About

Here’s a wee tale to entertain you, beginning, as all good stories do, with “Once Upon a Time.”

Once upon a time, there was a small red-haired girl living in the Adirondack Mountains in New York State. She wished for three things: straight hair, a pony, and an Irish-boy pen pal. She waited and wished, but none of the three came around. Her hair went curlier, the closest thing she had to a pony was a baby blue bicycle with the word “mustang” written on it, and even though she checked Irish and boy on her pen pal form, what she ended up with was a girl from Australia.

So, she went on with her life. She went to school and realized that she loved reading, writing, and art, but not so much math and science. She went to college and studied journalism and dreamed of writing “Random Notes” in Rolling Stone and a best-selling novel that would get her on the David Letterman Show by age 25. She went to work as a researcher for an author writing a book about breast cancer. She adopted a kitten named Terrapin from the local animal shelter (who spent 18 happy years with the girl before her ninth life expired). Then the girl worked for a radiologist who specialized in diagnosing breast cancer. The radiologist taught her how to make jewellery and she started selling love bead necklaces in the parking lots of concerts. She moved to Boston and worked in biotech and pharmaceutical research. She moved on to a dotcom. She forgot about art and jewellery.  She didn’t forget about straight hair, a pony, or an Irish boy pen pal.

Then one day, she sat down on a barstool in a pub in Boston on a Sunday afternoon. Sitting next to her was an Irish boy. She ignored him, he pestered her, she started to listen, and next thing she knew, they were getting married. He helped her rediscover her love for art, found her a graduate programme in Museum Studies  and convinced her to enroll, and she started working as an educator in an art museum.

After a number of years, city life started taking its toll on the two of them, and they decided to make their move to Co. Mayo. Three weeks later, the recession hit. She was lucky and found short-term work as an educator in the National Museum of Ireland, and then after that work ended, she started her own business doing what she loved…working with children and art. She rescued a kitten named Nibbler from the local animal shelter, then a dog named Bella, and much to her husband’s dismay, another cat named Nëukat (only because no name seemed right and the cat was, after all, a new cat).

And then the desire to make jewellery again started to burn. She secured Leader Funding, became a certified Art Clay instructor, and here she is today, teaching metal clay and developing her own jewellery lines.

And what about her three wishes? She’s ended up with something even better than an Irish boy pen pal … she found her husband and soul mate (who has been known to send her a letter from time to time).  A few months ago, she finally had her hair straightened at the beauty salon and realized, after all that wishing, that she hated straight hair.

She’s still waiting for the pony…..