There are a lot of exciting things going on at Carved Solutions.

With the coming of April also comes the joy and excitement of the Spring Bride!!! Carved Solutions does weddings like none other!

Do you need a special gift?

Carved Solutions has just what you need for that special HOSTESS, the WEDDING PARTY, OUT OF TOWN GUESTS, WEDDING FAVORS and WEDDING RECEPTION DECOR as well as the most unique UNITY CANDLE!

Love the idea of fine soap custom carved with a name, graphic or sentiment but wish you could add a special message from you and your beloved to the keepsake box? ONLY at Carved Solutions will you find such a personal service! With love and appreciation your special message will be included inside each keepsake box!

At Carved Solutions we cherish our brides! This is YOUR special day and we want you to have every last detail you've been dreaming of. We take our job of making it easy and exactly what you want, seriously. THE KEY TO REMEMBER: All of our products are customizable with graphics, names, monograms, phrases...it's all up to you!

In today’s anonymous world the art of gift-giving has changed dramatically. With so many mass-produced, overseas items populating today’s storefronts, the ability to give a gift that imparts an intimate awareness of individual caring has been lost. Carved Solutions brings back the warm feelings of recognition, awareness and connection. By customizing Vermont-made soaps, candles and embroidered gifts you have the power to personally touch someone’s soul.

Mike has been hard at work creating new designs for your enjoyment. Whether for professional use or pleasure these carvings are must haves! Capture the spirit of the butterfly, hope of the dragonfly, your love of golf or immurse yourself in relaxation with our seashore series to mention a few! Our design library is ever growing...check back often to find out what's new! www.carvedsolutions.com/selectss.html

I can never end a blog post without a personal message!

Remember the gift of patience throughout your busy days. Patience to your young child that only wants a moment of your time, patience for your spouse who might have had a hard day, patience for your parents whose lives are entering different phases, patience for your siblings and friends who fight with the same baggage you do every day, patience for yourself. In patience one often finds kindness!

Smiles!

Dawn

What was going to be my last post of 2007 has become my first post of 2008. It is, yet again, another moment to reflect in gratitude. To wake up in the morning feeling full of gratitude is a blessed feeling. It starts the day with endless possibilities. With gratitude in ones’ heart all is achievable, all attainable. One of the best times to feel gratitude is amongst life’s challenges.

Even through life’s challenges, doors are opened and dreams are brought into reality. Lessons can be learned, skills can be honed. The opportunity to find ourselves often presents itself through challenge.

When that challenge is a loss, we find out even more about ourselves, our beliefs and faith, our friends and our family. It seems this year, more than most, many have been brought into my life that have felt the touch of loss, the pain of miss.

This past holiday season we carved many remembrance items (candles & soap). The work, emotional at times, is also very fulfilling knowing we were playing a small part in someone professing their eternal love for someone else, a small part in someone’s healing…powerful! Both Mike and I are honored to be a part of that kind of love!

With gratitude comes appreciation. Appreciation for others, patience for others, understanding for others; that underneath it all we are all the same imperfect human beings with our arsenal of baggage.

Some of us share the same baggage and some of us have all sorts of “interesting” baggage that even at times becomes humorous (thanks to my sister, Roxanne, who can move our family baggage from painful to hysterical!). Whatever your “baggage” happens to be find away to sort out the lessons that lie deep within. Sometimes the lessons are foggy and hard to see, other times they are they are so clear it is like getting a fist in the face.

Mike’s grandpa, Wilfred, used to refer to it as the “School of Hard Knocks”. Wilfred lived 99 years and 9 months; he had a lot of time to learn about life. Grandpa would say, “Some people learn quickly that a punch in the face (an action or choice - hurts) and opt to duck, block or run for safety when they see it come again (change a direction, make amends, make a different choice) others must be repetitively pummeled time and time again to discover that the punch (repetitive negative actions, holding grudges, denying forgiveness or bad choices) create the same painful results”. I feel fortunate to one of the first group (even if someone else get’s the punch before I do, I try to learn from their lesson…why take a fist in the face when you don’t have to?). J!

Appreciation always brings me to forgiveness. The ultimate sense of freedom, a core sense of true peace is only found in forgiveness. Forgiveness doesn’t mean that responsibility or accountability is removed from an action but it does mean that the hurt from the act cannot hold you prisoner. We all make mistakes. Some make HUGE mistakes or truly bad choices that hurt others but that doesn’t mean those, who have been hurt, need to let the person in error and the pain they’ve brought into their lives force them into a prison of anger, locked in the chains of wanted revenge or the attack of the slanderous tongue. Don’t allow others to own you, your heart or deny yourself peace by focusing on their choices ~ rise above. (NOTE: I do share this from a view previously swallowed by pain and anger…another moment in the School of Hard Knocks…I lost myself allowing the pain from a wrong-doing take control of my life until I rose above).

