Entrepreneurial Endeavors: Interview with a Creative & Entrepreneurial Seamstress

I am excited to share an interview with my friend, Micah, who designs and sews doll clothing to sell on the internet. I hope you are as inspired by Micah's creativity as I am!
How old are you?

Seventeen. I’ll be eighteen in early October.


What do you offer?

I sew and sell clothing for 18” dolls, primarily American Girl, online. How did you get started in your business?

I began sewing when I was ten and I’ve been interested in American Girl dolls ever since I can remember. Three years ago, I joined a couple of message boards where the members discuss their passion for these dolls. When I began to read what people were saying, I realized that there was a large market available for people who wanted to make and sell doll clothes. I decided to give it a try and made some necklaces to sell. They sold and since then I’ve branched out and covered many areas of the market.

What marketing avenues have you pursued? Do you have future ideas to "grow" your business and what you offer?

Because I am underage, I am incredibly limited in where I can sell. When I turn eighteen in October, I will finally be old enough to cover more areas of the internet and access a wider spectrum of customers.

In this particular business, the best way to grow and draw attention to yourself is to photograph and share what you are making with the ladies online. Word of mouth is another key element. Often customers will show off what they have purchased and people will ask me about having things made for them.
Does your family play any part in your business?

My mom assists in my business. I do not have a driver’s license and rely on her to take me to the fabric store and the post office. I’m really thankful that she is pleased to do that for me.


Do you feel that being homeschooled has benefited you as you've begun this business? If so, how?

I have learned in our homeschool the importance of taking the initiative to get a job done. My progress in school has largely been self paced, and I have learned how to move forward without relying upon others to give me direction. The flexibility of my homeschool schedule has freed me up and given me the time to dedicate to sewing.

What were your start-up costs?

Because these message boards allow people to advertise their wares for free, it hasn’t cost me anything. The only money I have to spend is for supplies. How do you spend your time not related to your business?

School wise, I’ve graduated. I still spend my mornings studying for CLEP tests to gain college credit. I also spend time doing photography, gardening, writing my pen pals, and spending time with my family.

What are your future goals?

I would like to learn more about sewing as I continue to perfect my skills in that area. I am also planning to take marketing courses during college in order to gain an understanding of how to become a better salesperson. I plan to continue my doll business and expand it.
I encourage you to visit Micah's blog, where she occasionally writes more about her sewing projects, as well as shares her beautiful photography and adventures with her family! If you would like to contact Micah for more information about her business or if you would like to place an order, feel free to leave your email address as a comment on her blog and she would be glad to correspond with you.

Lilly

Lilly and her mama, Lemon, just hours after Lilly was born: Today we had another heifer calf born on our farm! Lilly is the 8th heifer calf born here in the past 18 months, which is a huge blessing for our small dairy farm.

A Day in My Life

In March and June of 2008, I posted entries chronicling "a day in my life".

As I wrote previously:

Obviously, attending college or pursuing a career is generally expected of someone that has completed their high school education. Since I am currently neither attending college or pursuing a career, I am fairly often asked (with good reason), "So what do you do all day?!?"

I previously wrote why I've chosen to live at home (click here to read that entry), but I can certainly understand why someone would wonder what exactly fills my day.

Monday, July 27, 2009

7:00 A.M. Wake up, read Bible, read one chapter of Jesus the One and Only by Beth Moore

7:45 A.M. Get dressed and ready for the day!

8:00 A.M. Post farm checks to bookkeeping program, prepare farm bank deposit

8:30 A.M. Run

9:00 A.M. Return home, hang first load of laundry on clothesline

9:15 A.M. Clean bathroom (it is sooo nice to only have one bathroom to clean at our new house!)
9:30 A.M. Watch Sullivan open his birthday presents with the rest of the family (it's his birthday!)

