Farewell to Blackbird

 
For the past nearly four years, I have been co-owner of Blackbird Kid Shop, on the Hip Strip here in Missoula.  Asa had just turned two years old, and I was newly pregnant with Axel, when Kia (my biz partner) and I decided to open the shop.  We had dreams of making our store a solid fixture in Missoula where moms could buy organic cotton, unique clothing, not Target or Old Navy crap.  We made a good run of it, but ultimately weren't able to stay open because we couldn't afford to.

I haven't written much about Blackbird at all in my homestead blog, or this blog, because I wanted a separation from it.  It was always difficult, from the moment we opened.  The first year was our best year, but even then there was an air of let down.  We would check our projections sheet for what we thought we would be making per day, what we needed to make per day to stay afloat, and it rarely matched up.  We worked long hours with our kids at the shop, and we didn't pay ourselves.  It was hard in many ways.  But, I'm still glad I did it.

We made so many connections with our community and moms that were needing to get out of the house for awhile.  That is what I will miss the most.  I'll miss going next door to Betty's Divine, and talking with Aimee, Lael, Karen, Nanda, Moira, Tess, and all the other lovelies that work, or have worked there.  I'll miss the random visits from friends who were in the neighborhood.  Axel has spent three to four days a week there for his entire life.  It has been a huge part of our lives.


So to all of you who were supporters, thank you.  I am now onto designing and sewing my own kids clothing line called Going To Seed.  I hope to have some styles completed by the end of September.  I will be looking for places to have trunk shows, and selling my duds on Etsy as well.  Stay tuned.