The Diary Of A Traveling Umbrella: Sunshine Joy Hedlund

 This interview is a part of a new series that highlights the story of the Traveling Umbrella. Each project participant is mailed the Traveling Umbrella and asked to keep it for about a week. They use it as a photography prop before they mail it on to the next person on the waiting list. Learn more at:

www.TheUmbrellaThatTraveledTheWorld.com

Participant: Sunshine Hedlund

Location: Independence, Minnesota 

Find Her on Instagram: @sunshinejoy76

Interviewed by: Rachel Fergus

When you visit Sunshine’s instagram page, two things become apparent almost immediately: Sunshine loves the Minnstagram community, and she loves her adorable, baby-girl Hazel. The community and Hazel have both posed with the umbrella for Sunshine, many times. “I love rainbows,” Sunshine shared, “I even have a Rainbow Brite sweatshirt that I wear quite often, so of coarse I love #shineonyoucrayumbrella. And it made me really happy to get a photo of Hazel and the umbrella”. Other times Sunshine has snapped photos of the brella were at instameets, and just hanging out with friends. 

Though Sunshine never had the umbrella, her story shows the community-building power this prop has. “I actually didn’t have the umbrella for a week, or officially,” Sunshine wrote, “Matt Hoffman, @coffeewithhoffee, and the umbrella came out to visit us in Maple Grove”. Just looking at her feed, you could never tell that Sunshine hasn’t had the Traveling Umbrella herself because of the numerous photos of the brella. Sunshine shared, “the umbrella was another opportunity for us to spend time together, to be creative together, and grow in our friendship and photography skills”. 

“The traveling umbrella has enriched my experience with Instagram,” Sunshine wrote, “It’s fun to see people all over the world connected by a single prop and hashtag”.

The Diary of a Traveling Umbrella: Pixie Sternquist

 This interview is a part of a new series that highlights the story of the Traveling Umbrella. Each project participant is mailed the Traveling Umbrella and asked to keep it for about a week. They use it as a photography prop before they mail it on to the next person on the waiting list. Learn more at:

www.TheUmbrellaThatTraveledTheWorld.com

Participant: Pixie Sternquist

Location: Alexandria, Minnesota 

Find Her on Instagram: @pixstern

Interviewed by: Rachel Fergus

Like many, Pixie loves the Traveling Umbrella and has taken many beautiful photos of it. One can almost always tell if a photo belongs to Pixie because of her unique touch: her whimsical, simplistic, beautiful images that usually have a dash of color or a sprinkle of excitement. Often, a simple, natural background contrasts the umbrella.

When talking about when she was given the chance to have the brella for a week, one learns where Pixie’s unique style was sparked. Pixie said, “ My opportunity came fairly early…In the dead of winter. With Minnesota as my backdrop, the scenery was snow white”. Pixie then went on to say, “The bright beauty if the rainbow ‘brella against the stark backdrop was music to my eyes”.

Pixie loves the Traveling Umbrella, partly because of the great photos one can take with it, but mostly because of what the brella is and represents. Pixie beautifully stated why the Traveling Umbrella is so loved when she wrote: “The ultimate beauty is that we are all from different states, countries, walks of life and stages in out photography… but we have a commonality, that beautiful, colorful, inspiring/transpiring umbrella”.

The Traveling Umbrella is more than just an umbrella to Pixie and many others. “I had no doubt the delivery of the rainbow ‘brella would somehow/someway unleash some magic,” Pixie wrote, “I was ready to be transpired”.

The Diary of a Traveling Umbrella: Annie Ojile Nerone

This interview is a part of a new series that highlights the story of the Traveling Umbrella. Each project participant is mailed the Traveling Umbrella and asked to keep it for about a week. They use it as a photography prop before they mail it on to the next person on the waiting list. Learn more at:

www.TheUmbrellaThatTraveledTheWorld.com

Participant: Annie Nerone

Location: Rome, Italy 

Find Her on Instagram: @scooteromatours

Interviewed by: Rachel Fergus

Meet Annie Nerone, a Story of Global Community

“I used the umbrella during the #WWIM!! Worldwide InstaMeet in Milan! I was so excited to have received the umbrella and the timing coincided with the InstaMeet so I thought why not bring it up to Milan with me. It was most definitely a conversation maker. Of course I already knew many people at the InstaMeet but since there was a massive turnout the umbrella was a way to meet people within the community. Once I started talking about my friend Jill back in my hometown and how she sent me the umbrella and how it even had a hashtag everyone smiled and immediately accepted the cheerful umbrella & the backstory into the Italian ‘community’! What was once born as a colorful prop truly has become part of the Instagram community and literally has traveled the world. How amazing is that!”

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Annie shared the fun of being creative with the umbrella by bringing it to the Milan Instameet, Here, @psychodreaming gets into the fun as well. Photo by @neumarc

“Just want to say even though I live abroad I am so very proud to be connected to my home state and in many ways be part of the Minnesotan Instagram community. They are truly an amazing group of people and I am so very happy I’ve met them all through this incredible little app. Seriously I didn’t know one single person from this community before Instagram. How incredible is that!?Instagram brings passionate, like minded people together.”