Renaissance Mom: Kirsten Kapur

I am so happy to bring you an interview with the wonderful Kirsten Kapur, knitwear designer. Mother to three teenagers (one starting college this fall! and twin girls), we were fortunate to have Kirsten be one of our very first designers in the inaugural issue of Petite Purls.

Hi Kirsten, thanks for joining us. How about you start by telling us how you got into crafting?

Crafting was always a part of my family life when I was growing up. My mother sewed most of our clothes, knit, quilted, did needle point & embroidery – she never sat down without a project. The materials were always available to me and she let me freely explore and play with them. When I was a teenager and became interested in clothes & fashion I figured out that if I made my own clothes my mom would buy all the fabric and patterns I wanted. She’d never have spent that same money on ready made clothes. During college I worked in a store that sold ready to wear and fabric. At that point I started making most of my clothes. Through my college years and well into my twenties I continued to sew my own clothing, usually making my own patterns.

How did you get into designing? You mainly self-publish your patterns. How did that come about and why did you choose that avenue?

Before my kids were born I worked as an apparel designer and later as a textile designer in NYC. I’d sewn for years and in the garment industry I further developed my knowledge of pattern making and garment construction. Years later I discovered the online knitting community. I was doing a lot of knitting at the time and I loved the idea of connecting with others who shared my interest. I started a blog and started to write about and photograph my projects. With my background in apparel design and garment construction designing knitting patterns seemed the natural way to go. I like the idea of self-publishing because it allows me to have direct contact with the people who knit my patterns. I also enjoy the immediacy of the process. I don’t need to work seasons ahead the way I did in the apparel industry.  I have an idea I can make it, write up the pattern and publish it pretty quickly. I’ve also done work for online publications like Petite Purls and Knitty as well as books and print magazines. I enjoy having a balance of both self publishing and designing for others.

Are you a work-at-home mom or do you have a work space out of the home? If you are a work-at-home mom, how do you juggle your work with your mom duties?

I work from home. It’s not always easy but my kids are all teenagers, so I get them to help out with cooking, laundry, and other household tasks. Before my son broke his leg at the beginning of July he and his sister did most of the grocery shopping.
About a year ago I finally admitted to myself – and my family, “Ok, this is my job now. I am a knitting designer”.  That was a turning point for me. I started to put less pressure on myself about having a perfectly clean house (I was never that successful at that anyway) and allowed myself to put more of my energy into design. In two years I’ll have three kids in college, so it was either go out and get a full time job, or put more time into designing and see if I could make my own business grow. It was an easy decision since I’m working at something I love and I get to be at home with my kids, who’s company I really enjoy.
Two of my kids are musicians. I’ve been taking them into NYC several times a week for music rehearsals, lessons and shows for 5 or 6 years. Since knitting is so portable I’m able to bring my job with me pretty much anywhere I go – a good thing since we’re on the go so much.

What inspires your creativity?

I can’t say there’s any one thing that inspires my creativity. Sometimes it’s just a skein of yarn that leads me to a design idea. Other times I see someone walking down the street with a certain sense of style and suddenly I’m brimming with ideas. Several times my kids have requested that I make them something pretty specific – a few designs have been born out of those requests. My Staccato Hoodie pattern was one of those. I love color and working with combining colors so there are times that I’ll take a few skeins of yarn that I like together and knit swatches until I find something that works. The Ulmus shawl came about that way. I ripped that one out several times before I got what I wanted. I have more ideas than hours in a day to knit them.

Your kids are older now, but at one point you had three toddlers at home, your son and twin girls! What do you think has been your biggest struggle as a working mom?

I didn’t have a job when my kids were young. My career up to that point had been working in the garment industry and the hours were so insane it just wasn’t practical to try to raise kids and continue at that pace. I did a bit of freelance work here and there painting needlepoint canvases, furniture and pretty much anything else that came my way. I’d put up a safety gate and work in the adjoining room where I could still supervise my kids but keep them out of my paints and supplies. I can remember times that one of the kids would be crying and I’d have a deadline to meet. Those were definitely the toughest days. The freelance work was far from full time though, so I think I had it easier than most.

