Hopefully not Oscar-like

I've been away for ten days - Orthodox Easter and then the 1 May holidays. 2 May was the birthday of my grandmother, who turned 80 and we went to see her and tried to make her feel special and spoiled.

When back, the first thing I did was check the Timmel page, to see if the votes were counted. Surprise! Julie said the votes were counted indeed but she won't post the results until Monday (5 May morning). However she did email the five winners to let them know about their prizes. I checked my email... nothing. So I thought I didn't even make it among the top five. I was sad and kind of disappointed but then I came to terms with it because I looked at what I made for the contest and was quite pleased with it - which doesn't happen so often.

And then... the shock! The votes were posted on Monday morning (in Canada, it was evening here) and I found that I have got the first prize! I nearly died and fainted :) It was the biggest happiest shock ever.

Check out the Timmel SWAP page, if you haven't by now. There are great-great wardrobes in there and I don't speak only about the winners. There are at least two wardrobes that I liked very much and aren't among the winners.

I wanted to write about something for a long time but haven't got the time before going away for holidays. It feels kind of stupid and pretentious to write it now because I hate Oscar-like speeches, but please bear with me. I hope you know by now that all that I write comes truly from the heart. And this is especially true for the following.

You have been giving me such heartfelt appreciation during the past year. Every one of your comments and every new person coming to my blog or delurking makes me so happy. After I post something, I check my blog every 5 minutes to see what you think and what you say :) And every word means something for me, even if unhappily, I don't always have the time to thank you for that.

So a big thank you and a big, warm virtual hug for all of you. Your feedback encourages me and pushes me forward and I feel that it is also thanks to this that I have evolved so much during the past year. YOU make me want to be better. YOU make me strive to do more.

But this post is also about giving special thanks to a few persons that have stood by me along this SWAP and whose words and encouragement meant a huge deal:

My beautiful friend Marji - Marji, your warmth, straight-forwardness, sense of humour, great sense of style and I could go on like that for a while... You will always be somebody special for me.
Carolyn - you can't imagine what a great feeling I had whenever I saw your "just checking with you" messages in my inbox. And you know very well that your email when I really felt like giving up encouraged me and pushed me forward.
Lisa Laree - your "you can do it, keep sewing" posts on the SWAP thread and at my blog brought a big-big smile to my face. I felt instantly energized and optimistic.
Cherie - You wrote me your first very nice supportive message when I was participating in the PR wardrobe contest last year and since then, I constantly felt your presence through your emails and your comments at my blog. Your confidence in my talent gave me confidence in my talent and made me feel I could make a difference.

And last but not the least... Julie, the organizer of the SWAP contest. Besides being such a great host for this contest, besides putting a lot of heart, a lot of time, effort and money in it. She and the first SWAP I was in last year catalyzed my evolution. Because of Julie and her 2007 SWAP I started a sewing blog. And starting this blog, as I've tried to explain above, meant a great leap for me so I feel I owe Julie a LOT without her even knowing it probably.

I usually am really good with words (it is part of my job too ha ha) but when I am very emotional, I don't seem to find the adequate words to describe what I want to say. I am quite an intense and warm person (my Latin temperament partly accounts for that) and intense feelings are hard to render. I hope however that even with modest words, I managed to make you feel, you all and not just the five above, my love and my gratitude.
Thank you.