The PEACE of FORGIVENESS, the LESSONS found in BAGGAGE, the kind act of offering UNDERSTANDING, PATIENCE and APPRECIATION that one longs to receive from others. LEARNING from and FINDING ourselves in our experiences, failures and losses. Ultimately embracing the feeling of GRATITUDE for all of it! That gratitude will set you free and the reward…UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. There is no greater a gift that I could wish for all of you, for all of us for 2008 than UNCONDITIONAL LOVE!

May your path find you with a light heart, a skip in your step, and a clear vision of where you are going.

Smiles always,

Dawn

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Dawn Lancaster, 802.872.0047 or dlancaster@carvedsolutions.com

December 17, 2007

VERMONT COMPANY SHOWCASED

IN TALENT LOUNGE AT CBS TELEVISION SPECIAL

Carved Solutions, a Vermont-based company specializing in custom carved, personalized soap and candle products was showcased at CBS Television’s 9TH annual “A Home for the Holidays” Talent Lounge.

“A Home for the Holidays,” is a television special that will be broadcast Friday, Dec. 21 (8:00-9:00 p.m, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. It includes moving performances by celebrities like Sheryl Crow, James Blunt, Fergie, Carole King, Reba McEntire and appearances by actors including David Krumholtz, George Lopez and Rene Russo. It was taped in Hollywood, Calif.

Celebrities appearing in the special were presented with gifts in the Distinctive Assets’ Talent Lounge from eight companies, one of them Carved Solutions. The Williston company furnished its signature luxury gift set, which includes a custom embroidered, 100% ring-spun cotton finger towel , and a trio of Vermont made 100% vegetable- based, triple-milled soap bars, carved “PEACE”, “LOVE”, and “JOY.” A gift certificate to order direct from www.carvedsolutions.com allowing the stars to select a personalized item of their choice was also part of the package.

Russo, who has starred in nearly 20 major motion pictures, said of the Carved Solutions products: “Absolutely brilliant. I love it…smells clean and gentle”

King, a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer who’s won four Grammy Awards, said “the products are lovely.”

Carved Solutions was invited to the Talent Lounge after being approved by Distinctive Assets (an LA-based entertainment marketing company) and the show’s production company. “A Home for the Holidays” is produced by Triage Entertainment and Goldsmith Entertainment, in association with the Children's Action Network and the Dave Thomas Foundation.

Carved Solutions, established in 2006, is owned and operated by husband and wife team Mike and Dawn Lancaster of Williston. Products include custom carved personalized Vermont-made soap and candles, complimenting custom embroidered products, custom work and private label products.

In today’s anonymous world the art of gift-giving has changed dramatically. With so many mass-produced, overseas items populating today’s storefronts, the ability to give a gift that imparts an intimate awareness of individual caring has been lost. Carved Solutions brings back the warm feelings of recognition, awareness and connection. By customizing Vermont-made soaps, candles and embroidered gifts with an initial, monogram, name, message even a logo or illustration you have the power to personally touch someone’s soul.

My Mom is a Breast Cancer SURVIVOR...twice. She's been free from Breast Cancer 11 years!

Recently, while I was reading I was reminded, "Breast Cancer knows no boundaries. It affects anyone regardless of age, gender, socio-economic status or geographic location. 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime". If that is true, and my Mom was 1 in 8 then let's do some quick math,

My mom = 1

My mother-in-law = 2

My sister in laws (3) = 5

My sisters and I (3) = 8

Hmmmm... So that would make my Mom the 1 in 8 BUT what about?

My daughter?

My niece?

Their friends?

You?

Your friends?

Your family?

STOP THE ONE IN EIGHT. GET A MAMMOGRAM! Give to cancer research, eat healthy, stay active, and keep a positive outlook on life!

My Dad always said you only have one mother, take care of her, protect her with your life. For the entire month of October Carved Solutions will be donating proceeds to Susan G. Komen for the CURE! Together we CAN, we WILL find a cure!

Because hugs from Grandma are priceless!

Smiles always!

Dawn

PS: Support someone who needs your hug, your love, your friendship visit www.healingbaskets.com

Not one, not two, but countless dreams coming true all through an avenue called Candles & Creations in South Burlington, VT! If you haven't been there yet, head to the Blue Mall on Dorset Street and I guarantee you'll be back.

Feel the spirit! Walk in the door, feel the chills and fall in love with everything you see...including Casey and Heather!

Dragonfly Gifts of Vermont and CW Creations have come together to bring you Candles & Creations. A place of love, hope, appreciation and awareness. Two spirited women with so much to offer the world, ladies filled with light.

Carved Solutions is proud to be showcased at Candles & Creations.

So visit Heather and Casey today. You'll find at Candles & Creations a piece of you; a piece of home!

Smiles always,

Dawn