the day we’re all Irish

st paddy pendant

I’m not Irish.  I’m pretty much all German, but somehow had a French maiden name.  Nobody knows where that exactly came from…?

But I love St. Patrick’s day. We always decorated with shamrocks and had green frosted cookies and corned beef and cabbage when I was a kid.

With the name Patricia and a father who was hoping I’d be a boy, what do you suppose he had planned for my name before the Dr. said, “it’s a girl?”

I’m guessing it was the Catholic Saint part that led my parents to always celebrate a holiday that should have had nothing to do with us German farmers.

I still like to make corned beef and cabbage and maybe I’ll have to make some sugar cookies and green icing this week.  It is Spring Break for my kids, so if I make the cookies, my daughter will do the frosting.

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I came up with this simple cane version of a Celtic lattice pattern.  It is very subtle because the green pattern is set in a background of faux jade– green tinted PremoAccents grey granite clay.

1. make a shaded cane and mirror it

2. flatten the cane to about 1/4"

3. make a stack of diamonds to wrap in the shaded stripe

4. wrap each side and leave extension on each end.

5. fill background to square.

6. the twice reduced and recombined cane

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all (whether you’re Irish, or just a pretender like me!)

Blessings,

Patti