Big Day, Big Doings, Big Thank You!!!

Happy Birthday wishes to our native country, and Happy Election Day to our adopted country. In the US Independence Day is always on the same date...July 4th. Here in Mexico Election Day is always on the first Sunday of July. SO it's by coincidence that both share the same day this year. Historically elections in most Latin American countries are held on Sundays. Except for government,banking, and a few big corporations Mexico still has a 6 day work week. The Sabbath is the traditional day of rest. For many it is also the only personal time they have. Sundays were chosen because the workers didn't have to ask for time off to go vote, and the owners couldn't refuse to give them time off to vote. Another interesting piece of trivia is that there is a federal law that alcohol can not be sold from Friday at midnight until midnight Sunday night. This way you can't go into a bar, roundup all the slightly sloshed customers buy them drinks until they are truly sloshed then drive them to the polls to vote with the promise of all you can drink for the right vote. :) 

Moving on to the Big Thank You. Remember way back in March when I posted about being asked to participate in the Monthly art walk and sale?? Well one of our dearest Bloglandian sister's Renate, Put a Little Magic in Your Life asked if she could  donate a "few" beads (if this was a few I can't imagine what a lot is!)  to help shore up my piddling bead supply. Course I said Yes!!! :) She quickly sent a parcel of wonderful treasures to Deryn, Something Sublime to mule down when she came on vacation. But with having to clear two countries custom departments and being on opposite sides of the world, Renate's parcel didn't arrive before Deryn and family left for their vacation. When we knew LW was going to see his mum we had Deryn send the parcel on to Denver and LW muled it down. Soooo after weeks of waiting I finally got to open my box of treasures. Oh my dear Hermanita (little sister) you have so over whelmed me with your generosity and love!!!! I mean look at what I found when I unwrapped the parcel:

There is a beautiful piece of ivory colored hand tatted lace. So delicate and detailed!! One of the beautiful resin focal created this way only by Renate. Small white and latte colored buttons. Lovely huge dark, be still my heart, garnet nuggets!! Aventurine, bone, shell pearls, green turquoise.

The best treasures (those given to me) were still hiding in a small pouch. In that I found an amazingly delicious rusty old wrist watch that Renate said had my name written all over it. Ohhhhh little sister you know me well!! A little bit of rust is all it takes to make my heart palpitate :) But when I pulled the last item out of the pouch I was so touched and humbled, because there in my hand was the incredible copper Mended Heart that Renate had made during the winter. I have been completely smitten with this heart since she posted about it. You know there are certain pieces that just seem to reach out and touch your inner self, your soul. For me it was this little copper heart. We all have mended hearts to some degree especially when you reach those lovely "middle years" The way Renate created this piece you can feel the fragility of our hearts and the difficulty of mending them. The need to be mindful of the care, time and dedication that is needed!! It truly is nothing less then a talisman, that I have be entrusted with. Thank you dearest Hermanita!

  

     Now Miss Deryn decided that since she had to hang on to a couple of things until we found a mule, she would just start throwing little treasures in a box as she cleaned out different areas of her studio. OH MY again if this is a few little treasures I can't imagine how large the cargo plane would have to be for one of her medium size love parcels!! :)

Vintage button cards, pink webbing tape, see the adorable tiny cloth pouch?? Even it wasn't empty, there were these great old silk flower pieces. Look down in the left corner of the box (in the picture above) there is one of the pink blossoms. See the dainty embroidered hanky and a rescued yellow sleeve with embroidery on it?

There were bags of stone beads, wooden beads, charms, lockets, bits of old jewelry and orphaned rhinestone earrings. It sounded like Christmas for a while. "Oh look , oh wait look at this, oh gosh there's some of this, look at that" :)

You know even after almost 2 years of being a part of this most incredible Bloglandian community I am still amazed and overwhelmed with the care, generosity and genuine love we have for each other!! Here we are, just a group of kindred spirit and artist sharing our journey of life with each other. Yet we are as bound together as any "family" can be!! We will most likely never meet most of our family members. But that really doesn't seem to matter, because we share the true essence of ourselves with each other...our souls. To me that is the greatest gift one person can give another. Therefore it is a privilege when you entrust me with this oh so fragile gift of yourself. It is a very humbling experience to be welcomed to be part of this incredible family. You not only challenge me to be a better person, but you support and give me the courage to try. It is these unconditional acts of love like Deryn and Renate have freely shared with me that remind me of this privilege.  So all I can say is thank you from the bottom of my soul, while I strive to share my spirit with you my kindred family!!! 

And on that thought I wish you my bloglandian family an audacious art filled day no matter where you are in the world.  p;)