Dedicated to my deceased Mentress, Donna Nangle, and my Union and Confederate ancestors, who fought for their beliefs, and thought victory was theirs, until time decided their fate.
While responding to a special request to appear in another Era, I needed appropriate attire, so went to a favorite website of mostly small businesses owned by people tucked into nooks and crannies around the world, many in America. It is called “Etsy,” and the story of how two young ladies began their shop seems perfect for this issue. Springtime greets us and it is time to begin the business of encouraging life. As this article is read, one of the young ladies has a new child. Without further ado, I present the inspiring words, as simple and basic as salt, that are as deep as any ocean.
When my sister and I were little, we’d go to our grandmothers on most weekends.
Once upon a time – the truest words to any fairytale and well to any of our life stories. Our business all started with a little girl and her insatiable desire to dress up, well at least that would describe Matti. Hannah on the other hand was far more interested in actually creating and selling something; anything from paper purses to sumac berry flower arrangements.
One day, Matti was playing dress up with a younger sister – as usual – and realized no hats were to be found among the trove of costume bits and pieces. What does she do but decide to make one herself out of an old velvet shirt, a broken Stratego game box and of course some robbed feathers from the feather duster. Voila. A work of art that soon began a hat making frenzy. Twenty hats later, a business friend of our father’s told him that us girls should really start marketing Matti’s creations on the web so in March of 2006, two high school sisters began Matti’s Millinery.
Our grandmother had painstakingly taught two elementary aged, home-schooled children to sew with once a week lessons, sharing her endless years of creating. (Thanks mom for making these lessons a part of our schooling.) Hannah loved the lessons, but Matti on the other hand was the kid who couldn’t sit still with an overactive imagination. What did our intuitive grandmother do? Put up her hands and say Matti would never learn to sew? Heavens no. She simply offered an incentive to learn in the form of a tea party served on her beautiful Welsh tea service complete with her famous caramel rolls after each sewing lesson. What kid wouldn’t go for that? Thus we learned to sew before junior high.
After our sewing lessons were finished, we would make the occasional Halloween costume and various odds and ends but without the aid of a quality, steady and reliable sewing machine. Once we hit high school, a brand new sewing machine came our way as payment from our parents for spending a few weeks painting a garage on our property. That next year the hat-craze overtook Matti and we started our business. six months later, when hat sales were not quite as numerous as we had hoped; Matti had the bright idea to re-create a gorgeous Civil War ball gown complete with cape and hat. A week later, the outfit was listed and sold, twice. The brain wave had hit. Why not market the entire outfit. Here we are, over 600 pieces later, busier than ever re-creating history for a myriad of happy customers in over 19 countries while doing what we both love thanks to hard working parents and one smart grandmother.
What we can do in pursuing precious values as we greet not only this new season of growth, but our friends in recreating a historic time in our country, is as simple as salt. Look backward, to the basics, for your answer in going forward. That is where your answer lies, my dear friend, and where all springs forward. I leave you to exchange pen for wheelbarrow, in readying my garden for this new season-what will be its own personality, I wonder?
-By Karen Lyddone