10:00 A.M. Wash breakfast dishes, butter churn dishes and equipment (Mama was already making butter earlier)

10:30 A.M. Grind wheat, prepare yeast, bake two loaves of bread

11:00 A.M. Make Sullivan's ice cream birthday cake

11:30 A.M. Slice and dehydrate tomatoes

12:00 P.M. Email real estate client regarding a property of interest

12:45 P.M. Pull together lunch, slice freshly baked bread

1:00 P.M. Lunch and Sullivan's birthday celebration

2:00 P.M. Clean up from lunch (My grandmother, Pat-Pat, is visiting so dishes and clean up are going much faster with extra help!)

2:20 P.M. Prepare peach jam to can

3:15 P.M. Help pull together farm order for customer

3:30 P.M. Pick blackberries for blackberry jam, accidentally disturb wasp nest, get stung by a wasp on my finger (Fortunately, it was my left hand and not my right because it made my entire hand and even my wrist swell up and now, a day later, I can still barely bend it!)

4:00 P.M. Give up on picking blackberries and begin canning them

4:45 P.M. Go to dairy barn's clean room to process 50+/- jars returned from Monday's milk delivery's customers

5:45 P.M. Go back to the house to bake BBQ buns for supper (Sullivan requested BBQ for his birthday meal)

6:15 P.M. List family friend's house for rent on internet

6:45 P.M. Help potty-training Sheridan find a change of clothes... ;)

7:30 P.M. Prepare BBQ, baked beans, finish BBQ buns (Oliver also grilled some corn for our meal)

7:45 P.M. Eat supper (We usually eat between 8-9 P.M. so this is actually "early" for us!)

8:15 P.M. Clean kitchen and dining room from supper

8:30 P.M. Pull Tuesday farm delivery orders from internet, post more farm payments to bookkeeping program

8:45 P.M. Check my emails, read a few interesting articles, update blog, read friends' blog updates... :)

11:00 P.M. Draft blog entry

11:45 P.M. Bed

I hope y'all enjoyed seeing what fills a day in my life! Of course not every day is identical. Today (Tuesday) I spent the morning and most of the afternoon cleaning out a barn with Mama and early tomorrow morning (around 4:30 AM) I will be leaving with Daddy to spend the day bushhogging down in Hertford, so my days are quite varied, but this is a fairly accurate schedule of a normal day at home.

I wrote the following in my first "A Day In My Life" post:

I love being productive and can't imagine life any other way! Most of the daily tasks could be considered fairly menial and repetitive, but so are the tasks associated with many full-time careers. It is so much more exciting to have the opportunity to do such a variety of productive activities on your own time schedule and to be furthering your family's endeavors instead of working for a boss you hardly know.

Blackberry Jam & Peach Jam

This afternoon I canned blackberry jam and peach jam. It was my first time canning both fruits so I am eager to see how they turn out. I am thrilled every time I hear the "pop" sound of a lid successfully sealing. :) My grandmother, Pat-Pat, is staying here for a few days and she helped a lot. Canning is always so much easier with two people!

A Little Bit of Almost Everything On My Mind...

Now that we are mostly settled in to our new house, I have been able to get back to a fairly normal schedule.

Of the goals I previously made for once we were settled in, I've been able to successfully complete 3 books so far this month, I've been running consistently, I worked my way through responding to a ton of emails that I collected (although I have several more in my inbox which I look forward to responding to soon!), I have been (mostly) thinking through our meals in advance so we have something more substantial to eat than... umm... cereal (we almost always have milk since we have dairy cows, so it's so easy to fall back on!), Mama and I have been preparing decent dishes for our church's potluck lunches on Sundays, I have been spending time working on my ebook, I am in the process of a blog layout makeover, and, as I had hoped, I sewed a lot for my bedroom.

I have not worked on my salsa recipe or canned any salsa because our tomatoes and peppers are not ready yet (we planted late this year due to the move) and I have not been posting blog entries very frequently. There are several longer entries I've been drafting so they have been taking up my time instead of updating with shorter posts. Still, I aspire to write more often like I did previously.

