Shhh! 😉 When nobody was looking, I stepped into the Show and Tell Tuesday line. (Actually, I don’t have any photos from you kids, at the moment! How about a few from me?)

Sir Beads’ grandparents were born in Czechoslovakia, and when our daughter studied there for a semester, we were thrilled to have a chance to visit an ancestral homeland. We were able to see the villages where his grandparents had lived before they came to America. It was an amazing feeling to enter the churches where they worshiped and to saunter down the paths they had walked. We spent several days in Prague, which is an incredibly beautiful city. I’ve talked about the talent of the Czech glassmakers, but there are many forms of art and music to be found there.

One traditional art is the decorating of blown eggs with paints, dyes, straw, and even fine knotted wire. Various techniques are used including batik, but Sir Beads and I were particularly drawn to those that were dyed and then decorated by scratching off the dye to form intricate designs.

We bought several treasures from this sweet lady, who is hard at work.

Here are the eggs up close.

They are truly gorgeous in person. We use them as Christmas ornaments but they’re meant for Easter. The lady explained that different regions of the country have their own unique methods for creating the finished eggs, and that often you can tell where they’re from just by looking at them.

Poor thing though! She was sitting outside, working in below freezing temperatures, to attract the attention of shoppers. It was the latter part of November. Notice the wool blanket around her waist!

Have you bought a Christmas present, put up a Christmas decoration, or finished some gift wrapping? C’mon, take a photo! The rest of us wanna see what you’re up to! 😀

Hugs,