Happy St. Patrick's Day Fellow CDHM'ers!

'Tis time for not only the wearin' o' the green but celebrating all things green in this issue of The Miniature Way.

St. Patrick's Day is more than just green beer - a phenomenon, by the way, that I have never quite understood. And more than leprechauns and pots of gold at the end of the rainbow. I think these particular myths are more familiar to Americans and the Irish - although I think even the Irish are puzzled by the green beer phenomenon. For those of you who are neither American nor Irish and might be wondering about the leprechaun's gold, allegedly if you follow a rainbow to its end you will find a pot of gold - hidden there by a wily leprechaun. Or, if you catch a leprechaun you can make him give you his pot of gold. Either way, the poor leprechaun loses and you've gotten rich quick - provided Mr. Leprechaun hasn't tricked you with fake gold!

I have seen some great Little People (leprechauns and their kin) in our Galleries. It's fun to look for all the different incarnations of them; for every different artist there is a different interpretation of how the Little People look. Take a look, you'll see what I mean!

Wee folk aside, St. Patrick's Day is all about GREEN! Take a look around you. How many shades of green do you see?

The best part of this funky holiday for me is the chance to surround myself with my favorite color. It's a definite opportunity to go green crazy in the dollhouse, from drapes and rugs to bed linens and pillows.

Especially in miniature. A dollhouse is a fantasy home come true. It doesn't matter whether you can afford new drapes for your home, a scrap of fabric from an old piece of clothing or sewing project and it's a done deal in your dollhouse.

The miniature hobby is also one of the original recycling movements - I don't know of many of us who haven't enthusiastically rooted through the trash can at some point in our lives, happily exclaiming over the great potential in bits of trash that have the less miniature inclined shaking their heads in wonder at our bizarre behavior.

And I will admit to being a bin diver from way back - my mother simply couldn't keep me out of the trash can. "Get out of that trash" was a familiar exasperated refrain, along with "Put that down!" if I happened to see something on the sidewalk that caught my eye. No bottle cap was safe. Unfortunately, like some of my rock collection, these items had a habit of finding their way into her washing machine with sometimes tragic results.

Toothpaste caps, used electronics pieces, fabric scraps... The list of possibilities to be found in the trash can is endless. Sometimes with very little modification necessary. Out of the landfill and into the doll's house!

And think of the stories/memories connected to these items.

I adore the beautiful, pricier, pieces I have been fortunate enough to purchase for my Victorian house; but the bottle cap pie plate with the weird-looking lattice cherry pie (trust me, my edible pies are MUCH better looking than my miniatures!) as well as the oddly decorated toothpaste cap vase that looks like a reject from a batty old aunt are the things that make me smile and relive the memories of how they found pride of place in the house.

Do you have special memories attached to special treasures in your houses? We would love to hear about it. Send your reminiscences to me at alice@cdhm.org

The Miniature Way Editor