“I don’t see much sense in that,” said Rabbit.
“No,” said Pooh humbly, “there isn’t. But there was going to be when I began it. It’s just that something happened to it along the way.”
…from Winnie the Pooh
Michelle and I have decided that we will not be reopening Wee Folk Art Market Place. And, we will be phasing out our sponsorship program. When we first started Wee Folk Art, we thought of it as a business adventure, with a shop being our ultimate goal. We were headed down a path and didn’t question our destination.
As crazy as this may sound, I think it was our immediate success that made us reevaluate. All of a sudden we went from being very busy to being swamped. If Wee Folk Art took up a lot of our time before, the Shop consumed us. Although a month may not sound like enough time to make a decision, I think Michelle and I both knew in our hearts that this wasn’t what we wanted to do before we even opened the shop, but we needed to open the shop to realize our dreams had changed. Does that make any sense?
I suppose the past couple of weeks with my parents helped us reach our decision. Although it has been a difficult time, Michelle and I have enjoyed the lack of urgency we usually feel. I has been so nice having more time to ourselves and families by “unplugging” from the demands of Wee Folk Art.
Have you ever discovered an awesome blog only to discover they stopped blogging months or even years ago? It’s very disappointing. Or, even worse, follow a blog that simply closes down? We can feel like we lost a dear friend. We don’t want that to happen here. Michelle and I love Wee Folk Art. We love sharing with our readers. We don’t want to reach the point where we feel like we have to walk away.
So… what do we do with Wee Folk Art now that we no longer have business aspirations? Well, I expect it will look much the same, with perhaps slightly fewer entries… we will share crafts, Michelle will share some curriculum. Also, I love to write. My blogging experiences began with a little blog named One Generation to Another. This blog was…
“a gift of love to my children and grandchildren. It was, in part, my legacy to them. But, it was also my way, hopefully, of sharing with others the things that worked, and sometimes monumentally failed, on my quest to turn our house into a home. It was a cozy chat amongst friends, and it was meant to span the generations. Although often didactic in nature, I hoped readers found it lighthearted and amusing in tone.”
Over the years I have missed One Gen. You can expect to see more of my stories 🙂
Wee Folk Art is now just a little PERSONAL blog, created by a mother/daughter team, sharing things we find interesting and personally “blog worthy” 🙂 We hope you continue to find inspiration and share in the community that was evolved here.
BTW… In case you are wondering what in the world are we going to do with all the supplies in our shop… starting this fall, we are going to be doing “Mom’s Night Out” and children’s workshops, and the shop will be open during those times. So, we will still plan to run our shop, we just won’t be doing online sales.
Tomorrow, we will be back in the saddle. We will finally share our latest pattern and directions for our Big Gnomes for Little Hands 🙂 See you then!
Oh no!!!! The kit we won is such a hit that I had plans for when your store re-opened!
However, sounds like you’re making the right call. Family definitely comes first. And you’re leaving the awesome homeschool stuff up still, right? 🙂
We are sorry about the shop. We had so many people waiting for us to reopen 🙁
We will still be sharing all the material that is up right now, and adding more 🙂 Wee Folk Art will still be Wee Folk Art 🙂
I must admit, I am a few days behind everyone in knowing about this post,as I have been caught up in looking at near every patten posted on you link.
It saddens me to see the shop go as I only stumbled acrossed it and the very next day it was closed.
I am a new follower of your blog but wish to tell you the joy I have found in your patterns and post.
I LOVE the idea of this being a mother/daughter blog and crafts. As My husband and I our a Crafting team, and on some crafts we do as a whole family.
As I said above not only am I a new follower but I have been pouring the pages of your pattens. I am a painful shy person and tho I love crafting I have never had courage until this past month to follow my heart and start Sharing my crafts with other outside my family through opening a shop online and one day a booth in our local craft fairs .In part I have you to thank!
My question is I have been waiting until well honestly payday to contact you about Licensing. It was my hope to work my way up to Gold but due to budget was going to start with Silver. Have I missed my chance? I mean I respect your choose in scaling back, I was just wondering if you will still be offering Licensing.
Thank you in advance for taking the time to reply.
Respectfully Amanda
I had the same kind of thing happen to me. When I had my first child, I thought I’d like to go back to work part time. I had to work hard to convince my boss that I could job share my position. When it happened, my life went into a tailspin. I always thought I’d like to work. I felt awful. Then, my husband and I decided we had to do what was right for us and I quit. People thought I was crazy but it was the best decision we ever made. I was what worked for us. Now we have 3 children, and I’ve never looked back. But I know if I hadn’t tried it, I would have always felt like I had cheated myself. I understand.
BTW. I use to read One Generation to Another, although I don’t think I ever commented. I am thrilled to hear you will be writing more. I always loved your witty take on life. I’m also glad to hear your dad has adapted well. What a relief that must be!
