A Leftie on display

 Where I work is quite public. I'm basically in the path of everyone who leaves the park in a timely manner. That means that I do get seen by not only those interested in purchasing a parasol, but everyone who is leaving the park (numbers in the thousands every day).
  I am a left handed person and, at times, it feels like I'm on exhibit in a zoo. I am amazed by all those who instantly see I'm left handed. Who really notices that on a daily basis? I'm left handed and I don't do that. I've been left handed all my life and I've gotten used to the drawbacks, also two out of three of my kids are left handed so, we rule in the house!
  I've had people say some really outrageous things about me being left handed. (mostly religious and mostly having to do with the devil) Then, I also have long involved stories from others who are lefties or those who had a relative who was a leftie.
  I sympathize with those older folks who were forced to use their right hands. It wasn't necessarily as evil as it seems. Imagine being a teacher in a one room school room and the hand writing instructions don't even have a version for lefties. This was the educational standard, the hand writing  they were expected to teach, what everyone was expected to learn to do. So, what to do with these outliers? Make them conform. The bigger question was, why didn't they make a version for lefties?
  The word "left" means "sinister". Not a promising beginning is it? When you go home to heaven Jesus is sitting on the RIGHT side of GOD. The Bible is filled with everything good being on the right, everything bad on the left. God fearing folks didn't want anything in their life that smacked of evil so no one wanted a left handed kid. There's some stories about people wiping their butt with the left hand, thus shaking hands with people was always done with the right. (It's a old wife's tale people tell me).
Being a leftie in a right handed world is sometimes hard. Potato peelers are sometimes impossible to use. While Fiskars scissors are a godsend  because they are for both lefties and righties, good scissors (sewing scissors) are definitely left or right handed.
Trying to play an instrument is confusing to me. If you string a guitar for lefties, the chording is with your right hand and, it seems like that should take more dexterity than strumming, but maybe I'm wrong.
 Sometimes the silliest thing can trip you up. Ladles with a pour spout, for example, really tripped me up once at a salad bar.
  My horror story has to do with a calligraphy class before there were felt tip pens and I had to use the old dip pens. The ink was wet, and you had to write (in English) left to right, thus smearing the ink. My solution was to learn to write down the page, making all my letters sideways. It's easy to skip a letter that way and I can't tell you how many times I had to start over on a project. I admit that, after starting over 5 times, I might have just decided to take the hit on a misspelled word from time to time.
 

So, here I am, writing names on parasols in wet paint. Sounds like my old nightmare of a class all over again doesn't it?

2nd line parasols

 I had a customer the other day that requested a parasol for her. She's part of a Jazz club and she wanted a second line parasol. After some research, and giving her some options, we settled on this design. The gold at the bottom are in reference of the iron work found in so many locations in New Orleans. The balconies and gates and fences. Then we alternated masks with the flur d leis. The colors were traditional Mardi Gras colors of gold, green and purple. Although the parasol looks blueish in the photo, it was really purple. I ended up doing two, one for her and one for her friend.
  In looking at some of the 2nd line parasols out there, well, thy are REALLY out there! Feathers, beads, ribbons and sometimes 3-D items on them. I left her plenty of room to add any of that she wishes, either along the bottom or along the spines separating each panel. I hope she has great fun with her 2nd line parasol.

Names- a brief overview

  One of the most interesting things about the job of parasol painting comes when it's time to put the names on them. This is the last thing we do, and the hardest part of the job for me. 

 

 I am left- handed (which will need it's own entry someday) and I put the umbrella at my angle to write and just write it in cursive, with a very few embellishments.

 

  Names fall into a few categories.

1. traditional family names

2. traditional names with a twist

3. names that make me think their parents are old flower children

4. names I can't pronounce.

5. trendy names.

 

There are names in each category that make me want to say, "poor kid".

some examples in each category:

 

1. Eleanor, Emily, Lily,Corra,

Evelyn, Rebecca, Elizabeth and Emma

 

2. Emilee, Emaleigh, Emilea,Lilly, Lilie,Ashleigh, Mirandah , Jorja , Abegaylle

and anything with Lynn added to it.

 

3. Eden, Karma, Serenity, Midnight, Genesis, Electra, Journey, Lorelei, Verity,

Stormie, Destiney, Fantasy, Cougar, Sparrow  and Hendrix.

 

4. Haarika, Kajah, Evhya,Cabela, Arya, XoXo, and  Xochitl (I mean, really, how do you say that?)

 

5. Nevaeh ( heaven backwards) , Kennedy, place names like Jersey, Georgia, Cheyenne, Dakota, Ella (and none of them have seen the movie?) , and to my ever-loving shame, Delaney is  making a strong showing in the trendy name category. My only defense is... my husband picked it 18 years ago. She's ahead of the trend.

 

 

Fun for everyone

 

One of our customers posted this picture. Isn't it adorable?

Their young daughter bought this mini parasol with the angels on it and then, when they got their new kitten, she did this.

Special requests

  Occasionally,  I get to do some special requests and, along the way, I get to hear some interesting stories.
  So, the other day, a little girl loved my puppy parasol and so her family bought it.

 

Then her brother wanted one too - of HIS dog. It had to be just like his dog too. So, Dad found a picture of him on his phone and I proceeded to sketch out the dog on paper. The little boy was quite involved in the process and didn't hesitate to correct my drawing until it was acceptable.

While I was drawing, I got to hear about how they got the little girl's dog. Apparently, it was a recent acquisition, I mean they just got it on this vacation trip. Where did they get it? Well, they "found" it on the side of the road in Arkansas and decided to take it because it was dirty and had a lot of fleas.  In fact, they stopped at a gas station and washed it before they travelled very far in their car with it.

 I don't know about you, but at this point, I'm listening in horror that they just took someone's dog. Dogs in the country are still allowed to roam, rarely have collars and, as such, rarely are flea-free. Most people from more urban settings are so used to all the rules and restrictions (as well as health issues) for proper dog ownership in a people populated location, that they can't imagine a dog being able to just have daily adventures at will and come home for supper.

  I hope there's not a little girl in Arkansas that is missing her dog.