Now to tell my story.          I came by my love of making things and re-using things honestly.  Both my mom and dad were skilled carpenters, building the house I grew up in together.  At 4, I knew the names of all the tools they used, as I ran around the site being the “go-fer”.  I even had my own little hammer,  with which I helped my mom chip the mortar off a pile of bricks salvaged from an old hotel demolition.  We would use them to build our fireplace.  As I grew up, my mom sewed clothes and halloween costumes for me, and taught me to sew and do embroidery.  She knit, but as a child, I never had the desire to learn.

I grew up, sewing clothes and curtains for myself in college and graduate school, then went on to a career in engineering.  As I got busy with work and my family, I did not have time to sew as much as I once had.  When my sons headed off to college, the spark to create came back, and I taught myself to crochet, and to knit, with help from my mom and sister!  One weekend, my mom and I sat on her couch and knit a cashmere bootie pattern for a friends newborn daughter – mom knitting one, and me the other as she guided me through my first real knitting project.

As I approach retirement from the job I have had for 25+ years, I’ve had a dream of making things and selling them at craft fairs and online.  I’m always on the lookout for cute patterns, and fabrics, and with the help of Chris Guillebeau and his book Side Hustle,  have refined that plan even more.  I am going to dive into the things I know and love – vintage and modern bags, blending old designs with new fabrics, and offering vintage iconic prints as well.  As part of my company, I will give back 5% to organizations that support women who are learning to create and sell their hand made work such as the Sarah Center in Cincinnati were I live, and via Kiva loans to women in other countries bring their families out of poverty and send their girls to school.