Two Pennies Please

A few months ago I had a friend turning a quarter of a century, which is kind of a big deal. That person is also a big deal.
In an attempt to not only show my friend how much I care, love and appreciate them, I also wanted to do something different.

On a random bolt of inspiration I came up with two projects. A box of 25 items and a penny heart.

This box was filled with 25 things, each thing being in groups of 25. For example, she had 25 cans of beer, 25 fake tattoos, 25 packs of ramen noodles, 25 pens, 25 sticks of gum, 25 sweet treats, 25 pixie sticks, 25 tampons, 25 condoms, 25 hair ties, 25 band-aids and a whole bunch of other stuff I have currently forgotten.

This box was over flowing with items. During my quest to fill this box I also realized it might have been a better idea for someone turning 24. A lot more items come in multiples of 4 and 6 a lot easier than multiples of 5. Beer for example comes in groups of 6.

What seemed to really take the cake though was the penny heart. I found a penny for each year my friend has been alive. Starting at her birth year of 1987 and going all the way up until 2012. I was lucky enough to almost all the pennies either at work or in my piggy bank except for two pennies. I could not find 2005 and 2008. My friend was coming back into town soon and I was running out of time, so I decided to call the bank. They seemed like the most logical place to have vast amounts of pennies. It would be my best chance at finding those two pennies.

I knew my request was a little off the wall so I called them early in the morning, explained my project, explained the years I was looking for, and wanted to see if I could pick them up at noon. They said sure.

During my lunch break I head over to the bank.

I was not exactly sure who I had talked to in the morning so I got in line to talk to a teller. I explained to her that I’m trying to find two pennies and was wondering if it would be possible for her to look through her drawers. After a few blinks of utter confusion she called her supervisor over. The story is explained again and the supervisor started to check with some of the teller and their drawers looking for my pennies.

I had a seat to allow the teller to help other customers while the search for 2008 and 2005 commence. I feel bad that I came in at noon but I thought they would have explained this odd request sooner rather than later to the other people.

After about 15 minutes of searching, the supervisor called me over and I exchanged two pennies for my two missing dates.  I thanked them profusely and headed back to work.

Once I’m done with work I stopped by the craft store, picked up a frame, some foam backing, and a marker. I had to actually put everything in the box and make sure I had 25 items of everything while I soaked my pennies in vinegar and salt.  

The pennies went from dirty brown to shiny new copper color in a matter of minutes. A good rinse and dry, I assembled the project.

First making sure the pennies looked like a heart, then making sure they were all facing the right direction, and then gluing them down. Once everything was dry, in the frame it went, and walla, all done!