September 1 - September 7, 2013

Even though my school days have long since past, the beginning of September brings with it a flood of first day of school memories - the excitement and the terror of it all. Everyone is reunited, friendships reforged, the simmering early days of crushes, the dreaded teachers and the beloved ones.
Here's a week of brooches.

I love my travelling buddies. This was brought back from one of my favourite places. When we went to Paris, we climbed all 3 of these buildings -  Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe and Notre-Dame. We call them our vertical holidays.

Friends of mine go every year to the Pembroke Fiddle and Step Dance Contest held on the Labour Day Weekend hence the wearing of this pin. One year a group of us went to the Shelbourne equivalent. Seven of the eight of us slept in the van, and one under it. People were surprised to say the least when we all tumbled out of the van in the morning. By the way, if you ever get a chance, go and see the wonderful fiddlers and dancers, it will make your heart happy and your feet do a tap or two.

A brooch from a London England toot. I think the image is made from bits of wood fibre, bamboo.......The price sticker is still on the back - a steal at 4 pounds.

I laughed and laughed when I received this brooch - great gift. I'm a proofreader. But please ignore any spelling/grammatical errors in this blog - this blog ain't work!

Wore this at the first meeting of my Rug Hooking guild for the year. A few of us used to go every Monday night to our teacher Nancy's in Princeton where we would hook, and laugh. She taught us how to make this strawberry brooch. Miss you Nancy!

During my years as a step dancer we performed at many folk festivals and had the great good fortune to be paired up with wonderful musicians. We were a group of 4 women called The Mulligan Dancers - we named ourselves after our teacher and friend Alex Mulligan who bravely took on the job of teaching us when we were in our twenties. This brooch reminds me of the 5 handsome fiddlers from Sweden who we performed with on one occasion. Very nummy!

This elephant head looks a bit like it has "Wiener" (Daschund) dog ears. Now that would be an interesting cross breed.