Happy Feast of St. Joachim and St. Anne!! ๐๐น๐๐น๐๐น
Today’s the last day of the Novena to St. Anne, which I offered for all of you. โค I was particularly struck by these words from the prayers for yesterday:
“… O Saint Anne, you whose name signifies grace and mercy …”
She’s such a great saint, and the perfect patroness for the blog!
I wanted to do another little giveaway for you all as a way of celebrating this feast day, and I’m delighted today to be giving away handmade goat milk soap from Robin’s Soap Shoppe!
Robin is an Army veteran and single mom (as she told me, “I very proudly served my country for eight years, and now three of my children have or are serving as well”) who struggles with debilitating anxiety and arthritis. She’s been making goat milk soap for years — I’ve gotten it for my own home and for gifts forย family members and friends and my boys’ teachers at Chrismas — it’s beautiful, luscious soap and I’m delighted to be giving away today:
One “Icky Yucky Hands & Super Gardening Soap – lightly scented” bar (approx. 5 oz). Robin says,
“When you’ve just finished making a huge mess in your kitchen and your hands are beyond yucky, this is the perfect soap! If you’ve been outside, working in your garden, this soap is wonderful for getting the ickies off your hands. If you enjoy getting your hands dirty, this is your new favorite soap. Layers of lavender buds, rose clay, kelp, coffee grounds, calendula – an amazing soap that smells pretty darn good, too. Scented with rosehips and jasmine. 100% naturally colored.”
(That one’s my own personal favorite!)
One “Baby Yourself with Lavender” bar (5-6oz.). Robin says,
“This is a 100% goat milk cold process soap that is lightly scented with lavender … Goat milk soaps are just scrumptious for your skin! Baby your skin and enjoy the light scent of lavender, too. โค “
And two of these “Mint Chocolate” 3 oz. flower clusters. Robin says,
“Oh.My.Word. The most perfect dark chocolate paired with the most amazing mint. I had a feeling this one was going to be good, but, oh MY, it is just scrumptious!!“
So four soaps in all! One Icky Yucky Hands bar, one Baby Yourself with Lavender bar, and two Mint Chocolate flower clusters. Is it weird to want to sayย Mmmmmmm about soap?? Because that’s what I always want to say in regards to Robin’s soap! I’m so excited for whoever of you wins this!
Thisย Beautiful Soap from Robin’s Soap Shoppe Giveawayย will be for today only (until midnight tonight) — just click on that link to enter and for fun, I’d love to know what your favorite Ann- name is, and/or if you’ve heard any interesting or unusual Ann- variants! (But it’s not mandatory — you can enter without doing so. ๐ ) (And if you want to place an order of soap on your own, whether you win the giveaway or not, I know Robin would appreciate it!)
I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed feast day! ๐๐น๐๐น๐๐น
I love Annika!!
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I am biased because it’s my son’s name, but we love Anson. It means “son of Ann.” He was named in her honor.
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I love it too, such a great way to name a boy after her!
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I am a bit biased since it is our son’s name, but we love the name Anson. It means “son of Ann.” He was named in her honor.
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I love it too! Such a great way to name a little boy after her!
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My favorites are Anne or Annemarie! My husband would probably vote for Anna so we’d have to find a compromise. We’d call her Annie either way for sure.
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I love them all! Annie is such a sweet nickname.
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I’m an Ann who goes by Annie! I’ve had a bit of a love-hate (not quite hate, maybe dislike?) relationship with my name, but that’s mostly because I’ve always been called Annie so I don’t know what to think of “just Ann.” However, now that I’m older, I really like my name and especially love that I get such an awesome patron saint!
This isn’t strictly an “Ann(e)” name, but my parents originally wanted to name me Aniela after one of my Polish great-grandmothers. It’s pronounced “ahn-yell’-a.” It’s the Polish form of Angela, so I’m thinking the actual patron for little Anielas is one of the angels, but I’d still have gone by Annie if they had named me that. I’ve always loved that name, maybe in response to thinking that Ann is boring by comparison!!
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Aww I love Ann and Annie! And Aniela — wow!! So pretty!
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I am a big fan of the classic Anne for so many reasons but have recently started to love Lilianna if that counts!
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Yes it does count! I’m a big fan of the -anna names, Lilianna’s a gorgeous one!
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The women in my family are all “Ann” variants. My grandmother is Nancy, my mother is Annette, I’m Anna, and my daughter is Graciela (not exactly Ann, but she was named with the meaning of grace in mind; l couldn’t get my husband on board with Anita). I love all the Ann names!! ๐
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This is awesome, I love all the variations you have in your family! Graciela was a great way to do it, nice!
