Thursday, September 1, 2011

A VINTAGE PITCHER

I was born into a family with women who can cook, clean, and craft.  While I may have inherited a fraction of their crafty genes, that's about it because I do not like to cook and clean and I'm not really good at either one.  It's not actually fair for me to imply that the women before me enjoyed cooking and cleaning, but I used to think that they did; otherwise, why were they always doing it?  I know better now.  I think it's quite ironic that we have so many modern conveniences, appliances, and tools to make cooking and cleaning "easier," and yet I wonder how my grandmothers EVER found time to do anything fun because it seemed like they were always in the kitchen or pulling laundry through two rollers, defrosting the refrigerator with pots of hot water, and constantly scrubbing something.  It's good that I wasn't a homemaker back then.  About my card . . . my mamaw C made the best sweet tea.  I mean . . . it was T-H-E best.  I can still picture (in my mind) the jar of tea, with fresh lemons floating in it, sitting on the table by the window, waiting to be poured for Sunday lunch.  I also remember wondering how anyone could pour from that big jar without flooding the kitchen, but I would probably have been happy to lick the floor if there had been a tea flood.  I recently contacted one of my aunts to see if she knew how to make mamaw C's tea and if she'd tell me how.  She is going to send the "how-to" to me tomorrow, and I am so excited about the possibility, although my enthusiasm is guarded because I know I have domestic limitations.  I already know that I need to purchase a glass jar (or pitcher), but I wanted to make a card to send to my aunt to thank her for the recipe.  I know it's probably just tea, water, sugar, and lemons, but that's how nearly everyone makes tea, and everyone's tea tastes different.  My own tea tastes different each time that I make it, but I am determined to achieve success with mamaw's amber elixir, as Tommy Tomlinson once described sweet tea and wrote that it "tastes like the south and feels like home".  That is such a true statement because one of my most nostalgic childhood memories is mamaw's C's sweet tea.  I used the Gypsy to design my shaped card, my Cricut Expression and the "Love You a Latte" cartridge to cut it, and Stampin' Up!'s "Square Lattice" embossing folder and pearl jewels on the "tea time" layer.  Soft Suede ink was sponged around the edges of the card.  I guess it's a huge blessing that mamaw C didn't enjoy stamping or I might have never savored the best sweet tea in the south!

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