Inspirational Gift Giveaway & Part 2 of Why I Created This Site

I’m celebrating the 1 yr. anniversary of “We Live Inspired!” by giving away 2 inspirational gifts in appreciation for those who are part of our inspired community!  There will be 2 winners,1 for each gift, and I will be doing 2 separate giveaways, so be on the lookout for giveaway number 2 as soon as this one ends!  These giveaways are open to people in ALL countries and you do NOT have to have a blog to enter.

 

 

 But first-Part 2 of how We Live Inspired began:

 

You may have already read that the actual event that pushed me to start this website was the loss of my dog, directly followed by the miracle of the birth of Mickey & Minnie (my 2 website mascot kitties that you will see in many images I use).  At the time I had wanted a way to document the lives of this feral cat colony that sort of appeared off our backyard last year.  Then when Fluffy unexpectedly went in to labor, I ended up adopting her and her 2 new babies.  I wanted to start documenting their growing up journey and a website was a perfect way to do that.

 

This blog/website idea goes way beyond cats though.  It really is inspired by what has become a way of life for me…this living inspired.  This hunting for blessings and recording of little miracles.   Years ago when my life drastically changed and the rug got sort of pulled out from under me, I started reinventing myself I guess you can say.  Really, most of us find ourselves doing this at some decade in our lives, and for me it was my 20’s.  It was time to basically rebuild from the ground up!

 

 

During this time of many losses, struggles, and even personal health issues and no direction as to what to do next, I started “collecting” resources to inspire me.   These resources were everything from poetry & art, to magazine articles, self help books, devotional books, Christian ministries, photos, music, documentaries and even people I met.  I got rid of the negative junk around me, and filled my days with a collection of things that made me laugh, stress less, get in touch with Spirit more, etc.  I also started recording all of the little miracles I noticed in a gratitude journal! (click left to read about that)

 

 

What started as a very bad time in my life, became a time of self discovery.  A time of honing new skills, such as :

 

• Becoming an semi expert baker/cook
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• Teaching myself to play the guitar and ukulele (click left if interested in reading an inspirational story that savvydad.com wrote about my 1st guitar & Uke 🙂 )
• Becoming self sufficient during lean financial times and learning how to cut, highlight and style my own hair and Matt’s too. (yes, in all photos you may see of me, those hair cuts/layers are courtesy of myself 🙂
• Getting things free or hugely discounted– which included learning TONS of tricks and trades for online shopping , coupon codes, and even making money when I shop online
• Learning to knit and turning that in to a side job for extra income at times, plus making cool accessories I could wear or that were useful around the home (blankets, socks, ponchos, hats, mittens, etc).
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• Teaching myself how to have a successful home business with NO prior experience to provide extra income I needed, and then helping a team of other women/families (literally in the hundreds, as far as people I have had in my work at home team over the years) do the same.
• Learning other income producing “work at home” type activities as well
• Designing/creating my website/blog myself when I had no clue on earth what I was doing.

 

 

The list goes on and on, but you get the idea.  I say these things not to brag on my skills, but to encourage you that if your life isn’t going the way you hoped it would, you can CREATE new awesome things for yourself too!

 

 

As a result of different things that had happened to me, I had withdrawn from most everything-including withdrawn from most of the people in my life.  (I think a lot of it had to do with trust, grief, and self esteem issues at the time , which is so NOT my norm).

 

Little by little though, on this life journey as I taught myself how to “survive and thrive” ,  I started putting myself out there again and helping others in any way I could.  That resulted in so many little miracles and cool things, that I could fill a book with the stories of all the people I have encountered along the way(but I will just fill this blog with them:) ).

 

Most of the people I reached out to help (with no expectations of anything in return), ended up helping ME in some way, shape or form.  So many other people struggled with financial issues, loneliness, sadness or grief, fears, or feeling a bit “lost” as well.  I would say the majority of people I met were via my home business, and aside from coaching them to make an income from home like I did, I would also offer them encouragement, prayer, and share my money saving tips.

 

 

People were often asking me how I do the things I do.  I started to really want and NEED a place to record and share all of this random info/skills I had acquired in the hopes of also helping others who wanted to learn to not just survive, but THRIVE.   You don’t have to wait to be happy people- you can thrive right where you are planted, even if your circumstances are sort of cruddy.

 

 

So , We Live Inspired is all me, and my life, and a sharing of the “collection” of inspirational things I have kept in my arsenal over the years, along with skills I have acquired that may be of use to you too.  In hindsight, I see how I was teaching myself to live inspired all along (whether I knew it at the time or not!) and so hence the idea for my site and my site’s name.

 

 I want YOU to be able to find inspiration everyday, right where you are at in life too.  Our life’s journey can be full of so many rich experiences when we reach out and share with one another.

 

 

So now you know why I share so many random things I am inspired by (from the poetry I write & quotes I share, to the little mundane things in everyday life most people overlook as being miraculous, to recipes, money saving tips, cat colony stories, and more)!   I did want to let you know of a new way I will be doing things moving forward (now that I have my blogging feet wet and know a more clear direction).  I am going to have a more organized approach to the way I am sharing inspirational content in the years to follow.

 

With all the knowledge and fun things I have to share, you may have noticed things were kind of random at times.  For example..some weeks I would randomly throw in a recipe or craft.  These types of things will now be moved to :

 

COZY COTTAGE WEEKENDS!  Saturday/Sunday will be “Cozy Cottage Weekends”.  This will be when I share my recipes, crafts, home decor ideas, and all things related to inspired, creative living in your home life.  Matt and I are now brand new home owners, have a cottage type garden and will be decorating cottage style and living the relaxed, slower paced cottage life.  I thought it would be a relaxing,fun way for you to get a peak into that side of me on the weekends (I won’t be necessarily writing every weekend..I am just no longer putting recipes and such up during the week so that things are better organized).

I am still toying with the idea of having a cottage sub-site on my blog, but until I decide what to do there, Cozy Cottage Weekends it is!

 

 

Now on to the giveaway!  The first giveaway is for an awesome hardcover gift book called ” Great Quotes From Great Women.”  

This book contains 138 pages of inspiring stories of the lives of ladies such as Maya Angelou, Helen Keller, Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt, and many many others along with a collection of inspiring quotes from them!  It also has a corresponding inspirational DVD that comes with:

 

 

 

You can enter below-and this is open to anyone anywhere!

 

Whether you have been with me all along or are new to We Live Inspired, I want to thank you for connecting with me and our inspired community from the bottom of my heart.  I have SO many great things planned for the future, as my vision for this continues to grow.  

~Rebekah

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