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Have you ever seen a sign that you knew you had to have even if it meant creating it yourself?

Remember my flea market buy for 50 cents (that I would gladly have paid up to 3 bucks for), “Raising Children is like being pecked to death by chickens?” On a piece of old lumber, painted white (sort of) with green edging (it could have been mold) and writing in black that you knew was done in a hospital for the mentally over the edge, I offered fifty cents to the irritated man standing on the other side of the table. He turned the little wall hanging over in his hands, handed it back to me (it was at that point that I got the splinter from hell jabbed in my finger) and called out to the harried looking lady still unloading the car, “hey hon, lady here says she’ll give you 50 cents for the board.” “Take it” she screeched back. “May be the only sell we make today!” I think it was the blood on the board that made her agree so fast. Possibly afraid I had a lawyer in my pocket.

Well, it’s signs like that which catch my attention and put a glitter in my eyes (Mac calls it mania) that can make me smile all day. My mother once saw a cross stitch wall hanging in a friend’s house that she talked about for ages. It was a screw standing on it’s head, done in gold thread. Under, it said “The Golden Years.” So, “screw the golden years” became her motto for life. I guess I got the bug of sign love from her.

Some folks love T-shirt mottoes, my favorite is Maxine: “If a man complains that you are smothering him you’re not holding the pillow down hard enough,” and I do, too. But a hanging sign is there to remind you of what tickles your fancy all the time. My niece Sissy sent me a sign that hangs on my wall in the dining area. It reads “Fresh Coffee (cup of steaming coffee pictured in the center), Only the Finest Served Here.” What I love about this sign is that the words could refer to the fine coffee which I brew (you will never find instant coffee in your cup here) or the fine people to which it is served.

Okay okay, I do have a point which I am getting around to. I have seen a sign which I know that I must have and I may have to make it myself but I laughed so hard when it was first put before my eyes that I knew it was made for me, or it will be. The wood panel is oval and about 10 inches in length by 7 inches in height. It has a separate round of plank about three inches in diameter. On one side is the word “in” and on the other side the word “out.” Okay, so picture this in your mind. The oval plank is weathered, or stained to look that way, and the background is a witch on her broom, on the lower right hand corner is where you would hang the in or out medallion. So, visually you would see the witch on her broom then the medallion hanging to indicate that the witch is in, or the witch is out. I want this sign. No, I must have this sign. It will go perfectly with the one on the porch that reads “Siamese cats mesmerize but black cats rule.”

— Sandi McBride is a resident of Jefferson, who blogs regularly and enjoys her garden and her furry and feathered friends. She is a wife and mother of two sons.