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I know a couple of JoAnnas whose name suits them perfectly.
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I love that too!
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I love almost all names that sound like Ann or Anna. Some of my favorites are Hannah and Joann or Joanna. I think Ann could be a nickname and/or patron Saint for any of these.
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I agree!
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I love the simplicity of Ann, but love the nickname Annie, as well!
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Me too!
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I have a soft spot for Annabel and Annabeth. But also the classic Anne!
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I looove those too!
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My favorite ann – name is Annelise. It just sounds so elegant to me ๐
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I totally agree!
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Oooh, another fave of mine too!
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I love marianne
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I do too, it’s so Sense and Sensibility to me (ohh Colonel Brandon!)
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My daughter, age 1, is called Anne almost exclusively. I have nothing against Annie and in fact I assumed that’s what we would call her, but her 3 older siblings, surprisingly, seem to prefer Anne. It will be interesting to see if she stays an Anne.
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Ohh that’s really sweet!! Anne is great! Anne Shirley never went by Annie ๐
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Anne is in the running for a future after my husband’s grandmother. And I have a niece Hannah, so I’m partial to those! And I love Robin’s soaps!
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Awesome!!
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I love the name Annie!! It’s so cute. Also the name Hannah is adorable to me. And the classic Anna is always great
I personally tend to think of Joanna as pretty distinct from Anne for some reason.
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Yes, Joanna isn’t technically related to Anne — it would have to be more of a “I intend for Joanna to be for St. Anne” kind of thing, but I do think that works.
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Oh yes, I definitely can see how it can work, but it just has never connected in my mind!
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My middle name is Annette, and it took me many years to grow fond of it (it seemed like everyone else in elementary school had Elizabeth or Marie as her middle name), but now I appreciate that I’m namesaked by two of Mary’s relatives! And I generally love -ette names.
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Wow, what a gorgeous combo!!
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We named our daughter Elianna. In Hebrew, Eliana, (with one ‘n’), means “God answers.” Adding the extra ‘n’ is a nod to St. Anne, who is so wonderful, and can also give another meaning to the name – God’s grace or God is gracious.
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That’s beautiful!!
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I love Annika and of course, Julianne!
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Me too! ๐
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I have told this story in comments here before, but… My grandmother’s mother wanted to name her Milana (mil- like Mildred, -ana like the little sister’s name in Frozen), but I guess the doctor said, “nope, never heard of it” and put Mildred on the birth certificate. A cousin got to the name before I could, so at least it lives again. But I hear the Ann variant on the end.
I also knew an an Anna who had a w in there somewhere to ensure it was pronounced the same way the Frozen character is. This was about 20 years ago and I have since forgot the spelling, something like Awanna.
I don’t really like the name Ann/e or Anna (Ann-ah), but I do like the Frozen pronunciation (aw-na). Marian has been on my girl name list for a while, but I want to spell it different cause I don’t want it pronounced Mary-Anne, but Mary-in instead. Maybe Marien.
P.s. If you can’t tell I have a just turned 3 year old who just discovered and is suddenly obsessed with the movie Frozen. Current imaginary friends names are constantly Emma, Anna, and Elsa ๐
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I love the Milana story! And Frozen — haha!!
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I love Hannah. It just looks and sounds so sweet. Even though it’s been high in the popularity ranking, I have only known one. In my mind, I picture a happy and kind person named Hannah, maybe with a huge smile and dimples.
Although somedays, I’m in a simplicity is best mood and the the graceful Anne tops my list. It’s like the black dress you can pull out of the back of the closet anytime you have a fancy occasion and it always looks good. Timeless and suited for just about anything.
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I love Hannah too, and “sweet” is the just the perfect description of it.
And speaking of perfect descriptions!! You’re spot on about Anne being the little black dress! I love that!!
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[…] winner of yesterday’s giveaway of beautiful soap from Robin’s Soap Shoppe is the very lucky […]
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Obviously too late to enter for the giveaway, but my favorite is still sweet and simple Anne.
But my mom’s name is an Anne diminutive, Nancy, and my name’s Grace, so we say I’m named after my mom in reverse. I don’t think that was her intention when she named me, but once she realized the connection, she liked tying them together. Tomorrow is my mom’s 60th birthday! Yay!
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Happy birthday to your mom!!
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Happy Feast Day! Dear St. Anne, please pray for and with us all!
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[…] giveaways (here, here, and […]
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