Happy Birthday Week, Day 2: What Do You See in the Couds?

Tonight I celebrate my mother by appreciating how she taught me to see in things what isn't always obvious.

I'll start off by telling how she and I would look into the clouds; she'd look in one direction and I in the other. Then we'd tell each other what we saw. When I was very young, she'd spread a bed sheet out onto my dad's perfectly groomed yard and we'd lay there watching the clouds form animals, faces and more. Two days before she passed away, we sat in the family room, facing out towards the backyard and gazed at the clouds. When I asked her what she saw, she said, "I see myself feeling better." (I hadn't thought about that until now.)

As you know, Mother was my Girl Scout leader for many years, so she also had the ability to take ordinary, everyday items and turn them into useful or decorative items. For instance (and I sure wish I had a photo of it), in the late 1950s early 1960s, she made a beautiful Christmas tree centerpiece using only Styrofoam balls, toothpicks and spray snow. She poked hundreds (more likely thousands) of toothpicks into I don't even know how many Styrofoam balls, sprayed them with snow, stacked them on top of each other like a pyramid, hung tiny little glass ornaments on it, and put it in the center of our dining room table. I remember it being so stunning. After Christmas she'd wrap the spiny balls in plastic and box it up for the next year.

My husband and I took our baby girl Ginger to the doggie beach yesterday, where she romped and played and I wished I had her energy. It's so much fun to watch the dogs all running, playing and getting along. Oh how I wish everyone could live by that example, don't you? Anyway, the shells were scattered here and there along the beach, so I thought I'd gather some and use them to frame a photo my husband had taken of our baby girl. (In know, I know, it's been done before. But I first did it back in the days of yore when I was a Brownie. Back then, we had to use Elmer's glue and hold things in place until the glue almost dried.)

There usually aren't many shells at this location, but the tide was way, way out

and that uncovered a bunch of shells. I was picky, wanting only certain kinds to go with the crab claws.

I just hot-glued some sea shells, crab claws and raffia around some corners of an old frame. Yeppers, I said crab claws. They were all over the beach, so I grabbed a few. See, what I'm saying? Mother taught me that. Mother taught me to use what I could pick up off the ground.

Here's the finished frame. My honey's going to love a pic of his baby girl. (It'll probably replace one of me, since space in his shop is so limited. ha ha)

Why a photo of our dog?  Mom always loved my Sheltie Prince Sam, but he became ill the day she passed away and we soon lost him. She would have enjoyed Ginger, but she's much more energetic than Sam ever was.

Mother taught me to see the beauty and usefulness in all things. I guess that's why I have such a hard time throwing things out.

“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”
― Confucius

 

 

 

Thank you, Mom, for all of my gifts. Happy birthday week!