It Brings Me Joy!

Of all the seasonal decorations that I put up, the items on my Easter Shelf hold the most personal meanings. Going left to right, let me tell you about them, as they each have a story...

The little pink and grey soap stone carved mushrooms were made in Nicaragua. Mama and Daddy lived there after I was married and Mama had various carved pieces. I like them so much, I searched out a market place vendor while visiting them, and bought these. I have had them for nearly 50 years.

The Big Goose is made of pecan wood shavings, glued somehow, to be able to shape, sand and polish into lovely things. It is much lighter weight than you would think! I fell in love with this guy when I saw him in a shop I frequented in Lodi. I saved up my pennies to get him and have loved him for nearly 38 years!

I bought the big distressed metal and perforated board star about 20 years ago, to go with my July 4th decor, but I found that first, it is difficult to store, and second, it goes with all my seasonal decor...so win/win!

My step-daughter, Michelle, gave me the darling Easter Fairy last year. He is a perfect addition to this shelf...perfect in color, shape and size. I just love him!

The large Papier Mache Easter Eggs are also from Michelle. Many years ago, when our now 20-year-old grandchildren were small, we celebrated an Easter with them in Tri-Cities, and she filled these with chocolates. I brought them home and have displayed them every Easter since. The largest of the three is sitting in a vintage plant pot that matches the color of all my Hobby Lobby egg vines and wreaths (also purchased in Tri-Cities, as we do not yet have a Hobby Lobby locally).

The beautiful wooden mushrooms were a birthday gift from my daughter, Mishel, last year. She had found some lovely carved mushrooms for my grandson Michael's room, and I kept threatening to steal them, as I like them so so much. Apparently, she wanted to make sure I would not go through with my threat!

And finally, the big carved wooden bowl I found at a yard sale, many years ago, where a man had a table full of bowls carved from exotic woods. They were quite expensive and it was so hard to choose which one I liked the most. This one came home with me. Inside it, is one of my Grandma's old, heavy, wire, basket-frogs for flower arrangements. This helps hold the silk greenery that you see. The ivy I purchased in the very same shop where I got the Big Goose. A few years ago, I had to replace and replenish some of the other silk greenery, as it was not holding up very well. I hope the new greenery stands up to the years as well as what I bought decades ago in Lodi. (It washes very nicely with a little soapy water.)

So you see...each thing that one person might perceive as just a do-dad or a useless piece of "stuff", many times has a much deeper meaning to the person who has collected that trifle.

As my granddaughter, Elly, told me a few years ago: when going through your "useless stuff" that you have collected over the years, ask yourself, "does this thing bring me joy?"

If the answer is yes, then keep it. Only get rid of it if, and when it ceases to bring you happiness...

Old Mercados

Don't ask me why, but I got to remembering the many different Mercados I visited and even frequented, in Mexico and Latin America....honestly...I have no idea what made me think of that!

I was only 12 years old when we moved to Mexico in 1969. I remember vividly, the first Mercado Daddy took us all to in Guadalajara. We had no idea what to expect, but it sure was not what we encountered! The sights and smells that assaulted the senses were completely alien to us! The meat market turned our stomachs; the flowers stalls were beyond compare; the spices were displayed in gunny sacks and stacked alongside sacks of dried shrimp and tiny sardines; there were stacks a tall as a person of pineapples, oranges and avocados and bananas hanging by racemes from the ceiling. And then, in another section, there were hundreds of stalls of fabrics, cloth, shoes and sandals, and pottery.

The floors were muddy and flies were everywhere...

I remember turning around and finding myself face to face with a large, red, fleshy "something", covered with what looked like little, black, slimy frog eggs. I must have turned three different shades of green, because I remember Daddy laughing so hard, before explaining to me that this was a papaya! Who knew?

Over the ten years I spent in Latin America, I walked to and through many Mercados; mostly just for our regular shopping needs. If I could not find what I needed at the local Mercado, I had a couple of small shops where I could get things like clothes soap and canned goods. As years went by, I learned to really enjoy my shopping trips, acquiring favorite vendors and learning where to find my favorite shopping snacks--steamed yucca, served on a banana leaf and smothered in a wonderful salsa; corn on the cob, roasted over coals and then rubbed with lime dipped in salt and chili powder; and green mangos, sliced in long fingers, served in a plastic bag with lime juice and sprinkled with salt, chili, and ground pumpkin seed.

Living here in western Montana, those times and places seem so very, very far away and so very long ago. I am so glad I got to experience that!

Blue Bunny Sampler

If you keep up with my blogs, you may have seen my post on the fun monsters I have made for my grandchildren and great-nieces and nephews.

I made a blue fuzzy "bunny" monster for Tiffany's first little one. eM loved it so much that, when her puppy decided to chew on it, she brought it to me to clean and repair! She loved it so much, she actually wrote her very first essay about her Blue Bunny!

I found an unfinished quilt block at an estate sale. As eM's birthday is in February, I thought it would be perfect for making a pillow for her with an embroidered sampler of her essay on one side and the bunny quilt block on the other.

Somewhere, I had read about a way to trace and transfer patterns onto cross stitch fabric. I found this kit on Amazon. Frankly, I was fairly unimpressed with it. It has a pretty high learning curve to using it successfully, but finally I was able to get a legible result that I could embroider over.

I found some cute fabric that matched the quilt block to some degree, and edged it to match the size of the sampler on the back. Then I added a ruffle all around the pillow case edge. Pretty darn cute, if I say so myself!

Oh! And Happy 10th!!! Birthday to our dear Miss eM!!