Sharing The Joy with World Market

A couple of weeks ago I opened up my email to find an SOS from my local blogging friend Sarah from While They Snooze. In a nutshell, World Market came to her asking if she wanted to do some good in her community for their Share The Joy campaign. Sarah wanted to do something BIG, and knew exactly the place that could benefit from World Market’s generosity, but she needed help making her vision a reality, and that’s where me and a few other local bloggers (and our husbands!) came in to the picture…

Meet the “dream team”…

Starting from the top left… Lauren from The Thinking Closet, Jon a.k.a Mr. Sew Woodsy, Sarah’s husband (While They Snooze), Katie and her cute baby bump from Sew Woodsy, Sarah from While They Snooze, Tony (my hubby!), Wendi from H2O Bungalow, {me!}, Lauren’s husband (The Thinking Closet).

This massive undertaking would not have been possible without the help from each and every one and the different tasks we all contributed to this project!

The Time Frame- Two Days

The Charity- Central FL Children’s Home

The Task- Making over their extremely outdated, old, and worn office facility. (Which is the first impression people see when coming to the home)

Here’s the before…

Central Florida Children’s Home, has been providing its services to the community for the past 40 years and runs solely on donations and volunteers. The home where the 15 foster children live along with the Executive Director and his wife had recently had been updated; however, the small building that housed their office was in serious need of a makeover which you can see from the collage above! It was dark, dated, dirty, and needed a more professional look, as well as some organization to make the office not only pretty but functional as well!

With a plan, and $2000 worth of World Market gift cards in hand Sarah and I headed to our local World Market. Her in her husbands truck, and me in my SUV with the back seats folded down! We were ready to shop until we dropped and loaded our vehicles up with as much furniture and accessories as we could buy! Here’s some of the goods…

1- SOURAV DINING TABLE | 2- COCOA PAIGE ROUND BACK DINING CHAIRS | 3- PAKSHI BIRD OF PARADISE CURTAIN

|4- VERONA BUFFET | 5- MAHOGANY KONRAD DESK | 6- VERONA TWO-SHELF BOOKSHELF | 7- ZANE PEDESTAL TABLES

Remember how I told you Sarah’s plan was BIG?! Well, I wasn’t kidding! We knew new furniture and pretty accessories just wasn’t going cut it so in addition to the items from World Market, we knew we would need more supplies to help us do the job right. We reached out to a few other brands to offer some additional support with donations, and they rocked our socks with their generosity to get on board on such short notice! So, THANK YOU as well to…

RYOBI for supplying us with tools to assemble furniture and get our DIY on.
3M for donating ScotchBlue Painter’s Tape, Command Hooks and strips, and office supplies.
Homes.com and ForRent.com for donating a Visa gift card to purchase the new lighting, fans, and more decor.

Ready for the before and afters?

Honestly, pictures just don’t even do it justice. It was an incredible amount of work to do in such a short amount of time, but we did it, and I feel like I could it over and over again (with week long breaks in between of course-my muscles are still aching!)

So, want to hear more about how YOU can share the joy in your own community this holiday season?

November 8th – December 6th, Cost Plus World Market is giving away a $5,000 American Express Gift Card + $5,000 for a charity of your choice each week for 4 weeks. You win $5,000 for yourself and get to give $5,000 to charity, and they are doing it not 1, not 2, but 4 times! For a chance to win, become a fan of World Market on Facebook and click here.

So the question is…How will you share the joy this holiday season?

Maybe you could put together a gift basket for a local police or fire station or show up at a local nursing home with a Christmas tree and box of Christmas ornaments to spread some cheer. It doesn’t have to be a big project to make a BIG IMPACT in someone’s life!

I’d love to hear how about anything you do! So leave me a comment below, or on my Facebook page and let me know how you #SHARETHEJOY.

Talk to you soon friends, take care!

*This post is brought to you by Cost Plus World Market Opinion and experiences are 100% mine. Cost Plus World Market policies align with WOMMA Ethics Code, FTC guidelines and social medial engagement recommendations. For more information on First Home Love Life’s disclosure policy click here.