Beau-tique

9:18 p.m. Today's project was to prepare my home for the "Glitz, Glam, Gifts & Goodies" Spring Boutique opening at 9:30 a.m. since vendors would be arriving at 8:30, I thought it best to get up at 5:30 rather than the usual 6:00. I had started off to bed by 9 :30 last night with the best of intentions, after supervising and helping our renter and his cousin move three of our four couches out to the garage.  Problem was, Jada was very agitated and barking in her crate, no matter what I did to comfort her, apparently freaked out by the Jeep not being in the garage and seeing 3 couches in its place. So I bid her good night, went upstairs, put in earplugs, turned on the upstairs bathroom fan and went to sleep.  I was not going to let sporadic barking keep me awake with a big day coming up.

This morning before he awoke Steve, the caregiver and I dragged out the huge family room couch using an old sheet. Worked pretty well! At 60, I surprised myself by even doing about 15% of the lifting!!

Steve didn't seem overly upset by the missing couches, and was quite cheerful at the prospect of going out for breakfast and spending the day "away from all the ladies and their lady stuff," as I expressed it. I'd given Andrew the money for all three meals out, plus a movie at the local $2 theater.  Once they took off, I finished my devotions, and went out into the clear cold to put up a sign and banner. My Tupperware gal Valerie arrived first,  because she volunteered to cook refreshments for all of us for the day. What a sweetheart--and good cook, too!

All of a sudden, vendors were arriving, tables and beautiful crafts were being arranged, and we opened with Monkey Bread popping out of the microwave, lots of fresh coffee, and our first guests. Vendors hurried to get their $1 per minute chair massages from our certified massage therapist Amy before the customers needed their full attention. Each brought a gift for my random hourly drawings for attendees. The day was such fun, with believers enjoying one another's company and supporting one another's businesses. God-given talents were on display, from the front of the house to the kitchen.

Old and new girlfriends stopped in,  I gave a lot of mini-and full facials, sold well, and had a lady I'd never met before become a Mary Kay consultant!!

By hosting a crafters' event, my desire was to help talented ladies get more exposure for their businesses, increase their sales and supplemnent their family's income. Like the virtuous wife of       Proverbs 31:10-31, we too run our households as well as home-based businesses:

She arises while it is yet night, and provides food for her household...(v. 15)

She makes linen garments and sells them; and supplies sashes to the merchants (v. 24).

May the words of verse 25 be said of us today:

Strength and honor are her clothing; she shall rejoice in time to come.