OUR BLOG
Time well spent
When I was a child my mom tried desperately to teach me to sew. She was always someone that I watched creating clothes, sewing quilts, crafting animals and dolls. She was magical. She could make anything. She has always had an amazing sense of colour and style. My brother and I used to joke that if you tore into the walls of our house you would find a rainbow because she painted the walls almost every season. She changed the colour as she changed her feeling and style in the house and it always made it feel just like home.
Who likes getting dirty?
Apparently lots of people! The studio classes and drop ins have been going so well that we are running out of prime space to offer what people are looking for!
July 1 will be a busy day for us as we help celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday at the Bracebridge Street Party downtown- (come visit our art tents)! We have also decided to expand the studio space into the next unit at 193 Manitoba St.
Experimentation or flop?
It is quite the task to come up with a variety of classes every 6-weeks. I imagined very early in this journey that I would need to get some feedback, to try new and random things and to take a chance that the classes may be the same as other places. So- I decided to go to the biggest critics. Children. Every last Friday of each month we do Testing Lab which is a time for our instructors to try out new ideas on kids and get their very real feedback about what works and what doesn’t.
Lead With the Punch Line
Month 2 in the world of active program in a business. We are all up hill from here. I am having a lot of fun, learning a ton and trying to remember that I also have a family to see once in awhile. (At least they come and see me in the studio). Life is good.
Hello Universe
I am inspired every day that I come to work. Those words used to make me cringe. I used to think that that was something that people said to cover up the fact that they really hated their jobs and it was like putting it out to the universe to see if it would actually come true.
Fail Fast
Starting a business is kind of like going to highschool for the first time. You have to put yourself out your comfort zone, make new friends and work really hard to prove yourself all over again in every aspect of your life.
Don’t get me wrong, I love every minute of it however everyday is like an emotional rollercoaster and I have found myself reinventing the way I have worked for the last 20 years in business. It’s fabulous.
Always Say Yes
As parents, Coel and I have been pretty fun with our kids. We have raised them mostly at a summer camp and outdoor centre, we are active and outside for most of the year. We love entertaining and most often are up for anything. When the kids want to try something new- we usually say yes. When I was a Camp Director one of the things that would drive me mad was when someone would say “oh, we can’t do that activity because the children are too young”. Nope- they just haven’t been taught yet. My father is fantastic for that. He would have us outside with tools at a very young age, learning how to use…and respect tools so that we would be free to create what we wanted. He still is like this with our kids- even though this generation seems a bit more terrified than I remember being for some reason, they still get right in there!
Sewing without a pattern
When I was a child my mom tried desperately to teach me to sew. She was always someone that I watched creating clothes, sewing quilts, crafting animals and dolls. She was magical. She could make anything. She has always had an amazing sense of colour and style. My brother and I used to joke that if you tore into the walls of our house you would find a rainbow because she painted the walls almost every season. She changed the colour as she changed her feeling and style in the house and it always made it feel just like home.
Andrea Balmer
Owner, Mom of 3, Artist and big fan of all things awkward.
