Today is Pres­i­dent Lin­col­n’s birth­day, so of course it’s appro­pri­ate to release my Amper­Art edi­tion #30 fea­tur­ing our 16th pres­i­dent on Feb­ru­ary 12. But this piece of art was actu­al­ly cre­at­ed sev­er­al months ago as a gift for a very spe­cial house­warm­ing for a very spe­cial cou­ple. My friends Tina & Doc built their dream­house from the ground up.

It’s called the Pen­ny Palace. (We’ll get to that in a minute.)

When I say spe­cial friends, how many peo­ple would design a pet entrance with its door­bell a foot off the ground? Or cre­ate a tiny door on the mez­za­nine titled “Elves” — & dur­ing their house­warm­ing Open House week­end have an actu­al live elf inside that door? (Tina & Doc are prac­ti­cal, though — the door leads to the attic. Ever hear nois­es in your attic? Prob­a­bly elves.) Every aspect of this house is spe­cial down to the very last detail. The rooms are themed & a recur­ring theme is pen­nies (more on that, like I promised, in a minute). Even the House­warm­ing Open House was spread over sev­er­al days, with invi­ta­tions for cer­tain groups at cer­tain times, each giv­en a tour com­plete with a map & facts guide (a great souvenir).

I’ve only known Tina & Doc for a few years, but they’re the kind of friends you feel you’ve known all your life. Here’s how it all start­ed (final­ly, about the pennies):

Tina came to me as a client. She has a web­site called Pen​nyFind​ers​.com, & asked me to design a Pen­nyfind­ing Guide as well as a new logo. (Be sure to vis­it her site for fun facts, per­haps dis­cov­er a new hob­by?, lots of smiles & joy – such as the symp­toms check­list to see if you have Pen­ny Fever.)

Through work­ing with Tina I real­ized she has a deep com­mit­ment to doing things right, nev­er giv­ing up, find­ing joy in every new chal­lenge, & shar­ing that joy with every­one — I mean EVERYONE — from clerks to con­trac­tors to strangers & of course to friends. In fact, she had me design a spe­cial card that she hands out to every­one she meets, giv­ing them hope, joy — & even a pen­ny (there’s one glued to every card).

The back of the card states The Pen­nyFind­ers Mis­sion:

• Trust in a High­er Source
• Be Grate­ful
• Encour­age Oth­ers through Acts of Ran­dom Kindness

Design­ing Tina’s mate­ri­als was a tremen­dous amount of fun & joy (as she would want it to be). By the time we were done, she was no longer a client but a true friend, along with her hus­band Doc.

Then I dis­cov­ered an amaz­ing feat of hers and Doc’s: The Pen­ny­tales Blog

You’ll be amazed, as I was, at  this com­pre­hen­sive time­line with com­men­tary, pho­tos & video, from ground­break­ing to house­warm­ing, includ­ing all the tri­als & tribu­la­tions of pen­ny find­ing, build­ing a house, & life in gen­er­al. (There are some great tips if you’re think­ing of build­ing your own house…or just enjoy­ing life.)

The blog reads like this, which was about the time they decid­ed to real­ly make this house happen:

“If we are to build this ‘ARK’ [Tina’s acronym for Acts of Ran­dom Kind­ness] then God needs to take charge and be the con­trac­tor.

“A Pen­ny would val­i­date that we are head­ing in the right direc­tion. That is when the 100-​day series began.  After the first few CONSECUTIVE days of find­ing coins, this appeared to be a lit­tle more than mere coincidence.”

As a  Pen­ny Palace house­warm­ing gift, I con­cep­tu­al­ized a spe­cial Amper­Art piece fea­tur­ing a cop­per pen­ny. I was ecsta­t­ic to dis­cov­er, on the lat­est US pen­ny, a depic­tion of Abe Lin­coln sit­ting on a log, study­ing a book, after chop­ping a huge log of wood — to build a house? How appro­pri­ate! Then I found the per­fect quote by Abra­ham Lin­coln (com­plete with amper­sand), for it states in a few words how Tina and Doc came about man­i­fest­ing their Pen­ny Palace:

“I will pre­pare and some day my chance will come.”

Tina and Doc’s house­warm­ing week­end was full of beau­ty, hap­pi­ness & love — not just from the new house, but from all the won­der­ful friends that came to vis­it, giv­ing back the joy that this spe­cial cou­ple is con­stant­ly extend­ing to oth­ers. Tina’s blog elab­o­rates on all the ups & downs they went through in its con­struc­tion, per­mits & fur­nish­ing. It’s an uplift­ing read when one needs encour­age­ment, with many humor­ous moments & a strong reminder that Pen­ny Angels are always watch­ing over us. You’ll enjoy read­ing Tina’s blog.

I have always admired Abra­ham Lin­coln, & now he has some very spe­cial com­pa­ny to share his cop­per coin with.

Hap­py Birth­day, Hon­est Abe. 

May the Pen­ny Angels bless you, Tina & Doc & your beau­ti­ful, enchant­i­ng Pen­ny Palace.

 

PRODUCTION NOTES:
Pro­gram: Photoshop
Fonts: Stem­pel Gara­mond, Berke­ley (amper­sand, modified)
Pen­ny image: U.S. Mint
Pho­tog­ra­phy: rouakcz, graph​i​cleft​overs​.com
Quote: Abra­ham Lincoln