I did a little interview awhile back for an online publication. They chose not to use ANYTHING that I wrote, but rather write their own one sentence lackluster description of my life's work. So as not to waste all of the time and passion that I put into my responses to them, I thought I'd share here. I'm not too bitter. Just a little bit:)
3. How did you come to start your business? (In other words, do you have an interesting anecdote about how you discovered your product or developed your service?)
I have been a crafter all of my life. I am from a Kansas blue collar family where leaving my job managing a grocery store to go to college when I finished high school wasn't necessarily the most supported choice. Although I was never introduced to the information I needed to understand that I could actually have a career in art until after I left college, there was no lack of craftiness in our Kansas home. I grew up at craft fairs and the invention of the hot glue gun was bigger event than our first microwave.
While in college I was known to skip multiple days of classes when I would immerse myself in projects. When I bought my first sewing machine with my high school graduation money I took off classes for three days and recovered my sofa in a patchwork quilt that I pieced from upholstery samples from the local furniture store - I stayed up all night long and cut and pieced and upholstered. It was pure pleasure. The second bout of absences came with my first power drill and a miter box set. From that was born a re-purposed desk made from a dresser and a new kitchen table.
I graduated with a degree in Business and Computer Information Systems. It was my layoff from Enron Broadband during the big bankruptcy scandal paired with finding out we were pregnant with our first daughter in the same week that sparked the changes that would foster my artsy-crafty career. I started sewing for Miss Mia before she was born - and with she at only six weeks old, I went into business.
It all started with one of a kind outfits and accessories for babies and grew into a full-on apparel line sold wholesale in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. In the last year I've been unstimulated as the line took on a life of its own and recently relaunched my handmade goodies of both apparel and home. At 34 I am still learning about who I am and what being a crafter means to me. It is a part of me and without it I lose a huge part of myself that is not only important to me, but also to everyone that I love. Creating, designing and crafting are my outlets. Some people run, some people drum - I craft.
4. What is one thing about your product or service that not many people know?
Everything that I make is limited edition. Even the line that we sell to stores throughout the world has a limited quantity available and many items sell out right away. It all depends on how much of the print I can get and how tired of it I get before I'm done sewing it! No one store will ever see everything that I make or have to offer. My mailing list definitely gets the best selection of everything available, but there will be things at our sample sale in December that you wouldn't see anywhere else. I doubt many people have ever seen the pot holders and kitchen accessories even though I've toyed around with them for years, but I hope to have those available to the mailing list before Christmas.
This is Cannon expressing how I feel about my laptop right now. I haven't been able to download photos from my camera in three weeks... and thus the slacking in my blog-o-rama. I've got so many things to share that I've been up to this month and I can't get any of it off due to a complete breakdown in communication between all of my tech-toys. I need to hit the store and get either a new cable or a new memory card adaptor or a new thumb drive... or all of them!
