Special Gifts for UU Kids: Personalized Chalice Nametags

Today, another Director of Religious Education for a UU congregation posted to tell me that she had recently purchased my Chalice Name Tags with Free Personalization to give as gifts to celebrate the end of the year for her Stepping Stones class!

I had not thought about giving the chalice nametags to children! It's a really good idea though. You can type each child's name into the personalizing template on Zazzle for free, and you end up with beautiful nametags that might make children really feel that they are a part of your UU congregation! What a wonderful way to honor a milestone like their graduation from preschool to the main religious education program! Another idea might be giving them as a gift after a certain number of Sundays attended (a very special way to encourage regular attendance).

When people buy products from my UU Gifts store, I don't actually know their names or where they're from, and I certainly don't know what they're using them for.

It makes me really glad that I've been a busy bee today blogging and trying to spread the word about my UU Gifts online store, because this DRE and I know each other, but she hadn't realized that I was the one who designed the chalice name tags until she saw my post about it on my UU Gifts Facebook page.

I love hearing about where my UU gifts actually end up!

If any of you reading this have purchased any of them, please share what you bought and how it was used! You will totally make my day!

Listening to Love: Heart Chalice iPhone Cases

I just added some great new products to my UU Gifts store.

It's my newest design: "The Love Chalice".


As far as I know, I'm the only artist to draw UU chalices with heart shaped flames like this.

I just finished making the UU Love Chalice iPhone Cases available. I think the UU iPhone cases make really special, unexpected UU gifts.



(You can also get the iPhone cases with a white or pale orange background - in case you're not as in love with purple as I am!)

I can imagine a UU minister being happy to have the beautiful reminder of love with them as they type notes and check messages on their iPhones. And I imagine that our UU Youth would especially like to receive a gift of an iPhone case (given how much they're reported to use social media and technology like this!).

Wearing Your Faith

I just read a beautiful piece about another UU, who got a chalice tattoo on her arm: Tandi Rogers' "Tattuu" on her blog, Fueled by Faith.

Here's a link to photos of me, my tattoo, and the tattoo artist: Kerridwen's Chalice Tattoo.

My experience was wonderful (though maybe not quite as wonderful as Tandi's), and in a way, it was the beginning of me drawing chalice artwork. My tattoo artist, Susan Behney Doyle was very involved in the design process.

Now, I'm designing far more independently (though my husband does help me with a lot of the techie stuff).

But my drawings make beautiful Chalice T-shirts for those of you who want to wear your faith, but aren't quite ready for a tattoo. And someday in the future, maybe my UU Gifts store will host a design with a chalice with interlocking stars - like in my tattoo!

The Blessings of a Bad Back

I think I invite gratitude into my life. A main focus on my blog about my son is on noticing and appreciating the things he says and does which make me smile or laugh. Most nights, part of our bedtime routine is saying some "thank you prayers" together.

BUT - I don't think I was attending to the wonder of some of the things that disappeared when I hurt my back three weeks ago. I did not notice how important it was to be able to sneeze without pain. I did not notice the blessing of being able to lower myself to sit on the toilet or stand up without help. Three weeks later, those things are back, and I am truly grateful.

And I'm grateful for the hurt back itself. It has stopped me from being able to care for my son the way I normally do, but it has forced me to rest in bed a lot. Without that extra time resting, I would not have been able to invest so much energy into my UU Gifts Store.

I haven't actually made a single sale yet, but I feel extremely fulfilled. I feel proud of my designs and I feel a huge sense of accomplishment after not only drawing them but spending so much time on the techie stuff so the drawings can be printed on T-shirts, iPhone cases,journals, framed prints and posters.

I've even had enough time to work on my companion UU Gifts store through Zazzle.

When we do our thank you prayer, we don't specify who we're addressing our gratitude to. I just say, "Thank you for . . . " Who knows who or what "you" is?

For this back injury, and the work it made possible, thank you.

Online for Real!

My UU Gifts store is really up and running! I need to do some tinkering so the store looks more like a store, but this is the place online to buy great gifts for UUs!

I spent hours and hours in the last few days working on the designs. I'm proud of my original artwork.

I finished quite a few chalice drawings. The one I'm most proud of shows a bird flying free over the chalice, and was inspired by Carolyn McDade's lyrics to the hymn "Spirit of Life": "Roots hold me close, Wings set me free." There are so many chalice T-shirts to choose from though - most are still in my head, but several are up and ready.