my latest project.

my cousin is getting married next month and my aunt asked me if I could make lip balms as favors.  I was excited to make something for his wedding, so I have been working to make them look just perfect for the special day.  I just finished with my first batch... here's how they're looking.

only 225 left to make!

dogwood blossoms.

My mother always loved dogwood trees. LOVED them. When I was about nine, we moved into a new neighborhood in my hometown and she was very excited to plant a dogwood tree in the front yard of our new house. The seasons changed and the dogwood tree never bloomed. She was very sad. She started to notice that throughout the neighborhood there were a few other dogwood trees planted that never seemed to bloom. Apparently, the soil in our new neighborhood just wasn't conducive to a blossoming dogwood tree. A few years passed and still nothing. My mom had been battling breast cancer for a while at this point and a few months before my thirteenth birthday, she passed away never witnessing a single blossom on that tree. We always thought that the tree would never bloom.... then the spring after my mother's death came and the tree blossomed! Wow! What a cool thing!

So several years passed and the tree never blossomed again. My dad eventually decided to just chop it down, but he kept part of the tree in the back of our house (it just looked like a big old stick) until just before he passed away in 2003. I never even knew what that stick was until my brother told me about it a few years ago.

So this brings us to now... I found a really great sketch of dogwood blossoms several months ago that I have kept with me ever since. Last night, I decided to get the sketch tattooed on the inner part of my ankle. The tattoo artist said what I had was a little too detailed so he played around with it and came up with something that we could both agree on. And yes, I know some of you won't approve, but I wanted to have something of significance other than a silly old tramp stamp so here it is...