I've wanted a coffee shop for years. I had so many names I came up with. Because I wanted to tie my love of youth ministry into my love of coffee, I came up with the Nazarene Bean and Jehovah Java... I know... cliché and painful. So, then Grace came along. I thought for sure she would share my love of music and she and her brother would be the live music at my shop every Friday night. Lessons and 3/4 guitars came and went. The ukulele was never played. (Grace does have an impressive Spotify play list). My dream of a coffee shop dimmed as music blasted, photos were taken, paintbrushes danced and beauty emerged. As I watched, my dreams of having the next indie artist faded. However, then I began to realize that my kids were in tune with my hidden love - the one that typically stayed confined to the margins of notebooks and the back of church bulletins - art.
My first name for the shop was "Bed Bugs and Book Worms". I thought it cute while others found it reflective of my twisted way of thinking. So, I kept working on it.
About a year or so ago, I realized how many things come through the mail or we no longer use and I found it so wasteful. So, I started making birds out of Costco flyers and wall-hangings out of old skirts and shirts. That's when I came up with the brilliant idea to name a site "Crafts From Crap". Neither my husband nor my mother thought that one of my better ideas. My son, on the other hand, saw nothing wrong with it. But, I can see how some would be turned off. I believe my middle school sense of humor and lack of dignity drove my husband, Barry, to pursue a name that would be both dignified and left of center. And so "Vellichor" emerged the victor as Grace and I both have a love for old books. Art was added when I realized that Grace's work made every wall more beautiful. The coffee part will be added later, when we are settled and in our own store front on a quiet Tennessee street. But for now, you can only imagine how soft the blankets are to the touch and how painstakingly fine each stroke is on the canvas... Unless, of course, you choose to buy either. Then you can tell everyone else - and aren't you all the more grateful to Barry that you won't have to tell people you got it at Crafts from Crap?