...the little things.

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things."
- Robert Brault

...hippity hoppity, Easter's on it's way.

I must have been about 7 or 8 when I wrote this, so this letter is 40 plus years old.

Dear Mr. Easter Bunny,

How is the Easter egg coloring going. I read in a book that there was once a bunny who wanted to color and deliver some Easter eggs, But his only trouble was that he couldn't read the colors on the paint bottles. I you told him to color the eggs yellow with pink spots. he would color them red with purple spots. But he went to school and learned to read. I heard that he got to work for you. How is he doing?; Please tell me, what is your first name? Well I've got to be going now. So hope you and your wife and your children,(if you have any) have a very happy easter. Love, Patricia XXOO

P.S. i am leaving you an egg.

My favorite,and most insightful view into my adult personality, is the upper right hand corner:

Instead of leaving two eggs under my bed leave them on the chair by my bed. Thank you.

Guess I was kind of bossy even way back then!

Happy Easter everyone! Love,Pat

...natures cradle.

I stepped out the back door this morning to let Lexie out, coffee cup in hand, still blurry eyed from sleep, my main goal..not to trip up the stepping stones. As I looked down, something caught my eye...the tiniest little cluster of something gold. It looked like the seeds from my wildflower packets had spilled into a morning web...but seeds don't have tiny little legs!! It took me a split second to go back in the house for my camera! See for yourselves.
Guess I have a few new tenants in my back yard garden!
(click on the photos to enlarge)

...in your Easter bonnet.

VINTAGE 1960'S MCCALL'S PATTERNS

When I was growing up, Easter was always a special holiday around our house. Maybe it was because spring was in the air, or perhaps it was the deeper meaning of the day, but there was always a special anticipation of that particular Sunday. About a month or so before, my Mom and I would go to the fabric store and pick out the pattern for my Easter dress. There we would sit at the big round table with all the other homemaker moms. I could barely lift the over sized pattern books over to my side of the table but I somehow seemed to manage. I hoisted over Butterick's, McCall's, Simplicity, and the best of them all...Vogue. There we would sit for what seemed like forever, turning the pages, patiently looking for that one special dress. Once the decision was made I loved going to the big file drawers and searching for the pattern number, always fearing that someone before us would have gotten the last one if it's kind and we would have to settle for second choice. Next came the fabric, bolts and bolts of colors and patterns and textures to choose from. I'm sure that Mom (who I found out later in life, wanted to be a fashion designer) steered me to the appropriate choice, but she always managed to make it seem like all the decisions were made by me. I couldn't wait to get home and marvel at how the thin pieces of parchment colored paper would end up becoming my favorite dress of that year. Looking back,
I wonder if Mom knew what wonderful memories she was helping to create.

...all creatures great and small.

Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of it's plain.
- Henry David Thoreau