Monday, January 4, 2010

A Happy Holiday Surprise



Quite a few months back, I had participated in a pay it forward thing on Facebook. You were suppose to send a piece of your work to a certain number of people, and they would do the same. Olga was the only one who had responded, and we both had agreed to do an exchange, for sometime in the near future. However both of our lives got really busy, and unfortuantely to be honest I forgot about it.

My husband had lost his job, and we were in such difficult financial times, that we were selling our personal belongings to pay what bills we could. We ended up having to move to a less expensive house, our vehicles went back to the bank, and we were struggling, not unlike most in our community, or nation for that matter. On top of all that, I opened up a new shop and Market(with others) on 1000 Markets, all within this time frame. My goodness what a year I have had....lol!!



Skipping ahead to the beginning of December I was feeling very stressed and excited with Christmas coming up. I was tired and to be honest a bit grumpy. I had so many projects that I was working on that needed to be completed before my daughters birthday and Christmas. So to say the least I was feeling overwhelmed, probably not unlike many of you during the holiday season. And then, to my complete surprise, I recieved a package from Sweden. It was from Olga, and it was one of the most beautiful bracelets I have ever seen. She named it Forest Path, which is perfect for me also because my favorite color is green, like the lush earth. I was so excited that I put it on and really didn't want to take it off ever....lol. She had just made my day, no actually she had just made my month. She is such an amazing artist, but more importantly she is an amazing person.



I feel so honored to have an original piece that was made just for me from Olga. She is an incredible artist. It's actually pretty funny, being a beadweaving and bead embroidery artist myself, that this is the first piece that has ever been made for me. I don't make jewelry for myself often at all, and this just feels wonderful. Please visit Olga's blog at http://mamma-foxan.blogspot.com to see more of her stunning work, I hope you all are fortunate enough to own a piece of her stunning art.

Olga, if you are reading this, thank you so much!! I'm honored and will treasure it always!!

Sincerely,
Rachele