E - Elephants!

In middle school I made the mistake (?) of telling someone that I enjoyed frogs. It was a minor fascination, but the mention of it led to years of frog-related gifts and mentions by family and friends. Which was ok - frogs are cute after all, and definitely worked with my aesthetic at the time. But it did get to be a bit much eventually.

So I almost hesitate to mention this, but the animal that has more fascinated me in recent years is the elephant. First of all, their ears are freaking awesome. And, their trunks are super cool too - it's a built-in hose so you can play in the sprinkler any time you want! How could you not love an animal that plays in the water like this (at 3:00):



More importantly than that, though, I love artists' renditions of elephants. They always do such a great job of capturing the details, textures and personalities of the animals. I think it started with some ceramic elephant side tables that my grandmother had and my mom inherited. They are so cool - I like to sit on the table part with my feet up on the head..

When we lived in Miami I discovered local artist Valentina Ramos and fell in intense like of her style. She had an original of her elephant piece and I snatched it up to put in our home. He currently sits on the mantle above our fireplace and is quite happy there, I think!