WALLA WALLA – Lonnie Anderson’s cheeks push up against her glasses and her eyes crease at the edges. She beams. She has a smile on her face almost constantly, it seems.
She gets excited when she tells a story, speaking emphatically, using her hands a lot, and laughing between sentences.
It’s difficult to imagine her in a bad mood, though she says it does happen occasionally. Anderson is one of those people who is warm and cheerful and makes you feel welcome every time you talk with her.
“I’m not bashful. I am not bashful,” she said, giggling.
She is also one of those people who likes to give useful advice. Some of her sayings and bits of wisdom come from the first, and usually best remembered, advice-giver in most anyone’s life – her mother.
“My mom always told me, ‘You keep yourself happy and the chaos can’t penetrate.’ And I believe that,” Anderson said, shaking her finger to emphasize the point.
And she is being true to her mother’s guidance. Being happy is Anderson’s focus, especially since retiring from a three-decade career as a nurse.
To keep tension away during her golden years, she spends her time bowling and playing bingo and bonko. But the pastime she is the most proud of is making greeting cards. “They’re called de-stressers,” she said.
She loves to create her cards with her large and diverse collection of stamps, inkpads, paper, scissors and paper punches. Her closet is teeming with supplies, and like most crafters who find their groove, she continues to add to her stockpile.
She has added to it so much that she is considering turning her spare bedroom into her card-making room just so she has more space.
She jokingly refers to this behavior as catching the bug.
“I haven’t bought a card in years,” she said.
When Anderson started the hobby seven years ago, she was just making cards to give to her friends and family. But that spread to making them at the request of her neighbors. Now that has spread to having them for sale to the general public. Anderson even produces one for the Milton-Freewater, Ore., Chamber of Commerce, with a frog happily leaping across it.
Though Anderson hasn’t reached the level of fame that the blonde actress of the same name has reached, she is making a name for herself locally.
Her creations are displayed on a wicker shelf at Sun Catcher Studio and Fine Crafts, surrounded by other handcrafts, such as leather purses, wood-carved Santa Clauses, jewelry and oil paintings. Several craftspeople and artisans, including Anderson, rent spaces at the shop downtown for their work.
Jo Lowe, owner of Sun Catcher, enjoys having a place filled with handmade items.
“When they purchase a card here, it’s a passion of someone’s. And yes, they can go to the grocery store and get a card, but these are special,” she said.
Anderson’s cards cost $2.50. She makes them for just about every occasion, including Christmas, Valentine’s Day and birthdays.
One card has a yellow and white border. When the card is opened, a paper cutout of a woman in a feathery hat pops up on the inside. It reads, “Well behaved women rarely make history – L.T. Ulrich.”
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