Butterfly Wings

Today I share with you one of my daughter Jen's latest creations: a set of Monarch butterfly wings, here modeled by her husband Eric. My granddaughter Alyssa is going to be in a play at her school, and she is to be a Monarch butterfly.


Jen has become known as The Butterfly Lady at her school, because last year she raised Monarch and Painted Lady butterflies, and then set them free. She is now planting a milkweed patch in her yard to provide food for the butterflies. She also participated last fall in a Monarch tagging project at a local university.



I have, over the years, marveled at my daughter Jennifer's creativity. I remember when she was three years old, and I gave her a typewriter to play with. She was very pleased, and happily typed away. I had shown her how to use the shift key to get different letters and such. She knew how to roll the paper up and down.


After awhile, she handed me her paper and I went into shock. The child had used the asterisk and the dash keys to create a picture of some flowers! I bet I still have that picture in a box in the closet! If I can find it, I will scan it in and post it.


There were several other times as she was growing up that I was impressed with her unique perspective. When she was around 11, I had given the children Mexican jumping beans, explaining to them that there was a little worm inside the bean that made it jump around.
The child took a little box and created a home for her bean, complete with furniture, and paintings on the wall. It was only about 3 x 3 inches, but it was full of homey details.


Around the same time frame, she made a purse on the sewing machine, without using a pattern. This was something that would have been a real stretch for me, so again I was impressed.


Need I tell you that she created these butterfly wings without a pattern?