marie-madeline studio

gift certificate giveaway winners!

Our $50 gift certificate giveaway winners are.....

~Elizabeth (traddie)

~Elizabeth Mac

Congratulations, ladies!!  Please shoot us an email letting us know what you would like to get with your gift certificates!

After giveaways we always wish we could give something to all of you who entered.  Don't forget you can still get a great deal on fabric (through tomorrow!)... our Cyber Monday sale is still going on!!  A big thank you to all those who have already sent in orders.  We were gone 'til late last night practicing for our Church's Christmas program.  So today is cut fabric day!  By the way, we'd invite all of you to the program if you lived here.

xoxo Kristie, Apphia, Achaia, Abigail, and Abiah

Black Friday Sale!

 

We hope everyone had a wonderful, blessed Thanksgiving yesterday!  We ate waaaayy too much (duh), and could hardly force down a piece of pie.  Then finished the night off with It's a Wonderful Life.  We are so thankful for a day set aside to thank God for His many blessings. 

We are having a Black Friday sale and we want all of you in on it!!  Today ONLY all of our sewing patterns, trims and ribbons, buttons, and sale room (including some new things just added!) are 30% OFF!  No coupon code necessary.  Happy shopping!

And don't forget to check back Monday for our Cyber Monday sale and enter our gift certificate giveaway below!

xoxoKAAAA

A New Year!

Happy 2013!  It seems like everyone says this, but we really truly cannot believe a year has come and gone, and we've already started in on a new one.

Nearing the end of 2012 we spent some time thinking about what had happened over the past 12 months.  It was a great year and a hard year --- we were blessed with a load of wonderful things we didn't expect, but there were also plenty of times when we were ready to sit down and give up.  We laughed lots and we cried lots.  Opportunities came and went.  There were times when we wondered how everything could be turning out so beautifully, and days that we wanted to erase forever.

In all that, we think The Lord taught us lots in 2012, and we hope to use the experience to make 2013 even better.  We were struck many times with how completely we didn't deserve the many blessings we received.  We also were reminded that God expects of us complete faith and utter trust in His plans for us.

So, with mixed emotions we enter a new year.  Mostly with excitement.  We know God has great things for us this year, and we're jittery with anticipation.  Maybe we start with a twinge of sadness that another year has come and gone, but that also means a new year is here.... almost a fresh start. 

We pray that all of you had a most happy and beautiful Christmas and New Year!  Thank you so much for all of your love and support through the past years.  Here's to 2013!!

Lots of love,

Kristie, Apphia, Achaia, Abigail, and Abiah

"Reclaiming Beauty"... a giveaway!

Like most girls, we'd have to admit that beauty is something we think about a lot.  So when we first heard of the Botkin sisters' webinar, "Reclaiming Beauty", we were VERY excited.  (We'd read both of Anna & Elizabeth's books and loved them to pieces.)  Of course we signed up right away! 

Just imagine our delight when Anna & Elizabeth offered to allow us to give away a free subscription to one of you!!

{Elizabeth & Anna Sofia Botkin}

From VisionaryDaughters.com...

What is beauty?

Some say beauty fits in a size 0. Some say beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. Some say beauty is only skin deep. Some say beauty is only a quality of the heart. Some say beauty is truth. Some say beauty is a lie. Some say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Some say beauty is as beauty does. Some say Elizabeth Taylor and Grace Kelly are beautiful. Some say everyone is beautiful. Some say beauty is divine. Some say beauty is corrupting.

From all this confusion, one idea emerges clearly: The world knows beauty matters. They talk a lot about it, write poetry and paint paintings celebrating it, and spend $160 billion dollars a year on it. But what’s equally clear is that they don’t know what it is. The question is: Do we?

Today’s young Christian women have grown up in the most image-obsessed generation in history, a generation that worships some of the most twisted ideals of beauty the world has ever seen. But whether we love them or hate them… they tend to shape our own perceptions of what beauty is. Some of us accept its ideals, and struggle to fit into its mold – others of us are repulsed by it, concluding that physical beauty itself is immodest, worldly, and unspiritual, and reject the realm of beautification completely. But when all we’ve ever seen is the counterfeit the world offers, we can sometimes forget that the world did not create beauty – God did. And though we all know the world has a lot to say about image, we sometimes don’t realize how much God does too.

It’s time to reclaim beauty. For thousands of years, believers, pagans, Gnostics, Humanists, Neo-Platonists, iconoclasts, and creators of culture have battled over this critical turf called “beauty.” Today, we have only to look at who designs the fashions, markets the beauty icons, rules the red carpet, adorns magazine covers, crowns Miss America, and designs clothes-and-makeup advertisements, to know who is currently holding the turf.

It’s time to take beauty back. When faced with an industry that runs on photoshop airbrushing, plastic surgery, starvation diets, grotesque catwalk styles, and billions of squandered dollars, our response can no longer be, “Beauty is not for us.” It’s time for our response to be, “Get your flag out of our ground.” It’s time for us to be a light in a culture that uses beauty as a weapon against God. It’s time for God’s ambassadors to make His principles – such as modesty and femininity – look as beautiful as they really are. It’s time for us to show the world: Ugliness is not beauty. Emaciation is not beauty. Androgyny is not beauty. Immodesty is not beauty. Unnatural distortion is not beauty. From Genesis to Revelation, God paints a different picture of the inner and outer beauty of a woman, and it’s time to show the world what it really looks like – one soul, one body, one face, one closet at a time.

