E is for...

Embroidery. When I was a young'un, I started out like so many others...loopy potholders, which I was very annoying about wanting my mother to help me finish off. Then there were sewing cards. Remember those? Threading something like a shoe lace around a picture stamped on cardboard. Man, I really loved those. So then my mom decided to teach me how to embroider. A printed dresser scarf with pine trees and bears, a metal embroidery hoop that wouldn't keep the fabric taut, and skeins of embroidery floss, that usually ended up in a tangled mess. And let's not forget the needles that rusted in the material.

It took me a few years to finish this. Most of it was done in the summers, when I was out of school and bored to tears. And I had my first run in with second side syndrome; when I finally finished the first side of the scarf, I had to turn it around and begin all over again. But it was finally finished, and it was the start of many years of wielding a needle and fabric.

Those lazy daisy flower petals still make me smile.