outtakes are the storytellers (+ shop sale!)

I am pretty sure I bent time the last two days. Some highlights:

* Staying up until 2am sewing dog and cat costumes while listening to Heart and Kanye West. Going to bed exhausted and so happy because I couldn’t wait for the girls to wake to their visions realized.

* Taking photos of neighbors and friends wearing my GEOwares in three to seven minute windows around the busyness of everyone’s lives. Literally, I ran for two days.

* Showering, well past the time I ought to have showered. I think it was the best shower of my life.

* Managing to rewrite every single product description, edit 1700 photos, design three ads and ship giant boxes of goods to six different retailers. I am amazed what I can DO with a deadline.

* Making a pretty awesome dinner when “nothing was in the fridge.” Soup of squash, nearly-gone apples, sage, leeks and garlic. Topped with feta.

* Driving to Margot’s school with her Halloween costume, three minutes before her party. The heat on full blast out the dash so her sparkly dog wand would dry. Glitter flurried like a snow storm in my face. I remain glitter-kissed.

* Halloween night.

The costumes were Ruby’s idea: Alice and Sam. But then at the fabric store we saw wings so the costumes evolved into Alive Fairy and Sam Fairy. I made hats using this simple pattern, adding ties and safety pinning the ears (so the hats can be used, earless, for the rest of the season). I made unhemmed a-line dresses by tracing existing items in their closet. They are wearing black leggings and black long sleeved shirts. The girls covered their snow boots with black electrical tape. I made leg warmers: a tube of unhemmed fabric with one end stitched using elastic thread on the bobbin. The elastic clung just under their knees and draped over the boots. And the wands! Sticks, black construction paper, mod podge, glitter.

I closed my etsy shop for the first time since it opened in 2007. For the last two weeks, I’ve tidied my studio, purged old inventory and just generally cleaned everything up online, in shop and in my brain. Holy smokes, it was a lot of work. I’ve realized a few exciting things about my business and where it is headed. I will share more with you after I decomputerize my eyeballs for a few days.

I get asked a lot about how I fit work into my days. I work with my kids. This means I am bendy and sometimes choose to abandon projects when I am in a flurry of momentum and creativity. I often work early or late. When I can heave myself out of bed, 4-7am is a reliable work window for me. But mostly? Mostly we are all together when I work. The kids have a play space in my studio. They draw, write letters and read books. They sew little pillows and hearts. They watch Wild China (have you seen that documentary series? So great. I want to go to Tibet). They help keep the chickens out of the sewing room and snuggle our pets on the couch. They sit on my lap and sew things that you order, they seal envelopes and stick mailing labels.

I need to do a proper studio tour! Will do.

Andy is the foundation, catching my ideas and encouraging me to lean into work when I feel the drive. He also models with humor even though he doesn’t like it at all (but he’s so smokin’ hot!). Our partnership is essential to my work; we pass the Homestead Baton to each other around our creative, athletic and emotional pursuits. And, while he isn’t behind the computer or behind the sewing machine, he is behind this girl and our family — at the heart of dig. I am thoroughly grateful for my man.

Aaaaaaannnnnnnd my shop is now open with a big ol’ two day sale! How about some early holiday gift canoodling with this Montana gal and her family business?

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