Hello Penguin Followers! Welcome to my first, of what I hope to be, regular monthly blogs. Here I hope to discuss fashion trends, shopping, health, family, and who knows what. I definitely encourage comments, personal opinions, and experiences to get the conversation going! My goal is to learn about my customer’s styles and needs so that I can provide the products they love and want. Also, I just want to have FUN!
LET ME INTRODUCE MYSELF
In this first issue, I wanted to introduce myself to my readers and tell about My Pink Penguin and how it developed. Other than a few assignments in college, I haven’t done a lot of blogging. I do like to write though and anyone that follows me on Facebook knows that sometimes I tend to voice my opinion about issues that I am passionate about in fairly long posts. But hey, that’s what social media is for, right?
I am a wife, a mother of three, and grandmother of two beautiful grandchildren who unfortunately live too far away right now. I worked as a military intelligence analyst for almost 14 years and spent half of that time overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan; my husband’s home country. I LOVE to travel and, to date, have visited 32 countries. I also lived a short time in Germany and Eastern Europe.
I have been attending Old Dominion University in Norfolk Virginia for the last few years studying communication. When COVID hit this past spring, I, like everyone else, went through a few changes in routine. Although classes resume this fall, I decided to sit this academic year out as I don’t feel really comfortable being out in public too much. This obviously has left me with quite a bit of free time on my hands.
IDEAS ARE BORN
Over the holiday break last December, I bought a sewing machine because I could always think of a million things I could do with it. Never mind that I haven’t used one since junior high school (and we won’t talk about how many decades ago that was!), but I got one anyway. It pretty much sat in the box until a few months ago when I decided to break it out to repair the strap on my husband's sleep mask. He had been using one of those free masks the airline gives you when you fly international. The poor thing had seen it’s better days, but he is a “delicate” sleeper and needs it to be completely dark and quiet ...unlike myself who can sleep through a hurricane.
So one day I set the machine up and got his airline mask out to repair when I start to think that maybe I could just make him a new one. I had a bit of material in the house, time on my hands, and it looked like a good challenge.
And that is how it all started!
As I am cutting fabric and sewing this mask, my mind starts to wander and I’m thinking how there really aren’t any sleep masks geared towards men’s fashion. And most the women’s sleep masks I’ve seen are cutesy or just really plain. There really needed to be something sophisticated and classy for men as well as for women. With this amazing idea rolling in my head, I created this...well... I can’t even describe it. It was the most atrocious sleep mask (if you can call it that) ever made!! I mean...IT WAS BAD YA’LL! My five-year-old grandson could’ve done better. It was uneven, floppy, the seams were dreadful. IT WAS JUST UGLY! In my head though, it was just an idea, a prototype if you will. And I could design and sew them and maybe make a business out of it!
When my husband arrived home, I met him at the door full of excitement! I couldn’t wait to tell him my business plan! So I pull out this pitiful sewing project, that my dog thought was a toy for him, and began to tell my husband how I was going to start a business and I was going to design and make sleep masks for women AND men!!!! He looks at this pathetic kindergarten project I just handed him, and bless his heart, not wanting to spoil my excitement, says to me “Ok, honey if that is what you want to do.” I could tell he had doubts as I tried to explain that they weren’t really going to look like THAT though! None-the-less, he was supportive of the whole thing. And My Pink Penguin was born.
WHY MY PINK PENGUIN?
The name? Well, I am one that is the most comfortable when the temperature is below 60º. My husband walks around with a blanket wrapped around him in the middle of July; hence he nicknamed me “my penguin.” My favorite color is pink, and what can be cuter than a pink penguin?
Since that day last April, my mask masking skills have improved dramatically. Although I am currently designing classy, sensual masks, I have a ton of design ideas and can’t seem to get them all out fast enough. So please stayed tuned, as new fun designs and themes will be coming out regularly. Also, I will be doing regular giveaways to lucky participants! Be sure to follow me on social media so you don’t miss the exciting announcments.
And although I did make my husband a very beautiful replacement for that gawd-awful first one I gave him, he still uses that reject when he travels overnight for work. This man is a keeper for sure!
I'd love to hear from you. Use the comments section to let me know what you think of the designs I have now and what you might like to see in future inventory.
FOLLOW MY PINK PENGUIN
Comments