Monday Meet-Ups

It's Monday Meet-Up time again with the Homefront Team!  This time, I came up with the questions and I can't wait to see everyone's answers :)  And if you're following along be sure to check out the Homefront Team's blog and post your blog link in the comments!

1) What is your most treasured possession?

My most treasured possession unfortunately is no longer in my possession, anymore, but it was my New Kids on the Block (before they were NKOTB, mind you) comforter.  I would never have a good night's sleep without it, from the ages of 9 to 19, seriously.  It met it's demise while I was in boot camp, my mom decided to go through my room and clean out what she deemed garbage.  I don't know WHAT made her believe my well-loved, seam-splitting comforter was trash, but let me tell you, it was a very sad day when I returned from boot camp without my Jon (oh yes, Jonathan was my favorite) to lull me to sleep.  Now I have other comforters, but they aren't quite the same...
2) What was the best gift that you gave to someone?
I could totally be crazy and tell you that the best gift I gave someone was the gift of laughter...which COULD be true because I aim to make ALL around me giddy as me.  Or I could lament about how I gave my children the gift of LIFE (I mean HELLO what could be better than that?!). 
But I think I will go with this: a year or two ago, a lady emailed me wanting to use a gift certificate she won in a contest of mine.  She wanted to know if she could use towards a purchase that she wanted to be sent to her friend's daughter.  All the gift certificate could afford was a skirt on the site (with like $3) leftover.  I asked her if she would like a shirt to go with it, to complete the outfit and to use all of the money on the GC, and she said she didn't want to trouble me making a shirt for the little amount.  Then she went on to explain to me about the little girl she was buying for - her parents had just gotten a divorce and she was living with her mom (the ladies' friend), who was barely able to make ends meet.  They had been living with friends for the past few months, couch hopping, but they had finally found an apartment they could afford to rent and moved in.  Not even a week later, the apartment complex had a huge fire (afterwards they found out it was due to poor electrical wiring), and EVERYTHING - even with what little they did have - that the mom and the little girl owned was literally up in flames.  So friends and family banded around and tried to help with what they could; the ladies' daughters were giving the little girl one of their American Girl Dolls so she could have a doll of her own and she wanted to give the little girl something special that was brand new for her birthday.  After hearing this story, I sent the little girl not only the skirt that the lady purchased, but a shirt, shoes, and hair clip and THEN a completey different jeans outfit.  It is a small reminder like this, that I'm doing this business not JUST to make money, but to help make girls all over the world a little happier and their dolls a little more fashionable.  (sorry that was a lengthy response)
3) If you are having a "crafter's block" and finding it hard to get your craft on, what helps you get out of that?
Most of the time for me to get out of a "crafter's block" I put my iPod on shuffle and let the music flow through me.  Other times, just watching some tv or reading a magazine and being able to see different things that people are wearing or using gives me inspiration.  I find myself constantly asking myself "Can I make that?" and then I try.  I will admit though, about 80% of the time I don't like the end results, but at least I can say I tried :)

And as always, for some GREAT handmade treasures made from USA military spouses across the world? Search "homefront team" at Etsy!