The Hummingbird-From Death to Cake

"The sunlight speaks, and its voice is a bird:

It glitters half-guessed, half seen, half heard,

Above the flower bed, over the lawn...

A flashing dip, and it is gone, 

And all it lends to the eye is this-

A sunbeam giving the air a kiss."  

- The Hummingbird by Harry Kemp

On Wed Jan 9th, 2019, I drew a hummingbird while slowly watching my Dad slip away. He died 2 days later. I was left with this pen and ink drawing of a hummingbird hovering above a Zinnia that I had planned to use for a new spring design.

 But after his death, the design changed. I messaged our graphics guy (Thank you Phil) and asked him to just make a copy of my drawing and mirror it towards each other.

Very simple. Two souls facing one another.

 My Dad and Me.

 As you can imagine, this design is special to my heart. All of our designs are connected to us in one way or another, but this one was my first to be inspired by death. 

I posted about this drawing awhile back on my personal facebook page and was surprised to have so many people reach out to me about how symbolic or special hummingbirds were to them. 

I had no idea.

 I was truly just drawing to pass the time because I wasn't sure what else to do. My dad and I didn't have some cool thing happen to us with hummingbirds and it wasn't an animal that we talked about. But now, I watch for them everywhere and think of him. I hope all the flowers I plant this spring attract tons~ like a heaven on Earth of them. 

My dad loved food- especially desserts. Me too! Sweets are my weakness! So when I sent one of our new hummingbird hoodies to one of our new brand reps up in Ohio, I didn't even think about the fact that she would be inspired to make a hummingbird cake.

Suzie loves to bake. And I love seeing what she creates. Her photographs are beautiful and make my mouth water.

Check out her Instagram page at Muddyoakhenhouse

I honestly don't think I have ever had this type of cake before and then I got to wondering why it was even called Hummingbird cake? Or what made it unique?

The history of this cake is interesting. It is said that the cake was first created in Jamaica. The main basis of the cake is bananas and pineapple which are grown in this tropical nation. In 1979, Jamaica was trying to get folks to fly down and come visit their country on vacation. So, the tourism board sent out media packets to the United States promoting their culture and included in it were recipes. One of which was their famous Doctor Bird Cake. Doctor Bird is another name for a Hummingbird, and this is Jamaica's national animal. Wonder why it is also called Doctor Bird??

A year earlier, a lady names Mrs L. H. Wiggins from Greensboro, North Carolina sent in a her recipe for a layered Hummingbird cake to Southern Living Magazine. They printed this now famous recipe in the Feb 1978 issue, and it is now their #1 most requested recipe of all time.

 So I wonder how she knew about the recipe? Or did the have friends or family in Jamaica? Or did she just invent it herself? There is not much info on Mrs Wiggins except she was a widow and a house mother at the University of North Carolina and died in 1995 at the age of 81. 

I can't wait to try it. How many of you out there have had Hummingbird cake?? Maybe I will attempt to make it for Easter?? So fast forward to Suzie with the most beautiful hummingbird cake ever and wearing her hummingbird hoodie. 

Suzie was so sweet to write down and share her recipe with us!! 

For the cake

And for the icing. 

I love all of this so much!!! And I think my Dad would have too. 

Thank you for reading-

Lissy

P.S. We will have this design and 5 other brand new ones available for the first time at our hometown's Junior League Spring Market March 15th-17th in Monroe, LA and then online at www.mrpstees.com the following week. 


P.S.S. Besides the light weight hoodie you saw on Suzie, we also printed the hummingbird design on a crew neck tee, a v-neck tee and on a kids tee in purple.  Here are a few of pics of Hally, Jewell and Sims modeling those styles over at Plant World in West Monroe, LA. 

Photo creds to Heather Land. Select shorts/skirts provided by Rodeo Boutique in Ruston, LA.