Have a wonderful Monday!

Elsita :)

I was obsessed about Carousels when I was a little girl. And as a grownup I still love them. When I saw the one in the pictures a few months ago I stopped breathing for a couple of seconds. WHAT A TREASURE! This carousel is located in Chicago and I have never seen anything like it. Don't you love the paintings, the colors and everything else in it? Now all I need is a miniature replica of it :o But since that's not gonna happen I have to keep enjoying the pictures. I just had to share them with you :)

Have a happy Friday my friend and a wonderful weekend!

Elsita :)

Isn't he the cutest?

Some days I cannot believe that Diego now eats by himself. He can finally 

hold 

the spoon and eat his own food. Something like that is normally taken for 

granted because it's such a basic thing. But in Diego's case it took so much 

work! He now enjoys it a lot. The only thing that he doesn't like is to get 

dirty. But I think that nobody enjoys that. I dropped some 

salsa on my jacket the other day and I wasn't happy about it :o 

That's why I understand Diego :)

Sending you hugs!

Elsita :)

(Typepad is going crazy, I think that there is a bug in my blog because what I write gets all messed up and when I try to fix it, it just doesn't work :o)

This is something that I have been meaning to share with you for sooo long! When Carrie McBride sent me this picture and her e-mail: 

I felt the happiest girl on Earth. I will tell you why: When I visited the USA for the first time ever in 1996 I was lucky to spend a couple of days in New York City with my dear friend Debra. She took me to the MoMA and we had a little argument with one of the men in charge. There was a sign that said: free admission. So we wanted to see the museum for free but the man said that we had to do our donation anyway. It wasn't that we didn't want to do it, it was just that our money department was so skinny! A single dollar meant everything to us.

We ended up doing the non-voluntary donation so we spent HOURS enjoying the place. Back then I was the most inexperienced girl on planet Earth regarding museums and fancy places like that. I felt like Cinderella after winning the lottery. I really enjoyed every second at the museum and every single thing I saw. 

After walking around for hours we ended up in the store as everyone else. Of course, I could not afford anything over there but I was just happy looking at the books and dreaming about taking some of them with me back to Cuba. I must say that I became a living trash can anyways, I took every free printed paper, catalogue or anything that I found on my way. I arrived in Havana with my suitcase full of all that junk that I proudly kept for so many years.

Now, 12+1 years later my little book ends up in the MoMA store. Can you believe it? Isn't that great? I wish that I could go back there and take a picture of myself with Blossom Buddies. All I can say is that I am extremely proud to know that there is a tiny, microscopic piece of me at the MoMA :) Yay!!  :)

Love!

Elsita :)

(Thank you so much again Carrie for the picture!)

I officially want to invite you to join my brand new mailing list today  :) Do you see that little box on the right sidebar? If you want to get an e-mail from me once in a while just enter your name and e-mail address in the little spaces. You will automatically get an e-mail with a link, by clicking on that link you will complete the registration, very easy.

This mailing list place seems to be great. I will let you know if it works well later, after I write my first e-mail. Or you can just try it out yourself. Writing an e-mail is something nice and more personal. I can share things that I don't write about on my blog and I can give you little advances about what's cooking on this side of the world. Sometimes when life goes too fast it's a lot easier to write an e-mail that can reach the people that want to know about you. 

(On the picture above: Bill answering my Mom's call from Florida :)

Let's start this adventure and see how it works!I will wait for about a week and then I will deliver my first e-mail. The subject will always be: 

From Elsita :)

So if you see an e-mail with this subject you will know that it comes from me. Have a great Friday and a happy spooky Halloween weekend!

Elsita :)

I am so excited about this new cameo pin! It is already listed on my Etsy shop.
This piece is so special and beautiful in person. I made it with lots of love and attention to detail.

For the making of this cameo pin I used black and ivory polymer clay plus a white powdery patina to achieve the old look. And to make it just perfect I hand drew a sweet tiny flower on it with permanent ink.

The surface of this cameo has been slightly polished instead of varnished. I did this in order to imitate the finish of bakelite. I wanted this piece to look like an old piece of jewelry . If you could see it in person you wouldn't believe that it was made out of polymer clay. On the back of it there is a metal pin finding for easy wearing and also an oval of stiffened felt for a nice finishing touch.

Each cameo was made individually with lots of love, each one is unique and slightly different but for sure, they are all beautiful.

I get many compliments anytime I wear my bunny cameo :) 
This piece measures about 2" in width and 1.5" in height (the perfect size, not too small and not too big). It will arrive packed in a sweet little box for protection.

Emotional growth also has a lot to do with being a good observer, with paying attention to other people's pains and needs. Observation leads you to noticing important things and this, at the same time, inspires you to take action. Then, when your action (even a tiny action) makes a difference in someone else's life, you grow a little, and you get to feel better about yourself as a person.

I am experiencing something like that right now, every morning, during the time that I spend in Diego's classroom. When I am there I feel that my mind is being taken to another level. All the superficial things disappear and I get in touch with what's really important. And when I get to interact with Diego and his classmates, I feel like I am participating in something special, not just for them, but for myself.

Each one of these children is unique, each one of them is special and each one struggles to fit into the world. But isn't this the case for all of us anyway? Aren't we all different? Aren't we all special? Don't we all struggle with something in life? Don't we all want to succeed?

Being in Diego's classroom is teaching me that we all have a lot in common, regardless of our age, gender, cultural background, race, religion and special needs. We're all human and we all need to be understood. The beautiful thing is that the better you understand other people the more you get to know yourself. Because giving is a two-way street: the more you give, the more you receive.

All you will need is:

*Clear food container (like those used in restaurants for leftovers)

*A small plastic fish toy.

*And water.

The illustration tells you the rest:

When the water runs out of the hat you just need to make it again, over and over, as many times as you want. Diego set a record of 2 hours making fish hats. We had to stop him otherwise he would still be in the bath.

Enjoy it!!

Happy Friday and have a peaceful weekend my friend.

Elsita :)

Thank you so much for your comments and e-mails about my last post. Fortunately, we're all fine and some exciting things are happening over here. One of them is that we're finally potty training Diego. It's not that easy because he's so used to his diapers but slow progress has been made :) Another Diego-related news is that he just announced his new name which is: Extra-Boy. We love it! On the other hand Natalie is attending a yoga class on Mondays and for Halloween she will be Coraline. Diego decided to be Kung Fu Panda or should we say Extra-Kung Fu Panda? Miro is taller than ever, plus he broke a finger in a sport-related activity, but he's recovering. Bill is currently working on different exciting projects and I am alive and with a big smile on my face :)

Life goes on!

I hope that you're doing well too.

Elsita :)

The owner of the red truck wasn't there but I left a note for him and we met later. He was a nice old man with the sweetest personality. He got an estimate for the job and I delivered a big check to him for the damage (it broke my heart and wallet) and I immediately realized that more than paying for the damage I was paying for a very important lesson. 

This is what I learned from the incident: If I try to get to the future too fast (in this case Diego's therapy) I am in danger to forget about the present (the red truck behind me) and I am more likely to end up doing something wrong that I am going to regret later.

I learned that the future is made out of little pieces of present. I learned that in order to take care of the BIG things you first need to take care of the small things.  I learned that If we are not very present right now, very aware of ourselves and our surroundings then we can have accidents. Not only car accidents but those other subtle accidents where you could hurt yourself or other people because you were not aware of what you were doing wrong.

Small things make a big difference. That's why I decided to slow down and take it easy from now on. Being safe is more important than not being late. And having your head in the right place is the only way to be safe.

Love!

Elsita :)