So lots of people have asked me why the name? When I first took my friends and family’s advice to start this little company for my hand lettering, I had every intention of using my initials for the company name… so when it began it was CP Lettering. I was okay with this name, it was an easy option for sure, but I just wasn’t feeling passionate or connected to it in any way, and to be honest I HATED WRITING IT! How could I keep the name CP Lettering for my lettering business if I hated writing it out…lol. So the hunt for a new name began, and gosh it was so much harder than I believed it would be. I wanted something original but not too weird, meaningful but not straightforward personal, easy to say, spell, and write but not something that everyone uses.  If any of you have tried to pick a name for a business/blog/child you know how hard it can be to find something that checks all your boxes!

One day in a search through my favorite literature quotes, I stumbled upon these two quotes from The Outsiders by S.E Hinton:

“I’ve been thinking about it, and that poem, that guy that wrote it, he meant you’re gold when you’re a kid, like green. When you’re a kid everything’s new, dawn. It’s just when you get used to everything that it’s day. Like the way you dig sunsets, Pony. That’s gold. Keep that way, it’s a good way to be.”

and the much more popular and well known one-

“Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold.”

These quotes have always struck a chord within me. I lost my mother at a young age, and  I always felt robbed of some of my childhood. The loss of a parent is an incredibly traumatic event for anyone, and after her passing I had to grow up to be able to handle the emotional burden I was carrying. I always felt like I wasn’t really able to be a kid anymore. I had to be strong for my dad, for my brother, and for my grandmother. I didn’t want my friends to treat me differently for my entire life, afraid to upset me or talk about things around me. I couldn’t hold on to this deep sorrow I was feeling, I had to grow up and be able to cope with this event in my life and not let it define me. Gaining this level of maturity so young is not a tragic thing. I do think it has helped me to be very successful in lots of areas in my life, but I have always wondered what kind of person would I have turned out to be if she had not died in that tragic accident and I was able to keep that innocence longer? Is the part of me that I had to shut away to cope still inside?

To hold on to that part of yourself that is gold and untarnished by the events in your life is an incredibly moving idea to me. To be able to look at something simple, like a sunset, and be able to see it with the rose colored glasses you had the very first time, that is what we need more of in this world.

One of the most golden parts of my own life for the past year has been my daughter. I was robbed of a relationship with my own mother, but now I am blessed to get to share one with my daughter. She has all the innocence and happiness and golden beauty of a child untarnished by life. She brings out the golden parts of myself that I had forgotten about. I wish more than anything that I could see everyone and everything the way she does, with wonder and amazement. And her smile is all it takes to make everyone around her feel it too. She inspires me to create, in hopes that I can kindle even the smallest spark of joy in those around me.

She is my little goldie.