Here's My Heart!

Back before Christmas, one of my favorite bloggers - Paula -had a neat little Christmas Trivia contest going on her blog and shortly after the holidays were over, she e-mailed me to tell me I had won the contest. WOW. I rarely ever win ANYTHING.

But she hadn't yet decided what my prize would be. She just said she would be making something as my present for winning and sending it along as soon as she was finished with it.

Well, if you read Paula's blog, you know this is a lady who is really big into crafting - knitting, sewing, embroidery, you name it and she does it. Not only does she make really pretty crafty things and sometimes puts them on Etsy to sell them but many of the things she makes are also designed by her too.

Having seen many photos on her blog of items she has made, I was really excited, anticipating the arrival of her gift.

Last week, Mandy brought this package home for me that arrived in the mail. She was really puzzled because she sure didn't recognize the return address - couldn't think of any family we might have in Oregon and she didn't know of any friends Mom had there either. She showed me the package and asked if I'd ordered something or what the heck could this be?

As soon as I saw the return address, I knew, this was it! My prize, my present, my "major award" if you will, from Paula.

I opened it and there before my eyes was the prettiest handmade heart you'd ever hope to see. Complete even with embroidery on it all designed, sewn and embroidered just for me by my Blogger Buddy, Paula.

I told the son in law I want him to put a little hook in the shelf directly above my computer - it holds lots of framed pictures of the kids but I thought if he just inserts a tiny hook there, then I can hang my heart from that and it will be there, a lovely reminder to me of my friend in Oregon, Paula and her talents.

Bill hasn't yet put the hook in for me -which is typical I suppose cause men frequently forget little requests like that of them by these silly women in their lives ya know. I had intended too that I would get a picture -since I now have this nifty digital camera too - and would post it here for all to see. Well, I'm just about as slow on the draw about things at times too.

But today, I decided I best take a photo of my pretty heart so I can show it to all of you.

I got Maya to stand by the back wall in the dining room - figuring there was less rubble accumulated in that area to deter from the picture. Getting Maya to hold the heart was no problem but getting her to stand still, to hold the heart in a place where I could get a good shot of it and her too -now that was a problem!

She has to be dancing around almost all the time - just fidgeting in some way or another. Then she had to scrunch the heart up under her chin which didn't show the heart nor did it give a nice shot of her either. It took me about 15 minutes, at least, to finally snap a picture of Maya, holding my lovely heart!

Take a look at this will you?


And the really funny thing for me is that I didn't even notice until after I took the picture how much detail this little camera can pick up too. I hadn't seen when I snapped it all the red stuff all around Maya's mouth and cheeks - residue from the nacho chips she'd been nibbling on here most of the day!

Oh well, that's my little Princess for you - and that is the lovely heart! Soon to be hanging over my computer, as a symbol to me of the love that spreads daily via the bloggers I've met here!

Happy Day to all of you! And again, to Paula, thank you so much for this lovely heart. It is really beautiful and you can tell at a glance it came straight from your heart and was made with love!