Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Business Venture

Grandma Mast used to make scrapbooks for each of her grandchildren. I used to really enjoy watching her work on them when ever I was allowed to spend several hours at their house.  She went through all the catalogs and magazines that came to their house and cut out any pictures and poems or sayings that she thought she might find use for.

I loved the little room she used for this hobby. It was very well organized with lots of boxes labeled carefully so she would know where to look for whatever she needed.  My favorite was a box of stickers. She had a huge variety and would allow me occasionally to look through all of them and choose a sheet to take home with me.

One day I asked her why she doesn't use more stickers instead of so many tiny pictures that she cut from catalogs, and she told me it would be much too expensive to buy that many. I could understand that but thought it was too bad that she couldn't find a source for cheaper stickers since they were much nicer to use.

A few weeks later I was cutting pictures out and gluing them on pieces of paper to make a little book when Mom called me. I went to see what she wanted and by the time I got back to my little project I discovered that I had put glue on a picture but forgot to to paste it to the paper and it had dried. On a whim I got a damp cloth and wiped it and was thrilled to discover that it moistened the glue enough that I was able to use it.

I was excited about my discovery and got a piece of paper and traced lots of cute pictures on it, after carefully coloring and cutting them out I spread Elmer's glue evenly on the back and left them to dry. I continued until I had fifty of them and then put them in a little box and took them over to Grandma's house where I showed my homemade stickers to her. She oohed and ahhed about them and when I told her she could buy them if she wanted to for only a penny a piece.

She went and got her purse and counted out fifty pennies and gave them to me. I felt quite rich as I ran home and promptly set to work to make another batch of stickers. A few days later when I took my next batch to her she carefully sorted through them and picked out only the very nicest ones, this time I carried only a few pennies and most of my stickers home. After a few more tries and earning only a few pennies I gave up making stickers.  Much to Grandma's relief I'm sure.

16 comments:

  1. Aren't Grandmas the absolute best? She sounds wonderful!

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  2. How funny! What grandma's don't do for their grandbabies. I am sure she felt she needed to nip that in the bud, or it could get out of hand. lol. What a neat idea tho. Thanks for sharing
    until next time... nel

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  3. What a cute story. I'm sure you thought you had a regular source of income.
    Marnie

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  4. You were a genius. All I could come up with was painting rocks for paper weights and selling them door to door. And that was the end of my sales career. Anyway, enjoying catching up on your blog today. :)

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  5. How nice! When I was a child it was friendship bracelets and necklaces woven and braided out of DMC floss. I got quite good at it for a while and wish I remembered how to do all that multiple braiding. I tried selling some but never made a penny.

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  6. I have combed through your blog & am so fascinated by your stories & postings. You do a wonderful job here and I look forward to reading more. Thank you for stopping by my blog & saying hi :)

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  7. What a creative girl you were (: And of course Grandma wanted to encourage you, but even Grandma's have their limits on how many pennies they can spend on stickers (: She sounds so sweet. Great memories (:

    Michele
    XOXO

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  8. That is too cute! I am looking forward to my little girl doing things like this. BTW, thanks for commenting on my blog. Do you want to trade places for the summer? :)

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  9. What a neat story! Grandparents are one of God's greatest gifts, IMHO. My grandma also encouraged me in anything I endeavored to do. I miss her very much. Thanks for stopping by my blog today! : ) Melissa

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  10. Making money off grandma - you go girl!! I used to make potholders and go door to door and sell them for 25 cents apiece. I remember somebody asking me one time, "Does your mommy know you're doing this?" Too funny but it gave me some spending money - on what, I don't know! I don't think stickers ever go out of style, my kids loved stickers, too. Cute story! ♥

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  11. This is just such a cute story about your Grandma...she sure sounds like a very special Grandma! I remember going around our neighborhood when I was in grade school and selling garden seed packets. So fun to think back to our childhood times. Sweet blessings for your week! Teri

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  12. This really made me chuckle! I must have a kindred spirit with the Mennobrarian as I too was a rock painter and peddler!

    Enjoy your day!

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  13. I stumbled upon your blog tonight, and can't wait to read more!

    Have a wonderful day!
    Mandy

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  14. Your Grandmother sounds like a wonderful woman! So sweet of her to buy your first batch of stickers and wise to slow it down once she realized you were planning to make a fortune off of her.

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  15. Some grandma's are such sweet people. Yours must have been very proud of you for trying to provide her with less expensive stickers.

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