Who says that dresses are only for Sundays? Funny thing is, I used to think that until the Lord showed me other wise! We have decided to post pictures daily for one week, showing that dresses are not just for Sundays! This "Through the Week in Feminine Dress" has been inspired by a few other websites that have done this of putting pictures up daily. We pray that it will be an inspiration and encouragement!

Pictures, coming up!

Does anyone read this blog? =)

I have been curious to know who all reads this, or for that matter, if ANYONE reads the blog. =) So I have decided to send a FREE tatted bookmark to whoever will post first in this entry. Anyone may participate whether it be your first time here, or if you read this blog frequently! After posting here, send us an e-mail (ajoyfulhandmaiden@yahoo.com) with your address and we will send one off to you for free!

Wow, just yesterday I received my book, "Handmaidens of the Lord" and I would highly recommend this book to any women who desires to walk in the path of Biblical womanhood. So far I have only read a little over half of the book, but it is full of testimonies of other young women who are living at home in their twenties, some who once wondered "What am I going to do after school," and other testimonies of God' faithfulness!

Crystal writes, "Handmaidens of the Lord is my gift to the brave young women who are challenging the status quo of college and careers and seeking to pave a trail for others to come behind them. If I could have an opportunity to sit down and have a heart-to-heart talk with each and every Christian young lady in this country, this is the message I would want to give them. Instead of bashing college or pursuing a career, this book encourages young women to cultivate something which is much more valuable than a college degree or financial success – a servant’s heart. "

If you are interested, please visit the link to the side of this blog, "Biblical Womanhood" and it will take you to the site to order it! It will definately be worth your $8.97 worth!!

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We are back!

While it is always fun to be on vacation, it is great to be back! Erin and I can hardly wait to get to the sewing machines and while we wait for custom orders, we'll work on some ready-mades to add to our website. Speaking of which...

We have a couple new sales going on through the month of July, that you might be interested in. =) The mainpage has the details: http://www.ajoyfulhandmaiden.com

Back, but will be out again!

This past weekend I got back from a two-week course of Strings Workshop (besides sewing, I play and teach violin) and while it is good to be back home, Lord willing, our family will be heading out tomorrow for a family trip out to MI. We'll be taking a northern route this time by visiting Mt. Rushmore and then driving through MN and WI to get up to the UP of Michigan where we'll be in Mackinaw for about 5 days and then heading south to visit relatives for a couple days. We'll be touring Greenfield Villiage one weekend if anyone wants to meet us! Just e-mail! =)

Lord willing, Daddy is planning to arrive back home on the 4th of July, so until then, we will not be able to process any orders or ship out catalogs whatsoever. E-mail will be limited (in fact upon coming home, I can't send any out for some odd reason ... hopefully yahoo will have that resolved soon!) so I think we could safely say that you'd more than likely here from us once we are back home.

Blessings!

Advertising

The other day I received an e-mail from a well-known Christian, homeschooling magazine offering ad space in their magazine for a certain amount with a 5% discount, but even with that, it would cost over $100. At this point, we wouldn't be able to afford advertising in it, now that Erin and I are no longer working part-time outside of the home.

We are actually rejoicing that we aren't working outside of them home anymore, =) and home to devote more time to our sewing business, and Lord willing, we hope to expand it a little bit. Any ideas? =)

Anyway, the point of this entry: do any of you know of any Christian magazines that would offer advertising for a little bit cheaper that $100? =) Other than a few websites, our main souce of getting word out is by "word of mouth."

Just recently, a business asked if we had any fliers to send them, so that they could include them in their packages, so we are now making those if any of you would like them! Just write and ask, and we'll send them out to you for free!

Another seamstress in a few years...

This evening our younger sister has been urging me to get upstairs and help her cut out a skirt and a couple jumpers for her to sew. For quite awhile she's been making simple pillows, bags, and so forth and now I think she's ready for something easy and simple.

About a year ago, someone gave us some fabric that wasn't really our tastes, but I thought I'd save it just incase something would come up, so what better use could we put it to, but Molly's first jumpers all sewn by herself? She has quite an interest in sewing and handcrafts, so I have a feeling that in a few years time, we'll be adding her on to our home business! =)

An update, as far as orders

If you have placed an order with us within the last several weeks and have not received it yet, bear with us for they ARE being worked on, but we've had a lot of stressful things (personal) happen this spring, lots of weddings to serve in or play for (Erin plays harp and I the violin) which has required some sewing for ourselves, trips, and the list goes on. It's just a busy time of year for us! =)

One announcement however is that we will not be able to take in any custom-made orders for the month of June. I will be gone for two weeks for the first part of the month for a Strings Workshop, and once I get home, I'll have about 3 or 4 days to pack up for our annual summer trip to Michigan to visit friends and relatives and Lord willing, that is usually a two week trip and we'd like to be back by July 4th.