Love that we have an "old" One Gen reader with us 🙂 Thanks for sharing your story. There are certainly times, when your dream comes true, and you realize it is no longer your dream. We are so glad things worked out for you!
I do very much respect your decision and your reasons, and at the same time I’m sad to lose the opportunity to buy from your shop — I wasn’t fast enough. For all of us who did plan to purchase items like the pegs for peg people and the beeswax wood finish and the non-toxic soy paint, could you do a post telling us where else to look for them?
Oh those pesky decisions!! It sounds as though one month was more than enough to make the right call. Urgency and pressure make crafting and BE-ing so much less fun…three cheers for you for realizing that before you got too far in to back out gently. I’m so glad you’ll still be around, and a personal blog is much more my preference anyway.
Life is all about change. Glad you two were able to realize your dream whether it continues or not. You did it, you made your shop; time to work towards another goal. Kudos to you both.
Also, I bet children in bad situations (hosptials, abuse shelters, etc) would love a tutorial and the chance to make something for themselves. Just a thought.
“Always look forwards, you never know when a tree will be in the way.”
Pattie
When I found your site and shop, I felt such elation, both personally and for my students. I teach 5th grade in a public school where some children are homeless. My own children are grown. I had wanted to buy a lot of kits for my students to make for the younger ones. And my own spirit is so elated by the gnomes. I need to do this kind of handwork, but the designs do not come to me. I need the brilliant and beautiful kits to guide me, so that I can share this with children who would never ever receive the blessing from this work except for my loose connection with Waldorf education.
I do understand the impact of family and I once had to pull back, too, so I completely understand and support your decision. But isn’t there some way to keep the beautiful, spirit-filling graphics and kits flowing? Instead of stopping altogether, is there a way where we, the community that responded so lovingly and wholeheartedly to your offerings could help you with the work of it? Your vision is resonating in our souls, and perhaps there is a way to bring the community rejoicingly together. I am thinking of outsourcing the cutting and the making of kits…. some way to make them available under your guidance, but not necessarily doing everything yourselves.
I hope we an find a way. In the mean time, is there inventory you want to unload to bring it down to where you want it to be? Please let me know if I can help with that.
Martha
It truly was a hard decision to make, and judging by the amount of kits that were bought, I know many people shared your feelings. Not to fear, though, we will continue to post all of the tutorials we have made in the past, and continue to design and share new projects, like today's Big Gnomes for Wee Hands. And, we will also try to share links for resources for some of the materials that you may have a hard time finding.
Because we will continue to share our patterns and tutorials, perhaps you can get a group of local people together, that would help you prepare kits to share with your class. Creating is a wonderful feeling, and I can understand why you would want to share that with your class. Blessings, and know that we plan to be here, designing and sharing, for a long time 🙂
Just wanted to say that you have all been in my prayers, although I’m not one of the many who commented on your earlier posts. Thank you so much for this website which I really enjoy and which has inspired me time and time again. It is always the right decision to put your family (including yourselves) first; no-one else will.
Helen in the UK.
Hello,
I, too, have been waiting for the shop to reopen so I can purchase some things I can’t find in my area…the wooden egg and cup set, acorn matching and sorting sets, milk paint, beeswax finish etc. Looking forward to hearing about some alternate sources for these things (if you have any Canadian sources for these things, that would be even better!)
Thank you,
Barb
I live in bush Alaska (off the road system), so I purchase most of my craft supplies online. I can highly recommend Casey’s Wood Products (http://www.caseyswood.com/) – they are in Maine, which is almost in Canada! They carry lots of peg people, and a broad assortment of other wood shapes that my 3 year old daughter has enjoyed for several years. Their bags of assorted wood pieces can be really fun too.
I would recommend Nova Natural Toys (http://www.novanatural.com/) for their beautiful 100% wool felt, and plant dyed fleece.
And a word of encouragement for Michelle and Kimara — I’ve been there too, making choices that are best for my family even though they seem to go against the flow of where I thought my life was going — but in the end I think these are the best choices we can make. Good for you to realize it early on and step back so that your lives can be in balance again. Blessings on you and your families!!
And THANK YOU for everything you share with us here. You inspire so many and make our world more beautiful!
Karin
I love the colors of your felt, and would love to know where to purchase similar. My local craft stores carry very limited and unnatural colored felt. Any ideas?
Depending on what you are making I have 2 great suggestions. Both are sponsors of Wee Folk Art and I order felt from both of these shops.
If you are interested in 100% wool felt, I suggest you head over to A Child’s Dream. She has incredible colors and a variety of felt options. http://www.achildsdream.com/wool-felt/
If you are interest in wool blends, then go to Prairie Point Junctions “Wool Felt Central”. http://prairiepointjunction.com/Wool-Felt-Central/
If you’re not sure whether or not you want wool felt or a wool blend, read my article on felt… Felt 101 https://weefolkart.com/felt-101/
Hope this helped.
~Kimara~