Hi friends! So, the blog has been quiet for a while due to a slight life disruption…. Namely, the sweetest little baby boy named Ash entering our world. It’s been quite a ride for the last year, from pregnancy and newborn months and trying to keep a growing business on track through it all. I’m relaunching the blog in the hopes of capturing the crazy moments that are unfolding as our family and business grow, and also to give a little behind the scenes peek at our version of small business life (with all its twists and turns!).
So, pregnancy…..I was one of those women who got hit with major morning sickness right away, and the incessant nausea and feeling like I’d been hit by a truck lasted about six months. In the early days of this, I had just enough energy to feel terrified that Graymarket would never survive now that I spent a good portion of my day on the couch and essentially felt like I was slowly dying. The business was growing just as I was being forced to majorly slow down, and it was stressful. Luckily I had an angel of an assistant to take a lot of work off my plate, and eventually I fell into a routine of working and resting my way through the work days. Not my most productive months for sure, but by month six I felt confident we could keep things rolling. It helped that my wonderful wholesale customers were incredibly understanding of my being slightly off my game.
A big portion of our business is wholesale, and a huge part of that is doing trade shows a few times a year to release our new collections. During my third trimester, when I was too pregnant to fly, my sweet husband, Matt, had to handle these trade shows solo-- and this included spending his 30th birthday alone in Vegas. Yikes. At this point, Graymarket was not his full time gig (update post about that later!), and he had to sort of cram these events into “spare time” between his full time work. This was a major task, as these shows require a ton of energy and are a lot of work for even two or three people. Matt was in charge of traveling to the show, setting up the whole booth and then staffing the booth for four days, and I sat on the couch at home receiving texts with orders to start preparing. It was crazy, and I kept telling him (and myself), “someday we’ll laugh about this!”
Our team (and my sweet mom, who was in town to help with the baby) was busily filling orders right up to the day before I went into labor, and I was back in the studio a few days after coming home from the hospital. I didn’t think it would be a huge deal to not take maternity leave, especially because I have the luxury of being flexible with my schedule when I need to be. I envisioned my life as a working mom and saw myself just carrying on as normal, but with a tiny baby in tow. Even typing that now, it seems laughably ridiculous and naive and, needless to say, that vision did not become a reality! To be honest, it’s been a lot juggling these two huge aspects of my life, and I’m not totally sure “new mom” and “small business owner” can coexist that smoothly in the early days. Five months on, and with Ash in daycare so I can finally sit down and write a blog post, I’ve settled into a groove of a slightly lighter workload with a major system of checks and balances to compensate for my sleep deprived brain. I’ve also had to learn to prioritize things and work much more efficiently, which has been a great thing actually. And as tired and overwhelmed as Matt and I can get in the midst of a crazy work week, it’s also really energizing to think that we’re not only working to build a business that provides our family’s livelihood, but that we’re also growing alongside our workshop in India. How cool that Ash will hopefully come to know these special people and witness firsthand the amazing craft traditions we are lucky enough to work with everyday. Also, Ash has inspired our first baby products, and we can’t wait for you all to see them!!