In my time not occupied by family, farm, or business related tasks this upcoming week, I hope to can blackberry jam and sew matching sundresses for Sheridan and me. I bought the fabric for our matching dresses yesterday and am eager to get started. Last week I dehydrated bananas for the first time and I'm hoping to dry tomatoes and peaches this week, and then hopefully more bananas, so we will have some saved to put in homemade granola. This week I also may be doing one day of tractor work down in NC. Tomorrow is Sullivan's 10th birthday so I will be making the traditional birthday ice cream cake for him.

Last week Oliver, Sheridan, and I went out to my land in Powhatan (it is only 11 minutes away from our new farm) and I am thinking and praying about what to do with that property. Unlike my first investment property, I have run into a lot of little problems with this piece of land and I am unsure if God is trying to delay me from selling it right now. Of course I'd love to have the money to invest elsewhere, but I am wondering if possibly there is a reason why God would want me to hold on to the property for the future. I have no idea why, but I don't know why else I am having sooo many problems with the easement, survey, adjacent land owner, old tax records, etc.

Right now it is almost midnight, which is a recipe for an unproductive morning to follow, so I must end this entry and go to bed! I pray you all have a productive, servant-hearted, and Christ-centered week ahead! That is my prayer for myself as well... :)

Old Family Pictures

One of the things we were looking forward to accomplishing after we got settled in to our new house was to create a slideshow for the family computer's screen saver. In the past, we've enjoyed glancing at pictures when we occasionally pass by the computer as we're going about our daily tasks. I have been scanning many old pictures to include in our screen saver slideshow and thought I would share some of them here too.

More of the pictures, along with the captions, can be found in this photo album.

Farmhouse Before & After: The Bathroom

More before & after pictures are now ready! Mama wrote the following post for the family blog:

Before:The only bathroom, with its peeling vinyl floor, rusted tub, and cruddy toilet was our biggest decorating challenge. My first thoughts were of gutting it and starting over again but with limited time and finances it only made sense to work with what we had. God blessed our feeble effort in many ways. The total cost of the bathroom renovation was less than $150 including a newly tiled floor, along with new towels and several other deco items.
When we first began working on the house, I noticed that every time I went outside, I saw a window that I couldn't find when I was inside. It finally occurred to me that the window was in the shower and had been covered with vinyl paneling. Realizing that a small, closet-sized bathroom needed as much light and ventilation as possible, I opted to expose the window in the tub area. Everyone was very reluctant about a window in the actual shower but I assured them it was quite stylish and no different than fancy homes which incorporate glass brick in the bathrooms. I bought some paint especially made for frosting glass and after Tim trimmed out the newly discovered window, I sprayed it so the light could come in without compromising privacy. I also made a small plastic curtain for the window to aid in privacy when the window is open.

After:

Although barely visible now, the mirror had to be carefully chosen to cover some very large holes in the wall that my servant-hearted son, who likes to remain anonymous, cleverly covered to discourage mice from stopping in for visits.

The light fixture was very outdated with frilly, tulip shaped glass bulb covers so I simply replaced the shades with more conservative, amber-tinted cones.

I absolutely love toile fabrics so I searched online and found an antique brown Jamestown/Williamsburg pattern for an accent curtain at the shower entrance.

Because eight of us are sharing the tiny bathroom, I thought it essential to have designated towels. (I, for one, do not like to dry off with "boy" towels as I don't think the boys necessarily come out of the tub completely clean each night!) Meredith did a wonderful job monogramming each of our names on fluffy, chocolate brown towels.
I am especially thankful for the beautiful, new tile floor that extends from the bathroom to the attached laundry room that was a gift of labor from a milk customer. When hearing that we were moving the farm for the benefit of the cows, we were showered with kindness from a multitude of customers. This man, a computer specialist, showed up on his day off equipped with his tiling tools, and he promptly installed the new floor. What a gift of encouragement!

