A Rose By Any Other Name...

So what’s Blue Nutmeg? I mean, isn’t nutmeg… you know… brown? So why blue? For that matter, why nutmeg?

I will tell you.

At the beginning of 2011 my mom asked my brothers and me to find a Bible verse that would be “ours” for 2011. Kind of like a pet rock. It isn’t really yours but if you play with it long enough it feels like yours. The similarity ends when I realize that a rock (in my limited knowledge) has never been a great source of comfort or wisdom. So forget that. It isn’t like a pet rock. I guess the common term “memory verse” would fit better. Who has a pet rock anyway?

But the verse; I chose Psalms 86:11. It’s not a well-known verse, and it didn’t even stick out to me the first time I read it. It took a while. And I’m the sort of person who takes forever to decide. So after I had read my runners-up three… or seventeen times… I made my choice.

Then came the hard part. The whole point of a memory verse is to, well… memorize it. I’m not so good at that stuff. So I used some creativity. I’m pretty good at the creativity. In fact, I prefer creativity to school, dental work and hard labor. Ever since I was pretty little I’ve made this and that. Drawing, painting, cutting. Clothes for my stuffed animals out of Kleenexes. Small houses (for the fairies, of course) out of sticks and rocks. Anything, really. I carved my carrots instead of eating them.

So it seemed a matter of course that I should paint my Bible verse. And I did. And I had a great time! I found the perfect kinds of fonts and sketched it out, and mixed the perfect colors. My favorite colors. I had so much fun that I decided to do it again! And as the ideas for new and different painted verses sprang into my head I got more excited.

True, I have thought of starting a business before. Selling other things I’ve made, or things other people have made. That always seemed like a vague, rather daunting dream. One of those things that you say “Oh, I suppose I may do that someday.” Or “It’s possible, I guess.” But never did it seem like a near, or even feasible, reality. Extravagant reality, yes. Hard? Most definitely yes. But even for me, painfully slow and indecisive, it was a no-brainer.

Sell my Bible verse paintings? Yes!

The decision was made approximately forty-eight hours after the paint started flowing. It was that easy. Alright then, what will the business be called? Aw, rats. Another decision? This would require much more thought than a simple “yes” or “no.” This required an actual thought process. This required some effort. Maybe even a little creativity.

But as it turned out, I only needed creativity. Maybe I used a thought process, in a twisted sort of way. But I know that I didn’t exert any effort. This was how it went. I was looking out on the moonlit river as we drove the curvy road home. Very nice scene, the moon and the steep, tree-covered slope to the ice encrusted river. But that has nothing to do with the business name. But I had a song stuck in my head, On the Blue by Joel Auge. Good song. I can’t really say that has anything to do with the name either. All it did was lead me to think about how much I like the color blue. Favorite, in fact. A light, greenish blue. Seafoam. Has anyone noticed how that color has recently become popular? I’m a trend-setter, what can I say?

This is where I lose all sight of a thought process. Really. Don’t know why or how I started thinking about nutmeg. The only comparison that I can find is that it’s another favorite. Yes, nutmeg is definitely a favorite. In coffee, hot chocolate, applesauce, hot cereal… the shavings by themselves. You either like nutmeg or you’re wrong.

All that was left was to put them together, which I did very quickly. Voila.

So, here comes another job, another distraction, another thing for my to-do list. But another beginning, another challenge, another pleasure too.

So, here comes Blue Nutmeg.