a beaded bracelet that I absolutely cherished. It was made by a South African woman, entirely of safety pins and beads, and I thought it was such a clever and beautiful idea. Over the years I’ve shown it to Kyle and Owen often, and talked with them about my experiences in South Africa.

When I announced to my boys that they were each going to make one of these bracelets during their spring break I was met with the usual shock and dismay (they HATE anything crafty or fine-motor-skills-related and really all they wanted to do was play basketball in the driveway alllll daaaaay loooooong). They were not happy about this bracelet idea. At all. But as we got into the project something semi-miraculous happened— THEY ACTUALLY LOVED MAKING THEM! I was so completely stunned by this turn of events that I began photographing their handiwork as we progressed– mainly because I wanted documented proof to show Braydon that the boys (not me) had, indeed, made these completely themselves.

During the making of the bracelets we spent a lot of time chatting. The boys — on their own (I swear) — came up with the idea that they wanted to use our blog (they are becoming more and more aware of what this blog is really all about) to SELL the bracelets. At first they wanted to keep the profits for themselves entirely. But then they began talking about giving some of the money to Haiti. Ultimately they decided that ONE HALF of the proceeds will go to them and ONE HALF of the proceeds will go to Heartline Haiti (an organization that we trust and love, on the ground in Haiti, doing work we respect).

I asked Kyle and Owen what they’ll do with their half of whatever money they might make. They say that it will go into their savings (they only ever save their money — all of it — Tooth Fairy money, gift money, ALL money they accrue always goes into a one-pot-combined-K-and-O-savings no matter how much we urge them to go ahead and spend some every once in a while). When I asked what they are saving for, they have absolutely no idea whatsoever. I feel kind of weird about having half the money raised here go to K & O… but it is their idea, their painstakingly-made-bracelets for sale, and the honest truth is that I feel like I owe it to them to do this their way (not my way– which would be to have all proceeds to go Heartline). The fact is, that I blog a ton about these boys– the least I can do in return is let them sell a couple of bracelets on this blog.

So… Here’s how this is going to work!

Do you want one of these beautiful (and seriously– they are GORGEOUS) bracelets?

The bracelets will go to the highest bidder.

Leave your bid (and specify which bracelet you are going for) in the comments section here. Be sure to come back and bid again and again– Kyle and Owen will be watching in hopes that they can raise some good money here!

Information on Heartline Haiti can be found here: http://heartlineministries.org/

Postage and handling (to ship the bracelets anywhere in the world) will be paid for by us.

We’ve never done something like this before–and I’m a little nervous about this (to be honest!), but I promised K & O I’d go through with it– so here goes!

WHO WANTS A BRACELET?!?!

Bidding will end at 7:00 a.m., eastern standard time, Saturday, March 31st.