Every Little Scrap Adds Up

This bag was made from the trimmings of pom poms I've been making over the years. Tiny little scraps of fuzz that seem like nothing on their own. But when they pile up, they add up.

And I love how this unintentionally turned into a metaphor for what I'm so passionate about. That alone, our actions may seem small. Saving one kiddie pool from entering a landfill feels like spitting in the ocean.

But even spit wads create ripples.

And when we all do our part, those ripples can become tidal waves.

Or in the case of pom pom trimmings- tote bags.

The Kiddie Pool That Changed Everything

A few years back I spotted a deflated pool in my sister’s garage. She has 2 young kids & like most families they average about 1 per summer. I knew that if it stayed in her possession it was destined for the roadside trash can & ultimately a landfill where it would sit until her kids’ kids had children.

Despite having zero plans of what to do with it, I loaded it into my car & brought it home where it sat in my garage for at least another year. It wasn’t until my husband threatened to throw it out (the same way I threaten to toss the ratty sneakers he’s owned since high school that have been living in our closet untouched) that I started to play around with it.

After all, tassels can be made out of anything flexible that won’t fray & kiddie pools meet both those criteria.

Lo & behold- pool party earrings were born!

And although I’m not sure if it was their lightweight style, the neon colors, the fact that there was finally a use for these fragile inflatables once they’d met their demise or that customers were insisting that complete strangers practically stroke their earlobes with every earring compliment- they quickly became a best seller.

But there had to be more to be done with the abundance of material, so the experimenting continued! Melting layers together, cutting out shapes, combining shapes with other melted layers, then cutting shapes out of the shapes… there have been more earrings, bags, wallets & keychains made from the dilapidated pools, floaties & air mattresses YOU have donated.

Although I can smile that I’ve diverged a handful of inflatables from being worm food (except I don’t think worms eat plastic), the amount of this stuff that still get allocated to the trash is alarming. And as much as I’d love to leave you with something actionable or a better alternative, I’m afraid I don’t have the best answer of how not to trash perhaps the best way to stay cool in the sweltering heat.

There’s a company in Australia making a biodegradable version & I do still accept a few donations throughout the year (neon colors, cool patterns & the occasional neutral). But as my stash continues to grow I can’t use them quick enough before the space to house them simultaneously shrinks (send me an email with photos & I’ll tell you if I’ll take yours off your hands!).

I guess all of this is to say that I am crazy grateful for your support of this goofy idea. Thanks for cheering me on, buying the earrings, donating the pools & encouraging strangers to lay their hands on them. Here’s to changing the world one holey inflatable at a time.

SHOP POOL PARTY ACCESSORIES

Full Circle

As a creative, a solopreneur, someone trying to desparately make this side hustle work- there’s been one constant throughout it all: single handedly doing it all.

Then I got pregnant & everything changed. My motivation & creativity sucked dry, most days it was hard to pry myself from the couch, the slightest frustration led to a waterfall of tears, emotions on edge & not much room, desire or energy for running a business.

I felt trapped. Like this was the way it would be from here on out. Like the world as I knew it was over. The creative energy & sense of productivity I thrived under was ripped out from underneath me like a cartoon where the server snags the tablecloth from beneath the place settings. Except every glass & plate came crashing with it instead of neatly staying in place.

I spent the better part of the last year feeling like the parts of me that I liked best were being removed in order to create a new human that I didn’t know how I’d be able to love more than my dog. It was the hardest thing I had ever experienced. (Not to mention being pregnant in a pandemic... More thoughts on that here)

Until birth day. Enter the newest version of the hardest thing I’ve ever done. And also the cheesiest thing I’ve ever said when I admit that it was a birth day for me, too. Finally the unexplainable became a reality rather than something that every mom had fallen short of explaining. Perhaps because it is truly unexplainable.

And this week it came full circle as I strapped my daughter into a carrier & walked upstairs to my workspace where she fell asleep on my chest while I worked on a new design I had scribbled on a piece of scratch paper. And even though she wasn’t watching (+ wouldn’t care even if she was) I was able to share one of the things that matters most to me with the newest human that matters most to me.

Not only was creativity flowing again, but I had someone to share it with. I was no longer flying solo through the messy process of making & no longer wondered where the pieces of me went missing because now they’re right in front of me. I was sharing my first baby (my business) with my first baby (actual first born child).

As it turns out, some of the ways I thought it would be from here on out haven’t changed. I’m still a waterfall of tears with emotions on edge. But now it’s for the better instead of the worst & it’s still completely unexplainable.