Designs By Joy - Hairbands and bows and all kinds of pretties

I love all of my readers and I do my best to keep in contact with all of you that I follow and check in on my followers if I have a way to contact you.  You are all so precious to me because you have taken time out of your life, to be a part of mine.
Those of you that have been with me for any time now, know I have a Zibbet shop and I do my best to give shout outs to those who make handmade items.  From bracelets to bows and soap to quilts, I have always promoted great shops.

I also tell everyone to shop locally especially if you live in a small community for without our dollars, many shops will close and not have a chance to survive. For every shop that closes, there are so many people that are effected by the loss.  The area I live in is small and shop after shop has closed down.  Here is what happens:

The owner loses because they have put their savings, heart and soul into the business.
The employee's lose (family or non-family) because now they have no job, no insurance, no more stability.
The building owner loses, now  they have an empty shop that will become a blight to the community eventually if they can't find another shop to come in.
The bank loses and they will eventually go back after the business owner if they legally can.
The community loses because the place they counted on doing business with is closed, or perhaps what they left to be repaired is still inside the building

It is a dominoe effect.  My granddaughter was taking music lessons from an amazing music teacher at one of two local music stores.  We purchased both her guitars there, had music lessons there, purchased her picks and music.  One day I was driving past and noticed, it was empty.  No phone call from the owner of the business, just a huge empty shop.  We were blessed that the music teacher called us that evening.

But now, we either pay the only music store prices in town and shop locally or we have to drive 45 miles into Olympia and shop or order on line.  The music teacher lost several students because the parents didn't feel comfortable going to his home even though he allowed us to sit in on the sessions, the building owner lost because his building is still standing empty and it was one that had a good sized parking lot for our area. The owner lost because no one in this area will trust him again because he didn't tell any of us what was going on, didn't return any calls about instruments, etc.  Many of the students in this area rented instruments from him.

Famous Footwear closed shop in our mall. I wrote letters to their CEO and Brown Shoe Company CEO and begged them to just find a storefront in our area that wasn't on the other side of the bridge where no one shopped anymore.  Don't leave us without a good shoe store and leave us with just a Payless or Ross or having to drive to purchase or return shoes. Their reply? Seriously this was it....you can go on line and order shoes through us.  Yeah right!! Would you purchase shoes on line for your children?

So, where I can I buy locally or handmade and that is what I did a few days ago with Designs By Joy. Joy is a single mom to three very sweet and beautiful little girls and she makes these amazing headbands and bows and other things that you cannot find in a store.  I ordered 3 for Diva girl and then when I got them, Tomboy wants one.

The three bows on the above picture are what Joy made for Diva girl who only wears headbands to school and they must make a statement...they simply cannot be plain. But wait!  Joy makes these bows so they can fit on a head band and be removed easily if Diva just wants to wear a bow or fix her hair differently.  Face it, you won't find adorable or flexible in your local WalMart.  You might find cheap, but you won't find quality!

I do not know what Joy charges for each set she designs, but for these 3 the cost was $20 total and that works out to a little over $6 per headband.  I can buy them for $5 each at Target, but why drive 45 miles when I have to choose from what Target wants me to purchase?  Here, I can tell Joy what colors I want and she will create a beautiful masterpiece.

This is why I support handmade, this is why we should all do our best to help each other out and support families like Joy, because when we do, we can see the positives in our community.  I can give $20 to Joy and her girls and know she will make it last a long time, or I can give $20 to WalMart and know the Walton family will just add it to the billions they already have all the while making deals to get small family run businesses out of local towns.

Joy is a doll, she is amazing and so are her little girls.  Head on over to Facebook look up Designs by Joy and even if today you don't shop, let her know Jean from Harbor City Church told you to stop by or the Quilting Ranny and if you can...have her make you a beautiful piece of headwear for that little girl in your life who deserves to feel special!