The Cottage Collective

"Hey Tiffany, it's Abbe. I've got a proposal for you. Give me a call."

I met Abbe in college when we were in a newly married gals group. Fast forward quite a few years into the world that we can reconnect with friends from yesteryear via Facebook and get a glimpse into their lives through blogs, Abbe and I become Facebook friends. I begin to follow her blog. Her blog is a very personal one where you can find honesty, hope, and well, probably cry along with her. Her heart is huge for her family and people in general. She lights up a room without trying.

Abbe has a hobby turned business venture of turning your old outdated hand-me-down furniture into something beautiful. She breathes new life into old pieces. Her clients can't get enough of her. I just loved getting a snippet of this adventure she was beginning through fb and her blog. I was so excited for her as I was also trying to start my own venture. I could relate to her posts that her "work" day began at bedtime and ended in the wee hours of the morning. I could feel her exhaustion and her energy to do whatever it takes to make it work. I reconnected with Abbe over pillows, cloth napkins, and baby bibs to put in her section of the store she was booth renting from.

The week before Christmas, I get this intriguing voice mail from her. I attempt to find some quiet by shutting myself in my workroom and leave Hudson to play with Ryan. This doesn't go over super well because there are two things that make Hudson louder than usual...not being able to find his mama and not being able to open a closed door. From the moment I began to listen to Abbe, I knew that this had God's hand prints all over it. All the pieces are just falling into place at such a rate that you can't keep up with it. You have no choice but to just stand there with your jaw on the floor. I've seen it before in my life, so it was easier to recognize this time. It's that feeling of being scared yet knowing that you must say yes or you will miss out on a great adventure that He has lined up for you. This phone call in particular was answering my prayer for what direction to take A Lady With A Baby in 2012. One thing I know for sure and that is God has to be leading this thing or it's going nowhere.



In what seemed like only minutes, The Cottage Collective, was created. Seven creative entrepreneurial women will have a space to call their own in The Green Elephant Village in Wichita, KS. Not only am I beyond thrilled to have my own space but I am looking forward to learning from these women, growing with these women, and living a dream and an adventure with these women.

The store is in conglomeration of old houses that make up a cute little shopping district, near Wesley Hospital. I will have a darling little room with a fireplace and two sunny bright paned windows. To say that I CAN NOT WAIT to get my hands on this space, is an understatement. My brain is a flurry of decorating ideas, some Ryan is trying to talk me down from. :) I can mostly picture the room at Christmas time with burlap stockings adorning the fireplace and a fantastic Christmas wreath above the mantle. So much fun!! Pinterest is of course adding fuel to the decorating fire with the pallet walls, fireplace displays, pillows, wreaths, and more! I do believe Willamina (my fabulous and slightly startling mannequin) will get to strut her stuff at the new store. She's gonna love it there!

I am taking a mandatory break from Millie (the sewing machine) for the first two weeks of January and then it will be time to begin production for all the beautiful things for The Cottage Collective! I'm so excited, so nervous, and so happy to be a part of it!