St. Nicholas Day is Coming!

I am so excited about celebrating St. Nicholas with the kiddos in a day. This year I have added something a little special to our tradition of small treats and holy items in their stockings. Personalized St. Nicholas Mugs! I am overly excited about these cute little mugs I painted for them. I think it will be something special we can get out every year to have their cocoa or cider in on St. Nicholas Day.  Hoping the image of this Saint who was selfless and giving, a true example of Christ's love to others will help us focus on his life and how he lived it. I'll take this teachable moment with them to point out the importance of giving rather than receiving at this special time of year.

On to the more interesting part of this post. Where can you get one of these spiffy mugs? Well I would start at the Dollar Store which is where I got the mugs and then head on over to Michaels where I bought the glass paint to paint them with. As you can see, it doesn't really need to be a masterpiece, if you need to, you could print out a simple picture of St Nicholas (I've drawn you a little template) and tape to the inside of the glass and trace over it. I would suggest getting 4 colors of paint: black, gold, red, and another primary color. The paints just squeeze out of the bottle, so there is not even a need for paint brushes or other tools.

If you get the Martha brand of glass paint after 30 minutes drying time you can pop the glasses in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes and they will be resistant to washing with soap and water I would not recommend the dishwasher for these even after firing!

 

 

 

 

And here is our little surprise all nicely laid out waiting for excited smiles and happy faces on such a fun day to celebrate. I have some gold coins in the stockings and a couple small statues of Jesus and Mary, some caramels, and lastly these cute little teddy bear heat packs.

 

 

 

 

It Was Giving Tuesday Yesterday

Sometimes the biggest impact you can have from a perspective of charity is giving to the little people around you. That mom who is having a hard day with tears in her eyes, the young adult lost who can't find their way, the children cold and hungry in your community, old people forgotten in the nursing homes. A smile, a dollar, $10 it doesn't have to be much! Give, because to quote our priest from last Sunday's homily, "your state of happiness, your good fortune, is incomplete if you do not give to those in need"! How powerful is that? I took me back a minute. I have much to be thankful for but I never thought of my happiness and contentment being incomplete without giving to others. I know the importance of giving, helping, sharing, but I never tied them directly to my own situation.

It was Giving Tuesday yesterday, but it's not too late to do something about it! I am helping my sister and inviting others to help her too. It is my duty to help her, I don't have to enlist anybody's help, but I am just putting this out there because she needs help and I love her. She is a precious soul that willingly suffers for others and offers her pain for those in need. She is a kind and true friend who will always listen and mighty prayer warrior who is unceasingly praying for others. She suffers immense physical ailment and because of it financial hardship from endless surgeries, medical treatments, and doctor visits. A kind friend of hers put together this fundraiser for her and I am giving and sharing it today! This is Courtney:

 

And here is the fundraiser for her: Rally For Courtney

 

Here is a picture of Courtney giving...making her
 famous pies for others like the
firefighters at the fire house and veterans at the VA!

 

Thanks for reading and maybe passing this along, if nothing else please say a prayer for her that she has the grace to carry on when she feels alone, hopeless, and is in pain.

 

 

3 Sundays of Giveaways

 

So we were thinking it would be something exciting and add to the anticipation of Advent by having a series of giveaways. You can enter on the facebook page: SaongJai

There is a tab there that says giveaway, just click on it and you can see

there are a few ways to enter including liking the facebook page and leaving a blog comment here.

 

 

Happy Advent!

You can also just enter the giveaway form here

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Advent Linkup

Cyber Monday Sale

 

We are offering a Cyber Monday Special! $10 Off at our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/shop/SaongJai with any purchase of $20 or more. Use code: CYBER and all printables are on sale today only for just $2

 

 

 

Framing a Marian Mural

I would have loved to undertake painting a Marian mural on my children's wall, but lets face it...they would be old and grown before I finished! I wanted my girls to have someone other than a fairytale princess to look up to. I want them to look to the saints for inspiration and guidance on how to live life, I want them to emulate Mary most holy the mother of our Lord, the one who said YES to God!

So I bought a beautiful mural all ready to put up on the wall and I penciled out a nice old world style frame around the mural and added a some roses and lilies for my girls to the bottom of the frame as an accent. I bought the mural online from Magic Murals

Sharing your Faith through Facebook Banners

So I was thinking that often we don't need to use words to share our faith most of the time it is our actions that speak the loudest. Living a Christ like example is how we witness to the world our love for Jesus and faith in Him. Sometimes a little conversation starter here and there is helpful too or constant silent show of what we believe or stand for is a great example. Wear a t-shirt, put a bumper sticker on your car, stick a sign in your yard, these are all ways we can express where we stand and what we believe in. Why not constantly share it on the most visible social platform not just in status updates or wall posts, but on your cover photo!

