Family is Everything

It has to be said that most of the enquiries I receive about my cards are from women. Mums, Grandmas and Aunties. I get the occasional call - usually quite last minute - from a husband, and even more occasionally, from a Grandpa. I don't often receive requests for cards from kids, but in this case a gorgeous 11 year old girl who knows that her Mum loves my cards, wanted to order one for her Mum's birthday! I was totally taken aback by this young lady's somewhat rushed call - she was using Mum's mobile to call me since, I am guessing, she knew the number was in there - but she knew what she wanted and gave me enough information to create a card according to her requirements.

My young customer asked me to show her Mum and her children on the card (above). She was also quite specific that Mum's age had to be on there. Other than that, I know the kids and had anyway made a birthday card for the eldest daughter not long ago, so was quite up to date with their various 'looks'. I knew that the youngest daughter had to have her hair in two cuckoos (in Hebrew 'cuckoo' means ponytail) and that the eldest daughter has some much loved white hoop earrings. The son is a good friend of my youngest son, so that was easy - I see him a lot - and the card came together easily enough and was soon delivered to the young lady at school. Unfortunately, as kids do, the boy let the secret out right at the very end of the whole process, but Mum was thrilled that her kids had gone to such great efforts anyway and did not let on. They even organised a surprise party for her, complete with a special dance show. What great kids! I was so impressed by their kindness.

Whilst I'm on the subject of kindness, I want to show you how wonderfully kind Stephanie of Stelie Designs was to me! Stephanie and I are teammates on the Etsy Greetings team and not long ago she announced to the team that she was running a giveaway on her blog. It was Thanksgiving and Stephanie wanted to know what we were all most thankful for. As a prize, she was giving away a personalised custom family tree print. The 8x10 image, printed on white recycled cardstock, declares "Our family is everything" and shows several trees, each with the name of a family member, along with the date the family was established, on it. Guess who was the winner? Me!!!

I received my beautiful print in the mail a few days ago. It has 4 trees on it (representing the 4 members of my family) and is inscribed with all our names and the date my husband and I were married. My photo of it, above, really does not do it justice. (Sorry Stephanie but we're right in the middle of some pretty grey days over here). This is certainly a piece of art that I am going to treasure for a long time to come.
And my answer to Stephanie's question, well here goes: "Apart from being thankful for my family of course, I am thankful for being able to live in this wonderful, beautiful country that I chose to make my home. I love it here!"