Merriment

Mary Engelbreit is a local St. Louis artist and children's author. I adore her work and have been a fan for years. I'd hardly say that I am a collector, but I do have a few of her things and it all began with this print! Our district's teachers have annual raffles to raise money for charity and one of the available items (about 20 years ago) was this adorable poster. I never expected to win but, jokingly, told my friends I was going to take it home with me. One of my friends was coordinating the program and when he approached me to inform me that I was the winner, I laughed. I think it took me a few minutes to actually believe him! Once I got my new treasure home, I decided to hang it in my craft room and that's how Mary Engelbreit became the decorative theme of my space.        (Pardon the terrible glare. Despite the angle, I couldn't avoid it and it's not possible to turn off the lights since the room is in a windowless corner of the basement.)

I received these decorations from my parents for a birthday one year.

A student gave me a Mary Engelbreit teacup for Valentine's Day one year and another family gifted me with enough of these little letter people to spell out my name.

I was thrilled to find this wallpaper border, from her collection, in a bargain bin at Home Depot about 10 years ago. I thought it would be cute in the craft room.

Naturally, her books have a special appeal to me and...

this one was a favorite Christmastime read-aloud for my class.

I have licensed Mary Engelbreit fabric, which I used in my quilt project. You may remember my sharing this picture before.

Even my little cuties love the Mary Engelbreit placemat that my sister gave me because it holds their water dish.

So, you can understand why I was quite interested when I received an email advertisement stating that I could see Mary Engelbreit in person at a "meet and greet". Her new line of fairly garden products, called Merriment, will now be carried at the produce market where I buy many of our fresh summertime vegetables, plants, Christmas pine roping, etc.  In preparation for the approaching event, I recently purchased one of the garden fairies. How could I pass up such a cute little reader? I will use her in one of my planters after she is autographed.

Are you filled with merriment today? If not, Mary's pillow says it all...