What are your goals for yourself or your business for your future?

Right now most of my designs are sort of independent of one another. I get an inspiration, make the item, write up the pattern and then move on to the next idea. At some point I’d like to put together a cohesive line and release it all at one time. That’s more the way I used to work in the garment industry and its a very satisfying way to work. A number of designers have been self publishing books of pattern collections and I’d like to do that eventually. Mostly it’s a matter of finding the time to pull a collection together.

What other hobbies do you like to dabble in? What is your favorite way to relax?

My husband and I play golf together when we get the chance. I’m a pretty mediocre golfer, but I enjoy it and the one on one time it allows us. I love to garden but don’t get much time for that these days. Hopefully once my kids are all in college I’ll have more free time and get back to it. Several years ago I learned to spin and bought a wheel. I really love spinning. From time to time I give myself a few days off from knitting and go on a spinning binge.

Do you have any advice to give other women that are interested in starting their own small business?

For me the biggest hurdle I had to overcome was admitting to myself that Through the Loops was actually a business. I love the work I do so most of the time it doesn’t feel like a job. But it is, and in order to have a business that is going to grow it has to be a priority.

What is your favorite game to play with your kids?

My kids are older so we don’t often have time to play games together anymore, but Apples to Apples was a favorite when they were younger. These days there’s always creativity happening in my house, whether it’s music, or an art, knitting or sewing project. We’re usually all in one room each working on our own thing, talking about them and sharing them.
We also spend a lot of time together with Anders and Sofie’s band. Other families have their soccer & baseball games, we have our music gigs.

If there is anything else you’d like to add…

I would just like to thank all of the people who have stepped up to test knit for me, or taken the time to write when they’ve enjoyed making one of my patterns, shared their own talents as designers and yarn dyers or inspired me with gorgeous photographs. This is a very generous community and it is a rare day that I am not reminded of this fact.

Renaissance Moms: Stefanie Japel

We are happy to have Stefanie Japel with us today, our next Renaissance Mom. Stefanie is a well known knitwear designer and author of two books, Fitted Knits and Glam Knits. Check out her online classes and her Petite Purls design and feature from Spring 2010.

Hi Stefanie, thanks for joining us! Why don’t you start by telling us how you got into crafting.

I was born crafting. Growing up we spent a lot of time just working on projects around the house. My dad always had a woodshop and made doll beds for us and my mom stitched all of our doll clothes and blankies. My dad also made our bunkbeds and other little kid furniture. My mom was a professional seamstress and worked as a tailor when I was a baby. She sewed lots of our clothing and always made our curtains and other home textiles.  And I know that the art / craft gene goes back ad infinitum.  My dad’s dad was a handyman and so had lots of crafty talents, and my mom’s mom was a knitter.  She also did some embroidery and sewed lots of her own dresses and home goods (curtains, bedspreads, etc.)  I think a lot of it has to do with being kind of country folk.  My mom’s ancestors were settlers in Kansas, and so we really lived that Little House on the Prairie lifestyle…making everything, growing their own food, baking, canning, everything. Because of their backgrounds, my parents were of the mindset that if you can figure out how to make it yourself, you shouldn’t spend your money on it.  SO…that part of our family life led me to look at things in the store and try to figure out how they were made, then look around the house and see if we had the stuff to do it.  Usually, we did!

My grandma taught me to knit when I was 8, and by the time I was 10, I was using our home sewing machine.  I was totally the Molly Ringwald character in 16 Candles in High School, altering my thrift shop finds and sewing my own clothing too.

How did you get into designing? How did your books and online teaching come about?

