"Hey Punky Jane! What was the first design you ever sold?"

I opened my Etsy shop October 21, 2008 with a handful of listings, scared and not feeling like I knew what I was doing.

Four days later, I had sold an item. My first customer wanted this design personalized with her son's name. I was excited and panicked all at the same time! What do I do now?

I stumbled through, completing my first order and shipping it out a few days later.

It took some time to feel comfortable and get things rolling, but I'm so glad I stuck with it. I look at this picture once in awhile to remind myself how far Punky Jane has come.

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ps...Did you hear we are celebrating 5 years of Punky Jane with a giveaway??
Get the details here (previous blog post).

      

What's in a Name?

Since we are celebrating five years of Punky Jane and feeling all nostalgic, I thought I'd repost this from October 24, 2008 with the added picture of my Grandmother, Gertrude Jane.

[originally posted October 24, 2008]

You probably don’t know that Jane is my middle name. Growing up, I never really embraced it...for a number of reasons that today I can’t even remember.

When our second daughter, Ella was born, I felt a strange, warm and somewhat fuzzy feeling when we pondered middle names, and considered Jane. I was lucky enough to share my middle name with my paternal Grandmother, Gertrude Jane, and had always counted my blessings that my parents passed on the middle and not the first.

My Grandma was apparently relieved, as well. Whenever someone called me ‘Baby Gertie” she got quite angry, afraid I would grow up hating her because of her name.

Now I come from a long line of peculiar names...Ival, Skeeter, Denzil, Mervyn, to name a few, and had always felt a little plain....Sandra Jane...Sandra Dee...Plain Jane...Jane Doe. But to my mom, I was always Punky Jane. Short, I guess, for her little Pumpkin Jane.

As I began creating personalized jewelry designs, I got a similar strange, warm and fuzzy feeling. Not to equate naming a business with naming a child, of course, but as I was creating the jewelry, I hoped it would make people feel good, both giving and receiving these little trinkets.

Now that I’m older, have kids of my own, and have those moments thinking about the good old days, I appreciate my name and the history behind it even more. Punky Jane it is.

Here’s to warm and fuzzy.

~~~

ps...Did you hear we are celebrating with a giveaway??
Get the details here (previous blog post).

      

Tell Us Something We Don't Know.

Part of my collection.

Someone asked me to tell them something about myself that most people probably don't know.

It's pretty obvious that I'm a coffee-loving chocoholic. That won't do.

I'm a geek. Yeah, the periodic table earrings and the molecule necklaces are a dead giveaway.

Hmmm...okay...got one! I have an eraser collection! That's right...an eraser collection. 

Back in 5th grade, I met my soon to be best friend, Nora. We hit it off right away, and spent great times together acting out all the songs from Grease, having sleepovers, talking about boys, eating too many Starbursts in one sitting, substituting Dr. Pepper for baking soda in our chocolate chip cookies...you get the idea!

The one that started it all...

I don't remember exactly what made us do it, but we started collecting erasers. Not only did we have the cool Sanrio designs (Hello Kitty, etc.), we collected everything. In one less-than-brilliant moment, we even snagged some horrible, brittle, left out in the sun too long chunks off the roof of our school. Not smart.

I still have my collection to this day, and I'm guessing Nora does as well.

My favorite? This little dog named Henry. Still makes me smile.

Okay. That has to qualify as something most people don't know about me.

Do you have an odd collection?

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ps...Did you hear we are celebrating five years of Punky Jane with a giveaway??
Get the details here (previous blog post).