It's ALIVE!

It was quite fitting to watch The Young Frankenstein while I was working on one of my latest projects.

Maybe I should back up and explain why.

When I was a little girl, my friend Maggie made me a small, pre-TY beanie baby as a going away gift. Inspired by a tree frog bean bag souvenir that she acquired when her family visited Newfoundland, this gift was hand sewn and made with care out of a delicate cherry pattern and filled with lentils. My family had decided to leave our home in Michigan to move to Wisconsin, so this beanie baby became my most cherished toy and represented my friendship with Maggie who still lived in Michigan. Before I moved, Maggie and I held a wedding ceremony for her tree frog and my Cherry. We invited our friends to bring their beanie babies over to serve as the wedding party. It was a gorgeous summer day and the bride walked down a toliet paper aisle that ran beneath a cherry tree. It was the quintiessential childhood moment. 

Here's our school...Maggie and I circled. Oh, and this was definitely not in '92...somebody's camera date was sorely off.

I loved this toy enough to make a photocopy of her!

After I moved, I took the Cherry beanie baby everywhere with me. I'm not kidding. There are even photographs of this toy dining at Red Lobster for my grandmother's birthday. I designed my entire dollhouse around this toy and handpainted cherry dishes for the kitchen and a hope chest for her chamber. My birthday present that year was a tiny brass bed and a kitchen table and chairs. Maggie and I would send each other our toys for a few weeks at a time, package in a box painted to look like an airplane. We would document the outtings and send each other a report.

On May 2nd, 1998 I thought that Cherry and her husband should join me on a paddle boat ride. I was with my new Wisconsin friends at their cabin. The younger sister was joking around and wanted to see me get flustered. So she dipped Maggie's tree frog in the lake. Of course I freaked out. She laughed and handed him back to me. Then moments later she tried to do the same stunt with Cherry, but a horrible accident occurred, she dropped her. All three of us watched as the bean bag sunk to the bottom of the lake. I tried to remember the coordinates, but I had no idea how to reference where we were on the lake.

I cried for days. My dad swam the lake to search for Cherry, but it was useless. She was gone. My friend felt terrible for the accident.  It was difficult because I always thought that that toy would someday reside on my bookshelf, but I had to give that dream up. Until...

I found this pillow at a garage sale last week. I never thought I would ever find the exact fabric.

Ta-Da!

And here she is on my bookshelf, right beside my Ruby Slippers. Happily Ever After!