Blog Post # 1 – How It All Began

What’s the worst that could happen?

This is the question that my best girl friend always poses to me when I’m thinking about starting something new and creative.  She poses this because she’s brilliant and she knows that it’s the best way to shut down my inner monologue of ANTs (Automatic Negative Thoughts) that tend to derail anything I try to accomplish with my business.  So here I am, on a rare evening alone, sitting at my laptop and trying to figure out exactly what my very first creative blog should be about.

Since I’m fairly mathematical and systematic (which is a bit of a conundrum for someone whose also very creative), it seems like I should begin at the starting point of my creativity.  In order to figure that out, I really had to think hard.  Where DID I get my start?

As I child I really wanted to be creative.  I wanted to draw, to design and to make pretty things.  I remember the toy called “Fashion Plates,” where you could put together outfits and color pencil over paper to create rubbings and thinking I’d be the next big fashion designer.  I designed outfits to my heart’s content and hung them up on the refrigerator.  I remember cutting the hair of many a Barbie thinking I could make them look cuter and my Mother getting really, really mad.  I even tried an art class in high school, but it turned out that I simply could not draw even a normal looking stick person.  I couldn’t even get a very good grade in that art class and good grades were something I excelled at.  I figured I was just not destined to live a creative life.

The toy that helped me create and “draw” for the first time

Fast forward quite a few years and I’m married and working as a Math Teacher.  I’m living my life devoid of any real creativity and a friend of mine asks me if I want to come over and make some cards using stamps.  It sounds like fun and so I go. And guess what?  She’s got a whole room full of stamps, papers, inks and even scrapbooks with photos and all kinds of fun stuff.  There are so many art supplies in this house that she’s got a WHOLE ROOM dedicated to creativity!

Needless to say, I was hooked.  😊

Stamps led to cards, cards led to scrapbooks, scrapbooks led to jewelry. All three led to mixed media and mixed media led to furniture.  Furniture led to a business and 554 and Company was born.

Cards that I created and sold in my first craft business

Once the creativity box was opened, I simply could not close it.  I did not want to close it.  That yearning I had as a youngster, a yearning that I thought could not be fulfilled because I could not draw, found a different and better purpose.  And much to my husband’s dismay, there is simply not a single room in our home that does not have at least a bit of my art supplies in it.  I tried to contain it to just one room, but it’s just not possible.  It’s everywhere I look, like breadcrumbs I can follow to find my next happy place.

I would not have it any other way.

Thanks for joining me on the ride.