My heart is full ~

I have been so very blessed this Christmas!! My family is happy and healthy, I've had all of my sons around me, my sweet future daughter-in-law (we are kindred spirits), my wonderful husband and it truly has been a wonderful holiday for us all.

Thank you all for your sweet wishes for Christmas and I want you to know how much I treasure each and every one of you! Your kindness, friendship and encouragement make me smile and warm my soul. You truly are the wind beneath my creative wings as well. You make me want to create my art and show you what I've done, just like a little child! I thank you for that....

As we drove up to the house last night, after my husband's family Christmas gathering, I remembered that we didn't check the mailbox Christmas eve so we pulled up to the mailbox. Well, Dennis pulled out a few envelopes and a brown package with my name on it. Yaaay! I couldn't believe it, another gift? Did I win a contest at one of your blogs and not remember it?

Well, we go inside and I change, get comfortable and cozy and have a seat on my loveseat. As I read the outside "Quill Cottage." It has made a journey from Arkansas. I'm thinking, this is from Sandy! I slowly open the parcel and discover the most wonderful gift . . . it was like it was meant for me!!! I remembered reading the most precious story on your blog about this little bird...Sandy, this is the most precious gift I've received ~ and what beautiful timing...my birthday is today and I consider it my most treasured gift of all....

Inside was a sweet lace handsewn bird with a tiny button on it's wing. It was tucked inside of a little nest with handmade little velvet acorns with real acorn tops! A precious little nut half filled with little buttons and wrapped in tulle, a scrolled metal fragment, a tiny faerie pouch filled to the brim with little feathers, ephemera and four little stencils that spell B-I-R-D! A cluster of nature's finds intertwined with beautiful yarns and on the bottom of the box a bundle of papers that look like faerie maps!!! Oh Sandy, this is such a wonderful gift to me, thank you so very much!!! I hope you all can see the sheer loveliness of this parcel.....you have definitely paid it forward to me!!

I'm off to Hobby Lobby today to go hunting for more goodies to create with . . .

Much love to you all, Dawn