We do not like doing this, but we have no other options! Our ready-made shop will still be open, as will be our resource shop (check out some new items we've added this spring!) as those things are al ready to be shipped out. As always, feel free to e-mail us, ajoyfulhandmaiden@yahoo.com if you have any questions!

Fixing this thing

I may know how to run sewing machine ans sergers, but understanding html and getting things to work right on the computer isn't my forte. Would anyone know how to get my profile/links/archive section up at the top and not way down at the bottom?

I came across part of an article that had a section on the subject of modesty, and I thought it had some wonderful wisdom and insights that I think we could gleam from.

Modesty
I Timothy 2:9-15: In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works. Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.

Later on you see some of the same things written in the book of I Peter. I think that it’s wonderful that God put some of the same instructions in the Bible written by two different people. That’s because he knows human nature—someone may say, “Paul looked down on women.” I’ve actually heard people say that! God, knowing that, chose to speak these same things through two different writers! Also, don’t ignore the teaching of holy dress because you already practice it! You must understand it in order to teach it to your girls. You must understand it in order to teach it to your boys, so they can find godly wives and teach these things to their children. Also, if you think you can overlook this simply because you already practice it, then soon you won’t practice it.

There are two meanings for modesty. Number one is not revealing the body, or not enticing men to wrong thoughts. That’s very simple—the Scriptures say to not cause your brother to sin. It’s very simple to know that you shouldn’t dress immodestly, meaning you shouldn’t entice any man. Many might think that the believing men aren’t going to be enticed, but that’s not always true! We want to spare our brothers.

The second part of modesty means being quiet and not seeking to be the center of attention. Once, I took my little girl Lydia to the doctor, and they left her in panties for a long time without giving her a gown. Lydia complained that she wasn’t modest! That was exciting, but the nurse’s response nearly bowled me over. She said, “I haven’t heard that word in twenty years.” Sadly, the concept of modesty is gone, so we must be doubly diligent in not seeking the center of attention—and teaching our children likewise. Children automatically like flashy things. If you don’t curb this early on, you’ll have a big problem with they’re older. What is nearly every little girl’s favorite color? Red! They even want to paint their rooms red. If you take them out to the fabric store, they’ll pull out a big piece of fabric that has lions and tigers done in purple and orange and say, “Mom, this would look great on you!” But we as believers don’t want to look better than the other person. But oh, how our flesh screams to be noticed by others!

Bold colors and bold prints are often worn by someone with a bold spirit. Yet Paul lifts up the virtues of shamefacedness and sobriety. Don’t think of this as law, but know that he is wise, and knows that clothes reflect the heart—he’s trying to help us out here. Many women think of this as bondage, but if we could only learn to trust God on these things, we wouldn’t have a struggle. Sadly, many employees are more willing to please their boss than we are to please the God of the entire universe! Employers realize that dress reflects the attitude of the person. Think about it—doctors and nurses wear white (sterility), those in the military wear dark, serious colors (no soft pastels!), bank tellers wear nice clothes (to reflect prosperity), and these are just a few. The whole world understands that your dress reflects your heart. What do you want to reflect? Fashion? Prosperity? Sensuality? Young girls, simply being “cool”? Be a stranger and pilgrim, and delight to draw attention to Jesus Christ, not to you. Let good works adorn you. Don’t be afraid to be “weird” in the eyes of a wicked world.

To read the full article, here is the link: http://charityministries.org/theremnant/theremnant-March2006-godly-woman.cfm

Our Resource Shop is now available!

We are excited to announce that our resource shop on our website, is now open and ready for customers! =) We have added more tatted bookmarks (and you can custom-request colors and styles that we offer up there) and are offering a lone doily handmade by a dear friend. My first thoughts after seeing them were, "Her work is professional!"

If any of our readers have quality items that you think might sell in our shop, we may be interested in buying wholesale from you! Please feel free to e-mail us!

Visit the shop at: http://www.ajoyfulhandmaiden.com/NewShop.html

Win an apron for a cheaper price!

We like put some things on ebay every now and then. And right now, we have our all-time favorite apron up for only $20! If you like aprons, you'll be sure to like this one full of old-fashioned charm! See it listed here: http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZstringsftkQQhtZ-1

Hint of History

I can't tell you how delighted I was to hear that my friend, sister in the Lord, and fellow seamstress has finally opened up a business! Her creativing and ability to put those ideas into patterns and gowns is continually inspiring me. I think you'll enjoy browising her site: http://www.hintofhistory.com

The Return of the Apron...

