If you have ever "The Seed Story" then you know that The Seed Project was inspired by something as simple as this small piece of cardboard you see in the picture.

A while back I mentioned making these available to you all, but I really wanted to find a better way to make them first. Right now, I just write on them (they do have mustard seeds inside which is basically their only cool-factor). I was trying to make them prettier, but then I realized...it doesn't matter. The point is the message...and this little piece of cardboard speaks volumes for anyone who is willing to listen to it.

I keep a few of these with me at all times and leave them in different places. The only problem with that is that I haven't been anywhere new in a while. I pretty much drive back and forth from work to home, with an occasional stop at the Post Office and grocery store.

So would you like to carry a few of these with you and pass them out, leave them places, or hand them to someone who looks like they are having a bad day?

Send me your address - and I will send you some TSP cards. That simple.
jessicambarnett@hotmail.com

Have a great weekend!

Happy Saturday, folks! My feet hurt. Scratch that, my entire body hurts!! eeekkkk. A month or two ago I started a 2nd part-time job on the weekends. I really enjoy it, and love that it's a switch from what I do Monday through Friday, but my body hasn't quite adjusted yet. My feet are angry with me right now.

The show must go on though, right? I hope you enjoyed the story I posted yesterday. Thanks goes out again to my friend Jen who emailed that to me. Speaking of Jen, she also emailed me a picture to share for 2.Thousnad.11 Bee-U-Ti-Ful Things...in January. Yes, I told you I've been having a hard time keeping up with my emails, didn't I?

So, finally, here it is...



I love how the clouds make their own art in the sky. Thanks for sending, Jen!

Do you have any pictures of bee-u-ti-ful things? (Doesn't have to be a sunset or a flower, look for the not-so-obvious and share it with us!) Or, do you have any inspiring stories (or even something simple about something nice that happened to you recently)? Email me at jessicambarnett@hotmail.com and I will share the goods here! :)

Have a great weekend!

How is everyone's week going? Mine has been exhausting, but I just keep plugging along. Tonight I'm going to let someone else's story do the blogging for me. I actually received this email about a month ago from my friend Jen. She sent it to me and said it reminded her of me because it's about a seed. I love that! :)

Unfortunately, I've been a bad friend & have not been reading my emails lately unless they involve work. I finally read it tonight as I was trying to get through my emails, and I love, love, love this story! So, thank you Jen, and I'm sorry it took me so long to share it!

 

A successful business man was growing old and knew it was time to choose a successor to take over the business. Instead of choosing one of his Directors or his children, he decided to do something different. He called all the young executives in his company together.

He said, "It is time for me to step down and choose the next CEO. I have decided to choose one of you."

The young executives were shocked, but the boss continued. "I am going to give each one of you a SEED today - one very special SEED.  I want you to plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from the seed I have given you. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next CEO."

One man, named Jim, was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed. He went home and excitedly, told his wife the story. She helped him get a pot, soil and compost and he planted the seed. Everyday, he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other executives began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow.

Jim kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew. Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by, still nothing. By now, others were talking about their plants, but Jim didn't have a plant and he felt like a failure.

Six months went by -- still nothing in Jim's pot. He just knew he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Jim didn't say anything to his colleagues, however, he just kept watering and fertilizing the soil - he so wanted the seed to grow.

A year finally went by and all the young executives of the company brought their plants to the CEO for inspection. Jim told his wife that he wasn't going to take an empty pot.  But she asked him to be honest about what happened. Jim felt sick to his stomach, it was going to be the most embarrassing moment of his life, but he knew his wife was right. He took his empty pot to the board room. When Jim arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other executives.

They were beautiful -- in all shapes and sizes. Jim put his empty pot on the floor and many of his colleagues laughed, a few felt sorry for him!

When the CEO arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted his young executives. Jim just tried to hide in the back. "My, what great plants, trees and flowers you have grown," said the CEO. "Today one of you will be appointed the next CEO!"

All of a sudden, the CEO spotted Jim at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered the Financial Director to bring him to the front. Jim was terrified. He thought, "The CEO knows I'm a failure! Maybe he will have me fired!"

When Jim got to the front, the CEO asked him what had happened to his seed - Jim told him the story. The CEO asked everyone to sit down except Jim. He looked at Jim, and then announced to the young executives, "Behold your next Chief Executive Officer! His name is Jim!" Jim couldn't believe it. Jim couldn't even grow his seed.

"How could he be the new CEO?" the others said.

Then the CEO said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone in this room a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds; they were dead - it was not possible for them to grow.

All of you, except Jim, have brought me trees and plants and flowers. When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Jim was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new Chief Executive Officer!"

* If you plant honesty, you will reap trust.
* If you plant goodness, you will reap friends.
* If you plant humility, you will reap greatness.
* If you plant perseverance, you will reap contentment.
* If you plant consideration, you will reap perspective.
* If you plant hard work, you will reap success.
* If you plant forgiveness, you will reap  reconciliation.
So, be careful what you plant now; it will determine what you will reap later.