Because I learned to knit at such a young age, I’ve always been designing.  I didn’t learn to read patterns until I was probably 24 years old, so there were a good number of years that I just figured out how to create the things that I wanted. I learned the basic flat stitch patterns and then how to increase and decrease to shape the fabric around my dolls and around myself. So when I started blogging in 1999, I already knew a lot of the basics and was just experimenting.  I think that’s what brought readers to my blog…this fearless experimentation with yarns and colors and shapes.  I’ve mellowed since then, and my knits (for the most part) have a direction from the outset.

As I was blogging my sweaters, people would request patterns and that’s really how my design career started.  I submitted patterns to Knitty.com, who were my first publishers, and the rest is history.  Amy Singer and Jillian Moreno have always been big supporters and have really been a source of encouragement to me.  Eventually, I had several patterns in early knitting books (Stitch N Bitch Nation, Knit Wit, Knitgrrl 1 & 2.) Shannon Okey (knitgrrl.com) was the person who first suggested that I write a book, and even hooked me up with my first publisher (F+W Media.)  Until she suggested it, it hadn’t even crossed my mind that I might move in that arena.

I started teaching online classes after my daughter Mazie was born and I was pregnant with Olive.  I was missing the real live interaction with the knitting community and just really wondering what I could do to participate more.  I wasn’t able to travel often with the two little girls at home, and so teaching online was just a natural solution.

So since you are a Work-at-Home Mom, how do you juggle your work duties with your mom duties?

I am incredibly fortunate in that my mother lives here in town. I’m able to send one or more kid to her house for the day when I’m really swamped.  This is the only way that I’m able to accomplish as much as I do.  I also work a lot at naptime (that’s a good 2 hours every day) and after the kids are in bed.  I’ve got my own office at home, so I’m able to just leave things set up (my computer open to what I’m writing, photo “station” video setups), everything is out and ready to just pick up where I left off.  I LOVE my office.

What inspires your Creativity?

I’ve never had trouble with inspiration.  I always have 100 more things in my head than I’ll ever have time to complete. I’m inspired mostly, though, by the things that I covet for myself.  Like if I see a shirt or jacket that I want, thanks to my upbringing, my first instinct is to dissect it and see how to make it…and then how to make it into a KNIT. I’m blessed with excellent spatial skills, so it’s easy for me to play with proportion and size and fit. So once my brain starts working on something, it keeps at it until I have time to sit at the computer or sketch pad and work out all of the details.

What do you think has been your biggest struggle as a working mom?

I think that for me the hardest part has been coming to terms with the fact that I’m no longer a careerist. I’m not out there climbing the ladder and getting promotions and working on the Big World Issues like I always imagined that I would be. I love being a mom and I love being at home with my kids and being their main caregiver. But for some reason it’s been really hard to convince myself that it’s OK that I’m not out there solving the world’s problems. It’s just been a big shift of focus.

What are your goals for yourself or your business for your future?

Because my kids are so little and need so much attention, I haven’t been working from a long-range set of goals.  At this point, my goals are to complete everything that I’ve signed up to do.  Just to get my short-term to- do list done every day is enough.  I need to think, though, about some 5-and-10 year goals.

What other hobbies do you like to dabble in? What is your favorite way to relax?

My other major hobby is quilting.  I love just sitting down with a pile of fabrics and putting then together.  Quilting goes so quickly compared to knitting that for me it’s a real instant gratification project.

I also love working in the yard.  I’m trying to figure out what plants will grow in our soil, which is very sandy and ashy, so it’s been a challenge.  I’ve also got a food garden going and have been learning about compost and organic methods. This is a great project for my older daughter to help with! She helped me plant the seeds and helps me weed and look for ripe fruits and veggies.  It’s been so fun for all of us.

Do you have any advice to give other women that are interested in
starting their own small business?

Hmm. I don’t know.  I think setting realistic goals is important, and NEVER putting the business before the family.  People always come first.  Also, remember that you need to set your time frames extra far out.  It now takes me 2 weeks to knit a sweater where it used to take me 2 days.

Don’t use your family as an excuse for not getting things done on time, but do tell your clients that you have a family and can’t be online ALL the time, or that you would like to have an extended deadline if it’s possible.  Lay that out there in advance, rather than bringing it up when the project’s already late.

