Saturday, August 27

story of the schminth scarf


the schminth scarf
I used to snip decorations out of construction paper and decorate my sister's room when she was coming home from college, even for a weekend! I was eight when she started school. Even though she kept in touch and sent me letters and funny stories in the mail (soap operas about oysters!) I missed her so much my heart hurt. Our mother had died the year before, and I was bereft and lonely, a small plastic boat lost at sea. So I would decorate her room, hide in it and "surprise" her every time she returned. 

When I sat down last week to design this new scarf I found myself cutting kraft paper in the same style as the decorations that filled her room. An old pattern, so familiar, revisited by my hands before my brain knew what it was making. So the schminth scarf is named for my sister Cynthia, who was generous enough to accept her fated role as surrogate mom and remains one of my best friends.