The Kindness of others....

We've been thinking about connection as we write our Malta presentation.  Again and again we are reminded that while we are geographically a bit isolated, we are connected with a community of people who have given us so much generous support.  This week we were reminded again.I (Wendy) bought a Modahaus Steady Stand Kit last month in Australia and as soon as it arrived I realised it would be fantastic for the ladies so bought it over here and ordered another one.  It was wonderful and really helped the ladies take some lovely shots (as you can see!) so I emailed the people at Modahaus, not expecting a response, just to let them know how far their SSK had travelled and what a boon it was.  Lex and Pearl both responded and Pearl in particular, being a beader (see her beading blog here) was really interested in our work and what we do.  To cut a long story short, Modahaus are donating one of their Table Top Studios to us!  I know how great these are from my own experience and the ladies are looking forward to its arrival.  Not only that, they featured us in their blog!!!Late last year I reconnected with an old school friend and as I burbled on about Samunnat, as I do, she and her husband suggested that Barefoot Firefly lights might help with some of our lighting issues and promptly gave me some to bring over.  And they do!  We charged them up the day I arrived, leaving them up on our roof for two days (you need 12 hours for the initial charging) in the poor light we have here in the pre monsoon.  And then we put them in a cupboard having ascertained that the lights would hold the charge.  Which they did! Yesterday afternoon, as we made up some earrings and struggled to see, we got our lights, turned them on and talk about an AHA response.  The ladies loved them and they were perfect for this activity. We also used one with some of our photographs.  We are continuing to talk with Steve from Barefoot as they have generously offered to help us with other options.Carolyn and Dave Good have been encouraging supporters for a long time and we have just bought two of Carolyn's tutorials.  Her tips for making consistent shaped Rondelles are perfect for us as professional rondelle makers! (The rondelles pictured are in the latest colour and will be available from Paulette here very soon!) Anyway, Carolyn emailed to say that she would have happily donated the tutorials, which we knew, but never want to take people's generosity for granted.  Her response though, has been to arrange a fund raising venture where they will donate a percentage of all their buffing/ polishing wheel sales to us! Anyone who has been involved in an owner builder venture will know how expenditures always exceed original budgets so all this will really help!!There are more generous acts that we will be writing about but we wanted to say thank you to these three whose immediate openness and encouragement help so much and remind us again that we are not alone.  We never take this kindness for granted.