Category: April

“I always looked forward to Christmas time at Grandmas house. She had a white flocked Christmas tree with a colored light turntable underneath that made the tree change colors–it was pure magic. She decorated the tree with beautiful icicles and angel figurines and delicate glass ornaments. It sparkled like crazy, and I can still hear Grandpa’s Mitch Miller holiday cassette playing in the background. Is there anything like Christmas, really? It’s just magic.”

~ April

“Sweet Marion had a cookie jar in her kitchen with an interchangeable tole painted lid, that she would switch with the seasons and holidays. It was always full to the top with odd shapes of German honey cake (lebkuchen) from my Grandpa’s bake shop. They smelled of clove and molasses and Christmas. Those cookies were so soft because Grandma would keep a heel of bread in the jar. We knew she would say yes if we asked for a cookie, but she always wanted us to ask first, usually so she could tell us to take more than one. ??? If the jar was ever empty, she would send us out to Grandpa’s shop to fill it up again. He had buckets and buckets of cookie scraps from making gingerbread house kits. I’ll have to tell you about that sometime. 🙂

~April

Sweet Marion fabric ships February 2017. Ask your favorite shop to order it now!”

“Aqua Net hairspray. Sitting here in my front room 20 years later, I can still remember how that hairspray smells. Exactly how the aerosol can looked and felt in my hand. How I always thought it was fun to touch Grandma’s hair because no matter how I smooshed it, it would bounce right back. She had typical grandma hair, permed and then teased to be sort-of a helmet, secured with Aqua Net spray. As she got older, her hair thinned until she started wearing a wig. It made her embarrassed to be seen without it, so when she wasn’t wearing it she would wear a little terry cloth turban on her head. I didn’t care if she had a turban, a wig, or poofy grandma hair. She was lovely. My sister took the can of hairspray from her cabinet as a memoir, and she still has it. Sometimes, when I see it at her house, I pick it up and smell the lid. It’s amazing how smell takes you back to places and people.”

~April

“Working with a new collection is always an adventure! Speaking of adventures…
My Grandpa was a pastry chef, and so when big food holidays like Thanksgiving rolled around, he was inclined to take charge. But Grandma would have none of it. She insisted that he could spend Thanksgiving morning making “monkey bread” out in his bake shop while she made the meal without interference, doing it just right, her way. She made the most amazing stuffing (a recipe we still use to this day–prep begins a week before!) and pies. Oh the pies. I loved that most of the time she was happy for him to be the baker, but when traditions were on the line, she got just as assertive as she needed to be. Thanksgiving was always delicious–the pies, stuffing, AND monkey bread.”

~ April

“Grandma had many pins, necklaces, and earrings, but none held a candle to the oh-so-fascinating pearl drop earrings. They consisted of a pearl on each side of an extremely delicate chain. Each pearl could screw off the small post it was attached to so that the post could be put into the ear and the pearl could be screwed back on. Then, the earring was pulled so the pearls dropped from the chain from either side of her ear lobe. These earrings both fascinated me and grossed me out just a little. I loved them, in a horrified way. My Grandma would always chuckle when I told her that and said “They don’t hurt at all, honey, see?” And then she’d pull them just a little and chuckle at my shivers.”

~ April