Matryoshka Kitties: From a Year Ago

At a Ukrainian dance and marketplace event I attended today I saw these matryoshka dolls painted up like kitties (and one little piggie in the back)!

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, these are the wooden dolls that open up and have other dolls inside, each one opening to reveal a smaller doll.

I didn’t have the chance to open one up and see how many kitties were inside—would it be seven by some coincidence?—and they were packing up after the performance when I got back to the table (I was also photographing the event). They are so nicely done, and are actually imported from a village in Ukraine by the business owner, a Ukrainian immigrant herself who also makes a few items. There were so many vendors there and I wanted everything I saw so I’m glad I didn’t manage to go shopping. When I get in touch with the woman again, I’m going to get the kitty in the back with the balalaika! Or, maybe the kitty in the front pulling petals off the daisy.

I did purchase a vinok, the flowered tiara-shaped headdress with colored satin ribbons hanging down the back. This new one matches a few of my flowered skirts that my other one doesn’t. The event was at Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall, so I put it on there and wore it home, and while my kitties were glad to see me, Mewsette, who greeted me at the window, looked at me when I came in, and looked at my vinok, then looked back at me. “I’m glad to see you, but can you take that thing off?” I wear hats all the time, I don’t see what the problem was, but I did eventually take it off.

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