A Finish, Adam, Eve, the Serpent, and a Phobia

I have to start with a story about my childhood to explain my snake phobia. My father is the youngest of six children who all had children, in some cases several children, which makes me the third youngest of 19 grandchildren. My grandmother loved nothing more than have all her children and grandchildren visit her in her little pink house :-). Picture 13 adults, 19 kids with only about 8 years between the youngest and oldest, and you can start to envision the craziness of all of us in one tiny house together. Some of my fondest memories growing up center around my grandmother's home, picking and eating berries, cucumbers and tomatoes from the garden, playing hide and seek, flashlight tag and kick the can with my cousins. My boy cousins, and there were lots of them, 12 of the 19 kids, chased us with garter snakes. Which funnily enough didn't actually cause my snake phobia.

My grandmother had a chicken coop and I loved to go collect the eggs. The nests had these plastic coverings over them with a small hole that expanded to let the chicken in and out and I would just reach in and get the eggs. I went to collect the eggs one afternoon and reached in to grab eggs and found a large black snake instead. To say it scared me would be a huge understatement, I was petrified. I ran screaming to my grandmother who, being the country woman she was, grabbed the hoe and killed the snake. And the love hate relationship with snakes, i.e., serpents was born, LOL.

I am the girl sitting on the side of the swing set, the toddler is my sister, and three of my cousins are sitting on the swing.

All of this makes my fascination with Adam and Eve and the Serpent a bit difficult to understand. But there you go, I love to stitch the snake coiled around the tree. It's almost therapeutic :-). I finished Goode Huswife's Sarah Seifer today. I have loved this sampler for so long and I am so happy to have her stitched.

The handpainted pieces were done by Tanya

Thanks to the bad influence of my friend Tanya and my quest for all things A&E, I ordered this plate from Eldreth Pottery. Isn't it gorgeous? I told my DH it was my Mother's Day present, along with two plates from Ginger Cazan :-). He asked if he was generous, I told him I thought so, LOL. I think this plate will make a great companion for Sarah.

In keeping with my theme, one of my other very favorite pieces is Earth Sampler by The Primitive Needle. Jill Rensel framed it for me and even added an extra snake on the mat :-).

Finally, I love Paulette's big blue snake on Paradise Lost, add to that Eve looks like Betty Rubble and Adam has man boobs, perfect :-). It's just the most gorgeous piece.

Thanks for taking the time to read my rambling, memory filled post :-). I hope everyone is happy, healthy and getting lots of stitching time!