I am also thankful for the sense of peace God continues to give me in regard to accepting this old farmhouse as God's provision for us. Surely it is making some of the less desirable aspects much more tolerable. Yes, peace still abounds in acceptance.

Four-Wheelin' Trails

The weather was beautiful today, so Harrison and I hit the four-wheeling trails around our farm!There are many great farm and hunting trails behind our land, and even more that we haven't yet explored. Miles of farm trails run between the corn fields...Then this particular trail gets very narrow and the grass gets tall...Then it leads to a curvy hunting trail in the woods...Which eventually leads to a huge pond in the middle of nowhere:There is a house on the pond and a pier so we wonder if it's potentially swimming water? It definitely looks like a nice fishing spot.

Harrison is so cute to take four-wheeling because he talks almost the entire time. :)

Driving Down Memory Lane and Reflecting on Moving 16 Times

I've spent today driving down "memory lane".

My great-grandmother, Nannie E, had been saying for a while that she was wanting to go over to the other side of the Sound (Roper, NC) to see the old farmhouse in which she lived for over 30 years and raised her family. I also lived in the same town from ages 13-16, so I was looking forward to seeing how things had changed since I last visited a couple years ago. This morning I picked up Nannie E and we drove over the choppy Albemarle Sound and down the familiar country roads. Except for some new condos on the Sound, nothing much had changed. Nothing really ever changes around there.

After Nannie E saw her old house, we drove back to Edenton to have lunch and get her groceries. I dropped Nannie E off at her current home, which is in the town I lived in from ages 17-19, and I drove by my family's old house as I went to visit some of the old neighbor ladies that had become dear to me when we lived there (I would visit and take them cookies every couple months).

Because we just moved for the 16th time in 14 years, lately I've been reflecting on all of my family's moving around. We've moved a lot. I heard somewhere that moving is #3 on the most traumatic events for people, followed by the death of a loved one and divorce. While there have been friends that I've missed, and moves that I absolutely hated as they occurred, I would never consider moving to be nearly as heart-wrenching as what I imagine divorce or death of a family member or dear friend would be.

Of course, since I was homeschooled, I never had to transfer schools throughout all of our moving and I'm sure that would have made moving much more difficult. Also, only 3-4 of our 16 moves were drastic and included moving to new towns (the others were within the same areas) and I've only ever lived in two states.

However, it was often very sad to leave behind friends, churches, communities, familiarity, etc. I have never felt "connected" or as if I belong in any town. I've often longed to belong somewhere. When people ask what my hometown is, I honestly don't have an answer. I vividly recall the disappointment of some moves and living in new towns where I felt so alone at first.

But as I drove down the old familiar roads today, visiting with old friends, and seeing the places where many of my childhood's happy memories took place, I would eagerly do it all again if given the chance. Every move has been worthwhile. Looking back on all of our moving around, I am very grateful for moving so many times. I have been immersed in so many different areas and among so many different, diverse people. Even though I may not "belong" in any one town, I have sweet memories and experiences in many towns. I have happy thoughts of days spent at Papa Ray and Mrs. Amy's, an older couple who lived on our dirt road and went to our church and treated us like their own grandkids, letting us eat at their house, swim in the Sound at their house, and spend the night at their house often throughout the summers. I smile when I recall Mrs. Joyner, the elderly lady who lived near a different house and absolutely loved Carolina basketball and claimed Tyler Hansbrough as "her boy". I remember Megan, the sweet neighbor friend I had as a 11-12 year old, and our fun practicing soccer and carpooling for soccer practices and games. I think of the friends I've collected throughout the many moves and how they have impacted my life.

Also, moving has taught me a lot about contentment and letting God be my closest Friend when I don't have any friends. It has also forced our family to become friends with eachother.

I am mostly sharing this to write down my thoughts, but also to encourage anyone who may be discouraged because of where God has their family right now. He promises that, "for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28, ESV)

Ice Cream

It's a good night at the Alexander house.

