My Prayer...

This is My Prayer...

I pray with hands folded and eyes to the sky
that God hear my prayer, that God hear my cry
Lord, rescue these children tortured and scared
Please comfort their hearts and let them know You are there

Please give us the courage to help create change
Let us help give them a voice
Let us help break the chains

They are products of greed,
they are sold for a cost
Please show them the way,
these hearts that are lost

TODAY is the day to open our eyes
To help spread the truth and stop all the lies
Each one of us has a role to play in this war
To give these victims wings and teach them to soar!

Lastly I pray, these traffickers see your light
Show them the way, restore truth to their sight
If change can begin inside each of them
We can help break the cycle,
and restore innocence in our children.

Last week I had the pleasure of taking some newborn photos of my friend's 3 week old little boy, Gage. As I was editing this picture, the innocence and pureness poured out of this particular shot and how much love his Mom has for him. Every child deserves to be loved this deeply and looked at as a precious angel. I thought it fitting to share this photo because it is a great reminder of where every child begins and how it is our job to protect their innocence and purity. It breaks my heart that these traffickers look at children purely as 'items' to sell and see dollar signs. When did humans become products to sell for money? When did our hearts become so hardened and full of greed that we would sell our own children to be used for sex? These questions plague my mind and soul and I can not begin to imaging the horror these women and children (trafficking victims) go through. However there is hope and light at the end of the tunnel!!! There are incredible organizations such as Compassion First, Not For Sale, and Love146 that are bringing awareness and are hands on, rescuing these trafficked victims. They are providing hope and a future with a safe place to stay, education and love. It begins with you and me! Yes, these organizations are making an incredible difference, but they do need our help, whether it be financially, with prayer, or volunteering. YOU can help make a difference in these women and children's lives! YOU have the power, YOU have a voice, YOU can help stop human trafficking!!! Please look at the precious faces around you and think what you would do if it was one of your kids, one of your neighbors, one of your nieces/ nephews being trafficked!? It isn't something just happening in the shadows, it is happening right under our noses. We need to spread awareness and take part in stopping the selling of humans! Please take action TODAY! Thank you for your time!

Getting Back to the Basics...

First off, I want to say a HUGE Thank You to everyone who has supported Glass Cocoon and the wonderful organization that a portion of the proceeds go to, Compassion First. Never did I think so many people would enjoy the jewelry I made, nor did I expect to get so much business! Being so busy, especially during the winter months, was such a huge blessing. But, at the same time it took a lot of time away from my family and I found my heart torn in two between wanting to spend time with my family and creating fun and unique pieces of jewelry. My daughter would even ask me if I had to work on jewelry that day, and when I said yes, she would get a sad look on her face and tell me she wanted me to play with her or color pictures. I absolutely love creating and I will never stop because I truly believe it is what I was made to do. However, when the enjoyment starts to fade, because I feel like I 'have' to work on jewelry, instead of 'I get' to, it's time to make some changes.

When I began my jewelry business, it started off as a small hobby with the main goal of donating a portion of money to help fight human trafficking. I found a way to do something I loved, while supporting a cause I am very passionate about. As I got busier, the focus changed and the 'production mode' took over. I was excited about the growth of the business and I thought promoting my jewelry was the best thing to do at the time. Facebook has been a great tool in growing my business, but what I didn't realize was that I was promoting something I couldn't keep up with. I had to put my family on the back burner many evenings and weekends in order to fill orders or keep new designs coming and my 3 hour a week hobby turned into an 8 hour a day job.

So with all that being said, I am not quitting making jewelry all together. I am merely trying to 'get back to the basics' and simplify life a bit in order to spend more quality time with my two daughters and my husband. Kids grow up so fast and soon they will be in school full time and I will be able to do more projects and creating. But for now I would like to be present and share in all the special moments that go by so fast.

The changes that will take place are as follows: 1)I will NO longer be taking ANY custom orders. Though I absolutely love creating custom orders and conversing with my fabulous customers, these unfortunately are the most time consuming. I apologize for no longer doing custom orders and will truly miss this process:( 2) I will be on facebook less, but will still post when I list new pieces. 3) New pieces may not be posted regularly. Meaning, that I may create a couple pieces and then not create more for weeks. I want to create quality, unique pieces as my 'creative whim' inspires me.

I know these changes may seem sudden, but with the new year being a year of positive changes, I feel this is the best step for me to take for me and my family at this time. Plus, I'm honestly just pooped out from pushing hard before the holidays and am needing some time to ease back into being creative again. Thank you again for so much support and positive feed back and for sharing in my cause for fighting human trafficking! You guys truly mean the world to me and I appreciate the love and loyalty to Glass Cocoon. May you all have a wonderful 2012 and may it bring you and your families some wonderful new experiences and adventures and may you all be extremely blessed! I'm not gone for good:) You'll just be seeing my posts and pictures less, but I will still be making unique designs that you can enjoy and wear this new year! God bless!

Being a 'Concious Consumer'

This past weekend I had the honor of joining my dear friend, Amy Young, at the 'Not For Sale 2011 Global Forum'. The Not for Sale Campaign combines technology, intellectual capital, abolitionist groups and a growing network of individuals like yourself – joined together to end slavery in our lifetime. It was a two day conference in San Jose, where I learned, in more depth, the heartbreaking truth about human trafficking (modern day slavery). Human trafficking is a 32 billion dollar illegal industry. Though I was made more aware of the disheartening stories and facts, this was a conference with the goal to create change and give hope to these men, women and children. 

 When you get dressed in the morning, do you think about where your shirt was made and what working conditions it was made in? Cotton has been proven to be a major end product of forced labor (human trafficking and modern day slavery). Human Trafficking is: When someone is forced to work for little to no pay, under the threat of violence, and cannot leave. We as Americans, tend to not want to hear about the horrible acts behind the products we buy. We would rather stick our head in the sand and pretend we don't know what's happening to these precious children, or we throw our hands up in the air and say, "Well what can I do? It's happening all the way across the world and I'm just one person?" The truth is, we are the ones driving the production of such imports simply by continuing to purchase unethically made items such as clothing, cars, toys, and more! It's the simple cause and effect of supply and demand. We stop the demand, we stop the supply. If we refuse to purchase items that have been made using forced labor and human trafficking, these traffickers lose money and are no longer benefiting from modern day slavery.

I heard inspiring stories from NGO's (Non-Government Organizations), about the many women and children they have rescued and treated. But the best part, in addition to care and hope, they also provide a sustainable future, in which they teach these incredible survivors skills such as making fabrics, clothing, jewelry and more. These products are then sold and the money goes back to the survivors who made them. The cycle is being stopped because they are providing long term income and continuous job opportunities.

Here's where you come in and play a HUGE role in helping to fight and ultimately end modern day slavery and human trafficking! A new free app called 'Free2work' has been created for your cell phone, that puts the power in your hands to be a conscious consumer. This app rates name brands that we purchase and use everyday based on their supply chains (where they get the supplies that create the end product), and lets you know if the company has made the information for their supply chain known to consumers or if they are hiding their information. This app also has a bar code scanner, which allows you to scan a products bar code, just as a cashier would at the check out counter, and tell you if it is a fair trade product, or if it was made with forced labor. This app is such an accessible tool that puts the information right in your hands, and allows you to make a decision based on what you know. Still don't think you can create change? Still think your just one person? Share this app with a friend and now you are 'two'. Together we can create change and ultimately END modern day slavery! Are you with me?