Welcome! And Life Lessons from Two Sunny Women
Welcome to my first Sunny Day blog post! After moving from the often-cloudy Chicago to the sunniest place I’ve ever lived (Denver), I thought it made sense to rebrand and reimagine my business. So here were are, one day away from the launch of SunnyDayDesign.org
ABOUT THE NAME
Although the name Sunny Day Design certainly suits a Colorado-based business, and is definitely intended to spotlight the work I do with organizations that make positive contributions, Sunny Day is actually a family name. My mother’s maiden name is the German “Sonnentag” which translates into English as, “Sunny Day”.
When I was brainstorming business names, my mom and aunt immediately came to mind. I realized recently that it’s no surprise that I wanted to focus my career on working for good causes: my mom spent her entire career working for nonprofits and my aunt spent 43 years as a school teacher! These two close sister-friends have quietly but consistently guided me to where I am now in my life and career, so I want to share some of the values and wisdom they’ve passed onto me.
Mom working on a monoprint project at Rosebud coffee shop while visiting me in Denver.
LIFE LESSONS and INSPIRATION
Susan (mom)
Life lesson: Empathy, always put yourself in the other person’s shoes.
One of the greatest ways my mom has influenced me is through her work with people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. For 20 years she has helped people from all walks of life with everything from their basic day-to-day physical needs, to serving as a companion and friend while family members get a little relief from the demands of caregiving. What sticks with me most is how she consistently goes out of her way to think carefully before she speaks to her clients, despite sometimes being asked the same questions over and over again in the course of a day. She helps calm their anxieties with gentle answers and finds ways to avoid confronting her clients with painful truths they don’t want or need to hear. For example, when her client with Alzheimers is getting ready to go out, she may be searching for her car keys out of force of habit. Mom would suggest, "Why don't I drive today?" rather than point out "You can’t drive anymore."
Inspiration: Experiment with new artistic mediums, never stop playing.
My mom has an endless appetite for creating and a talented artistic eye that never ceases to inspire me. Every time I visit mom I’ll find a sprinkling of creative projects around the kitchen or living room, and every time she’ll experiment with a different medium. She’s worked with fabric, fused glass, stained glass, pastel, origami, book and box-making, printmaking, and, most famously, watercolor and photography. She understands that the principles of art apply to any endeavor and isn’t afraid to get down on the floor and mess around. Her joyful spirit of exuberance and experimentation is infectious and I am truly grateful for it. She once told me, "Honey, when I'm really old, just sit me in a corner with crayons, paper, paste, and blunt-end scissors and I'll be fine!" Too cute.
Aunt Linda and I on my wedding day.
Aunt Linda
Life Lesson: “Any job worth doing is worth doing well.”
My aunt heard these words from my grandfather on many occasions, whether he was building a bookcase, a table, or refinishing family heirloom furniture pieces. She listened and learned.
My aunt has always been detail-oriented and focused on doing things the right way; this memory from the summer of 1997 is a perfect example. She hired contractors to convert her attic into a living space and needed the job to be done right. Not wanting to compromise the historic qualities of her 1926 Milwaukee bungalow, she hired a carpenter to create wood trim for the upstairs that would perfectly match the trim downstairs.
She then spent her entire summer vacation sanding, staining and applying three coats of varnish to every piece of trim for the upstairs. Forever the math teacher, she let me know it was more than 1,600 feet of trim. She practically lived in her garage and backyard during this project, and the neighbors started inviting her over to eat because they worried she was skipping too many meals!
Inspiration: Use your creativity to make things people need, then give those things away.
My aunt is a talented quilter, knitter and seamstress, but what inspires me most is that she uses her talents to benefit others. For more than 15 years she worked with her quilt group making quilts for the infants in the neonatal intensive care unit at hospitals serving Milwaukee’s inner city population. At first, the quilts are draped over the isolettes (or tiny beds) to protect the infants from the harsh hospital lights, and eventually the parents take the quilts home as gifts. Linda is also a prolific knitter—every year she knits hats and scarves that she donates to Milwaukee’s Rescue Mission and Salvation Army Emergency Lodge. Also, everyone my aunt cares about has received a quilt or homemade project at some point.