Achooo! said the Bride

The button bouquets are done!

Packed off first for a wedding showcase in Warren, RI

and the off to my friend Bridget's shop

The Greenery

on Water Street in Warren.

Here is the first.

Made from vintage buttons

beads

a wirework birds nest

and some odds and ends

Birds on a Wire

and Yarn! fluffed up and looking feathery

I am really pleased with how it came out

I hope some bride to be feels the same.

And for those allergic to flowers and bees

but love them just the same

Here is the Bumble Bee Bouquet

bright and beautiful and

my favorite so far

Then there are sneeze less centerpieces

and nosegays

to brighten the tables

at any country wedding

I think I will make a bouquet in these colors as well

already for display

last but not least

Nellie's contribution

 My personal favorite

and the one I'll be keeping just for me.

Buttons, Bouquets, and Walls of Beauty

Imagine your is child having a nightmare. 

Imagine that nightmare has become her waking world.

All of your hugs,

All of your kisses, and words of comfort,

All of them together are not as big

as the nightmare holding her captive.

That is the world my sister is trapped in.

Hospitalized by her own request before she lost the will to fight the

voices urging her to violence.

My sister lying on the floor saying, ''I am good"

"I'm not going to hurt you, call the rescue mommy"

 Lost for the while in her madness

her sweetness still comes through.

The hospital staff see, and look out for her.

It had been so long we had forgotten what schizophrenia means.

Nellie and I sit an the corner of my room and make button flowers.

Set to the task by a friend's request

they are a wall of pretty in the fortress we need

to get through the worry and sadness.

                                             
                                               A sparkling brightness that brings me back

to days of playing with my grandmother's

button tin and feeling it was treasure.

Nellie and I lost in the rather mundane task of looping wire through

button holes and twisting it into a stem

over and over.

Like saying a rosary

or meditating.

Something pretty grows out of the task.

A bit of cheer in the corner catching the light.

I held my sister tonight and sang Christmas songs

in my off key fashion.
Left her in the hands of the hospital staff and

gave her a kiss goodnight.

Then I headed home to my corner of pretty things.

My little one sleeping on my bed behind me.

My girl fixing me a cup of tea,

and me, twisting wire and worry

into hope.

And Love,

And Peace.