We processed 100 of Elliott's chickens today. Elliott said he would buy us ice cream if we finished processing, parting, and packaging by 4:30. We were thrilled when we finished at 4:22!

Bushhogging, Stepping Heavenward, Sense & Sensibility, and Casey! :)

I spent the first few days of this past week bushhogging for the tractor service down in NC. I am trying to make an effort to use the many hours I spend in a tractor cab each month more purposeful and spiritually refreshing. I listened to several excellent sermons and almost the entire Stepping Heavenward audio book (it's recorded on CD by Elisabeth Elliot's daughter, Valerie Shepard). It was my second time "reading" Stepping Heavenward and I just love it! I finished the book yesterday and it has encouraged me in my walk with God and also in being more diligent in recording my thoughts and prayers in my journal.

My sweet friend Casey has been visiting since Wednesday. Casey's family has been dear friends of our family for a very long time. I enjoyed spending time with her and she's helped me greatly with my different responsibilities and milk deliveries. Having her staying here with us has made me wish I had a sister closer in age! So much of the work gets done so quickly with two extra hands and it's nice to have someone to talk to during the long milk delivery trips.
On Friday night we had a fun "girls' movie night"! With four brothers and a father who are extremely opposed to watching any "girly movies", a movie night around our house always consists of watching a Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, or Indiana Jones movie for the umpteenth time. Among my friends, I seem to be the only girl who doesn't know all of the quotes and characters from all of the Jane Austen movies, so I seized this rare opportunity with Casey here to justify watching "Sense and Sensibility"! I hadn't seen it before and thought it was very sweet. Surprisingly, even Elliott and Oliver stayed up and watched it.

After church today, we met up with Casey's family so Casey could return home (she has to get her wisdom teeth pulled tomorrow!) and to pick up two of her brothers, Hayden and Dustin, so they can spend this upcoming week working on the farm with Elliott and Oliver.

My Room's "After" Pictures

I am so happy to finally be posting the first "after" pictures of our new farmhouse. As Mama wrote in the previous entry, getting moved in to this very old house hasn't gone as smoothly as most of our other moves. Sadly, our lovely goal of being finished by July 4th was far from a possibility. There are still many, many unfinished projects and the rest of the "after" pictures will probably be ready only a few at a time over the upcoming months.

However, as of this morning, my room is finished so I am very excited to share some pictures!

Before:

I began by pulling the carpet out, tearing off the wallpaper border, pulling the nails out of the walls, filling in the holes with spackling and sanding them, and then everything was painted. We decided to use white paint throughout the entire house in an attempt to give the house a clean, cottage look similar to what is popular in our favorite decorating magazines. After:
In the past, I've always bought "bed-in-a-bag" sets, but this time I decided to pull together the bedding items individually so I could get the exact look I wanted. I was hoping to find something that incorporated red, white, and blue, and gave the room a classic American country and coastal theme. The Lord blessed me with some amazing deals along the way! I found Lands End sheets on sale and the white vintage matelasse on eBay. The red and white quilt was the only item that was a bit more expensive, but when I got to the checkout counter, I found out it was 15% off, so that helped a little. I found the white lacy pillowcases inexpensively at a thrift store and felt that they gave the otherwise neutral bedding a dainty, feminine touch. In front of the white pillows are chambray decorative pillows with the little red, white, and blue Tommy Hilfiger flags dotted across them. They were saved from a bedding ensemble I had when I was 16. At almost every house we have lived in, I usually set my bed at an angle so I have access to a ton of storage space behind the bed. I have 5-6 "hope chest overflow" boxes in the area behind my bed. I sewed the three front pillows and was even able to use some old fabric my grandmother gave me for the two mongogrammed seersucker pillows. I love monogramming, so I used my new embroidery machine to monogram Sheridan's initials on one of the small pillows and mine on the other.