Set hours between which you answer emails and specific days on which you go to the post office.

What is your favorite game to play with your kids?

Mazie loves to play hide and seek and still loves Peek a Boo!  Olive is into the Baker Man (bake me a cake as fast as you can!)

This has been great, Stefanie. Is there anything else you would like to add?

For all of the adjustments that I’ve made in starting my family and working on my home business (rather than a career outside the home) it’s been so worth it.  I honestly wouldn’t change a thing except my salary! (And that should go up as the kids get older and I’m able to devote more time to my business.) All in all, it’s a great life and I’m so lucky to be living it!

Renaissance Mom: Kate Oates

We are happy to bring you the next interview in our Renaissance Moms series: Kate Oates of TotToppers. Kate is a prolific knitwear designer who specializes in children’s hats. We’ve been very fortunate to have Kate as one of our designers in previous issues.

Why don’t you start by telling us how you got into crafting, and knitting in particular?

I have an aunt who knits.  When we were little, during one of her visits she taught my sister how to knit and down the line I got jealous. I think I was around 12 when I told her I also wanted to learn.  She taught us on circulars, and we would make “hats” just by cutting the yarn after a certain number of inches and then threading it through ALL the live stitches.  No decreases.  I’m pretty sure that all the way through college this is what I did.  I did a few back & forth things as well, like an enormous blanket that we still have in our home!  Its colorful but um…not very soft.  But it was when I was pregnant with my first son that I *really* got into knitting.  My aunt gave me a knitting book and I started learning actual technique.  Amazing how much better things turn out once you have a little technique under your belt

How did your pattern lines, Tot Toppers and When I Grow Up come about?

Soon after my son was born, I got loads of compliments on knits he was wearing. I decided I was going to try and sell some knit baby hats.  I live down South and realistically, its not the best place to succeed at a knits business, but at that time I lived in Atlanta so at least I had a big city to help me out.  I came up with the name “Tot Toppers” for my etsy store. Hats I sold were of my own design and it wasn’t long before I started getting pattern requests.  My very first pattern was the Chunky Striped Stocking Cap!  At this time, I was actually totally unaware of Ravelry (gasp!) but I believe around the time I worked up my 3rd or 4th pattern, I signed up as a designer and things went from there for Tot Toppers. When I Grow Up is brand new, started this winter.  Though I love the name Tot Toppers, its a bit exclusive of an age range so I had to come up with something else if I wanted to design for not-tots. I have had a lot of fun designing things I can wear myself.

Are you a work-at-home mom or do you have a work space out of the  home? If you are a work-at-home mom, how do you juggle your work duties with your mom duties?

This is really really hard.  I would call myself a work-at-home mom.  I don’t have a great workspace set up because our house is very tiny.  I have my stash on the wall in one place, and then a few cabinets above a computer desk which is where I do all the pattern writing, and computer work.  I would really like to have a better workspace in the near future but we will see!  As for balance-some days I really feel I do a terrible job.  I can be quite a perfectionist so if I’m working under a deadline and something isn’t quite right, I think those days are tough on my little ones.  I don’t get a lot of sleep because I try to do the intensive stuff while my kids are either napping or down for the night.

What inspires your creativity?

Its totally different every time.  Sometimes its walking through the mall and seeing a garment that I think I can do better.  Sometimes its a particular element that I want to fit into something.  Othertimes it comes to me in a dream… (literally!)  Yet another reason why I don’t sleep well…I’m always needing to get up out of bed to write something down before its gone!  But what I am really really not good at is sitting down with a sketch pad and trying to come up with something out of nothing.

What do you think has been your biggest struggle as a working mom?

Probably balance.  Nothing can really be 100% because the job of being a mom comes first.  And no matter when I get work done, I always feel like its taking a bit away from my kids in some way.  Way too often of late I’ve been feeling that I just need to get through “one more day” and then I’ll have breathing room, but days have a tendency to stretch out.

