Some of the Heart Collection

Below are two heart milagros, one from Italy on the left and a Mexican one on the right. Both are made of metal but in entirely different styles.  The Italian one is old, from an antique store.  The Mexican one looks new, but I don't know anything about it except that it has a little tag on the back that says it was made in Mexico.  Both hearts resemble chili peppers with their lopsided, rounded shapes.

The three hearts above are not milagros.  The two little ones are made of metal.  The one on the left always makes me think of the fairy tale of the tin soldier who gets thrown in a fire and nothing is left after he burns up except a metal heart.  I don't remember the whole story, but for as long as I can remember I have held a picture in my mind of that lumpy little metal heart, and this one reminds me of it.  The one on the right has a tiny woman holding some odd objects in her hands that look something like sparklers (although that doesn't make sense).  The big one at the bottom is a lovely lebkuchen that our lebkuchen-making friends mailed to us and that arrived today in a small cardboard box along with a poem and a drawing-- a Solstice/NewYear's/Bruce's Birthday celebration card.  Beautiful!  Decorated with pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, and home-made candied orange peel.