Trinket #12 - Not Your Garden Variety Artist

Tomorrow is a big day for me - I go back to school for the first time in fifteen years! The next few months are going to be filled with lots of classroom hours, field work, and who-knows-what, but when I'm done I will have a lovely certificate from Virginia Tech and the brand new title of Master Gardener. Cross your fingers for me, okay?

I guess I've always been a gardener at heart. I remember making little greenhouses with Tupperware tubs and takeout containers as a child. I would swipe a handful of birdseed from my mother's feeders and sow it in my little makeshift terrariums and marvel at what would happen to it over the following days. Sure, I'd end up with more millet and sunflowers than any one kid needed, but the thrill of watching them sprout and grow was fresh every time!

Maybe it's just in my blood. My grandmother had quite the reputation for her beautiful gardens. She had a huge mound of daffodils and tulips that the whole neighborhood would come to see every March. By May, they were knocking on her door to ask if they could take a look at her prize-winning peonies in the back yard. When Paul and I bought our house eight years ago, it was during the worst summer drought Virginia had experienced in twenty years. Imagine our surprise when the yard erupted with bulbs and peonies the following spring! I still wonder if that was a little gift from my grandma...

Okay, enough nostalgia for now. You probably have already guessed the inspiration for the trinket of the day - my thoughts of gardening. Brace yourselves, because I'm sure you'll see much more botanical influence in the weeks to come. These earrings are made from silver chain, silver wire, iridescent glass seed beads, and frosted glass flower and leaf beads.