What's my Why? Good question. Why am I doing this? Why is it important to me? Why did I even start on this Grunge+Grace journey? Those are all questions I revisit from time to time. Sometimes, my answers shift. My "why" occasionally changes.
Let's start with why did I start this Grunge+Grace journey. I have always had an entrepreneur soul. As a teenager, I watched my mom start and successfully run both an embroidery business and a custom horse show apparel business. My first job as a teen was working for her, running a commercial embroidery machine and helping with show clothes. When I became a mom, I wanted to start my own business as a means to suppliment my husband's income, as well as to have a creative outlet. I started growing MaeFlowers & JuneBugs, and it evolved from children's clothing, to children's renassance costumes, to embroidered fairy wings.
I had a lot of fun with it, but the wings were a little ahead of their time and I wasn't getting enough sales to justify staying in business. In 2014, I stopped making wings. Around that same time, my mom and I had started an online fabric shop and I needed to focus more time on that. We grew a pretty successful group on fb with over 1,000 members, most of whom were buying quilting fabrics to make children's clothing. We had a blast, but it was difficult to continue to grow while we were living over 6 hours away from each other, so we made the decision to sell the business.
In 2019, my daughter decided that she wanted to play club volleyball, which meant I needed a steady job to cover the fees. I went back into the workforce as an infant teacher. I spent three and a half years loving on babies. I enjoyed my job, but felt I needed a change and a position opened up at my kids' school. I was able to work at their school duing my son's senior year, which was really cool be on campus for his last year of high school. That was also the year that I made my first tumbler. I had seen another maker doing fabric wrapped tumblers and I was intrigued. I had run to Dollar Tree for something and saw a $5 tumbler spinner and $5 resin. I figured that for $10, if I didn't like it, it wasn't a huge loss. When my husband saw what I was up to, his initial reaction was that I didn't need any new hobbies.
Three years later, he's glad I didn't listen to him that ONE time. I've perfected my tumbler craft and have expanded out to other sewing accessories, like starch pens, Sewline glue pens, seam rippers, and writing pens.
That's how I got into tumblers, but how did I get into quilting? That's a whole other story and a whole new post.
But in regards to the original question of why did I start Grunge+Grace, I come from a line of entrepreneurs and love owning my own business. I love being creative with beautiful fabrics and sharing that with others. I love being challenged by my customers, like with the two-tone wolf tumbler. It makes me smile when I put that first coat of resin on a tumbler and the fabric really starts to shine. All of that is why I started and continue to grow Grunge+Grace. I'm glad you're here for my journey and look forward to what the future holds!
Stay creative, my friends!
~Krista