Our First Year!

My dear friends…

I am so happy to be writing this!  It’s official – Consider Grace  has reached its first birthday.  Yippee!

Throughout the last year, I have been surprised and affirmed over and over again with how well all of you have received my idea to open a website where I could use my creativity to help others.  It really worked!  I made pretty things, you bought them, and through our efforts, the lives of young girls have been changed forever.  And not only that, but some other wonderful things have happened as well…

2,290 individuals have visited this site.

8,389 pages have been viewed on this site.

Visitors have come from 33 different countries {33!}, including Ethiopia, Switzerland, South Korea, Italy, Thailand, and Mexico.

My friends at church hosted a CD release concert for my first EP in April this year and more than 100 people showed up.  And we raised more than $1,200 for the cause!

Some wonderfully talented friends of mine created a beautiful video explaining the vision of Consider Grace.

Said video has been viewed more than 300 times.

The truth is, sometimes I am very discouraged.  Sometimes all of this doesn’t feel like enough.  And sometimes I am discouraged for noble reasons, like wanting to rescue more girls and educate more people.  But other times I am discouraged for completely selfish reasons, like when I spend a lot of time writing a blog post about something very dear to me and it receives less pageviews than I think it should.  {Google Analytics – a blessing and a curse.}

However, on nights like tonight, as I look back over the last year, I could never have expected to have so much success.  And it’s because of people like you!

Thank you.  Thank you, thank you, thank you for making my dream come true.

In case you’re curious, here are some details…

This number is truly shocking to me.  I never would have thought that could happen with some old t-shirts, canvases, bottles, broken hymnals, and other “junk”.  You people are so generous!

42 of you who actually trust me not to spam you!

411 of these people are also friends with me on Facebook.  That means 130 people who I don’t know have decided they like Consider Grace enough to like Consider Grace!  Simply shocking to me.  {If you haven’t yet and you’d like to join them, you can do so here.}

More than 2/3 of sales have been in person…which is also something I didn’t expect.

So, all that said, I’ve got new goals for year two.

I’ve got some specific plans in place {like networking with other writers, beefing up the number and variety of items in the shop, coming up with ways to utilize and take advantage of in-person purchases, trying to get Consider Grace featured on some bigger blogs, and hosting giveaways on the site}, but the truth is none of that will work without faithful people like you.

Also, lots and lots of prayer, embracing the messiness, and letting go of the little things.

So if you’re feeling especially helpful and generous, here are a few ways you can help me achieve these goals right now.

1. Purchase a CD or something from the shop.

2. If you haven’t yet, subscribe to the blog by entering your email address in the upper corner of this page.  Once you do that, I’ll send blog posts right to your inbox along with other updates and once in a while some special offers for the shop.

3. If you haven’t yet, Like Consider Grace on Facebook.  And if you are one of the 541 who already have, consider writing a post about the site on your timeline or pinpointing some specific friends who might be interested.  Here.  Here’s a cover-shaped photo you can use to make it easy…

As always, thanks for your love and support.  You have made this happen.

Here’s to lots more years of buying pretty things and helping precious people.