The Bow Belle

This one was one of my first bows, along with my Nutcracker bow and my green Christian bow. I'm a doll collector now, but when I was a small child my favorite toys were Matchbox cars, dinosaurs, and Legos.  I never bothered to follow the instructions; I just built all sorts of trippy contraptions and make up goofy stories that made no sense but were fun to make up.  I loved the little men that came with the sets too.  They had a Bart Simpson vibe about them since they were all yellow back then, but I liked 'em.  I still like 'em.  I have a small collection of the figures, allegedly to use as props for my American Girls. Why the Big Bad Wolf is a Lego figure I'll never know, but I'm not gonna hate. Block hearts, RagingMoon1987

This one is the first bow I wore for the blog.  Etsy shop is osewpretty . I can't sling a dead cat without hitting another Sarah, and the vast majority of the ones I've met have my middle name, Elizabeth.  I have met one lady named Sarah Magdalene, but I digress.  During my tweens I wanted to change my name to "Rebecca" or "Susannah," but ultimately I decided it wasn't worth the effort, and "Sarah Elizabeth" was fine. I did almost change my mind my second year of college, when there were THREE Sarah Elizabeths living on my floor.  When the RA called out my name I shrugged and said "Call me 'Tree Frog.'"  "Tree Frog" was a nickname I gave myself as a child, and I thought "why not?"  I was "Tree Frog" for a long time after that, and I'll STILL answer to it. Despite my childhood umbrage at being named something kinda plain, I thank God now that Mama and Daddy named my sister and me something sens...

Today is Holly Day, but I don't have a holly bow so I went with the Nutcracker again, complete with my first initial (and my last, LOL).  I'm not a huge fan of holly anyway, not since our holly bush annihilated my balloons when I was a kid. I don't know the Etsy shop; this one was another gift.  It's already gotten a handful of compliments, though! My memories of holly aren't the greatest, but walnuts (which I presume are what nutcrackers smash) are another story.  My paternal grandmother had a black walnut tree in her backyard, and one of my favorite things to do was take a broom handle and wallop ripe walnuts off the tree.  I never touched them because black walnuts have a rind that both stains clothes and reeks, but I loved smacking them off the tree.  Grandpa would then gather them up in a sack, toss them in the road, and run over the sack with his truck a couple'a times to break up the rind.  I never saw him run over the sack, but I saw him gather them...

If I had enuff bows I'd be sporting Hanukkah-themed stuff during the duration of the holiday, but I don't.  Ergo, this bow. One of my first truly nice bows, this one was given to me by my mother on my thirty-third birthday.  It has my initials on it, but it also has characters from The Nutcracker on it.  Clara/Marie is present, as are the Nutcracker and the Mouse King.  I've heard the lead character called both "Clara" and "Marie" during my life, but "Clara" is the name I hear more often.  Indeed, the only one I've heard using the name "Marie" was Shari Lewis.  But I won't heap too much hate on Shari and Lamb Chop, because they were the ones who taught me about The Nutcracker in the first place.  Yep, my sister and I were Lamb Chop fans growing up!  We had several of the cassette tapes, and one of them discussed  The Nutcracker .  Uncle from St. Louis pointed out that in terms of ventriloquism Shari's technique was one o...

This one is a repeat; I first wore it on June 23rd .  Etsy shop is TincysCorner . Harvest season is beginning here in the Bootheel.  Most of the corn has already been gathered, but there's still plenty of cotton and plenty of soybeans, and undoubtedly some peanuts in the mix.  The fields are a beautiful sight to behold regardless of what's growing, but visually my favorite crop is cotton.  A healthy field of cotton looks like snowfall from a distance, especially when the bolls are opening up. Unfortunately with cotton comes the chemicals used to help the bolls open up.  We locals call it all "defoliant," but it's probably a cocktail of several chemicals.  Every year the air reeks of...y'all remember what bubble solution smells like?  If y'all are familiar with bubble solution then you know what I mean.  Defoliant smells like that, plus something else that makes my eyes and nose burn and my throat choke up.  The town is full of people who are ...