THIS OLD TRUNK

When we moved back to Dallas for a few years in the late 90s , my sisters got me hooked on "Friday Nights at the Auction House" as a new form of entertainment. The place just happened to be owned by two brothers we went to high school with, and was more of a social event than a serious shopping endeavor. I did, however, manage to snag a few treasures over the years. One of my favorites was this old trunk -- a trunk filled with mystery!

It looked like it had been made long, long ago, by someone who was heading off to a new life in a new land, with all their worldly possessions tucked inside. I was fascinated by the amazing hardware...

and the fact that it had several religious images glued inside the lid -- perhaps something their mother put there, to protect them on their journey?

At first it had pride of place in our living room, as our coffee table, but my hubby has never really shared my passion for rustic beauty. So, with each move and each addition of newer, glossier stuff, it got relegated to ever more obscure locations, until it finally ended up out on the porch, filled with Hubby's gardening stuff. So sad.

Anywho, this week I decided to start on another project from my new Folk Art Fusion book by Heather Galler. This one was to be based on Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Only, her image didn't really look anything like the ones I remembered from our wonderful trips to San Miguel de Allende, so I decided to gather some images and just do my own thing.

I had just spread all of these out on my work table, to ponder over for awhile, when I spotted Hubby opening that old trunk on the porch. Some flash of color grabbed my attention and drew me out there to take a closer look, since I hadn't been inside it for 10 or 15 years. Guess what I found?

Our Lady of Guadalupe, of course!

After doing a little research on Wikipedia, I discovered that the most famous phrase relating to Our Lady of Guadalupe is, "Am I not here, I who am your mother?"

No wonder she was plastered inside this trunk!