The Story of Three Flowers

Dear Friends,
A beautiful thing happened to me this Easter Sunday. I thought I'd share it with you. I hope it will inspire you as much as it did me.

The Story of Three Flowers

During the annual Easter service at my church, a member of the clergy walked out among the parishioners, his arms encircling a wicker basket filled with flowers. He handed a flower to each of us. When he drew near me he chose a beautiful lush bloom and handed it to me with a smile.

The flower I first received

 

 

As the service proceeded, we were all enjoying the beautiful music and touching words that were offered for the occasion. I was deep in prayer when a young girl sitting in front of me turned toward me and whispered, "Can I have your flower?"

"Pardon me?" I asked, not sure I understood her.

She held her flower up and replied, "I don't like these. They're not as nice as yours. Can you give me your flower?" The girl had been given a slim stem containing three small yellow daisies.

One of the other parishioners gently reminded her that she should be grateful for the flowers she had received, but the girl just shook her head. "I want that one," she insisted, pointing to my flower.

After a moment of thought, I handed her my flower. "I'll trade you," I offered.

Her face glowing with delight, the young girl eagerly handed me her small daisies and took my larger flower instead. "Thank you!" she smiled and turned back around to enjoy the rest of the service.

The flowers the girl gave me

As the parishioners continued to sing and take Communion, I thought how much I had liked my beautiful flower. I had intended to take it home and place it in a vase. I didn't get flowers often, and they were, in fact, a luxury for me. I looked down at the humble little daisies and thought that they would not add much beauty to my home. I wanted my flower back.

Then I thought of how happy the young girl had looked when I gave her the flower. I told myself that I was fortunate and blessed to be able to give service to someone. I remembered the pastor's words, that flowers are a gift of angels and one of the purest offerings we can give to others. So I changed the feeling in my heart and silently blessed the girl, praying that the flower would continue to give her much joy and peace. I thanked her in my heart for giving me the opportunity to be of service.

When the program was finished, I exited the main room of the church and saw a magnificent giant bouquet of snowy white flowers on a table in the hall. I was just passing by when one of the elders called out, "Anybody want to take these home?"

"Are you serious?" I asked.

"Sure," she replied. "I don't want to take these back with me. I've already got enough. You can take these home." She gave me the entire bouquet and the vase it was sitting in.

When I walked outside, several of the parishioners admired my stunning bouquet of flowers, and I invited each of them to take as many flowers as they wanted. On the way home, I realized that I had shared many flowers that day, and I still had a beautiful and bountiful gift from Heaven for myself. It seemed that when I gave a little, the Universe gave me back a lot.

The large bouquet I was given

 

This is a true story and these are the flowers I was given, except that the flower in the first picture was given to me later on Easter Day. It is similar, though, to the one I gave the young girl. And the bouquet was so large I had to split it into two vases at home, so the picture shows only half of the original bouquet.

Please feel free to share this story. It is, after all, a gift from Heaven that was meant to be shared.

Best Wishes,
Rose

The Best of Etsy April 2014: ThermalHairCare

Hi Friends!
I'm so excited to share another awesome Etsy shop with you. It's called ThermalHaircare, and their Hot Head heating caps look amazing. As someone who spends a lot of time working with hair, I fell in love with this shop as soon as I saw it. Their flagship product is a reversible cordless microwavable heating cap. The Hot Head caps seem to be the perfect solution to deep conditioning and hot oil treatments without sitting under a dryer and wasting time. How many times have you skipped the heat treatment you know you need just because you are too busy to sit around under the bonnet? I haven't tried the Hot Head cap yet, but it's on my wish list and will be one of my next self-gifts. This is a really great item to try.




Beautiful batik print

 

 

 

Hot pink, my fave!

 

 

 

Perfect spring green

One of the great things about the Etsy community is that you can learn so much about the story behind the brand of each shop. Check out the touching and inspiring story behind ThermalHairCare on their Etsy About Page. I hope you enjoy your visit to this lovely shop as much as I did. And I'll update this post to review the cap when I get mine.

Until Next Time,
Rose

Poetryspa.com is Now Open!

Hi Friends,
We're so happy that our website is finally up and running. We love being on Etsy, of course, but the flexibility and design freedom of a standalone site are very exciting. Please visit us at PoetrySpa and let us know what you think of the new design.

Poetry Spa Website

 

 

 

Indie Nail Polish by Poetry Spa

 

Fabulous natural body butters and oils by Poetry Spa

Over the next few weeks I'll be working very intensely on the design and photography for the site. Check back sometimes to watch as the site grows and comes together artistically and thematically.

Love to All!
Rose

Poetry Related: Poetry Foundation

Hi Friends,
If you love poetry (you do love poetry, right?) you should definitely check out the website of the Poetry Foundation. It's all things poetic, and a great resource for poets and writers. I recently discovered their page, and I'm still trekking through the labyrinth of information available there. There's a learning lab, poetry for children, historical articles, a mobile APP, Poetry Magazine, and of course, lots of great poetry. Don't have time to read? They even have an audio feature.

Poetry Foundation

 

 

Also be sure to check out their blog, called Harriet Blog. The latest article is a very intriguing one, about the profitability, or more accurately the lack thereof, of a career in poetry. I think the times are ripe with opportunity for careers in all the arts, but check it out and see what you think. It's definitely worth reading.

Best Always!
Rose

Adventures In Swirling Cold Process Soap

 

Swirling in CP Soap

Photos (not a tutorial)

 

Hi Friends,

Here's a couple of pics of my latest soaping adventure. It's a cold process batch made with a new recipe I haven't used before. This recipe was supposed to trace slower than my usual recipe, and things were going well until I added the fragrance blend. I wanted to practice my swirling techniques, but this turned hard really fast. So it's pretty much just a random swirl now. The scent is Strawberry Champagne, a fragrance I blended myself. It smells really nice and fresh and tangy, like strawberry soda and champagne.

 

Batch of two tone CP soap after about 36 hours

 

 

The surface is highly textured because the batch traced so quickly

 

 

Cutting the soap into bars

 

 

Instead of the swirl I planned, it has a marbled look

 

 

Painting the soap with cosmetic mica

 

 

The mica gives a lovely shimmer. I like shimmer :)

 

 

 

I'm going to try this recipe again using an essential oil, which should give me a good idea of whether the quick trace was due to the recipe or the fragrance. (But I'm suspecting the fragrance right now.) Hopefully the recipe is fine, because I'm in the mood for a lot of swirling and design lately. And tweaking CP recipes is really tedious work sometimes. It took me nearly a year to perfect my go-to recipe. The effort was worth it, though. that recipe is so fantastic, creamy, moisturizing, and almost invulnerable to DOS. Love that one!

 

I'll keep you posted on this recipe, I'm calling it Swirl.

 

'Til Next Time,

Rose