Elsa Mora

Bookmark Surprise!!

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I have been dying to share these magic beauties with you. Here we have 4 fancy bookmarks made out of real wood! Don't you love the very idea? :) They are nice, organic and a little flexible, like thick cardboard. I love how the feel in my hands, they're very light weight.

 

 These cuties were laser-cut and they look amazing in a little vase or close to a source of light to appreciate the details better.

 But of course, any book will be happy to embrace these little bookmarks in its pages. And any avid reader will be delighted to receive them as a present.

 

Oh! The tiny details make me smile! 

These cuties are 2" wide and about 6" tall. They are going to be available on my Etsy store for as long as they last but after they're gone there won't be new editions.

Yay!! I hope that you like them as much as I do!

Have a great day!

Elsita :)

(Available on my Etsy store right now and they're flying away sooooo fast! THANK YOU for the bookmark love!)

Survival is the New Success.

Dear friend, today I'm going to invite you to go HERE. It's a post that Bill wrote and I just love it :)

Have a wonderful Monday!

Elsita :)

Carousel

 

 

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 :)

Diego Eating

 

 

 

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)

Story about the MoMA and my Little Book :)

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: 

Hi Elsita, 

My trust in MoMA's curatorial judgment was renewed when I saw your Blossom Buddies so prominently displayed in their bookstore!  Thought you might like to see it (sorry for the lousy photo).

Best wishes, 

Carrie

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!)

Welcome E-Mailing List!

Yay! I'm so excited!  

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 :)

Super Special Cameo Pin on Etsy :)

I just couldn't wait to share this little news with you!

 

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.

 

I hope that you like it! Elsita :) (This pin runs in a very limited edition of 10. I won't be making new ones but I will come out with new designs in the future, I can't wait! :)

Giving, Learning and Understanding.

Emotional growth has a lot to do with giving. Something important happens when you step outside of yourself in order to help someone else. 

 

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.

Diego's Crafty Side :)

Today I am back with Diego's latest invention. Here we have a project that he came out with the other day during bath time. It is fast and easy to make. Plus it's lots of fun to wear too.

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 :)

Everything's OK :)

Dear friend,

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 :)