What are your goals for yourself or your business for your future?

I’d really like for more yarn stores to carry my patterns, and I definitely would like to do a book!

What other hobbies do you like to dabble in? What is your favorite way to relax?

I love to read, but I’ve fallen behind in my reading for sure. I also consider knitting-for-fun as a hobby now, because its so totally separate from “business knitting” and there is so rarely time for it!  During the fall we go to a lot of Clemson football games, our alma mater! Earlier in life, I did show choir kinds of things.  I’ve always thought that *if time somehow magically appeared in my lap* maybe I could try some community theater.  [photo of King & I production in grad school, I was Assistant Director and a concubine ] And if my life weren’t random enough…I’ve also been a dog breeder & whelped a litter of puppies at 2AM while I was about 33 weeks pregnant. I’d like to do that again sometime too.  Relaxing? What is that?

Do you have any advice to give other women that are interested in starting their own small business?

Before you even get started, set out some “small win” scenarios.  It’ll take time to build your business and its nice to have things along the way that you can congratulate yourself for!  Also, resist the urge to think about your actual hourly wage.  Nothing good can come of this exercise.

What is your favorite game to play with your kids?

We love having dance parties.  Both the boys get so into it and its hilarious.  Jesse (3 years) is obsessed with the song “tik tok” but thank goodness she talks(sings?) too fast in the song for him to repeat the lyrics.  They also really love to help me make cookies!

Hi Kate. Thanks so much for being a part of our interview series, Renaissance Moms. Why don’t you start by telling us how you got into crafting, and knitting in particular?

I have an aunt who knits.  When we were little, during one of her visits she taught my sister how to knit and down the line I got jealous. I think I was around 12 when I told her I also wanted to learn.  She taught us on circulars, and we would make “hats” just by cutting the yarn after a certain number of inches and then threading it through ALL the live stitches.  No decreases.  I’m pretty sure that all the way through college this is what I did.  I did a few back & forth things as well, like an enormous blanket that we still have in our home!  Its colorful but um…not very soft.  But it was when I was pregnant with my first son that I *really* got into knitting.  My aunt gave me a knitting book and I started learning actual technique.  Amazing how much better things turn out once you have a little technique under your belt

How did your pattern lines, Tot Toppers and When I Grow Up come about?

Soon after my son was born, I got loads of compliments on knits he was wearing. I decided I was going to try and sell some knit baby hats.  I live down South and realistically, its not the best place to succeed at a knits business, but at that time I lived in Atlanta so at least I had a big city to help me out.  I came up with the name “Tot Toppers” for my etsy store. Hats I sold were of my own design and it wasn’t long before I started getting pattern requests.  My very first pattern was the Chunky Striped Stocking Cap!  At this time, I was actually totally unaware of Ravelry (gasp!) but I believe around the time I worked up my 3rd or 4th pattern, I signed up as a designer and things went from there for Tot Toppers. When I Grow Up is brand new, started this winter.  Though I love the name Tot Toppers, its a bit exclusive of an age range so I had to come up with something else if I wanted to design for not-tots. I have had a lot of fun designing things I can wear myself.

Are you a work-at-home mom or do you have a work space out of the  home? If you are a work-at-home mom, how do you juggle your work duties with your mom duties?

This is really really hard.  I would call myself a work-at-home mom.  I don’t have a great workspace set up because our house is very tiny.  I have my stash on the wall in one place, and then a few cabinets above a computer desk which is where I do all the pattern writing, and computer work.  I would really like to have a better workspace in the near future but we will see!  As for balance-some days I really feel I do a terrible job.  I can be quite a perfectionist so if I’m working under a deadline and something isn’t quite right, I think those days are tough on my little ones.  I don’t get a lot of sleep because I try to do the intensive stuff while my kids are either napping or down for the night.

What inspires your creativity?

