Some time ago – maybe three or four months back the lovely Fran at The Road to Serendipity had one of her sparkling good ideas and decided that I needed to have – and I quote ‘A Dangler of International Happiness’.  It was an off-the-cuff, spur of the moment, random act of kindness that half delighted and half terrified me.

To this end she invited all her readers who wished to, to send me something I could create said ‘Dangler’ with.  I was supposed to also invite any of my readers who wished to, to also participate but I had a momentary meltdown in confidence and decided not to do that.  At that time I was the recipient of what seemed like an overwhelming amount of gifts from far and near and I felt asking for more was just plain greedy!  Silly I know, but there we have it!

Several of our mutual blogging friends committed to send something and over the ensuing weeks little packets arrived in my letter box.  Some came with beautiful little notes and messages,

some with longer letters and little notes on envelopes.  All were equally welcomed and treasured.

The gifts sat on a tray in my art room, a vastly different array of items, from tiny glass beads to big wooden beads, threads of broken jewelry, ribbons, glass hearts, buttons, crochet flowers, palm frond spirals, lengths of ribbon, hearts with names on and a guitar pic.  All mixed in with my collection of broken sun catchers and glass hearts, flowers and chandelier chains.  There is such a huge variety of items I was quite bedazzled by them and I had no idea where to begin.

I wanted to incorporate the smaller notes into the dangler and I needed to think about how that might happen.  That took a while!

I also needed to decide on shape – was it to be one long thread or several long threads?  One morning I stumbled upon an unused plastic embroidery hoop which was the perfect size and the shape dilemma was solved.

Still all the bits sat in the tray, overflowed really.  Siddy ate one of the little notes and later, another.  I moved the tray and got on with my painting.  October ended.

November arrived.  I signed up for FBF Goalfest again!  So this is the month when I am finishing – well starting and finishing – my ‘Dangler of International Happiness’ which nine dear friends have contributed to. and whose contributions continued to be sitting in a pile in the designated tray waiting to be allotted their place on the plastic hoop.

I wrapped the hoop with ribbon.  I divided the hoop roughly into three and in each third hung a palm frond spiral from Christi and Keith and all Fran’s beads threaded onto one drop of wire.  I added three of Linne’s hand died ribbons and topped the dangler with Kym’s three gold leaves.  The dangler was up and almost balanced.

That turned out to be the hardest part.  The rest was a joy of playing, threading, joining, adding and hanging.

Alys had sent three little hearts with names on.  I wanted to ensure her handwriting stayed safe so I laminated them

Doing that also made me realise I could laminate all the precious little extras – well, the ones Siddy hadn’t eaten that is.  Alys’ hearts also inspired me to make  a heart for each participant in the dangler and include them as part of the finished piece.

Here it is

I am totally in love with it and now have a constant reminder of some of my friends from around the globe.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Thank you to dear Fran, whose idea it was and to Stevie-boy for the splash of bright colour from his guitar pic.  Do you notice how I played it up with matching beads?  What do you think?  I wrote out the message you left me in a comment somewhere about the key and included it behind said key – you can see it in one of the photos.

Thank you Dr. Snail for the crochet flowers that help balance the circle and weight it at the bottom.  The two gorgeous antique buttons are not hung, I couldn’t get them to hang straight so I am saving them for another project – I love them!

Thank you to Linne for the pretty ribbons of just the right colours that divide the circle and make little bows at the top with Kym’s gold leaves and the necklace that hangs entire within.

Thank you to Kym for the pretty gold leaves that also divide the circle perfectly and look so nice at the top of the dangler.

Thank you Wendy for the wonderful assortment of jewellery pieces that you can see add sparkle and depth all around the dangler.

Thank you Christi and Keith, your ‘invention’ of palm frond spirals makes me smile.  You made them and sent them all the way from Hawaii and they were still first to arrive in the letter box!  Your happy, waving cartoon figures, drawn so wonderfully onto the mail packet, are now laminated and hanging on the dangler.

Thank you Alys for the beautiful and thoughtful and care filled hearts and beads and pictures with accompanying notes.  I’m so sorry Siddy ate two of the papers, though I don’t think he is – he had a wonderful time with them.  I managed to save the ‘Joy’ piece and it is laminated and hanging.

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I wish you could see it.  It glitters and sparkles and shifts shape.  It sighs softly.  I think I want to add some bells in and hang it in a window so the breeze will make it sing.

I am totally in love with the idea of sending small bits of designated things to other bloggers and then seeing what they come up with – it is such a challenge, such a gift and just another way of making this lovely community of ours more vibrant and supportive.

Is there something you would like to make that we can contribute to?  For example Jan at The Snail of Happiness made a blanket with squares from all around the world.

Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did!  🙂