Thanks, Mom!

 A few posts back I promised you a picture of the birthday gift from my mom, the talented and generous Becky Hatch Glezen.  Here is the basket, woven from pine needles and incorporating shells from her beloved Sanibel Island, Florida.  She took a pine needle basket class down there this winter and wove this while sitting on the beach.  Ahhhhh.

 Here is another gift from mom's hand. This, a Nantucket Lightship Basket woven over a glass liner so it can hold water. I get sad when I see the knock-offs of these baskets for sale at Christmas Tree Shops, because I know the hours and hours that go into making the "real deal" in the traditional style. The sailors aboard the lightships off Nantucket used to weave these baskets over wooden molds while they were at sea back in the 1800's.  Yup, it'll kill a hundred hours of idle time, I'd say. You can see another, more traditional example of her lightship baskets in Monday's post.

 But this post has got to celebrate the all-time, number 1 item that my mom found at her local recycling facility in our hometown of Glastonbury, Connecticut years ago and gave to ME! The "dump" takes her recycling but also has the wondrous "Put-and-Take" area which my mom checks each week after sorting her recycling.  Some crafty person, with 200+ Miller High Life Pop top cans (remember when the pull tabs actually came off?), hand cut each can and wired the ends together in four places, arranged them artfully and created this incredible piece of kitsch:

I think it is amazing and I have used it at dozens of craft shows to display my wares. I have had people admire it and others offer me cash for it. Thanks, Mom, for spotting this cool thing and for giving it to me. You really taught me to see the beauty in the things around me.

I could list dozens of items she has crafted, or salvaged, or repurposed, but I will refrain, and simply tell her I love her.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom! Now will somebody please fill that glass of hers?