Childhood Memories

Lori's book is all about "Childhood Memories."  I had many different ideas for the spread I would create for this book.  Knowing that Lori is fond of everything Victorian, I used a poem written by Mary Howitt (1799-1888) entitled "The Spider and the Fly."

When I was a little girl, my mother would encourage my brother and me to memorize poems.  This was probably my first introduction to the great poets like Edgar Allan Poe, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Joyce Kilmer, Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman.

Of all the poems that I memorized back then, my favorite is "The Spider and the Fly."  I love the cadence of the verse, the story it weaves and the poem's timeless message.  After nearly 40 years, do you know that I can still recite this poem from memory?  I have my mother to thank for that!

The poem talks about a cunning spider who attempts to lure this unsuspecting fly into his web.  At first, the fly is cautious and resists the spider's tactics.  Ultimately, the fly's vanity is her demise as she unknowingly falls victim to the spider's flattery.

For my background, I used scrapbook paper that resembled the wallpaper you might find in one's "parlour." I printed the poem out onto vellum and attached it to the background paper with eyelets.  Then I made a spiderweb out of fine string and secured it in the upper corner of the right side of the page.  I used a gold toned spider from a piece of costume jewelry that I had.  It was the perfect size!  I made the fly using a sized-down image printed onto transparency.