 

The seven sessions featured in "Reclaiming Beauty"...

#1. What God Says About Beauty and Beautification
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

#2: What Style Is Your Heart, Mind, and Soul?
Pardon Me, Ma’am, But Your True Identity is Showing

#3. Getting Your Temple in Order
The Physical Foundations of Beauty

#4. Fearfully and Wonderfully Made
How to Work with the Build, Coloring, and Natural Beauty God Gave You

#5: Putting Things Together
Composition, Style, Occasion, Accessories

#6: Acquiring New Pieces (and Revitalizing Old Ones)
How to Get What You Need with Minimum Time, Money, and Fuss

#7: The Focal Point
Being a Good Steward of Your Face and Hair

Discover:

• What it means to represent the Lord as His ambassadors to the world
• Where true beauty starts
• What the Bible says about beautification and adornment
• How we should respond to the world’s idea of beauty
• The history and philosophy behind the most popular garments
• The proper priority-level of beauty in the Christian’s life
• The biblical relationship between the physical and the spiritual
• What it means to be separate from the world
• What we can learn from the beauty industry
• What the beauty industry has gotten wrong

Get practical tips on:

• Clothing yourself better for a lot less money
• Making modesty and femininity look excellent instead of frumpy
• Making off-the-rack clothes modest
• Putting together great outfits with what you already had in your closet
• Using makeup tastefully
• Giving sloppy garments new life with minimum alterations
• Cultivating taste and style
• Getting out of a fashion rut
• Creating a minimum-time-and-effort plan for looking nice every day

Let's do it!

Here's how to enter our "Reclaiming Beauty" giveaway...

    -Leave us a comment with your name and email address

    -And ask one beauty-related question (if you like!)

This giveaway closes on September 22.  We would love to see as many of you attending the webinar as possible!  Please check out the Reclaiming Beauty facebook page, and browse the archives at Visionary Daugters.  We'd also highly recommend reading Anna Sofia and Elizabeth's books, So Much More and It's (Not That) Complicated.

Enjoy!

Titanic 100

The Titanic 100 was a perfectly wonderful experience in every way!  We still haven't stopped talking about it yet.  We gathered with a little under 600 people in Branson, Missouri, to remember and honor the heroism displayed on Titanic's decks as she went down.

There were lots of wonderful events that we were so happy to be a part of including a special trip to the amazing Titanic Museum, visiting with many reenactors, wonderful lectures by some of our favorite speakers, a screening of A Night to Remember (which you really need to see!), a special children's play  commemorating 'women and children first', music by Charlie Zahm, the San Antonio Darlings, Paddy Walsh and the Boilermakers & the boys from Third Class, and many more!

The wonderful event culminated in a fabulous White Star dinner on the Branson Belle showboat as we cruised around Tablerock Lake, at the exact moment Titanic struck the iceberg that sent her down.  Most of us in early 1900s-inspired clothing, naturally.  We girls were so happy to have the opportunity to make our dresses for the occasion, and pull out some of our vintage rhinestone jewelry.  And, Mom got to wear her paternal grandmother's haircomb and maternal grandmother's rhinestone pin.  Dressing for the occasion was just icing on the cake!

As we said earlier, the whole experience was beyond wonderful, and we are so thankful for the opportunity to have joined in.  It was definitely a few days to remember always!

Hope you enjoyed a peek at it! Hugs-- xoUs

He is risen!

 
He left His Father's throne above - so free, so infinite His grace - emptied Himself of all but love, and bled for Adam's helpless race.  'Tis mercy all, immense and free, for O, my God, it found out me!  {Charles Wesley 1707-1788}

Have a joyful Resurrection Day!

With love in Christ Jesus~

Kristie, Apphia, Achaia, Abigail, & Abiah

Happy Thanksgiving!

"...It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor..." {George Washington, 1789}

 
 

   
  

"O give thanks unto the LORD, for He is good: for His mercy endureth for ever.... O that men would praise the LORD for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!  For He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness." {Psalm 107:1,8-9}
 

And so, we give thanks.  There is so much to be thankful for.  Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, with lots of love from the Long family!

With warmth and joy from our home to yours~

xoxo, the Long ladies

M.e.r.r.y. C.h.r.i.s.t.m.a.s.

"And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins." ~Matthew 1:21

"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." ~Romans 8:38-39

We love you all.  May the Lord bless you with a lovely celebration of Christ's birth!

xoxo, the Long ladies (for the whole family)

We have so much to be thankful for.

"Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name.  Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits... Who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies.... For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him."  ~Psalm 103: 1-2, 4, & 11

With lots of love and a "Happy Thanksgiving!" from our home to yours~

xo, the Long ladies  

what Mother's Day means to us...

 

Written by four grateful daughters about their mother....

So, clearly, we have the best Mommy in the whole world.  We really think that celebrating "Mother's Day" only once a year isn't good enough.  We'd also further like to say that not one day goes by that we're not thankful for our Mommy.  Many daughters have done virtuously, but she excels them all!

She has taught us to love simple things in life-- cookie dough, ric rac, quilts, tiny flowers (picked by little hands).  Our Mommy has taught us things that some may take a lifetime to learn.  She taught us, by example, what it means to love Christ with our whole hearts.  To walk with Him in times of plenty, and in times of want.  To trust Him and to rest in Him.  And for that, we are thankful.  

We love you, Mommy!  We want to be just like you.

Your loving daughters~

    Apphia, Achaia, Abigail, & Abiah