First Day of Spring

Spring comes this year on a cold grey day. With nothing blooming outside, I made flowers from assorted discarded bits and attached them to a branch. The branch went into a pot which was the former home of a rosemary plant that did not make it through the winter. You could also use a can or a jar.


I used circles and squares of assorted materials including Britta water filter packaging, netting from cherry tomatoes, a plastic bag that held grapefruits, oreo cookie wrapping, tea bag containers, and the protective foil under the lid of the yogurt container. I used ties saved from bread and bags to twist and hold the flower.

St Patrick's Day Cross

Young girls and small children wear on the right shoulder "a St Patrick's Cross", consisting of a single or double cross formed of pieces of narrow silk ribbon stitched to a circular disk of white paper, nicked at the edge, and measuring from 3 to 4 1/2 inches in diameter. At the ends of the arms of the cross a very small bow or rosette is stitched and one a trifle larger at the junction of the arms; the more and the brighter the colours of the silk, the more handsome is considered the St Patrick's Cross.
Journal of the Kildare Archaeological Society 1908

I made my cross from a piece of white shirt cardboard. I used pieces of plastic bag instead of silk ribbon. Even though I make an effort to carry a bag with me shopping, plastic bags do seem to multiply. I went through my bag of bags before I took them back to the supermarket and selected ones with color to make the ribbons and bows. I cut narrow strips and tied them into bows. The plastic I used for the center bag wasn't long enough to tie a bow so I just shaped one. I stitched the plastic ribbons and bows onto the circle but you could also use a stapler.

Information about the St. Patrick's Day Cross from The Year in Ireland: A Calendar by Kevin Dannaher