This has been something that I couldn't wait to show everyone here and now that they've arrived I'm so happy to be able to do it... exclusive pieces from
Macy's Heart of Haiti collection. One of the reasons these are so personally meaningful is Macy's work with artisans living through, in some cases, unimaginable hardship to produce beautiful things was one of the first posts here at Gave That. Back then it was their Rwanda Path to Peace project which was comprised of only one piece, handmade baskets woven out of sisal by the women of Rwanda. As time went on they added more pieces and even more encouraging, many more artisans. Since then they have started another initiative, the
Heart of Haiti collection of trade not aid pieces.
It's hard to express in words how touched I am to now own one of these pieces! Unfortunately these particular handmade star Christmas ornaments are not available to buy from Macy's as they were specially created for a few chosen bloggers. A personal illustration for the
shinning stars in each and every one of our lives. How incredible is that!? Still the collection that
is available right now, including ornaments and jewelry, is amazing and everything, a gift with a real back story and history to go along with it. Something so rare today.
As soon as I opened the package I couldn't help but run my fingertips over all the tiny bumps and feel all the work that went into each of these stars which are handmade out of recycled materials such as oil drums.
One of the biggest joys and, I guess you would say,
traditions for me around the holidays is being able reach out and say thank you to everyone who really went out of their way to help me throughout the year. Sometimes what seems to be the smallest of gestures can have such positive effects on a persons life. Having a blog gives the rare opportunity to do this on a unique scale and to publicly be able to thank all those shining stars, many of which I'll never know the name of or see again, for the positive effect they've had on me this year. Some of the stories are really incredible but this post would be too long to share them all and my biggest fear, to leave one out.
Instead, and this probably will come as little surprise, especially this time of year, I have to say how eternally grateful I am for my core shinning stars which would have to be my family. No singling out, every single one! You know who you are, how much you've been there, especially this year with Hurricane Sandy, the fun we've had... the good times we have to come and how much I love you all!
Wishing everyone a wonderful holidays and a big thank you so much to the Haitian artist who created this star and to all of you who visit my blog! More holiday goodness to come -M
Image: mam for Gave That
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