Salmon Sally Serves Sammies: The Story Behind a Personalized Fishing Card

The Story Behind Salmon Sally Serves Sammies

What do you give someone who seems to have everything already?

For my friend Kendall, the answer began with something he genuinely loves.

Fishing.

Salmon and trout fishing, specifically.

Kendall and his family are dear friends, and I wanted his birthday card to feel connected to him, not merely to the date on the calendar.

That one intention eventually produced two very different salmon characters, including Salmon Sally Serves Sammies.

I’ll admit that cards for men usually require more thought from me.

They aren’t impossible to create.

They simply send my ideas down a different path.

For Kendall, fishing gave me the place to begin.

The Gift Bag That Almost Happened

My first idea included more than a card.

I pictured a gift bag filled with everything needed for a salmon bagel sandwich.

The pairing felt playful, personal, and easy to build around his love of salmon.

Then Kendall’s wife, Katie, shared one useful detail.

He isn’t much of a bagel fan.

Well.

There went the gift-bag plan.

The food pairing was no longer right for Kendall, but the image had already begun taking shape in my mind.

Perhaps the full salmon sandwich gift will suit someone else one day.

This idea didn’t disappear when the plan changed.

It swam in another direction.

A swimming-upstream moment, perhaps.

Clearly not impossible.

Then Sally Appeared

The salmon serving the sandwich needed a name beginning with S.

I considered several possibilities, because apparently an imaginary salmon deserves proper naming consideration.

Then Sally appeared.

Sally Salmon?

Salmon Sally?

I still go back and forth.

“Salmon Sally Serves Sammies” kept making me smile, though. The alliteration gave the idea its rhythm, and the fish holding a sandwich became a character with a job to do.

She had dramatic lashes, plenty of personality, and a salmon bagel sandwich ready to serve.

Kendall’s lack of enthusiasm for bagels did not seem to concern her.

Salmon Sally had arrived.

When One Salmon Became Two

Kendall’s love of fishing inspired another character too.

This salmon was shaped like a fillet, which felt especially fitting because Kendall fillets and smokes much of the fish he catches.

She arrived dressed for a celebration, holding a bagel in one hand and a cocktail in the other. More salmon sandwiches waited on the nearby table.

The original sandwich idea had not vanished after all.

It had simply found its way into a different card.

Apparently, once salmon begin arriving around here, they bring company.

This was the birthday card Kendall ultimately received.

Salmon Sally remained in the studio.

I’m rather glad she did.

His Real Name

When I told Kendall’s wife I was writing this story, I also explained that I had changed his name to Doug to protect their privacy.

She smiled, gave a little giggle, and said it was perfectly fine to use Kendall’s real name. Most people visiting the site wouldn’t know who he was anyway, and she thought it was fun that he would be part of the story.

There was something almost honoring in the way she said it.

So Doug became Kendall again.

When the Original Plan Changes

Many of my ideas begin with a real person, a particular occasion, a phrase, an observation, or one small detail that catches my attention.

Then the idea begins to wander.

This one started with fishing, moved toward a salmon bagel gift, encountered the news that Kendall did not particularly like bagels, and kept going anyway.

Creativity has a sense of humor.

The gift-bag idea changed after Katie gave me that important information, but the artwork still grew from something true about Kendall.

He loves fishing.

He fillets and smokes much of what he catches.

He appreciates playfulness.

I wanted to create something that showed I had noticed.

The bagel was never really the point.

The salmon was.

The salmon led back to Kendall.

Beginning With What Someone Loves

A person who appears to have everything may not need a larger or more impressive gift.

A better starting place may be one well-observed detail.

What do they enjoy?

What are they known for?

Which stories do they tell repeatedly?

What reliably makes them laugh?

What would show that you have been paying attention?

A personalized gift does not need to explain every part of a person.

It only needs to begin with something that feels genuinely theirs.

For Kendall, that was salmon and trout fishing.

For another person, it may be gardening, books, old cars, coffee, baseball, birds, baking, woodworking, or the snack they always keep nearby.

An ordinary subject changes when it becomes personal.

That is when the gift begins to belong to someone.

A Note From Me, Joy

I don’t spend much time trying to create whimsy.

I spend more time paying attention.

Most of the whimsy seems to find me first.

This story did not begin with a plan for two salmon cards.

It began with a real friend and something he loves.

Katie supplied one detail that changed the direction, and the creativity kept swimming.

I’m often drawn to details another person might consider unimportant.

A favorite food.

A familiar phrase.

A hobby someone never tires of discussing.

An original plan that goes slightly sideways.

Those details often carry the heart of the story.

Salmon Sally Stayed

The gift bag quietly stepped aside.

The cocktail-carrying salmon fillet went home with Kendall.

Salmon Sally stayed in the studio.

She may eventually find her way to someone who loves salmon, lox, bagels, fishing, food puns, or characters with unusually confident eyelashes.

I still wonder whether her name should have been Sally Salmon.

Salmon Sally serves sammies with such confidence, however, that I suspect she settled the question herself.

The story became even more fun when Kendall and Katie joined me in telling it truthfully.

Wander a Little Further

Meet the salmon sisters in the Scatter Joyfulness card collection:

Salmon Sally Serves Sammies with her confident lashes, salmon bagel sandwich, and clear sense of purpose.

Her mocktail-carrying companion appears on Lox of Love dressed for a celebration and inspired by the salmon my friend, Kendall catches, fillets, and smokes.

Wander through Stories Behind the Art for more true stories about the people, observations, and unexpected turns behind the artwork.

Where will you Scatter Joyfulness today?