This month is my chance to realign my life. Fabric line #6 is complete and Flutter (fabric line #5) isn’t out yet. So there is a little lull for me right now with design work. My kids are in school (hooray!!), and I just wrapped up a major interior design project (more on that later). I don’t have any pattern design going on right now. So, as you can see, I have a bit of a break! I want to take this month to really ponder and evaluate my life and where I want to go. It is my time to set new goals. I know that a lot of people do this in January, but that is a really busy month for me! And besides, I am all about breaking the rules . I have a lot of dreams for The Quilted Fish. There are a lot of directions I can see my little company going. I thought it might be fun to share some of my goals with you! So, here we go:
1. Find a way to incorporate my fabric design and pattern design with my college training in Interior design (this goes back to my recent project that I will tell you more about in a bit).
2. Find a way to make it so that Mr. Fish can quit his full time job and work for me. I am already the boss at home, I would love to be his boss at work, too! Actually, we get along fabulously, and would love to spend every day together.
3. Open a retail location that includes my design loves as well as an opportunity for teaching, learning and growing to all ages.
4. Employ as many people as possible in my process to help my local economy. I would love to create jobs and opportunities for as many people as possible, both creatively and financially.
Seems like a tall order, doesn’t it? I am having a hard time sorting my feelings into categories and keeping this from being emotional. I want to make sure that my business decisions are rational and that they have the potential to be very successful. So this is my focus for August. Figure out who I am, where I am going and how I am going to get there.
Would you like to hear about my project that I have been talking about? In our state we have the Parade of Homes. Do they have them where you live? It is an opportunity for home builders to showcase their skills, designers to show the latest design trends and potential home owners to scout out their favorite looks. I was honored to be asked to decorate one of the homes. I LOVE interior design. It is one of my true loves. The reason why I don’t do it professionally is because I prefer to work on my own (without the burden of a lot of other peoples emotions if you catch my drift). But this was a fun opportunity and I couldn’t pass it up. I toured the house on Monday, and had until Saturday night to finish all of the “fluff”. The home owners had picked colors, cabinets, flooring, etc. so all I had to do was make it look even better than it did. Oh, and the coolest part? One of the rooms would be going to a little boy for the Make a Wish foundation. It was to be decorated in his honor and all of the décor would go to him after the Parade of Homes was over. He loves Rascal Flatts and so that determined all of the décor. Here is his room:
We found that fabulous chain link gate and used it as a bulletin board…
He wants to own a tire store when he grows up, so we made a table out of tires….
Here is Hunter reading the card given to him by the home owners…
Here is the little girls room. It had a bird theme.
The tree has been a big hit!
We took a lot of cool things from my house, too, to add to the décor. Like this cute scale…
Look at this fun display with paperback books…
and a table made from an old barn door…
Fun paper roses on the wall in the master bathroom
A special thanks to Tree Haven Homes and Jen Mascaro for asking me to help out. It was super fun and a good change of pace.
Back to pondering….






