Dreamers and Doers

Surround yourself with the dreamers and the doers, the believers and thinkers, but most of all, surround yourself with those who see the greatness within you, even when you don’t see it yourself. ~Edmund Lee

A few weeks ago, Mayhem pulled out a gift she received for Christmas last year, and it sparked a new creative venture. Pot holders. She sat, loom on desk, and carefully divided all the loops she had into Roy G Biv organized piles.

But as quickly as she separated the colors, the little piles disappeared into patterns on the loom. Off to Amazon I went in search for more loops. We decided to try some new ones as well as the ones we were familiar with. We even picked up an additional loom because sometimes it’s easier to keep going on pattern making than to slow down to tie them off.

Our stash of pot holders began to mount and I asked what she thought we should do with them. “Sell them, of course” was the response I received.

Easy enough, I thought, we could put these here on our site and let people shop at their convenience. But Mayhem had other ideas … she wanted to sell in person.

We tried to convince her that online was the way to go, but in her mind she already held a vision of having a little table set up, with a sign, where people could stop by and look at her works. She insisted, “I NEED to be able to answer people’s questions.”

But WHERE were we going to do that?!

As the days passed and our stock grew, we had to explain that she couldn’t walk up to people in stores and ask them to buy her wares. Also, restaurants. She also thought door to door might be fun, and while I was blown away by her determination, we had to explain the no soliciting rules of our neighborhood (and the crotchety folks who just might yell at her about ringing their bell.)

Finally, Mayhem asked, “why can’t we just get a tent and sell them at the park with the lacelet girls?!”

Ahhhhhh! The City Flea was what she had in mind, so I hopped online to check out vendor applications. Only I quickly found that applications are closed for the next three months. Bummer.

And then I had an idea. Our friends at Game Day Feels (formerly known as Baseball Lacelets … but their business is growing like WHOA and a little rebranding was needed) have a studio space where they make their products and occasionally open to the public to sell. So I emailed Alexis and asked if they were having any studio sales anytime soon and if so, if they would be open to letting Mayhem set up a table for selling her pot holders.

As luck would have it, we were only about ten days away from their next studio sale and they were more than happy to let Mayhem set up shop with them. Mayhem was ecstatic! Partly because she’d get to sell her pot holders, and partly because she’d get to hang with Alexis and Hannah who she adores. Ever since meeting the makers behind the Lacelets a couple years back, Mayhem finds any chance to hang out with them and have some creative fun.

And over the weekend, the day finally arrived. Alexis welcomed Mayhem with open arms and provided her with the space to set up her own little pop-up shop. Customers came and browsed (and did indeed ask a few questions) and made some purchases.

In the end, Mayhem sold about 75% of her pot holder stash and has given us permission to sell the rest online … but only because the Game Day Feels girls convinced her that online is definitely the way to go .

Possibly the best part of the day though, was when things were winding down and it was getting close to closing time. Alexis sat down to sort through a bag of their scrap material and Mayhem sat beside her. Wanna know what happened next? Pure magic.

There’s nothing quite like watching creativity unfold before your very eyes and as a parent, there’s nothing better than seeing other people encourage that in your child. To be completely honest, I haven’t met very many adults who will sit and listen to the ideas of kids and even fewer who will sit with them and make those ideas happen. But as Mayhem sat with Alexis, ideas unfolded and new stuff was created. And it was awesome.

In the couple days since, it’s sparked some conversation about how important it is to surround ourselves with the dreamers and the doers … and the encouragers. And to make sure we’re those people as well. Dreaming, doing, thinking, believing and seeing (and encouraging) the greatness in others.

Massive thanks to Alexis and Kelsey (sorry we missed you Hannah!) at Game Day Feels for dreaming and doing with us this weekend!!!

PS – stay tuned … I picked up a Game Day Necklace to giveaway and I’m thinking a potholder would go well with that. We’ll do that to celebrate online pot holder sales later this week  

PPS: We’ve had tons of people ask which loom and loops Mayhem is using for potholder making, so here are some Amazon links to the products we’ve purchased (note that these loops can be used on either loom and you can even mix the different types of loops to make “mixed media” potholders)

Plastic weaving loom kit and replacement loops.

Metal weaving loom kit and replacement loops

This week’s assignment: be a dreamer, a doer and see/encourage the greatness in others around you