Celebrate the Past and Embrace the Future!
Did you have a great 2017? I know that many of our members and upholstery friends did and so did Bill and I. We started off 2017 by celebrating the beginning of good things to come. Upholstery and slipcover workshops, new video content and watching the journeys of our many members and students.
We always begin the year with scheduling, both jobs for clients and projects for our educational content. Upholstery and slipcover workshops are a large part of our scheduling efforts too. Listening to our member’s needs and planning so they get the content and timing to help them move forward with their new upholstery venture. Many of our members began this journey from a desire to learn a new upholstery skills that would help them accomplish a task but soon found out that you can’t do just one upholstery project….. YOU MUST DO MORE! (like trying to eat just one potato chip or in my case just one Hershey kiss)
A Photo Spread of Our Members Works of Upholstery Art!
Love hearing our members stories!
I recently asked our members to share a little bit about themselves so we could get to know more about one another. I started with my story to break the ice as each person followed suit they would tag another member of the group to share as well. This is been a blast and I am so enjoying reading them. There are so many different sides to each of us and you are sometimes surprised to hear the story and other times you smile because you already had the sense that this was the case. Let me share a bit of the fun here with you.
Bethany’s Journey and words of wisdom – “When I worked in commercial floor covering field my philosophy was “Win the job and then figure out how to do it”. That sums up my experience this past year. In January I moved into a shop in a garage in the next town that a friend rented to me for very little money to help me start my business. I started taking jobs and continued to do a lot of practice work.” (I love these words of wisdom!) “So if you want a rewarding career in a sought-after trade, that sucks you in 24-7, wrecks your hands, brings tears and happy dances, teaches you new skills with every job and fills you with pride and satisfaction when it all comes together, by all means…sign up for Kim’s Upholstery, buy a machine and some tools and fire up a compressor”
Denise’s other job – “I’m an elementary school principal by profession, having taught for 22 years, and “principal-ed” for the last 11. I have always done work with my hands as a counterpoint to what I do every day. It’s a different kind of thinking and problem-solving. My world at school tends to be very people intensive, filled with chatter, so this is a nice thing to do in my off time.
Angela served in the Navy... “I’m a Navy veteran, and I speak 3 languages fluently- English, Spanish, and ASL. By education, I am an IT Project Manager, but my 2 passions are traveling and creating beautiful things with my hands. My journey to upholstery started with the one and only sewing class that I have ever taken, back in the 8th grade. From that class, I developed a love for fabric that I simply can not explain. As the years passed, I found myself, having a creative mind and a niche for making beautiful things with my hands. Outside of upholstery and drapery, I am a pottery artist. In my “spare” time, I throw a ball of clay on the wheel and let the magic happen.”
Many more stories have been shared by Leah, Deana, Rhonda, Carly, Bonnie, Teresa, Carol….. and the list goes on. We would love to have you join us and share yours!
Creating educational content that helps our upholstery friends grow their knowledge and skills is very important to us. This year we added several new tutorials that added more skills to our member’s arsenal. The Martha Washington chair, Upholstering a Round Foot Stool, Ottoman with Decorative Trim and our newest category Slipcovering a Straight Arm Club Chair just to name a few. We also added more tutorials to our Tips and Technique section as well. Our weekly Live Q&A sessions in the member portal have helped our members through some difficult spots in their upholstery projects. As you know pictures are helpful but talking the problem through and being able to hold your mobile device to show us the spot you’re referring to has helped with many a situation.
When you are working on that schedule you also need to include time for family and fun. Our granddaughter Scarlet turned one this year and her big sister Giavana turned 6, where does the time go… they are getting SO big!! Josh and Kaylie set the date for their wedding in May of 2018 and also bought their first home this year. Julie gave us the gift of another grandchild, this time a boy. Arlo Roland Talbot was born on September 13. Our daughter Kirsten became engaged this fall to a man that Bill and I both truly love. He is a perfect match for Kirsten and we look forward to another wedding om 2019 and maybe another grandchild…. or two!! Our son Jason and his wife Becky live in Florida so we don’t see them as often as we would like. Jason has his own business designing websites (I think ours is pretty nice and I love what he did for Tracy Windley). If you like birds you will want to keep an eye on Becky’s Instagram as she takes great pictures
Oh, I almost forgot to mention. We added other soft home furnishings experts teachings for our upholstery friends as well. You can now find full-length video tutorials on making Pinch Pleat Draperies, Upholstered Cornice boards, Bedskirt and Duvet Covers, Bolster Pillow, a fun one of a kind Pillion and more great tutorials coming from Donna Cash, Sandra Vansickle and soon Tracy Windley. If you are looking for specific content shoot me an email so we can make it happen in 2018!
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