An Interlude For Fruit Stripe Gum

I had all intentions of creating a post today about some of my found object art, but half of the items I planned on photographing for it are still in various unfinished stages scattered across my dining table. So it doesn't look like that's going to happen today, which is just fine because I wanted to post about this gum anyway. Here's the story: Since art has officially been my full-time job for some time now and I'm tired of working in sequestered solitude, I've been really trying to connect with some other people like me (hence, my foray into blogland) and it's going great! I've said this before, but there are so many talented, creative women out there who are so very inspirational...and blogs are such a great way to find them! Anyway, about the gum- one of my newest blogland acquaintances and talented fellow artist and craftsperson is Amelia Schaefer of Sweet B Folk Art. I first found her art on Glitter and Grunge and just loved it- it's just adorable...and very sweet! Still wondering where the Fruit Stripe Gum comes in? Here it is- on her blog, Amelia has a Sweet B Candy Club. Every month she announces a different candy-of-the-month that club members (joining is easy- just post a comment saying you want to do so) are to try. Then you post a comment about it and you're automatically entered to win a prize! This month's candy is, you guessed it- Fruit Stripe Gum. I haven't thought about Fruit Stripe Gum in years, but doing so made me smile, so when I went to the grocery store yesterday I bought some. I am generally partial to mint flavored gum as opposed to fruity flavors, but I did chew five pieces throughout the afternoon yesterday. I tried one of each flavor (my 5 flavor pack included peach and melon- which aren't original to the brand). It was a sweet little interlude this week...the buying, tasting, and blogging of Fruit Stripe Gum allowed me to put off things I really needed to do for a good half-hour or so. Plus, it came with temporary tatoos (and lick-and-stick tatoos are always fun...) which I attempted to put on the back of my hand. It's harder than you'd think-all mine came out as blue blobs.

As I photographed my pack of gum for posting, I saw a book on my shelf- it's called Krazy Kids' Food and is an entire little book of vintage food graphics published by Taschen for Old Navy. It was just a curiosity they sold by the check outs at Old Navy Stores a few years ago, but it's full of great, colorful pictures of iconic kids' foods packaging from yesteryear. I flipped through, and sure enough- Fruit Stripe Gum was in there! Then, since I was taking pictures of it I decided to take some of a few of my other favorite pages. Cute stuff, huh?

Thanks for reading!

sweetly, happily, and artfully yours,

randi