Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Does anyone else out there love the smell of crayons?

I have been so busy creating accessories lately.  I am making bags, and hats, and belts and various other creative items for my new shop.  Starting a small business is alot more work than I ever thought it would be, but I am loving it.  So, that is the biggest reason that I haven't written a blog post recently.  I keep vowing to myself that that will change.  Here is my entry into this weeks Spoonflower contest.

This week, I have been working with crayons.  The weekly Spoonflower contest was to create an 18 inch napkin design using only crayons on paper.  My kids have lots of crayons, but not many that are much longer than a 1/2 inch.  Needless to say,  I headed out to the store and bought a new pack of Crayola.  I got the 64 pack with the handy crayon sharpener on the back.  I love that little sharpener!  I have to confess,  I broke a couple of crayons on purpose just so that I could use it.  Anyhow, as I was coloring my ideas for a napkin design, a flood of memories came back to me.  I thought of some great times that I layed on the floor of my bedroom transforming my Dad's plain typing paper into colorful posters and patterns.  My earliest childhood memories involve crayons, plain typing paper, and a pair of those little rounded edge safety scissors.  We didn't need video games or 24 hour cartoons to keep us busy back then!  Ok, ok I am dating myself.  Well, back to the crayons this week.  My son Cullen, who is 3, was my right hand man.  I thought I would pull out the crayons, do a quickie design for the contest, and give the box to him.  As it turns out, Cullen was not the only one who wanted to color.  When the new box was opened the fresh, somewhat sweet, and totally unique smell of new crayons hit me.  I don't know why, but it inspired me to get down on the floor and color.  Cullen and I spent several hours over several days making a beautiful, colorful collage of flowers, and apples, and bugs, and letters.  I have to say,  I really love the smell of crayons.   Perhaps life would be happier if we all let the laundry wait for a day or two, and colored with our children.  I know the past few days have been some of the happiest I have had in a long time.

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