In mid-April, my husband, Al, and I celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary. Al likes to create themes and give names to some our anniversary trips. He has become especially fond of doing so since our Ghost and Barbecue anniversary a few years ago. (If you’re interested, you can read about that here: Part 1 and Part 2) Because of Covid, he worked to come up with a theme that he could somehow relate back to the pandemic. He settled on crystal, drawing, and custard giving birth to the CDC Anniversary title.
The crystal Swarovski frog prince pictured above was the first part. Like a lot of things we do, there is a story behind the frog. When we were in Hawaii, nearly 15 years ago, we visited a shop that had enameled frogs made by the “frogman”, Tim Cotterill. I thought they were cool, so Al managed to buy one without my knowledge and later presented it to me as a gift. Then the frogs became a bit of a thing. It seemed like everyplace we went we found a frog. So we have frogs created in multiple media including metal, wire, ceramic, tile, and wood. One of the few places we’ve traveled where a frog didn’t find us was Iceland. And I mean that they find us. We do not look for frogs, they just happen to appear in some art gallery or souvenir shop that we are in. It’s not a huge collection, but, without counting, because I’m sitting in a hotel room and not at home, I think we are close to twenty frogs. Long story short, a crystal frog is a perfect anniversary gift that evokes special meaning because of the souvenirs from our travels. So the crystal frog prince is now enjoying a place of honor on the top of my desk shelf, along with all of the other frogs that have come into our lives and a few other assorted critters and knick knacks.
The D or drawing is a bit of a misnomer, though I think one could reasonably argue that we did draw. What it represents is a pastel workshop that we attended in Springfield, MO, taught by the very talented Audrey Bottrell Parks. It was an awesome workshop designed to introduce us all to pastels. We did a series of pears, each on a different kind of paper and using different techniques and varieties of pastels. Both Al and I enjoyed it tremendously and we finally found something that involved the use of color that didn’t make Al’s brain hurt. However, Al did get tired of the pears and ventured out with a landscape. Below you can see two of my pear samples and one of Al’s pears as well as his landscape.
The final C is for custard. We were first introduced to frozen custard years ago when my sister took us to an Andy’s Frozen Custard stand in Springfield, Missouri. Andy’s Frozen Custard was founded in Osage Beach, Missouri in 1986. We only discovered it after my sister and brother-in-law moved to the Springfield area, which may be a good thing because I think I gain a pound every time I go there. Andy’s has since spread through franchising to 14 states, including Texas, so we do occasionally treat ourselves by going to one of their stores in the Frisco area. It is easily the best frozen custard we have ever eaten so we always consider it a real treat when we get to partake of one of their concretes. Al took full advantage of the custard part of the anniversary trip to make stops at more than one of the several Springfield locations. It is no wonder that I returned home a couple of pounds heavier than I left.
Wishing everyone a wonderful week to come.
Finding My Voice 