Showing posts with label Cherry Blossoms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cherry Blossoms. Show all posts

Echo Creative Club - October Reveal!

Welcome to the October Edition of the
Echo Creative Team Reveal.




 
Remember when I showed you the two pendants that Jeannie had sent me to be used in both the October and November Reveals? 

 

As I mentioned, I decided to use her wonderful
Cherry Blossom Pendant for the October Reveal.

 

One reason is because it's Breast Cancer Awareness Month and there's shades of PINK all over the place - LOVE that!!

  The other reason is because the leaf she sent reminded me of my sis's cabin and Thanksgiving,...so I wanted to use the leaf charm/pendant for next month's reveal. (Nov.25th)
 
When I saw Jeannie's Cherry Blossom pendant I fell in love with it!  Although I take a lot of pictures of flowers, I don't use many of them in my jewelry designs. But this Cherry Blossom is super gorgeous and it also took me back to my childhood,....


Via Lisa Crabtree - Pinterest
 
 

Growing up in "Mayberry" (how I lovingly refer to my hometown) we had a beautiful cherry tree in our back yard.  I could look out my bedroom window and see it every day. I loved this tree. I loved how it looked in Spring when it would bloom and how the blossoms would smell. 
 
Cherries from King Orchards via Pinterest
 
I also loved the cherries it produced.  I loved them a bit too much.  I ate a lot (I mean a LOT) of cherries off that tree every single year!  So many in fact that each year my body would scream "Enough Already!" and I would break out in hives, covering me from head to toe in huge, itchy, red welts!


 

I even had to come home early one year from Church camp because I broke out in hives w/in 48 hours of getting to camp - that sucked!!  (My parents weren't very happy about having to come and get me, either!) 


 

Still,...I didn't learn. I'd eat a ton of those juicy little 'red-devils' every single summer! Until I got in junior high and didn't want to go through all the itching and looking like an massive red-welt for a couple of weeks!


The dark bark of the tree, branches, cherries, cherry seeds and stems 
 

But I'd still snatch one or two off the tree each year just to temp fate because they were so darned yummy!

However, in my defense,....ya gotta eat a lot of cherries to have a proper 'cherry seed fight' with your brother (who's a few years older than me) who was consistently able to spit seeds a bit farther and faster than I was!  Just sayin',...


 
 

 
I remember one day after school a friend of mine rode his bike over to my house to talk about some of his 'girl problems'.  He was a bit upset and ended up throwing his bike against my cherry tree. I yelled at him for that cause he put a huge gash in the tree and if my dad saw it he would come unglued and yell and my brother and me. 

Well, the tree survived the bike, but when my friend passed away in August of this year that memory came rushing back,...
 
From the Cherry Blossoms to the Cherries,....
 
 
That cherry tree was a source of comfort. It was always there. It always bloomed, always produced the best tasting cherries, it was pretty with or with out blossoms or leaves and was a constant in my life from the time I was born until I left home at age 19.


Anyway, several years after I moved away and after my step-mother had sold our house, I went back to Mayberry and rounded the corner to my Aunt's house where I always stayed when I went home (it was across the street from my old house!) and that's when I noticed it. 
 
The cherry tree had been cut down!  OMG!  How could it be gone!?! I was so angry. I stormed into my Aunt's house demanding to know why on earth those jerks who lived in my old house cut down the most beautiful cherry tree on the face of the planet! 
 
 
 
 
 
She just looked at me, raised her eye brows and said (rather sternly!), "They're not jerks they're kids who grew up here, just like you, and they didn't want to cut down the tree, it got struck by lightning and split in half. They didn't have a choice!  Welcome home.  Now, what do you want to eat?"



 
 
"Oh."  That's all I could say. Just "Oh."  And then the tears started to well up. My Aunt looked at me and said, "Don't you dare cry about it. It's just a tree!" She was right. But, to me, it was my tree,...part of my past,...part of me. 


 
 
 
So, when I got Jeannie's Cherry Blossom Pendant in the mail for the Echo Creative Design Team Challenge this month it brought back all those special memories and the comfort of that tree.



 
I know I'll probably re-design this necklace a hundred more times since nothing will ever be perfect enough,...but for now, this is my "Cherished Cherry Tree".


 
 
Thanks so much Jeannie for allowing me to take a ride down memory lane this month with your beautiful Cherry Blossom Pendant and the Echo Creative Team!


 

 
Be sure to check out all the other participants this month and see the wonderful designs they've created using Jeannie Dukic's (Jewelry by Jeannie) components.


Kim Dwork










Until Next Time,

Peace, Love and Cherry Blossoms!

Cheers,

~Shel~





 





Echo Creative - See What I Got!

I wanted to share with you the lovely components that Jeannie Dukic (Jewelry By Jeannie) sent me for the next two Echo Creative Club Design Team Reveals.
 
 
 
Oh quick,...shut your mouth,...you don't want drool spilling over onto the keyboard! 

I'm really in love with this beautiful Cherry Blossom - aren't you?  Although I take a lot of pictures of flowers, I don't particularly design with them that often, so this will be a great challenge for me.
 
 
 
 
And oh this Aspen Leaf is just super!
I really love fall colors and leaves!
 
 
 
 
I'm able to participate in both the October and the November Reveals, so Jeannie sent me both pieces together and said I can choose which one I want use this month and which I want to use next month.
I am choosing to use the Cherry Blossom pendant this month and the Aspen Leaf for November.
 
Come back here on Thursday, the 25th of October and you can see what all the participants have created for October!
 
Until Next Time,
 
 
 
Peace, Love and Echo Creative Goodness!
 
Cheers,
~Shel~