gnomes

A friend from college contacts me to tell me that my gnome paintings resonate with her. “I want one,” she tells me via Instagram.

I tell her I am flattered – and that there are several incarnations of my “punny” gnomes, each with its own saying.

You know.

Things like:

There’s GNOME place like home.

Make yourself at GNOME.

Take me GNOME, country road.

Oh, give me GNOME where the buffalo roam.

The chickens have come GNOME to roost.

Boldly go where GNOME one has gone before.

(I could go on for hours, but you get the idea.)

Anyhoo, we go back and forth for a while – and while I’m waiting for her to respond to me, I sell three of the paintings.

Concerned that she won’t get the one she wants, I decide to send Lizzie a quick text.

‘People are snatching up all my gnomes. Which one do you want?’

I include several photos, including these.

and

An hour later, I receive a response.

‘You’ve got the wrong person, but those gnomes are cute. How much are they?’

Long story short, my friend got a new phone number last year.

(She forgot to tell me.)

But that wrong number text?

It turned into a sale to a complete stranger down in North Carolina.

How cool is THAT?

So while I doubt texting random wrong numbers will always result in sales, today’s ooooops moment was definitely something that deceased artist, Bob Ross, would have called a ‘happy accident.’

I’m often quick to focus on all the ways it seems the Universe is out to get me, but today I recognize that sometimes my mistakes work out to my benefit. Probably more than I realize.

Soooo what’s going right for you these days?

PS: If you’d like a gnome of your own, original paintings are $40 shipped anywhere in the continental USA.

The gnomes above currently reside in Florida, North Carolina, New York & Pennsylvania.