Easter this year was really nice. I hate to be wrapping things up (as in delicately blown eggs, pretty holiday wreaths, vintage holiday books...and such) to store them away until next year so, instead... I think I'll blog our holiday wrap-up. You know, as in share some tidbits about our meal and the final pictures of the egg dioramas Chloe and I made during our Eggstravaganza.
When I've put as much work into something as I did this Easter, it's always more special to be able to share it with others, so thank you fellow bloggers for allowing me a space for sharing some of what I love to do.
When I step out and meander around inside the cyber corner of fellow crafters, cooks, and seamstresses out there, I feel a kindred bond. I feel understood. In some arenas, I feel as if I have a big huge zit in the middle of my forehead...like people are staring at me saying things like hey lady, can you not see how crazy and socially strange you are?! Although many of my IRL (I think that's text for IN REAL LIFE) friends do love to tap into their creative sides , it seems that more of my friends often smile and shake their heads at me and my patterns, crafts, and recipes with this quizzical look on their faces as if to say, "HOWWWWWWWWWWW?" and/or "WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!
Fully intended as a compliment and issued with sincere love I know without a doubt...and yet the quizzical looks often leave me feeling like doh...there's that big zit again... glaringly placed right in the middle of my forehead just making me look like a fool. I have no explanation as to why I am the way I am. Being creative is just me and I cannot possibly express the gratitude I feel to so many of you in blog-land and the boutique community at large who make me feel normal.
Have I said to you~~THANK YOU for that!
Thank you Kim for the wonderful phone conversation yesterday. Friends
like you who "get me" are a treat akin to a personalized homemade
marshmallow egg. Special and made just for me and intended to make me
feel God's love through the serving hands and words of another,
so merci my dear!
I'm sure (well....I hope anyway) that many of you reading this understand the gist of what I'm not so eloquently putting into words. Trying to put into words a meaningful explanation (that often feels
more like a justification) for being"crafty" seems to get lost in
translation. Sometimes, I feel like there's a modern-day Tower of Babel thing going on for today's woman who actually loves spending 3 hours making an apricot/ pineapple reduction glaze for the Easter ham...or to be like my friend Tara who lovingly hand-sewed I don't know... like a bajillion white bullion roses
on to her daughter's baptismal dress.
Tara's mantra: "trim trim, dripping with trim!"
which is to say you can never have too many wonderfully executed details!
Thank you sweet Tara for understanding.
My forehead has no zit in your presence :)
(Well, except for that one time!)
Thank you Martha for an inspiration point on this year's ham and deco eggs. I hope you don't mind that I took artistic license with both and made a few changes to make them a little bit of my own. Thank you for putting the word Martha into the English vocabulary to be translated as one who does lots of crafty/cooky/painty/sewy kinds of things. Your name has been thrown in my direction with both love and in poking fun many a time. Bloggers, if you want to make your own deco blown eggs or a tasty ham like this one next Easter or whenever, grab an issue of her April 09 magazine.
I couldn't possibly count how many times I helped roll out clover rolls with Mom and Grandma when I was a girl. Thank you to the most lovely, talented and caring women who never put their candles under a bushel. Your lights ever-shining on a hill shower gifts upon me daily. I love you both eternally.
And I am so grateful that eternal love for family is not just a pipe dream. It's a wonderful reality that God has given to all of his children. How can anyone possibly look at the utter perfect beauty that springs forth from earth's instinctual clock and not know that God is real? Take these amazing Star of Bethlehem blossoms^ (my new favorite high rising flower) for example. Do these not obviously confirm that Easter isn't just about colored eggs and chocolate bunnies but about eternal life and the supernal gift
of being able to love and be loved forever.
And you gotta want to love a man forever who will carry tables and rearrange furniture and wash dishes to make a holiday weekend easier. And it's a double bonus when the same man will sit happily reading in your newly decorated frou-frou'd up living room. I think the manliness of the leather balances out the silk and roses and girly vintagey stuff I make him live amongst. I always love it when I find Rob (glasses-adorned now since he's hit the big four-oh!) reading in peace. It's a rare occasion that he's not working either for "the man" (the job) or for "the woman" (me).
Thank you Rob for dealing with my incessant projects.
I love being married to you!
I love that it's okay for Chloe and I to spread a huge mess of paper mache' all over the kitchen table and Rob just smiles..beams actually especially when he sees his daughter's completed piece of artwork.
Here^ Chloe's drawing on her birdy's door.
Here ^ she carefully cuts it out.
And, here ^ she's giddy about her own hand-made accomplishment.
All done up, our little egg nest dioramas bring a heart-warming touch of Spring and a get-your hands messy creativity inside of our home. The best part of making these for me was that Chloe showed me how to fold the little flowers for around our doors. Thank you Chloe for sharing your creative spirit every single day.
I hadn't really planned to wax so introspectively in this post. I really just wanted to wrap-up the Easter weekend. But I often find that the best things in life happen organically. Like my just acquiring this picture ^ of Chloe and I from 6 years ago. Out of nowhere a few days ago my sister-in-law (and super best kind of friend) emailed me this picture that's been on her computer since we lived together in Vegas. Looking at it more closely, I realized this was Chloe's easter dress from that year. We have both changed quite a bit in 6 years (we've both put on some weight for sure!!! ) Only Chloe's gotten taller too---me just heavier). I guess that's what happens with age. I decided the other day I would never look at myself again and think of aging or putting on a few pounds as "going downhill." Instead, I'll call my self "going upscale."
It sounds so much better and well...the scale has gone up for sure.
Could be the clover leaf rolls and chocolate covered marshmallows
but... probably not!
Thanks for staying this long to read and see what I've been up to.
You know I so totally love you for that.
And if you're the creative type,
I promise you do NOT have any forehead zits as far as I'm concerned.
My thanks
~eva
