Cardinal Earrings

Description

You won’t believe how excited I was to commission another artist to create some custom acrylic! This pattern is cardinals, which if you’ve been following me/the old blog/The Cracked Pig any time in the last ten years, you know this THRILLS me to no end.

Cardinals hold a ton of symbolism for me. I suffered the loss of a baby in April of 2007 and almost immediately after I began to have uncanny experiences with the beautiful red birds, not even realizing for a year after that other people talk about cardinals being “visitors from heaven.”

I wouldn’t see a cardinal for some time and then I’d be having a bad day, or feeling the weight of the loss and yup, THEN I would have a cardinal dive in front of my car, be sitting in a tree in my backyard or something similar — it always felt like she was therewhen I needed reassurance. 15 years later and I still feel the same way.

About four years after the loss/four years of visits from heaven, I decided I wanted to get a cardinal tattoo. I spent the next decade interviewing tattoo artists in person, looking at their portfolios and asking extensive questions. Almost four years ago now, I began the process of getting this massive memorial tattoo as a “half-sleeve” tattoo. It runs from my shoulder to my elbow. Every part of the tattoo has meaning. Peonies are my favorite flower. I had a peony bush in my yard in Pennsylvania and each spring it would bloom. It represents rebirth and the excitement of what’s to come for me — I have two bloomed flowers for my two Earth-bound sons and an unbloomed flower for my daughter in heaven. The cherry blossoms are for my deep love of Door County, Wisconsin (where I do most of my vacationing and where my camper is permanently located).

I have a memorial cardinal ornament available and am so excited to add these five options for earrings.

Given the fact that the pattern varies, obviously the earrings that you receive may look different than the listing photo, but the actual shape of the cut and whether you want a stud pair or dangly earrings is your choice.

Given the weight is only set at 1 oz on the site, small items that you combine with this order should still only ship for the one rate of approx $3.50. This includes all my magnets, stud earrings and similar small items so you may want to consider upcoming birthdays and holidays for other small gift items to maximize on the shipping! Just a tip since the shipping is on the higher side for just a single item (sorry, USPS is the big boss here….). Also note, first class mail does not include insurance, just tracking. If you want insurance, you can purchase supplemental insurance at checkout or just have it shipped priority mail which includes tracking and $50 in insurance.