AFTER A HALF-DAY SATURDAY BIKE RIDE, my husband came home with a surprise . . . a bunch of weed-looking plants with purple flowers and a swarm of red ants! I stood still . . . tried hard to act surprised while dissecting in my mind how strange it was. With my puzzled face, my husband patiently explained that it was indeed a weed called Purple Hearts. I was totally lost! Then he continued his story. . .While biking along the grassy, muddy slopes of Cavite, he stopped when he came across a patch of purple weeds and closely looked at it. He plucked a bunch and rushed home. He then said to me, "Look closely at the flower. The flower is shaped like a heart." I ended up giving him a hug. This happened a week after Valentines Day.
CAN YOU MAKE ME A NECKLACE WITH A TOUCH OF PURPLE? That's what my friend asked me while I was going through a pile of mail 2 months ago. I hesitated but did not want to reject. Since she was a dear friend, I decided to tell her that purple is a color which I consider a challenge. But I did it. A few days after, my friend finally saw the necklace with a deep purple round glass bead. She was absolutely ecstatic. I then found out that she intended to give the necklace to her Mom who adores the color purple. She believed that having a touch of purple-colored bead pendant close to her Mom's heart will surely make each day special.
WHILE GETTING READY FOR AN AFTERNOON MOVIE DATE WITH A FORMER OFFICEMATE (a new found activity of "early retirees"), I made a mental note of giving her a turquoise color bead cloth necklace. As I was about to leave, a thought occurred . . . "is turquoise her color?". I changed my choice from turquoise to PURPLE.
A cup of coffee at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, with a lot of stories about her recent trip to Vietnam, was what we did right after the movie. She brought me home a lovely embroidered undergarment pouch and a box of Vietnamese 3-in-1 coffee. I absolutely loved the goodies.
I then pulled out from my bag the purple necklace. She said . . . "WOW! I now have something from By Beaded Story and it is the color that I love most." Figures out it is I who loves Turquoise :)
By the way, the movie Confessions of a Shopaholic was an absolute bore :(
MARCH 15, 2009 WAS ABSOLUTELY A PURPLE DAY at the SUNDAY MARKET AT ATC!
The purple day began with 2 young girls (age 10 I guess) looking for a gift for their Tita "I". They first approached my nook adoring the colors of my beads. With girlish whispers and laughter, they suddenly left. Ten minutes after, they returned and acted exactly the same way. This act did not only happen once or twice, it happened so MANY times. On their nth visit, I finally had to ask what they were looking for. Then, I heard a duet . . . "We want to give Tita "I" a purple necklace!" . . . . they finally made a choice and bought their Tita "I" a purple sun-shape pendant! Mission accomplished!
My "suki" for red bead necklaces came to visit in the afternoon. She carefully scrutinized and tried on each and every necklace. She said that my creations made her look and feel pretty. Such a beautiful compliment! After having gone through all the collections, she surprised me by saying . . . "YOU SHOULD DO MORE DESIGNS WITH PURPLE BEADS". Hmm . . . surprising especially coming from a lady in red.
It was nearing 9 o'clock in the evening when my last client arrived . . . my "neighbor" vendor. Closing time gives us chance to have a bit of relaxation and a quick chat with co-vendors. Our discussion was very business in nature. Coming from the mall industry for 12 years, I was able to extract good information which I found very valuable for my events-related venture. Her participation at the Sunday Market is only a sideline and her primary source of livelihood is food related. Then she moved on by saying, "do you have anything purple?" . . . "my bestfriend's favorite color is purple."
After all these encounters with the color purple, I look at it now at a different light. I admit that it still does not hold a place in my top 10. Yet, I am now more than ever willing to work with it. I will work with purple not because of the shade, not because of what I see, but because of what it meant for the "purple" folks I came across in the recent months.
Purple Hearts thrive in the wild. It is indeed a weed. But when looked at closely, the purple flower weed is perfectly shaped like a heart. The surprise I received from my husband was filled with genuine love and with this I believe that the same holds true for the other "purple" folks I wrote in this note.
P.S. the 2 purple collections shown above were featured in http://shopcrazy.com.ph/ , dated March 15, 2009.
No comments:
Post a Comment