marvelous prints does mystic

When my mom was visiting, we popped into an adorable store in downtown Mystic that lured me in with its bright colors and nautical-inspired pillows and bags in the window. It was the sweetest little store with a mixture of stationery and gifts and home accents. I struck up a conversation with the owner and got up the nerve to ask her if she ever sold stuff from local designers. She said she did and told me to bring some things by for her to look at.

I worked this past week on putting together a portfolio of sorts - things I already had designed, custom orders I've done and a few new items that came about from a brainstorming session with my mom and Andrew one night after dinner.

I had the sweaty palms when I woke up this morning. I was prepared for her say no, not because I'm a pessimist, but because it takes a lot of tries, you know? You hear no after no and take the feedback and tweak and perfect and then someone, out of a hundred tries, says yes. That's the way these things go and I wanted to have realistic expectations.

When Andrew came home for lunch, he could tell I was nervous and scared and he stopped me in the kitchen to tell me that he was proud of me and that he knew I could do something with this little "business" of mine. Whether it was today or a hundred tries from now, it would happen. He thinks my stuff is good. And since I look up to him more than anyone, that was all the encouragement I needed.

That and the grande iced coffee that I picked up from Starbucks on the way downtown.

I stood at her counter while she looked through the notebook of samples I'd put together. That's enough to make me get the shakes. Watching someone scrutinize something you've created? Something that you're proud of? That is intense. But she just kept commenting on how cute it all was, which put me at ease.

That and the smiles and conversation coming from my baby boy in the stroller next to me.

By the end of our meeting, she agreed. She agreed! She will start by carrying my Whale Tail design and we'll go from there. I'll show her other designs as I come up with them and if we think they'll do well in her shop, we'll rotate them in as well.

It doesn't seem like a big deal, really. It's a tiny amount of inventory in just one design. And who knows if it will even turn into anything? But it's a big deal to me. Someone looked as something that I made - something that I think is pretty - and she thinks it's pretty, too. That's good stuff right there.

Now that I've done all this work to get my stuff ready for her, I finally have enough inventory to get my Etsy shop back open. And I feel encouraged about how that might do. Maybe some more people will think it's pretty?

We'll see.

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers and well-wishes that you might have sent my way. It means a lot.