FINISHED NEEDLEWORK: "Heirloom Santa: Garden Santa" by Willmaur

 The ornament in honor of my dad is finished.  This is a slightly modified version of the "Garden Santa" by Sandra Cozzolino for Willmaur before she moved to Mill Hill.  I did add a few beads: Mill Hill petite black (#42014) to the butterfly antennae, standard 11/0 red beads (#02013) as the berries in the greenery, and brown beads (#02068) to the seed head of the sunflower.  Beads attached with Nymo dark thread.

My dad was a "Renaissance Man" type of person.  He was training to be a minister in college, and when WWII broke out, he became a pilot and served in the Pacific theater, then went back to college on the GI bill and became a teacher.  He met my mom in that second round of college and they were married for 50 years.

After he retired from teaching, he was the administrator for our church, then after he retired from THAT, he worked for the local library - he drove the bookmobile, delivered the 'red carpet' books to shut ins and served on the board.   Somewhere in there he became a master gardener.  This was after I was in college, so I don't know what all was involved in the certification, but he was very proud of it.   This ornament commemorates that achievement.