Its totally different every time.  Sometimes its walking through the mall and seeing a garment that I think I can do better.  Sometimes its a particular element that I want to fit into something.  Othertimes it comes to me in a dream… (literally!)  Yet another reason why I don’t sleep well…I’m always needing to get up out of bed to write something down before its gone!  But what I am really really not good at is sitting down with a sketch pad and trying to come up with something out of nothing.

What do you think has been your biggest struggle as a working mom?

Probably balance.  Nothing can really be 100% because the job of being a mom comes first.  And no matter when I get work done, I always feel like its taking a bit away from my kids in some way.  Way too often of late I’ve been feeling that I just need to get through “one more day” and then I’ll have breathing room, but days have a tendency to stretch out.

What are your goals for yourself or your business for your future?

I’d really like for more yarn stores to carry my patterns, and I definitely would like to do a book!

What other hobbies do you like to dabble in? What is your favorite way to relax?

I love to read, but I’ve fallen behind in my reading for sure. I also consider knitting-for-fun as a hobby now, because its so totally separate from “business knitting” and there is so rarely time for it!  During the fall we go to a lot of Clemson football games, our alma mater! Earlier in life, I did show choir kinds of things.  I’ve always thought that *if time somehow magically appeared in my lap* maybe I could try some community theater. And if my life weren’t random enough…I’ve also been a dog breeder & whelped a litter of puppies at 2AM while I was about 33 weeks pregnant. I’d like to do that again sometime too.  Relaxing? What is that?

Do you have any advice to give other women that are interested in starting their own small business?

Before you even get started, set out some “small win” scenarios.  It’ll take time to build your business and its nice to have things along the way that you can congratulate yourself for!  Also, resist the urge to think about your actual hourly wage.  Nothing good can come of this exercise.

What is your favorite game to play with your kids?

We love having dance parties.  Both the boys get so into it and its hilarious.  Jesse (3 years) is obsessed with the song “tik tok” but thank goodness she talks(sings?) too fast in the song for him to repeat the lyrics.  They also really love to help me make cookies!

Thanks so much Kate!

Renaissance Moms

Here at Petite Purls we love to honor all mothers. We all know that mothering is the most important (and hardest) job on earth. We are happy to announce our new series on the blog, Renaissance Moms. Renaissance Moms is an interview series celebrating some of the most beloved and talented working mothers in the craft community. We already have a beautiful list of women lined up to share their stories with us, but we thought we’d kick off the series with our very own Brandy Fortune.

Hi Brandy, thanks for being the first interview in our new series, Renaissance Moms. Why don’t you start by telling us how you got into crafting.

I grew up with a mother who always was very supportive of my creativity. In grade school I was active in Creative Writing, Photography and I also worked on our newspaper and literary magazine. I remember cutting and pasting page layouts in high-school. I was always active in art classes and loved working with my hands. I never had any exposure to true crafting until my adult life. I didn’t grow up exposed to any sewing, knitting or crochet. After I was married and moved into a house away from the city I wanted something to occupy my spare time. I thought I was taking a crochet class, but it was actually a knitting class so I went with it, just happy to be learning something new. A year after that I asked my husband to get me a sewing machine over the winter holidays. I’ve been experimenting in design and various crafts ever since!

How did your indie pattern line Pixie Purls come about?

After much encouragement from my knitting circle, and a lot of inspiration from my first daughter I designed my first pattern, and began selling it via my website, ravelry and etsy. I continued to design patterns slowly (while taking care of baby!). I then set a personal goal of making one thousand dollars in sales, and once I made that goal I went ahead and registered the business name, etc. properly within my state. I think goals are really great: setting a goal and then taking it to the next level. I like working towards accomplishing something specific. I already had my logo and business name via my blog, which I had originally created only with the intention of having it be a knitting blog, but it worked really well as a brand for my pattern designs so it all just came together.

Are you a work-at-home mom or do you have a work space out of the home? If you are a work-at-home mom, how do you juggle your work duties with your mom duties?

