Our Special Angels

Good morning everyone!

Today's featured store is one that is very close to my heart. I am also currator for the store; however, it does not feature any items that I have made.

Our Special Angels is a store that features machine embroidered items made by the disabled youth of the organization as well as the volunteers. Before I show you some of the awesome items offered by Our Special Angels, I wanted to give you a little background information on this charity (description taken from the Yahoo Group homepage for Our Special Angels).

Welcome to Our Special Angels. We assist disabled youth to grow and flourish through the art of crafting. The OSA has provided training and leadership to over 100 teens and young adults to date. Below is a little about who we are.

1. Our Special Angels group meetings - we have a solid group of youth in the Twin Cities, MN area that meet every Saturday from September through April - from 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM at a local community room.

2. Each year we host a fall kick off and we wish to invite anyone that is within reasonable driving distance of the twin cities to attend.

3. Big Brother/Big Sister program - you volunteer as a mentor to a special needs youth. Volunteering is fun! Being a Big Brother/Big Sister is simple and rewarding. It is as easy as writing your new Little Brother/Sister an email, calling them on the phone, and sending them a monthly CARE package. We’ve learned that being someone special to a disabled youth doesn’t take much more than that. But the impact is huge—for both of you!

4. Fundraising Activities - craft sales, letter writing, we are always busy trying to raise funds. One on-going fundraiser we have that does not require any effort on your part is using http://isearch.igive.com/ for your search engine. This is the charity arm of Yahoo; you go to the address, put in Our Special Angels, and search away. Every time you search OSA receives a donation.

5. Supplies - Crafts we love them all; we are only limited by the supplies we have on hand, Wanting to destash? Have left over inventory? please think of sending it our way. Our Special Angels is a 501c3 non-profit group so you will receive an in-kind tax receipt for any donations.

Mailing Address:

Our Special Angels

PO Box 1746

Maple Grove, MN 5531

If anyone is interested in becoming a Big Brother or Big Sister, donating items, volunteering for our donation and fundraising committees, or finding out more information, send an email to our_special_angels@yahoo.com and one of the charity's board members will get back with you.

Alright on with the store! All of these items are custom made to order because of limited supplies. You will need to allow 7-10 days for the items to be made (sometimes sooner) depending on how many orders have come in. Our Special Angels cannot make sample items to show for everything because they do not have the supplies to use on something that may not sell. Thanks to the generosity of Embroidery Library and Sewing for Sarah Embroidery, Our Special Angels has been given the rights to use sample pictures from both sites as well as some great designs donated from Sewing for Sarah Embroidery.

This first item is one of their best selling items so far. The Jacobean Floral eyeglass case has beautiful stitchwork and they can even change the color scheme if pink is not your color.

This second item I am featuring is one of my favorites because I am such a coffee nut. I love this Hazelnut Coffee embroidered towel set as well as all the other coffee themed towels featured in the store. I can't wait until my husband and I are settled in a place of our own and I can take the time and money to decorate my kitchen.

This is only a very small sampling of what is in the store. There are currently over 450 listings - purses, cases, ornaments, stuffies, towel sets, pillowcases, bookmarks, toys, and tons of craft book destash. Start your Christmas shopping early and check them out today!