Forming a streamlined idea for a business has dropped me in a place that I didn’t expect I would end up.

When I think of homesteading, I think immediately of growing my own food in the garden and raising animals and the preservation of those things. I enjoy doing those things for my own family, but I’m just not passionate enough about them to want to scale them in a way a business would—except for garlic—I love growing garlic. I named the homestead “roots and fruits homestead” because I wanted to grow more root vegetables and grow fruit trees. Who knows, maybe when my fruit trees mature, I’ll have apples and garlic to share locally alongside my home decor. I’m happy to grow into the name a little.

During the winter months, my focus shifted from the outside to the inside and in that time I did a lot of sewing and found the type of passion I was excited to share. I learned to sew as a child and I’ve been practicing on and off for years. This winter, I streamlined my projects and took notes so I could create pieces again and again that I would be proud to put my name on.

While this passion doesn’t feel like a “proper” homestead to me, I certainly possess a number of homesteading skills—including sewing—that I can share in what I create and maybe even teach in the future.