Announcing a BRAND NEW Sound of Hope!

If you just read my blog then you're probably wondering why I've been MIA lately. (Sorry friends!) But if you're also my friend on FB or twitter, then you know the reason I haven't been blogging, is because of the CrAzY hours I've been working.

I don't actually remember the last time Rusty and I had a real (full) day off, but I do know it was before Thanksgiving. And since we got home from our Arkansas Thanksgiving visit, we've been working a lot of 10, 12, 15, and even 18 hour work days. But I'm thrilled to announce that alllll that work was worth it, because this week we revealed our BRAND NEW logo, website, and online store for The Sound of Hope!!!

For a while now we've known that in order to continue our full-time work with The Sound of Hope, we needed to focus on improving our organization. We've been "getting by" with free websites and printwork designed by friends, and while we're grateful for that getting us this far, it just didn't do our work justice. The children we serve overseas have INCREDIBLE stories, and we want to make sure people hear them, see them, and have a way to respond to them. So this Fall, we hired an amazing firm to make The Sound of Hope even better!

The team at Ideogram has worked tirelessly to create this awesome site for us, and we're so excited to see it live! On our homepage you'll find an interactive slider that shows each country we work in, our main video for that country, our latest tweet, and the projects we're currently fundraising for. (Move the boxes with your up & down & left & right arrows.)

Click on the map (or the menu in the top right of the page) and you can visit 4 country specific pages. For the first time, you can see (in detail) where we work, how many children we care for, and exactly what we do in each country. You can also find our latest country specific videos, blogs, and fundraising projects. There are 2 brand new Feature videos too - check them out on our India & Swaziland pages! (I'm just going to brag on my husband for a minute here, ok? Rusty did an amazing job on these 2 videos, so you will definitely want to watch them! :)

There are several other new pages, but I'll let you peruse the site and discover them yourself. I do want to point out one more INCREDIBLE addition though. This week, we opened up our first ever online store for The Sound of Hope!

For the past year I have been collecting merchandise from around the world to sell in our shop. We have so many beautiful, unique products from India, Thailand, Burma, and Swaziland - and I'm so excited to finally share them with you! There's original art, handmade jewelry, silk scarves, handpainted brass bowls and MUCH more! And the best part is - every single purchase helps us provide RESCUE, PROTECTION, and HOLISTIC CARE to children in need.

It's been really exciting to see how people have responded to our new site and the store! In just 3 days our store has had over 2,000 page views and a ton of orders. I believe this will be a great tool to connect new people with our work around the world! (And a big THANK YOU goes out to Alison Wilkey for the gorgeous product photos she did for us! :)

So, what are you waiting for?! Go check out our new site and shop in our new store! (If you place an order by Monday the 17th, you should get it in time for Christmas :) And please help us get the word out by sharing our new site with your friends via email, facebook, and twitter. 'Tis the season for year-end tax-deductible gifts, and we need your help to finish 2012 strong!

Shopping from the Kids' Rack

Let's do a fun blog today... shall we? It's a blog about something that I don't normally talk a lot about on here - FASHION!

Face it, any former pageant girl has to love fashion. One of my favorite hobbies is "shopping", and adore any reason to get all dressed up! I just try not to focus on fashion too much in life, because to me, there are more important things than having a designer fill-in-the-blank.

So, I try to be current without overspending. One way of doing that is avoiding too many "trendy" items, and instead investing in pieces that stand the test of time. That... and always shopping the sale rack!

But today, I thought I'd share my latest very trendy find with you, along with a tip that might help you score a crazy good deal like I did.

Ready for it? Here it comes... I suggest that you shop the kids' rack. No - not for your child. No - not for your friend's child! Believe it or not, if you are petite (like me) you might actually find something on the kids' rack that could fit you!

Now, before you start calling me crazy - check out my new purchase. Aqua skinny jeans for only $5!!! These were originally $46, but they were crazy marked down because they are LITTLE BOYS JEANS! (And what little boy would want to wear pale aqua skinny jeans? I grew up with 2 brothers and let me tell ya - pigs would fly before they would wear these!) So, needless to say, TJ Maxx just kept marking them down and marking them down. I couldn't resist trying them on, only to find that they FIT (and are really cute!)

Here's a pic for those of you who don't believe me - wearing my Levi's Supper Skinny Boys Jeans - Size 18. It's not the best pic (I was just trying them on to show my husband) but you get the idea! They are actually a little more "aqua" in person.

I found similar styles online at Nordstrom for $104 and Macy's for $98, which made me even happier about my find :)

And if you think it's just because I'm teeny tiny, you're wrong. I have everything from a 2 to an 8 in my closet, and typically wear a medium or large in some things. The actual measurements on these jeans are a 29 x 29.

I've been resisting colored jeans for months now, because they make me think of the 80's every time I see them. But when I tried these on they were just too much fun to pass up! And let's face it, for $5 I could wear them twice and get my money's worth!

If I were you, I would definitely check out the kid's rack next time you shop. It's the style these days to wear things flowy and there's a lot of elastic in skirts and tops. Who knows? You might find a little girl's maxi skirt in a size 16 and turn it into the perfect "just below the knee" skirt for you!

Now, for those of you who aren't petites, there is still another rack you can check out too (especially if you're tall and have longer arms!) I'd encourage you to check out the men's clearance rack next time you're looking for a good deal. Yes, the cuts are typically unflattering for women - but you just never know! Some companies even make "boyfriend style" jeans and pants (I have some gray ones made my Hurley that I love!) You have about as much luck on the men's rack as I do on the kids' rack... it's a "treasure hunt" of sorts. I did see some XS and S thin hoodies the other night marked way down on the men's rack because they were purple and light green. I'm convinced they would've been super cute on a woman!

If you find any good deals on the kids' rack or men's rack in the next few weeks, be sure to share them with us in the comment section. Happy shopping ya'll!

Looking for the 411 on Korea!

Okay - here's a quick post for all my traveling friends! I'm wondering if we know anyone who's been to Korea - specifically around Seoul? We have about a 10 hour layover there on our way home in a few days, and we really need some advice!

From what we can tell, the airport is about an hour away from Seoul. We were hoping to head into the city and find a market - but we have no idea where to start! You see, some dear friends of ours are adopting a precious little girl from Korea, and we wanted to buy a few items (jewelry, scarves, art?) that they could auction off to raise money for their adoption. So - if you can give us any advice on the following questions, we would really appreciate it!

1 - How do we get from the airport to Seoul? Subway? Taxi? Ferry? (it appears that the airport may be on an island?)

2 - How long does it take to get to Seoul? (We need to plan our time carefully!)

3 - Do you know of any good markets? I was hoping to find a street market, which is where I usually shop in India, Thailand, etc. We want nice things for a good price! Anyone have any suggestions? (maybe we could give the name/location to a cab driver to get there?) And do you know if they are DAY markets, or NIGHT markets?

4 - What items are "special" in Korea? For example - Thailand has pearls and silk scarves.... India has wall hangings.... Swaziland has batiks. Is there anything (that isn't crazy expensive) that is unique to Korea? And do you know what a good price is for it?

5 - What is the exchange rate for Korea?

6 - How do you say "Hello", "How much?" and "Thank You" in Korean? Are there any other cultural things we should know? (I don't want to offend anyone while we're in-country!)

7 - Is there anything else special/exciting/unique that we should try to see in Seoul while we're there?

I realize I could (maybe) find some of this info online, but we don't have very good internet so I don't have a lot of time to search. If any of you could help us out with this little project, we would appreciate it so much! Thanks friends!