Full of Grace Creations Monday Morning Giveaway: Sacrifice Beads!

I am doing a Full of Grace Creations Monday Morning Giveaway this week! And since I spent last night working on sacrifice beads that's what I've decided to give away a pair of blue cats eye sacrifice beads (that was the name of these beads). The beads themselves are absolutely beautiful and almost seem to glow. The winner can decide between light blue, turquoise blue (like the ones shown) or dark blue!

You may want to reread the rules, because they have changed recently!

Make sure that you leave a separate comment for each entry (i.e. one comment for the free entry, one comment saying you're a follower, one comment if you blogged about it, one comment if you tweeted about it... and so on... I want to make sure everyone gets all the entries they deserve when I use the random generator!).

You get one entry for leaving a comment with an email address!

You get one entry for following A Woman's Place!

You get one entry for blogging about this giveaway and letting me know!

You get one entry for tweeting about this giveaway and letting me know!

And you get one giveaway for mentioning this giveaway on facebook and letting me know!

I think those are all the guidelines! God Bless!

Full of Grace Creations: New Sacrifice Beads!

Full of Grace Creations now ships anywhere in the world! I just had to start out this post by telling everyone that great news! And the shipping rates are pretty reasonable (I think!)! It's $2 for any shipment anywhere in the US and $3 for any shipment abroad! And I can add a gift note if you'd like to send it directly to a special someone! Now back to the post I was planning-

I have been hard at work on my etsy shop these last few days. In the days leading up to last months craft fair I hadn't posted much online. But I've been working on that these past few days and tonight I met my goal by posting five new strands of sacrifice beads. Here's the description of sacrifice beads that I put up when I post them (since they aren't the most common thing you run across!):

The story of sacrifice beads begins with the story of Saint Therese of Lisieux. As a child The Little Flower, along with her sisters, used a little string of beads to count their gifts of "little sacrifices" which they did out of love for God. They carried their beads with them in their pockets.

Saint Therese's "Little Way" is well known. She drew closer to God through small acts in her day to day life, saying:

“Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love.”

Sacrifice Beads may also be used as a sort of pocket rosary, with one Our Father bead separated from the ten Hail Mary beads.

When you pull the ten smaller sacrifice beads they slide up the row and stay in place until you pull them back again. They are wonderful to use as a small rosary or to use to count good deeds and sacrifices throughout the day (and they are a great motivating tool!).

And here are my latest strands of beads!

This one is my favorite! They are simple stone beads, with a very simple crucifix. The medal show the Divine Mercy Medal on one side and the Our Lady of Guadalupe on the other. It's very dainty!

These are my toughest beads. They even have double strand of elastic running through them. The picture doesn't really do the cobalt blue bead justice, because it's really brilliant in the sun!

I could just picture giving these to a little girl for her first communion, or someone who loves pink any time! These ones are a little bit bigger than the others but they should still be small enough to carry easily with you.

Malachite was one of my favorite stones when I was little (I was a very passionate little rock collector!). And so I was very excited when I saw these beads. And they went very well with the gold miraculous medal and crucifix!

The beads that I made for myself when I first began making sacrifice beads looks a lot like these. Amethyst beads are some of my favorites because every time I make something with them I think of advent and lent!

I posted this one late last night! This stand is made with large amethyst beads between a beautiful gold crucifix and a colorful Saint Therese of Lisieux medal.

Now to get a little bit of sleep before the princesses wake up!

Sacrifice Beads and A Little Extra Motivation

I love sacrifice beads!

Two weeks ago if you'd asked me what they were I would have given you a blank look. Then I received an email on etsy asking if I could make some. So I googled it and up came a site that explained what they were and how to make them. And after some failed tries because the materials I were using weren't working (finding a flexible cord that could fit twice through the beads I had took some time) I had a set of sacrifice beads and began carrying them in my pocket to see how sturdy they were.

I must admit, I have a rather competitive personality and these days I'm the most competitive with myself. Having that little string of beads in my pocket brought out a new drive to, for lack of a better description, be good.

My husband would probably agree that I can be a little... snappy... when I have pregnancy hormones coursing through my veins (particularly in the first and third trimesters). Having a giant baby whose head is already bumping into my rib cage and whose feet are right above my bladder has not put me in the best of moods.

This last week though when I've found myself feeling short tempered I've taken a deep breath... and thought about the beads in my pocket. Several times when I was wearing a dress without pockets and didn't have the beads with me, I just imagined sliding a bead over rather than saying the thing I'd been thinking, or pushing the point I'd been making and trying to make the other person see my point of view. And it's getting easier. After only a week when I hear something that annoys me or someone says something mean, I actually have to keep from smiling, because I'm reaching into my pocket to slide a bead over...

Good deeds mean a bead slides over too.

It really can be motivating.

Sacrifice beads can also be used as a kind of pocket rosary, with one Our Father bead separated from the ten Hail Mary beads. When you pull the ten smaller sacrifice beads they slide up the row and stay in place until you pull them back again.

The story of sacrifice beads begins with the story of Saint Therese of Lisieux. As a chlid The Little Flower, along with her sisters, used a little string of beads to count their gifts of "little sacrifices" which they did out of love for God. They carried their beads with them in their pockets.

Saint Therese's "Little Way" is well known. She drew closer to God through small acts in her day to day life, saying:

“Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love.”