Uhhh, not quite. All spam. So far.

Sad, right? Nothing like weeding through over 500 comments only to find that not one of them is an actual person saying somethin' sweet.

Ok, sorry, pity-party over now.

With the The Seed Project's revival I would like to start some new categories for posts, projects, etc. Since I am a busy workin' girl these days, I may need your help! If you don't mind, take a minute to leave a comment on this post and tell me what your favorite existing categories/projects have been and if you have any grand ideas for new ones.

Input is welcomed...because lately I am sometimes too tired to think.

Looking forward to your thoughts.

Peace, love & don't forget to set your clocks back tonight!

Over a month, yup...I've been MIA. The last time I posted I left you all hanging by asking for your input on whether I should keep TSP going or not. Honestly, I didn't mean to keep you hanging so long.

I actually logged in a few days ago to do a post, and then I just sat here staring at the screen not sure how to re-approach this project. I hate to admit it, but I've felt sort of stuck for a while. I don't know if it's because I've been so overwhelmed with things going on in my own life, or if I've just been suffering from writer's block, but stuck is all I can come up with to explain it.

However, I would like to officially announce that I am un-stuck.

I love this blog. I love the projects I have done via this blog. I love the interaction and the people I have come into contact with via this blog. I love the kind and inspirational messages I receive from those who read this blog. I love knowing, that in some small way, doing what I love may inspire someone else. I started this blog because I felt strongly that I was meant to be doing it. And, while I may have needed a breather to focus on some things in my own life, I don't quit that easily.

TSP will be starting anew, and I hope you will stick with me! I would like to extend a special thank you to those who left comments and gave feedback on my consideration to combine TSP with my other blog. Your words were all so kind and all made me cry, of course.

So, for tonight, I just wanted to let you know that I'm back. And, I've missed this.

Tomorrow, I'll start back to the life of TSP and begin planning posts and projects again.

And I couldn't close this post without this, which inspired The Seed Project:

“Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Matthew 17:20

You guys know I'm a graphic designer, right? Well, for a while now I have been working on my graphic design website (still not ready yet) trying to get my little freelance business going. I have a full time job, but this girl has student loan debt that totals almost what I make in a year, and a wedding coming up that won't happen for free. So, this girl has to work harder to make some more cash and get myself out of this debt I incurred becoming a graphic designer. Somehow, that doesn't seem fair. But, life isn't fair right?

Why the name CIG Designs? Create.Inspire.Give (the tagline of The Seed Project). For every freelance project I do, I will donate a portion of the proceeeds to a charity.

So here's where I'm torn...I recently combined my personal blogs (2 of them) into one that will also be part of my new website. You can check out my new blog here. I had also planned to combine The Seed Project into that blog. I would still do projects and try to inspire acts of kindness and giving, but the name "The Seed Project" would be gone. Yup, gone. I was fine with it until I started thinking about how passionate I was about TSP when I first started it, and it hasn't even been a year!

As I started to transfer over blog posts, consolidating this blog into the new one, I found myself torn. Should I really do away with TSP? Or, should I keep it as a separate project as it is now? For a while now I have felt stuck with TSP, not sure if anyone even cares about this project and if it makes any difference at all. I don't get much feedback, so I'm just very torn.

With all of that said, I'm going to TAKE A VOTE! Yup, I'm asking for your feedback!

Leave me a comment here or on TSP's Facebook page. Tell me if you think I should keep TSP alive, or if you think I should merge it into CIG. If you think I should keep TSP as it is, tell me why.

Thanks for reading & being a supporter of TSP...and I hope you will follow me on CIG as well. :)

I wish I had some...that would mean I was home. Home with my own refrigerator, my own bed, my own couch, not to mention my very own fiance!

But hey, this post is not about me. I am most definitely fortunate. Others are in not-so-fortunate positions right now. So the simple things...the ones we all take for granted...those are the things they miss.

When was the last time you let the milk in your refrigerator spoil? I shamely admit I do it all the time, because I buy it for one purpose and then we just don't use enough of it before it goes bad. And as I dump it down the sink I feel so guilty.

Right now a local homeless shelter is completely out of powdered milk, a huge staple in the grocery bags they give out daily and use in their own kitchen where they prepare meals every day for the hungry.

I don't know how many readers I have, but say I only have 20 (gosh I hope there are more of you), what if all 21 of us donated one package of powdered milk? We could help 21 families. Maybe the gesture is small, but when you are the one going without, small acts of kindess and giving become so much greater than the material thing you gave.

Right now I'm stuck in the Newark airport, flight delayed, hoping to get home tonight. But tomorrow...tomorrow I'm going to get some milk for someone who may not have a home to go to, or someone who is down on their luck.

Will you join me? Let's see how big of a little difference we can make.

If you are local (Naples, FL) I will pick up your donations. Just email me @ jessicambarnett@hotmail.com.

If you are not, send packages to:

The Seed Project
PO Box 3011
Naples, FL 34106

There's no deadline ... because people always need a hand.

Peace, love, and milk to all ;)