NEW RESIDENT AUTHOR.............

I am very excited to share the news...Monica Merkel is now our Resident Author. She will be writing tales about new Collections and the adventures of Tilda and Edwin.

A Story from Tilda’s Diary

The rain is making a pinging sound as it bounces off the window outside of Tilda’s kitchen. The weathermen had said rain for two days and now three days have passed without any sign of letting up. Tilda has become restless and she walks around her table for the umpteenth time. She has made pies, homemade jam that she put in her special lace jars. She was even thinking about making one of her special 3 layer cakes or cupcakes or muffins----anything to take her mind off of this rain. Stop, she said to herself if I keep this up, I’ll be as big as a house in no time. Tea, I’ll have a cup of tea she thought, I love tea.

As Tilda sits at her table drinking her tea, her eyes wander over to her hutch where she has placed some of her larger lace jars. Ah, they look so nice, blueberry jam and peach jam, who would she give them to? As she is thinking about this, she notices one of her drawers on the bottom is not closed all the way. She goes over to the hutch and tries to push it in, darn she thought, something must have gotten lodged behind it. She sits on the floor and pulls the drawer completely out and almost has to lay on the floor to look to see what is blocking it from closing. A book !! Tilda puts her arm all the way in and grabs the book, why it is my lost diary she thought. Putting the drawer back, she goes over to the table to finish her tea and starts to look through her diary.

Tears are now in Tilda’s eyes as she reads her diary. She had found what she wrote about her Easter last year with Edwin. The pages have become blurry from the moisture in her eyes and a single tear drops onto the page. Softly and lovingly she wiped the tear drop from the page as she read:

April 12, 2009

Dear Diary,

It is Easter Sunday and I am waiting for my best friend, Edwin to come and get me. We are going to the Easter parade and then an egg hunt . Edwin has already told me that he will get the biggest egg again this year!! We’ll see. I have to go now Dear Diary, he is here and he looks so cute, he has on his overhauls and is carrying an empty basket!! He is yelling for me now, so I have to go and I will write and tell you all about it when I get home. Signed Tilda.

Dear Diary,

I had such a wonderful day. Everything was perfect, just hope I’m not too tired to write it all down. When Edwin first saw me, he really laughed and said “Now Tilda, you’re really not going to wear that chicken outfit are you?” I kidded with him and told him I had a bunny one and he said no way—he told me to dress normal. We both laughed and I ran and changed.

All the things that we did Dear Diary, will be with me forever. I wore my pretty new dress with the apron and everyone said I looked beautiful. I forgot my basket, so I used my apron to hold the eggs I collected. At one point, Edwin said I looked pretty and put a flower in my hair too. Then all of a sudden, one of the eggs started to hatch and a new baby chick was born. Edwin took my picture, but my flower had fallen from my head and I was upset. Edwin told me not to worry; he would get me something else. I am glad I brought extra clothes with me, because there was an egg painting contest and I won Dear Diary, I won!! Then they had an egg hatching contest with large plastic egg like shells, we laughed and laughed and had so much fun. We played over by the lambs and Edwin told me that I looked like a shepherd. I think that was a good thing Dear Diary.

The day was coming to an end, the parade was exciting and I had so much fun. We all played games and climbed on the new spring fence that was built for the parade as the rooster chased us and we laughed and laughed. It was time to go home and Edwin told me to wait a minute and ran off in a hurry. When he came back, he gave me a spring bundle of flowers. “Happy Easter Tilda, this is for the flower that you lost from your hair” he said to me. Edwin is always full of surprises and guess what Dear Diary; he did find the biggest egg again this year! All the things that he does could never compare with how big his heart is. I am going to place one of my flowers here with you Dear Diary to keep it safe for me.

Good night Dear Diary, signed Tilda

Tilda was still holding the dried flower in her hand as she finished reading her Easter story. With a deep breath, she carefully replaced the flower in her diary and thought about how lucky she was to have Edwin in her life. She wipes away her last joyful tear and smiles.

The rain didn’t seem so bad now, maybe she would give Edwin a call and see if he wanted to come over and have some pie with her.

Monica