One Little Word

On several Sundays last fall, I was a vendor at The Clover Market.

We (my sweet husband & I) packed all my salvaged words, stitched prints, some original artwork, studio displays, a new puppy and warm coffee into a truck.

These were magical days for me.

I was introducing my new work and the response was so positive.

One of these Sundays, a woman named Kate came to my tent and emailed me the next day. She ordered hand-scripted words for each of her friends.  And encouraged me to reach out to Ali Edwards, a designer, blogger and author who is passionate about capturing life with words and photos.

Thank you Kate.

I did reach out, and at the very end of last year,  Ali featured my salvaged hand-scripted "thrive" on her blog when she announced her One little Word for 2014.

And my shop got very busy. Really busy.

And when your business gets really busy, you start to work really smart. You have to.

I learned to balance better because I was never "done".    I put things aside for tomorrow. And tomorrow came.  And I had the next day too.

These words get cut beautifully on an industrial router that is bigger than any of the three rooms in my studio.

Below is the scrap material that the words get cut out of.

I do not pay for the material but I pay for every cut.  So now this scrap plastic has value for everyone involved. And a company has a reason to save it for me.

For me, most importantly, materials get reused. I am passionate about this part.

Working with scrap means there is usually a bit of sanding and cleaning with those magical white erasers.

This plastic was used to protect other plastics in shipping.  My favorite words are always the ones that show a little bit of their past.  Sometimes a bit of history shows in a tiny line on the front or with mark ups on the back, like on this word below.

These salvaged word orders brought other gifts as well.

This winter has been really cold, white and icy.

And some of the days have seemed especially long to me.  So being in the middle of so many positive intentions did my soul well.  These positive action words seeped in.

And with positive affirmations come positive, hopeful people.

I recieved so many thank-you's and sweet words.

This was in my studio mailbox.  What a wonderful note to carry into my creative space. Wow.

And I have gotten lots of thank you emails like this one.

"Thank you so much, my enough arrived today and I'm thrilled to bits. Do you know how amazing it is to get a parcel through the post that says "she was so very enough"!? I've had to keep that bit of packaging too."

I think writing messages on the packaging using the word that was being shipped may have been my favorite part.

Because I work with scrap, I usually get an extra copy of each word in case I cannot use it.  I have a bunch of positive words in my studio.

If you know of a school, shelter or space that needs some love and positivity, please reach out to me and tell me about it.

I may be able to send some good energy their way. And keep all this positivity going around for a bit longer.

ps.  I showed up at an art show one Sunday.  But it turned into so much more than that.  Sometimes just the act of showing up puts amazing things in motion.  When has this happened to you?  I love positive stories.  Especially on cold winter days. xo

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