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Happiness as described in the dictionary is “the quality or state of being happy, good fortune; pleasure; contentment; joy.” So when asked to describe the happiness icon I chose for my business card, it turned out to be harder than I thought. See, my icon is jeans, I chose jeans for several reasons. The first reason was that we each had to pick our own personal icon to represent happiness (and our kids were off limits), this wasn’t because Barefoot is anti-kids (take it from me, a working mom, nothing could be further from the truth), but we realized that if everyone who had kids here chose their kids that would make for a very cute but not necessarily accurate letterhead design for our new positioning. And being charged with figuring out how to bring the new position of Barefoot to life visually, I thought we ought not risk looking like we were the best kid photographers ever.

So, that being the case, we were asked to pick one other thing that we rocket for, something that we’re passionate about and after much thought and a happy cleaning accident, mine ended up being jeans. I knew I loved jeans and had always been (and still continue to be) in search of the perfect pair. My quest for the holy grail of denim had begun when I was fairly young. Can you imagine how happy I was when I grew up and realized that being a creative in the advertising world meant that I could wear jeans (all the time!!)? How great is that? Talk about happiness…not only was I passionate about designing and advertising since I was little, I realized that the industry that I so wanted to be a part of not only embraced the divine denim but also embraced wearing them to work. Pinch me, I must be dreaming.

Anyway…as for the second reason I chose jeans for my icon, I was cleaning out my closet one day and trying to decide what clothes I should keep and what clothes I should donate. Apparently, jeans had been the hardest for me to part with over the years, I made the discovery that I owned over 50 pairs of jeans. I had no idea I had that many. As I was sitting on my closet floor, I came to the realization that every time I’m at a store, I head for the jeans first (whether I needed a new pair or not), in most cases I didn’t. I went in for socks, I left with jeans, I went in for a coat, shirt, undies…I always left with jeans. I’ve even found myself paying more on jeans than I would on anything else for myself (the exact amount I’ll keep between me and every sales person that I’ve ever purchased jeans from). So, after my closet was cleaned and my donation box was full (of everything but jeans I might add), I came to the realization that what I trade up for is jeans. I love them, I wear them almost everyday and apparently I have enough that I can go to work everyday for over two months and wear a different pair each time.