It's May, and in addition to being my birth month it's the month when many of us the world over honor our mothers on a special day.

Even though she has never been a particular fan of dollhouses or tiny things, my mother was and is a driving force behind my creativity. When I was little she emptied out a drawer in the bottom of a big dresser and loaded it with fabric scraps (I was partial to satin and brocade), yarn (anything soft and furry), crayons (bright or glittery), construction paper and basically a wide assortment of age-appropriate craft supplies.

I never knew what I was going to find in there because she added to it regularly. Maybe a leftover string of sequins from a fancy dress she made or special chunky crayons of all colors blended together she created from leftover stubs - those were just awesome to draw rainbows!

Not to say there weren't mishaps - like the time someone wasn't watching me and I had a fun time on the white door frames with a turquoise crayon. I like to believe that was the start of my mural phase - I have one in my own living room today as though one wall is solid window looking out into my garden. While it isn't all turquoise, there is a great deal of turquoise sky. . . I also enjoy that I wasn't the one who got in trouble for that little artistic door frame endeavor.

But anything I decided I wanted I went through the craft drawer, found appropriate materials and made it. I learned how to knit, sculpt and a wide variety of other crafts on my own by plunging into it feet first. I had a good role model.

Mama has worked her way through quite a few crafts as well in her life. She went through the cake decorating phase and made cakes better than any bakery, led a Girl Scout Troop through casting plaster, painting ceramics and a wide variety of camp crafts and even established her own craft club called The Crafty Critters. Kind of like today's book groups only without the wine and with one-to-two week craft projects. There was always someone at the house hot gluing pine cones to something or folding pages of Reader's Digest books into origami masterpieces or knitting, crocheting or embroidering or even making candles.

It was definitely as good or better than any art class out there. I have been privileged to learn woodcarving, basket weaving, pottery and many, many more traditional Appalachian crafts over the years, but the interest and love of learning about them all stemmed from my mother's influence.

And maybe a stubby turquoise crayon.

Happy Mother's Day to you all, especially to my Mama.

Editor