Christmas in April

I had the good fortune to custom paint ten of these Christmas Bell Gift Card Holders for a customer this week. After months of jewelry making, it felt good to paint again, Edgar Allen Poe's "The Bells" ringing through my head (at least part of the time). Here's the first and appropriately Christmasy stanza, courtesy of The Literature Network:

"Hear the sledges with the bells -
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells -
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells."

Doesn't that just take you back to high school English class? Getting back to the totes, I wrapped them all up this morning (in Christmas paper, of course), doodled some candy canes and wreaths on the envelope, and sent them on their merry way. I couldn't have picked a better way to start my weekend.