For the past 3 years I have worked full time on and off and been a Stay At Home Mom on and off. I don’t think it would be fair to say I was a Work At Home Mom while home, I was just designing the patterns for fun initially, and not spending as much time on it as most working moms spend. I was on leave for one year with my first daughter, and spent some spare time designing. I returned to work for a little over a year, and continued to design in my spare time, and then after the birth of my second daughter, I went on leave again. So my life is a bit of back and forth. Now that I have been working on Petite Purls, that takes away a lot of the time I have for my personal pattern line, so I have even less time to design then before! It’s a lot to juggle, but I enjoy the outcome.

What inspires your creativity?

I love fashion, and nature. A lot of the time the children themselves inspire the pattern. My daughter loves apples, and that was the primary inspiration behind my “Them Apples” design in the Fall 2009 Petite Purls. Sometimes yarn inspires me, often times events and locations can inspire me (a trip to a large city, or the ocean which inspired my newest design “Bubble Frock“). Lately I’ve been experimenting with designing tiny patterns for dolls, and the inspiration will come from the doll itself, or an outfit or fabric used in the dolls clothing will give me fun ideas. I draw my ideas from anything and everything I see. Sometimes a well decorated/designed children’s room will inspire an idea for clothing design, and I think to myself “what would a child be wearing when sitting in this room reading a book, or playing with a tea set?”

What do you think has been your biggest struggle as a working mom?

I’ve experienced being at home with both of my children full time, and I’ve experienced working full time with a toddler. It’s really nice to have been able to fully experience both and have an opinion on the difficulties of both. I have found them to be equally hard but in different ways. If you work from home and don’t have anyone to help watch your children while you work, well, it is just extremely difficult to be able to focus on anything for an extended period of time and really get things done quickly. Anytime you are in your home, and your children are underfoot, it can be difficult to focus, even if you are good at multi-tasking. I always feel a bit frustrated that I can’t execute more of my ideas faster. I have about 30 sketches just waiting to be knit up, and I just need the time to knit them!

What are your goals for yourself or your business for your future?

I always set goals for myself, many of which I set 6 months out, 1 year out or 2 years out. I can honestly say I am not 100% sure where I want to be in 10 years from now, it’s an awfully long time! Things have changed so much for me in the last 5 years. Marriage, two pregnancies, and now being a mother of two, I can’t even imagine all the amazing things that will have happened that many years from today.

What other hobbies do you like to dabble in? What is your favorite way to relax?

I love sewing, and I enjoy crochet. Right now I think three core crafts is more then enough. I’ve always LOVED spinning but the wheel has been put away until the girls are a bit bigger. I like to relax by reading, or watching a movie.

Do you have any advice to give other women that are interested in starting their own small business?

Do what you love and are passionate about and the rest will follow.

What is your favorite game to play with your kids?

I love having a special moment. Just a few nights ago the baby had fallen asleep on a hotel bed with me, and it was bed time so my older daughter wanted to snuggle and wound up in the bed with us. Then I had my husband come join us. This had never happened before with all 4 of us snuggled up to sleep, and it was such a fun moment. Sometimes at night we have a “party in BG’s room!” and all of us sit in my Big Girl’s bed and look at books or have tickle wars.

How did the idea for Renaissance Moms come to fruition?

The whole concept of being multi-crafty has been floating around for quiet a while now, I would often say to my husband that I felt like a “renaissance man” in that I love to dabble in many different things. I love trying new things, learning and mastering crafts. When I first began knitting, I also tried spinning, quilting and scrap-booking. There are so many wonderful ways to “create” all kinds of different things that add value to your life. Add on top of that running two small businesses (pixiepurls.com & petitepurls.com), while also attempting to master photography; throw in a bit of web design, and taking care of two kids, and it’s easy to see how the concept came about. Allegra and I decided we wanted to celebrate Renaissance Moms everywhere, starting with some fun interviews to find out how these amazing women juggle all the many aspects of their lives.

Thank you Brandy for letting us peek into your world!

My pleasure!