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.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.rasjacobson.store/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/677611D8-8156-4D01-B6C4-411577931F8A.jpg?resize=343%2C343&ssl=1)
The chickens have come GNOME to roost.
Boldly go where GNOME one has gone before.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.rasjacobson.store/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/IMG_3838.jpeg?resize=320%2C506&ssl=1)
(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.