The most incredible deal was the dust ruffle/ bed skirt. I was in a huge rush one recent Friday afternoon at a thrift store all the way on Little Creek Road in Norfolk and had to get to Greenbrier in a very short amount of time. Knowing the traffic would be absolutely terrible at that time on a Friday afternoon, I just glanced at the dust ruffles and noticed this light blue and white gingham dust ruffle. The thrift store workers had marked it as full size (which is what I needed), but I knew I should unfold it and make sure it was indeed full size and there weren't any huge stains or holes on it. Since I was in such a rush, and because it was only 75 cents (!), I decided to just risk it and purchase it without barely looking over it. I figured I could use the fabric for something else if it was the wrong size. When I got it home, I found that not only was it truly the correct size, it also appeared to have never been used (some of the original tags were still attached), and it was made by Laura Ashley, which is a brand I can rarely afford! It was a wonderful blessing for only 75 cents. My very servant-hearted brother (he insisted he didn't want anyone to know he helped so I can't say which brother he is...) helped me tremendously by building shelves and a desk in the corner I hoped to make my "sewing area". This window overlooks the front pasture and the little white Mennonite church across the road, so I thought it would be a perfect place to sew and write.
After:Under the desk is an incredible amount of storage space! I'm using half of the area for fabric and sewing-related items and the other half for books, CDs, and business-related items (bills, marketing materials, etc.). For the curtain, I took a very inexpensive gingham tablecloth (it was $3.99-- cheaper than fabric would have been), cut it in half, sewed it together to make one very long, narrow curtain, and added a red floral fabric (that I found for just pennies at a yard sale) to the hem. The blueish chair was in one of the old barns we cleaned out and I felt it gave the room some added color and rustic, farmhouse flair.

As I began to pick out fabric colors, I went to one expensive fabric store in a very affluent area outside of Richmond to get a few scraps so I could take them home and decide what would match best with my bedding. Usually, at other fabric stores, they just give me a small scrap of the fabric, but at this fabric store, they charged me for a 1/8 yard piece of each fabric! Since I didn't end up using those colors, and I had no use for several 1/8 yard scraps, I sewed them together like a quilt top and am using them to drape over the back of the old blue chair. The far end of the desk was not necessary for my "sewing area" so I am using it as a "writing desk" area. I love the thought of writing in my journal late at night or reading my Bible in the mornings in this quaint little corner, however, I have yet to do either there! I found the lamp, with a shell-filled mason jar as the base, at a thrift store.On my white wicker chest of drawers I have a collection of pictures of just Sheridan and me, from the time she was a newborn until fairly recently. I want our room to be special for her too! It has affectionately become known as, "the girrrls room", as she sweetly says it. :)The lamp on my night stand was also a thrift store find, but I didn't like the lamp shade so I found a cheap one at a discount store to replace it.
I broke my long-standing rule and took my red toile plates out of my hope chest (I hate using things from my hope chest-- I want to save everything for my future home!) to decorate above the windows. The old brown plates were a treasure I found in one of the barns. Hanging on our shelf is the handmade gown and bonnet Mama sewed for Sheridan when she came home from the hospital as a newborn, a bundle of wheat I collected from my first investment property, and a white old-fashioned hat. The blue tinted Mason jars throughout the room were all found in the junky old barns, as well as the white and blue bottle also sitting on the shelf.The little table in the corner needs painting, so I sewed a small tablecloth to cover up its scratches. I hope to get a tea set to place on the table so Sheridan and I can have tea parties together. :) I didn't know how I would feel about sharing a room and bed with Sheridan, but I absolutely love it. She is a wiggle worm in our bed and I feel like I wake up several times every night just to "re-situate" her (i.e. remove her chubby little leg from my neck!), but I really think this time together is priceless. When she wakes up in the morning, she cuddles up to me so sweetly and smiles so cheerfully... I am so thankful we get to spend this time sharing a "girrrls room". :)