Red Review

I adore the color red. I don't apologize to anyone for this character flaw. It makes me happy when I see it any day of any year...

* The cookie jar on the high shelf above the danger of a 6 year old boy. It has been around as long as I can remember... with its tole painted flowers and all-over red speckled background. I always hated the way it made the cookies taste old and stale, however.

* A brilliantly colored male cardinal bird when he decides to rest in our tall pines. I am doubly tickled when he brings his best girl along.

* The wonderful smell of apples piled up in a wooden bowl. My Grandma Bubbles always had bushels of apples in her basement and barn. I love when a smell connects a memory!

* My house. Well?... isn't it fitting I should live inside a snug red house?!

* The frame of an Etch-A-Sketch. A very creative yet frustrating toy. I had great fun with mine until it scattered that yukky gray powdery junk all over the kitchen floor in front of the stove while Mom was trying to get dinner on the table!! This is one thing I CAN'T blame my brother for! Guilty party=me. If only we lived in 0 gravity, I would still have that toy. Of course, my kids have one too. I live in never ending fear that it will crash to the floor. Note to kids: don't play with it while I am trying to get dinner on the table.

* Bright, happy tulips stretching tall toward the sun. I was told the story of how I was about 3 or 4 when the neighbor's dog came and knocked me down and bit me as I played among the red tulips along our driveway. I don't remember. I do have the scar... ever so close to my right eye. I also think that part of the story was that my Grandma said she worried about Mom "living way out in the middle of nowhere with no car". Somehow it all worked out alright. Only a few of those same red tulips strain to errupt each year, all these years later. I hold no grudge against those tulips or that dog [ whom, by the way, I'm sure has enjoyed himself long since going to doggy heaven dispite his bad behavior!].

* Weather-worn barns against a backdrop of fall leaves painted by nature...or, even more awe inspiring, [to me, at least] against a backdrop of fresh fallen snow. The kind of snow when it looks like the pines have frosting on their needled branches.

* Crisp red embroidery on soft white linen. {Redwork} I love to draw pictures and then stitch them. I'm sure I must have too many pillows like this. I have a tiny pillow about 5"x7" that my Grandpa embroidered in red. The white fabric is thin and delicate. The best part of this story is that he did it when he was recovering from black smallpox!

* Raggedy Ann dolls may be dressed in different frocks but every Ann always wears red yarn hair. This gal never has a bad hair day!

* Puddle Duck boots. I am a firm believer in allowing kids to go out and jump in puddles! Why not? Growing up quickly and without this opportunity should be a crime! If thunder and lightning is absent- go out with an umbrella and play. I do this even as a grown-up! Arrest me.

* I can't resist a kid on a red tricycle. I don't know why.

* A red Corvette. In my next lifetime, maybe.

* Those ugly little felt elf ornaments with a plastic face [made in Japan in the 1950s] called "knee huggers". I love those in a kitschy kind of way. Also, the fact that my Grandma had some. I have some now that I have picked up along the way while thrifting. They are a high priced collectable going for upwards of 10-25 cents!