...I have heard the apron called an icon of the past, so where did it go? With the dawn of the women’s liberation movement, more and more jobs became available to women, and women slowly began to leave their homes. There was no longer a need for feminine fashion statements that had such close ties to the home and hearth. There was no time to bake or entertain--no time at home to do many of the things women once enjoyed doing. Many of the homemaking skills like cooking, baking, sewing, and even cleaning were looked upon as drudgery. We hired maids, cooks, and childcare professionals to do our jobs for us, and the skills of the home manager were all but lost. Our young maidens no longer had moms at home to teach them how to be homemakers, so they, in turn, went off to work, too. You could say, “We’ve come a long way baby”, but I think we have been traveling in the wrong direction...

Read the full article here:http://www.ladiesagainstfeminism.com/artman/publish/article_2290.shtml

We here at our little "cottage industry" love wearing aprons! Other than our own (www.ajoyfulhandmaiden.com/NewAprons) here are a few other modest apparel sites that offer some nice aprons that you might enjoy:

www.thekingsdaughters.com

This has been the moment we've been waiting for! =)

PTL, we have nearly everything up on our new website: http://www.ajoyfulhandmaiden.com/! We didn't think it would take this long, but since we've never done anything like it before, it has been a total learning experience! Not everything is up yet (our Nearly New section, Resource Shop, Photo Gallery and such) but we are working on it, and if there is anything that you want to see from those sections, please feel free head back over to the Geocities site. We will keep up a few of those pages until everything gets transferred. For now, just continue sending e-mails to this address until we get our other e-mail addresses set up.

We also have out 2006 catalog finished, and will be sending that out once we get our catalog made up (we have the masters done, just need to get them copied). If you have ordered from us this past year, you will receive a catalog. Any extras will cost $1 per catalog. We will continue to include a free one with each order you purchase unless you specify more on your order form.

Spring Special!

We are coming closer to the final stages of our website and our catalog is all finished except for our photo insert page! We haven't had the time make extra apparel for taking pictures, so if any of you have pictures of you/your daughters wearing apparel ordered from us, we'd love to see them and add them in our catalog so we can get them sent out!

We couldn't wait any longer though to let you know of a couple new Tropical Breeze fabrics that we are offering. We will offer them though April 10th and then will offer them again when we get our website up, but hopefully we can get everything up by then! =)

See the new TB fabrics here: http://www.geocities.com/ajoyfulhandmaiden/Specials and order like you normally would.

Frumpy clothes?

The other day, I received this comment, "I like how your homemade clothes are not frumpy. Seems that it can be easy to make a homemade dress look frumpy...if you know what I mean."

That is one thing that we have desired not to wear is frumpy, wrinkled, faded clothing. Not only does it have an appearance of disorderliness, but it can also turn people away when it looks like you just "came from the barn." Don't get me wrong, there is a time and place to wear dirty, faded demin, as I have a denim jumper that I wear a lot for working, cleaning, etc and as far as the statement, "came from the barn" -- I love animals and old barns! But the Bible does say that all things should be done decently and in order (see 1 Cor. 14:40) and though it isn't talking about clothing, I do believe that we could definately apply this verse to what our appearance looks like!

Men still respect the presence of a woman

I found this out once again this morning at work...

You know those airfilled balloon-like toys for children to sit on that make those unpleasant noises? We must have had one of those back in the little room where all the general merchandise is stocked - toys, cleaning supplies, pet food, batteries, and etc. As I was going back to stocking in this little area, I saw a grown man playing around with one and laughing. Another customer (I'm not sure if they were shopping together or what) said with command and sterness of voice, "Hey, quit doing that. There are ladies present in here" or something along that line. I should have said "thankyou" to the man who asked the other guy to stop, but I was once again amazed, and yet felt to honored to have been respected like that.

Had I have looked more like a man or wore man's apparel, I have to wonder if that would have been said? I had to silently thank the Lord for making me a woman and for giving me the joy and the delight in dressing in a feminine, modest way that would be a testimony to others!

Some great articles on modesty and femininity!

http://www.ladiesagainstfeminism.com/artman/publish/article_2133.shtml/

http://www.ladiesagainstfeminism.com/artman/publish/article_508.shtml

We are still working on our website and catalog. It has taken us long than expected. Thanks so much for your patience! Our e-mail was down for a a couple weeks (not sure why!) and so if you e-mailed us within the last month and never received a reply, we apologize for that! It seems to be working fine now.