Someone Needs our Help in Chile

 

 

Dear friend,

Today I want to share something sad with you. My niece Graciela, who lives in Chile with her daughter Amanda and her partner Fito, just lost her home to the earthquake that we all know about.

Her pain is double because only a few weeks ago she lost her baby twins (boys). One of them died in her tummy and the second one was born naturally and then died 7 days after he was born. Graciela is one of the strongest women that I know. Her life has been so hard since she was a baby but she has always been positive and she has always overcome all the obstacles in her life, one by one.

This time the tragedy is too big for one person to bear that's why I am asking you to join me in this effort to send her some monetary support.

A single dollar ($1) will mean a great help, any amount will be greatly appreciated. Graciela is one of thousands of people affected by the earthquake in Chile right now. My heart is with all of them.

Lots of love Graci!

No estas sola mi sobri!

Tu tia Elsita 

(For donating please click on the yellow button above and then you will be re-directed to Paypal, where you can enter the amount that you would like to donate. The payment can be made through any major credit card if you don't have a Paypal account)

I will keep you updated about how this effort evolves during this week.

UPDATE: The donation button has been removed. If you came from Diego's school to make a donation please leave your donation in a envelope with Reyna. Thank you!

Getting to know my niece better.

Dear friend:

I can't find the right words right now to express how deeply moved I am by your donations for my niece Graciela and her family. You have opened your heart to someone that you have never met and that says so much about your human quality. Your love and support means the world to us right now and specially to my niece who has asked me to send you a big hug and a huge THANK YOU. She will be forever grateful for your support. I also want to send a very special THANK YOU to Amanda Soule for linking my donation post to the sidebar on her blog. Thanks a lot my friend!

 

In this post I'll help you get to know my niece better so you can feel closer to the person that you're helping right now. I will tell you about her not only from the perspective of an Aunt but also as a person who saw her grow and go through life since she was a tiny baby.

Graciela came to the world in one of the most difficult circumstances; because she was born from a Mom (my sister Ileana) that suffers from Zchizophrenia. This condition made of my sister not exactly the Mom that we all dream about. Not because she was a bad person but just because of her condition. Ever since she was a baby, Graciela suffered from chronic Asthma and other complications that had to do with the amount of pills that my sister took when she was pregnant.

My sister loved her baby but she did not know how to take proper care of her and how to do the basic things that a mother does. She didn't even know how to take proper care of herself. That's when Graciela's Dad came to play an important role. He did the right thing at the time by taking the baby away from my sister, moving to Havana and raising her by himself with the help of his parents and later his wife Adriana, from Chile.

 

Graciela grew really close to her Dad until the age of 8. After she turned 8 Graci's Dad decided to take her to see her Mom again, he thought that she was ready as well as my sister, for this encounter. Irmino (my niece's dad) knew that there was a risk in doing this, because my sister was going to do anything to convince Graciela to stay with her and not to go back with her Dad. And that's exactly what happened.

 

Graci's Dad was heartbroken, he had to leave my niece with her Mom and go back to Havana by himself. My niece was heartbroken too because she wanted both, her Mom and Dad to be close to her, but she had to chose one of them at that time. What a big decision to let her make! (a huge mistake), but we're human and life cannot always be the right way, we just keep doing our best.

 

That was the hardest time in my niece's life. My sister was fine for a week maybe but then she started behaving in ways that didn't do any good to her daughter. At this point Graciela became almost her Mom's mom instead of the opposite. She had to take care of her 2 little brothers, cook, clean the house and do all the chores. Around this time she was already like a small adult, responsible and always looking after her brothers and Mother.

 

Graciela kept growing up and became a teenager. She went to study in the countryside which was the only thing to do for a girl her age in Cuba at the time. Over there she got pregnant and decided to have her baby (Amanda). She was about 18 when Amanda was born. Graciela had a good relationship with the baby's Dad as well as with his family. Around that time the financial situation in our whole family including Graciela was the worst.  That was the time when Adriana, (Graciela's stepmother who had already divorced Graciela's Dad) did something huge, she adopted Graciela legally and took her and the baby to Chile, with the baby's father approval. With my small savings I payed for her plane ticket.

 

Chile was a big step in my niece's life. I will always be grateful to Adriana for doing what she did with Graciela and her baby. This change was difficult though, because Graciela had to work so hard to support her baby. But life gave her a beautiful gift: Fito. The man who has done so much for her in the last years. Fito loves her very much and together they have been doing everything to create a beautiful family. When Graciela got pregnant with their twins we were celebrating big time over here. Because they were going to be the first twins in our family. And Amanda was going to finally have no one brother as she had been dreaming for so long, but two brothers!

 

Then, the tragedy happened. One of the twins died in Graciela's tummy, his heart just stopped one day unexpectedly. They did everything to protect the second baby, he was so strong. Graciela gave natural birth to him (them) and 7 days later, when everybody thought that he has safe, he died of some typical complications that often happen to premature babies. We were all devastated as you can imagine. Specially Graciela. That day we got the most beautiful and deep letter from Fito where he wrote the most beautiful words about how strong Graciela was.

 

Mourning a loss takes time and lots of love and support. That's the process that Graciela was going through when the earthquake hit them. I can only imagine all the feelings that are going through my niece's heart right now. But she's not alone. Graciela has lots of people that love her, I am just one of them.

