It began with a fresh apple cinnamon donut and a latte downtown Chicago. Working at a big wooden table with light flooding
across my notes and the cute terrarium beside me, I started to build what I'd
been laying the foundation for all summer long. And then, all of the sudden, it
was there, published, online. It was almost anti-climactic.
That's when I realized the shop didn't begin on a Saturday morning
in November. It was sunny fall afternoons working on farmer's wife quilt
blocks. My 20th birthday road-tripping to all the best fabric stores with my
Mom. Chilly winter mornings with the front door thrown wide for better-lit blog
photos. Hot long days painting hydrangea patterns at the Fuji Studio in
Florence. Sunny football Saturdays test printing in Adams Hall. Late night
after late night quilting like a maniac and listening to my sister’s “Jams”
playlist to prepare for my senior show. Bright summer days reading business
books and sipping inspirational Arnold Palmers. Then finally a Saturday at the
Coffee Studio in northern Chicago. And now, a cozy moment in my research office
before class.
This isn’t a one-and-done project, a checkmark on a list. It’s my
biggest work-in-progress of the past two years, an endeavor I didn’t even
realize was beginning when it did. As Etsy reminded me in their handbook for
beginners, a business is all about trial and error, just like life. I am
thrilled to embrace this next giant step in a series of so many. I still don’t
know exactly what I’ve gotten myself into or where it will take me, but messy adventures
are the best kind, and you can’t map them out (like I often attempt). You just
have to live them.
Welcome to the newest unfolding organic undertaking of my creative
exploits:
Check out some other more tangible works-in-progress at WIP Wednesday hosted by Freshly Pieced.