Share your Faith!

Here are the latest Facebook cover photo banners we have available.

 

Find them all and more at our store, you can even request a custom!

Facebook Cover Photo Banners

DIY Mass Kit for Play

I have been perusing Etsy and have seen many little child's play Mass kits out there. They are all so very cute but sometimes expensive. A dear friend inspired me and jumpstarted my creative juices. Just a note...I will not be making these to sell in my store! I just want to show you that with a  little creative thinking you can possibly make a set too...without even buying one single thing!

Everything in this little set I found in junk drawers, hardware boxes, and craft bins that were just lying around in my house, I put a little epoxy to some things and gold spray paint.  This is the result:

Bells were made out of my old kitchen cabinet hardware and some craft bells I had in one of my bins.

I have supplies to make crucifixes, but if you had a kids plastic wall crucifix you could spray paint it gold.

The monstrance I made out of various light wood pieces hanging out in my craft room.

The chalice I just spray painted some vintage cordial glasses gold.

I had the little easel in one of my craft drawers, perfect for hold up a little Mass book

Totally FREE Advent Activity Collection

So finally this year I have something together a couple weeks in advance of Advent! Praise God. I am so excited to have this free Advent Activity Collection put together for all of you. I feel Advent is such a special time of preparation and can be a treasured time to have with your children. This little activity collection has an Advent candle coloring page, an Advent craft, Advent Calendar, a revised set of my O Antiphon ornaments, and a couple Marian coloring pages for Our Blessed Mother's days in Dec.

Consider following this blog for more great FREE content that will be posted and occasional giveaways that are hosted!

Click here to download Advent Activity Collection

 



For 2015's Advent Calendar Click here

 

Are you looking for a great Christmas gift? Please check out the Catholic goods shop SaongJai for those needs, your patronage helps us bring you great free content!  

 

A Little Advent History

The candles in the picture are not in order and I don't have the rose Gaudete candle finished yet but want to share a sneak peak of the advent and Christmas candle set with you. Every Sunday Mass has a specific name taken from the introit. So I have taken those names in Latin and painted them on each advent candle then for the Christmas candle have painted it rich with symbolism starting with the main Chi Rho symbol for Christ and adding in a symbol for the Blessed Trinity then tying it all together with a definition of our good God being Almighty without beginning or end.

Hand Painted Crucifixes

Well here are a few crucifixes just a little different from the ones where I have sculpted the corpus. While I love those, they are just too time consuming to mold and finish. The end result ends up being costly and then I can't offer beautiful pieces that are affordable. So I found a supplier for the corpus for my crucifixes! This way I can keep costs down and still add a little finishing artistic touch. I like the finish they come in but also if I want, can prime and paint a beautiful life like finish to the corpus. I really love the vintage ivory finish that they come in and have chosen to go with this look for some. The crosses are painted with intricate designs lending to an ornate majestic presence of the crucifixes. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.



Taupe Wall Crucifix

Celtic Crucifix

Bright, Coloroful Kids Rosary & Coloring Page

So here is a new set of rosaries we have been working on. Bright and colorful large kids rosaries. The idea here is for an engaging spiritual tool to help the little ones stay focused and become intrigued about prayer. To capture little ones attention, they are made in bright neon colors or kids camo for the little fellas :) I have sent a few out to friends with kids and one response after they were given to the children was " Mom can we pray the rosary". Sometimes a little creativity can go a long way and I think finding ways to  engage children in prayer is a worthy endeavor.

Here is a look at some of the different designs.
Bright and colorful neon rainbow rosary where each decade is a different color or an alternating color for each bead to help with keeping track of where in the prayer one is.

Neon Rainbow Rosary

Neon Rainbow Rosary

Neon Rainbow Rosary

 

Camo rosary set in three different colors. A little some

thing just for the little fellas.

 

Camo Rosary

 

Camo Rosary



Pink & Purple Rosary

And a something special for all those girly little ones out there

Pink & Purple Rosary

I have made other solid color rosaries like these in blue, green, yellow, & orange....not every little girl's favorite color is pink or purple!

To go along with every kids rosary purchase I decided to include for free a download of our new how to pray the rosary coloring page.