I really admire my niece. Even in the middle of the hardest time ever she always keeps a positive mind and she knows how to let the universe keep going on its own pace. Graciela is always going to be fine no matter what, because she values life and love and human connection so much. In a recent letter she said that she was so extremely grateful for two things in her life right now: one, having been able to meet her two twin angels, even for such a short amount of time, and second for having survived the earthquake with Amanda and Fito. She feels that she's such a lucky person. Graciela could be saying the opposite, but as you can see, she prefers to focus on the positive.

 

 I think that we can all learn from Graciela.

I would like to finish this post by saying that the universe is something beautiful and we're all a part of it. Your donations have been an amazing way to see how the universe gets together, one heart at a time, to make make a difference in a person's life. Your support to Graciela means a lot to her as an individual, but it also means a lot to human nature as a whole. Your gesture teaches us that we're all brothers and sisters. We're all under the same "roof": the stars, and we all share the same home: planet Earth. We're all a big human family. My love and appreciation goes to all my brothers and sister out there. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you so much again!

Elsita :)

(I will keep you updated on my Niece's situation. The communication with Chile has been a little difficult lately. But lots of people are working hard to improve this)

 
 
 
 

Let's see what we see.

 

Today I'm back with a little interpretation game for you and the question is:

When you look at this illustration, what do you see?

What do you think that it means?

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Elsita :)

Happy Friday!

And have a wonderful weekend!

Keep Going

 

This is something that I drew/wrote inspired by my conversations with Dad. I am so lucky to have him with me everyday. What a gift! How lucky I am!.

Elsita :)

Micha :)

Hola! Hola!

Today I wanted to start up the week sharing this cutie with you. Micha is Aspirino's cousin, just like Ugladis.

 

Oh! Her little (big) eyes!

 

Her tiny shoes!

 

And her big bow! (How about her ears ?) :o

 

They're all just adorable. I would love to be Micha's cousin myself, so she could tell me fun stories. By the expression on her face it looks like she has a lot to say :)

Wishing you a wonderful new week my friend! (this year is going sooo fast!

Elsita :) 

(Micha is available for purchase on my Etsy store)

(Also, thank you so very much for all the wonderful comments on my previous post, I am very inspired to keep creating tiny miniatures :) Yay!! I will be back with new ones soon)

Two Miniature Paper Scenes :)

Yay!! 

Here is something else that I have been creating using my friends' wooden bezels and paper :)

 

It was a little tricky to make because the size is sooo small! 

 
 I carefully cut the 2 girl's faces with the tiniest pair of scissors that I ever had (I found them here). And then I cut the rest of the elements with my dear friend: the precise #11 X-Acto knife.

 

The result is adorable in person. So, so, so cute and sweet.

 

I think that they would look beautiful framed with a glass on top and everything.

 

I definitely want to make new scenes but my eyes and little fingers will need to take a break first :o

 

Is there anything that you would like me to create inside these wooden bezels?

 

Any suggestions?

 

Any ideas?

 

I would love to hear from you :)

Have a wonderful Friday and a fun weekend my friend!

Elsita :)

(Both miniatures are available for purchase on my Etsy store)

o

Ugladis

Please let me introduce you to one of Aspirino's relatives. 

 

Her name is: Ugladis :)

 

 

 

 

I love her so much! As much as I love her cousin  Aspirino.

These little creatures make my happy.

All my best!

Elsita :) 

(This dolly is available for purchase on my Etsy store)

(And HERE is a little present for you)

 

 
 
 
 
 

The Gardener

 

Dear friend:

Today I wanted to give you a little advance about one of the several exciting projects that I am working on in this new year. I am talking about a large painting titled: The Gardener. The drawing that you see in the picture above was the first step in the process of developing this painting. I already drew the girl directly on the canvas and started applying some colors on it. It will take me a long time to finish it because of the size of this piece and the detail but that's exactly what I enjoy. I will keep you updated on the progress of this painting and new ones to come. Yay!!

 This painting is about being a good gardener to your own heart. As you can see the girl has a heart in her pocket. Her heart produces flowers, fruits and also weeds. She is carefully trying to see what the weeds are so she can eliminate them. This is a constant labor of love that she does, that's why she's such a good gardener.

This painting is dedicated to everyone who spends time examining her/his heart to make it a better place :)

Happy Monday!!

Elsita :)

 

Taraaa!!: Aspirino is here to say Hi :)

Please, let me introduce a new friend of mine to you. His name is Aspirino.

 

 

 

  

 

I'm so in love with this little character! I will introduce his relatives to you soon. I am still so excited working on my other projects!!! :) I ordered some materials that I need but they haven't arrived yet. Please materials arrive soon!

Happy Friday!

And have a wonderful weekend!

Elsita :)

(Aspirino is available for purchase on my Etsy store)

 

Fresh News from Truly Yours :)

Dear friend,

I have been away from all my electronic devices (computer, phone, TV, radio...)  for so long!! And that's because I have been too busy eating the cuban food that my Dad is cooking for us everyday (YUM YUM!)

But other than eating Dad's food and talking and laughing with him everyday I would like to report that my two hands are keeping me busy creating exciting surprises that I cannot wait to share with you. YAY!! :)

 

Today I just wanted to give you a little advance of one of many things that I am developing in my laboratory. The piece in these pictures is a miniature papercut that will become a cameo pin as soon as my experiments are finished. Right now I'm in the process of exploring the wonderful world of papercuts in miniature encased in these amazing handmade wooden bezels made by my cuban friends.

 

I would like to repeat that this is just one of a series of surprises that I am working on. Yay! I am really, really, really excited specially about another project that I am keeping under absolute secret until I am more advanced in the making of it. That project is making me so excited! I am loving it with all my heart right now.

I hope that you and your loved ones are doing well in these days. 

All my best!

Elsita ;)