Frankie The Snowman

Not to be confused with his distant cousin Frosty the Snowman, Frankie's story is truly a "rags to riches" tale dear Readers. Frankie is one of the many handicraft Christmas decorations that my Grandmother Jordan made long ago. She always used to talk about this Styrofoam Snowman, but we never could find him. It wasn't until we cleaned out her estate that we found him out in the barn. Frankie was in perfect condition... until my Dad drove off with the box he was in on the back of his truck. That is what rendered him to his current state.

In the fall, he lost an arm, his nose, his hat was damaged, and neck was broken. So to begin Frankie's restoration, I used some heavy floral wire to give him a new strong spine.

The hat was repaired, and received a fresh coat of black paint. He was already looking much happier!
Since there was no way to perfectly replicate another arm, I made two new "snow ball" arms out of Styrofoam Easter eggs that I crushed and molded until they were the same shape as the old arms.

To make the new styrafoam blend in with the old aged parts, I brewed a cup of dark coffee and dunked the pieces a few times until they matched.

(Almost as good as new!)

Just by luck I found the same box of ornaments for the red nose that my Grandmother provably used the first time she put this together! So all was mended and right again.

Frankie reunited with the Santa Claus my Grandmother also made! They both look great on top of the TV set, flanking my fireplace TV lamp!

With a roaring "fire" in the fireplace, these two look like they are home for the Holidays!

You might be wondering why this particular Snowman is named "Frankie" vs "Frosty"? Well, that was a simple decision... have you ever seen a Snowman with his fedora tipped over one eye and nursing a red nose? Haha if he could, I bet he'd croon with the rest of the Christmas Rat Pack!

And don't judge my Christmas decorations already being put out! This year there is only a week between Thanksgiving and Thanksmass, that paired with a show going up soon, it's better I start putting up decorations now vs in a mad rush later!

Any of you put things out early?!

-Mic