Baker's Twine Review

I've discovered that baker's twine is a crafting necessity!  It can be used as part of a project, scrapbooking, or in place of ribbon when wrapping a package.  Recently I've been working on some projects that require baker's twine (I'll blog about them in the next week or two), and I want to tell you about the wonderful twine I purchased from a shop on Etsy called Talking Twine and Trim. 

My first order was for an assortment of 10 yards each of 18 different colors.  The shop offers several different packages of various colors and quantities--you will probably find exactly the amount you need, or you can place a special order.  I just wanted a variety to have on hand.  It was very reasonably priced at $17 (plus postage).  Each color came wrapped on a cardboard tag, and there was a little "thank you" tag included.  Cute!  I love all the colors, and I love knowing that I will always have just the right color to match whatever I'm working on.  The first time I used this twine I noticed that it is significantly thicker than the twine I have used before (I had previously bought one huge spool of red and white twine at Amazon.com, and have used it for wrapping packages.  It's fine for that, but it pales in comparison to my new twine!). 

I just started my second project that includes baker's twine, and I realized that I need MORE!  So I went back to Talking Twine and Trim, and this time I ordered full spools of eight different colors (each spool has 240 yards of twine).  This should last me a while!

Jodi, the shop owner, generously included four freebies (in front of the spools in the picture below)--she sent three lengths of twine (carefully chosen so they don't duplicate any of the colors I purchased in this order) and a package of scrunched seam binding, which is a new concept for me!  It turns out that the seam binding is also used for crafting, scrapbooking, and packaging.

Both times that I ordered from Talking Twine and Trim, the packages arrived quickly.  I highly recommend this shop and this baker's twine!

Helping

A few Sundays ago in church, we heard one of my favorite Bible passages from the Book of Proverbs, about a virtuous wife.  This part really speaks to me:

"She obtains wool and flax and works with loving hands.  She puts her hands to the distaff, and her fingers ply the spindle.  She reaches out her hands to the poor, and extends her arms to the needy..."

I personally don't know what a distaff is, and I don't use a spindle; but I do sew things every day and I do work with loving hands, so I feel like a modern-day version of the virtuous wife.  But the last line bugged me, because it's been a while since I could say that I have reached out to the poor and needy.

On Monday, as on most Mondays, I drive my daughter back to college, 45 minutes away in Richmond, Virginia.  When we get off the highway in Richmond, there are 5 or 6 stoplights to go through before we reach her dorm; and at every stoplight, there is a different rough-looking man, holding a cardboard sign that says something like "Hungry, please help".  If we happen to be near the front of the line at the stoplight, the man walks slowly past our car, looking right at us, holding his sign prominently.  I've always looked straight ahead, ignoring them as much as possible, and feeling very uncomfortable.

But not any more!!  I've decided to do something for them.  Apparently, the standard thing to do is to wave a dollar out your car window, and the man will come over and get it (I saw that happen this week). 

When I got home, I pulled out the cash box that I haven't touched since I stopped doing craft shows a couple of years ago, and lookie what I found:

MONEY MONEY MONEY!!!!!! 
Those are all the one-dollar bills I had for making change in my craft booth.  I had no idea I had so much money sitting around--it looks like about $100 in ones.

So here's my plan:  I want to give each person I encounter $2, plus a snack (they must get hungry and thirsty standing there for hours on end); I will bag it up like this:

I'm thinking of adding a hand-made card like the one next to the baggie; but I'm not sure what to write on it.  "Have a nice day"?  "Don't worry be happy"?  Hmmm.  I don't want to sound like a dork, or worse, insensitive or condescending.  What would you write on the card?  Help me out with your comment, below.  Thanks.