JOY ALONG THE WAY: A TUSSY-MUSSY FOR THE JUNE BRIDE

My tussy-mussy is looking a little frayed. It has been a decorative tabletop object for several years. One year, attending a "hat" party, I attached some bonnet strings to it and wore it as my chapeau. It got honorable mention.

At a birthday luncheon for a friend, the centerpieces for the tables were a lot of little nosegays grouped together, appearing to be one arrangement. Later the nosegays were separated and given to each guest. Thereafter, a friend asked me, "Isn't there another name for these nosegays?" "Yes, there is," I replied and turned and turned the carousel of my mind, but I couldn't think of the name, and that's the way it is.

The word, tussy-mussy, isn't in one's everyday vocabulary. When I thought of it, months later, I wanted to call my friend, but I couldn't remember her name. My mind carousel is down-sizing.

Authentic tussy-mussies are made of dried flowers, lacy ruffles, narrow ribbons and anything you want to stick into it such as a pretty stick pin or a dried butterfly. Having a string of tiny pearls, used for decorative purposes, I looped some of them into my tussy-mussy along with pastel-colored, picoted satin ribbons.

To make a tussy-mussy you have to start with the dried flowers and now is a good time to do it. It is best to use only small flowers such as clover blossoms, small marigold, Johnny-jump-ups, tiny rosebuds, forget-me-nots, etc. Some of these are available now.

I used Silica-gel to dry my flowers but just recently I heard a snatch on the TV or let my eyes scan a magazine item that said the drying process can now be done with cat litter in a microwave oven. It would seem to be easier and less expensive, although the very thought of even fresh cat litter in my microwave turns me off.

I don't know the derivation of the word, tussy-mussy. You won't find it in the dictionary. I think it is a made-up word that went out with the Elizabethan Age, as did that "cooaddies" for tomatoes. What comes to mind is a tussel and a mess. It is neither.

So, how to make one? Start with a round of sturdy cardboard. suit your own size. Using glue, mound it up slightly toward the middle with something soft but penetrable enough to hold something pinned into it. An eyelet ruffle or fancy lace is glued on around the edge and pinned in circuitous circles, intermingled with ribbons, up toward the center where the dried flowers are put into place in any way you can get them there. Stems don't dry with the flowers so you have to make artificial stems of florist wire or maybe just glue the bottom of the blossom to a pin head and stick into the mound. Some flowers dry naturally, such as bachelor's-buttons, and straw flowers and hold their color too.

A tussy-mussy made of flowers from grandmother's garden and lace from remembered garments would make a sentimental bouquet for a bride who is allergic to fresh flowers. And June Bride Time is coming up. If a bride is to carry it, a handle of some sort must be attached to the underneath side.

If all this sounds like too much tussle, it can be made with purchased dried flowers but that wouldn't be as romantic as the old-fashioned tussy-mussy which lasts long and can be refurbished from time to time, maybe every anniversary.

REJOICE!

~Jean Bell Mosley is an author and longtime resident of Cape Girardeau.