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I recently blogged about a bazaar I will be participating in on November 27 at Western Academy of Beijing.  Each day I’ve been making new cards for the bazaar (each one is unique) so there is a wider selection to choose from.  A few days ago, I set up a mock table in our home and designed what it would look like for the bazaar.  I’ve been thinking a lot about presentation and I wanted the table decoration to be as beautiful as the cards themselves. Here are some photos I’ve taken of the table and the cards.  Hope to see you there!

I’m excited to participate in a bazaar at the end of this month.  There will be many different booths selling a variety of gifts for Christmas and New Year.  Last year when I attended the WAB bazaar, I felt inspired and also a little left out and was hoping I’d have an opportunity to have my own booth the following year.  The opportunity has arrived and it hasn’t come without some trepidation.  It’s the first time I’ve had my own table  and I’m not sure how people will respond to the products.  I’ll be selling our Birds of love gift sets (we’ll have a discount special on them) as well as a variety of specialty cards. I have printed a selection of photographs that I’ve taken of flowers from around the world and have made a lot of hand-painted cards using a special technique that I created to make them.  They are all unique as each little painting comes out quite differently.  Here are a few photos of the cards that will be at the booth. Wish me luck!

My mother-in-law’s funeral was held today.  Unfortunately I wasn’t able to be there… In her honor we planted a Magnolia tree in our little garden and each member of our family wrote a special message on a card dedicated to her.  We laminated the cards, hung them on her tree and read our messages to her and said a few prayers for her soul.

Ironically, a month ago our pomegranate tree died because of the very cold winter this year so in it’s place we planted the Magnolia tree for Mom (each of the trees in our garden belong to a member of the family and the pomegranate tree was hers when she was alive).

Everyday, as I water our garden, I look at her beautiful tree and am reminded of her lovely soul and the gift she gave me – her son.

On the day of her passing, I composed an instrumental in her honor.  You can listen to it here.  We will be going back to her home town this summer to visit the family.  She will definitely be missed.

Today I had a great time making the finishing touches on 3 of the handmade cards for orders I received for the Birds of Love limited edition. Creating the specialty cards for the limited edition has truly been a joy. The process is an exciting and lengthy one as I make them from scratch. Each card is unique as there are no two that are alike. I never know what it will look like till the end so I enjoy the process of discovering how the creation will unfold. I use a simple technique with paint to make them and once they’re dry I mount them on gold paper with a quote from Abdu’l-Baha from the Birds of Love book. The quote is: ‘What a power is love! It is the most wonderful, the greatest of all living powers.’ What inspires me is beauty and adorning these precious words with dignity so I wanted the cards to be unique in their style and design. Here is a photo of a few of them that I sent out today for someone who plans on giving the Birds of Love gift set to his wife on their 30th anniversary! For more info on the limited edition click on this link.

The Baha’i festival of Ayyam-i-Ha is almost upon us!  For Baha’is this is a time of bringing cheer to others, visiting the poor and needy, giving gifts and enjoying the company of family and friends.  

Nightingale Creations has designed some beautiful Ayyam-i-Ha cards specially for this occasion (I have written another blog about how they are made.  Click here to view.  Each card is hand-made using beautiful Japanese paper and come in a set of 5 cards with gold envelopes.  The cards come in a lovely gold cloth bag to adorn them.  To order, please visit the Specialty Cards under the Beautiful Items tab.  Next to ‘Type of card’, click on Baha’i Ayyam-i-Ha option.  Below are photos of the set of 5 cards. As the cards are unique hand-made creations, your actual cards may vary slightly from the photos below.

In addition to the specialty cards, Nightingale Creations has other gift items including prayer beads and prayer book covers with matching bags.  You can view the prayer covers here and prayer beads here.