I wanted to wear my pearls on inauguration day (in honor of our new Vice President), but I couldn’t find them. This was a bummer on several levels, especially because they had belonged to Ramesha’s mother. I couldn’t find them in the first few places I looked, but I knew I wouldn’t have gotten rid of them, so a major search ensued.
It took several days but I did eventually find the pearls (phew!). However, it got me started on going through my “stash” of precious items and mementos, with an eye toward giving away or otherwise letting go of extraneous “stuff” that we really don’t have space for in our little apartment.
And that’s how I happened upon the items in the photo above, which are remnants from a period of time (my early teens) when I got really into doing creative, crafty things. I no longer recall where the idea came from, but the basics involved some combination of alphabet pasta, glue, toothpicks, and paint.
Sometimes I painted rocks. The “Brooks” sun with the big smile was painted on leather to create a medallion. But what I painted on the most was wood doweling, which I cut on the diagonal, then stained and varnished.
The pasta letters were used to create names. I’m pretty sure the one in the photo started out as “Sharon,” but when I was fifteen I decided it would be extremely cool to change the spelling of my name. Hence, “Cheryn” (if you can believe it).🤦♀️ Look closely and you’ll see that the color of the C, E, and Y is slightly different than the H, R, and N.
I finished these off with a fastener to create pins. A number of my friends requested them and before I knew it, I had a little business going. The only problem is that it turned something I loved doing for fun into a chore, as I felt pressured to keep up with the demand.
But then I lost the little notebook where I had written down all the orders (the person’s name, what colors they wanted, etc.) and that was the end of that. Of course, I didn’t lose the notebook on purpose, but I do think my subconscious (or unconscious or whatever) was looking out for me.
And that’s the story of my very first “business” endeavor!