Champion of Small Business

For over 17 years, we have followed our love of art, creativity, living out loud, and focusing on people not product. We couldn’t have done it without you. YOU are the champion of small business.

The STUFF Staff
The STUFF Staff

For over 17 years, we have followed our love of art, creativity, living out loud, and focusing on people not product. We have allowed ourselves to get excited, share our passion, and even show our concerns at times.

We have lived out loud. We have joined hands with our greater community in so many ways. (We will leave it to you to read more on our colorful and rich website.) We are living the American dream. We have been told many, many times that “that can’t be done,” and we have stubbornly dug in deeper to prove “them” wrong. We have never given up, and the odds have been against us many times. Truthfully, the odds are against every small business.

So why do we – and we mean all small business owners – do it?

This Saturday – the Saturday after Thanksgiving – is “Small Business Saturday”. A handful of years ago a BIG corporate giant deemed it so. It stuck.

First we would like to say we are tickled turquoise that American Express chose to champion small business. Considering all their other choices of how to spend millions of dollars in marketing and brand development, the fact that they choose little ol’ us is remarkable. For this we are grateful – honestly and truly.

So…here we are, two short days from SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY (said with a booming voice), and we would like to pause from our hurried holiday lives to think about what this day means to us – the “STUFF sisters.”

Much like each piece in our store, this store is handmade. There is no greater reward than to step back and witness something you have built with your own hands.

We want to thank our community for its long tradition of giving. We want to thank American Express for becoming the champion of “small”. We want to thank our artists for their art. We want to thank our parents and grandparents for raising us among small businesses. We want to thank our team at STUFF for pouring their hearts into their work. We want to thank our children and loved ones for supporting us during busy times.

And we want to thank you. You are the real champion of small business. Thank you for shopping in our small store.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Casey & Sloane

Casey & Sloane Simmons
Sisters & Co-owners

Fish Lips
Fish Lips. Why not?

SHARE THIS: Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Real Pain

NOTE: These next few paragraphs will be chock-full of strong words and graphic images. They are not for the faint of heart….

I am in real pain. I know this to be true, because I gave birth vaginally 16+ years ago and this is worse. Every year I enter into this zone of pain, a place that was made for me genetically.

I have fingertips that split the minute the temperature drops, the swimming pools close, and my work load increases. One minute, all is well. Computer keystrokes and ink pen holding is painless. Minute two: there is blood on the keypad, and the pen unable to be lifted.

 

IMG_5315
A serious case of “then it cracked when it was almost healed over”. Previous pain center clearly visible just north and west of new crack.

My grandmother – my mother’s mother – suffered from this horrible syndrome, and I paid little or no attention to her concerns or yearly warnings. She was the queen of lotions and personal nail & hand care. She had a file, a clipper, a buffer and cream for everything that ailed her hands. Still the splits came on with the drier weather. She was strong, but I saw her wince more than once when her hands entered warm soapy water with the dinner dishes.

I have never broken a bone – knock on wood. I have never been admitted to a hospital – OK, one night with the young man’s arrival. I take only two pills a day – one aspirin and one vitamin. I have only well-person visits to my retinue of doctors every year. I volunteer at a health clinic, but I only meet, plan and joke with the staff and board of directors.

This is real pain. It never stops throbbing. Band-Aids and Neosporin at night are no match for Nu-Skin during the day. Nu-Skin is my savior and drug of choice. However, my pain is so powerful that it only takes a few hours for me to break through the Nu-Skin crust and run gasping for the little bottle and miniscule brush when the oxygen reaches the nerve endings. Second and third coats are my nirvana. My increased fourth-quarter work load with packing tape, box cutters, labels and cardboard only adds to the workplace stressors.

 

IMG_5311
The crack in the Nu-Skin crust is visible on this specimen, sighted earlier today in my car.

At the end of a meeting the other day at the health clinic, I mentioned to the lead physician that I lived in fear of lymphoma entering my open wounds with my addiction to Nu-Skin. He looked at me like the crazy person I am and said, “Well, you could do what doctors do and use Super Glue.” This from a trusted professional and friend.

I suffer. I do.

If I’m not at work, here’s why: I’ll be out scouting new pain medication – maybe at the liquor store or possibly trying to score meth.

Sloane

SHARE THIS: Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

You Are Our Gift at the Holidays

Our whole community came together at our fundraiser – Wings of Hope. You are our gift at the holidays. Never forget that.

When asked if she wanted gift wrap, our friend Mary Anne reached across the counter and held onto Sloane’s arm and said, “You know, my gift is sitting right outside.”

And she was.

WingsOfHope-01 WingsOfHope-02

WingsOfHope-03 WingsOfHope-04

This past weekend we had yet another celebration of the power of the human spirit over cancer. We drank punch, we munched cookies, we held customers while they cried, we emptied candy bowls of their sweetness, we laughed, and our customers shopped with smiles on their faces. It was a glorious way to start the holiday season.

WingsOfHope-05 WingsOfHope-06

WingsOfHope-07 WingsOfHope-08

Mary Anne’s daughter is our friend Susan Miller. She was here the entire weekend selling T-shirts and telling of her continued victory over cancer. Casey was with her in the sunshine and shade as they raised money from donated T-shirts. A longtime friend of STUFF, John, who has had cancer visit his family one too many times, brought us custom shirts from his business to sell. All monies for charity.

WingsOfHope-09 WingsOfHope-10

WingsOfHope-11 WingsOfHope-12

Our whole community came together at our fundraiser – Wings of Hope. We are dedicated to helping find a cure for cancer through research. The KU Cancer Center is doing heaps of that – alone and in collaboration. The fund that Susan’s family started years ago while she was suffering and triumphing is still rockin’ the research.

WingsOfHope-13 WingsOfHope-14

WingsOfHope-15 WingsOfHope-16

To our parents, who have both battled cancer, to Susan, to John, to Mary Anne, and to all of you who believe in our dream business: we thank you for believing with us that together we will find a cure for cancer.

You are our gift at the holidays. Never forget that.

Casey & Sloane

WingsOfHope-17 WingsOfHope-18

WingsOfHope-19 WingsOfHope-20

SHARE THIS: Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Wasted Time

I try not to dwell on things that I can not change anymore. I still need lots of practice. Since I am not cured of this curse, I would like to vent my frustration with spammers.

I try not to dwell on things that I can not change anymore. I still need lots of practice. Since I am not cured of this curse, I would like to vent my frustration with spammers.

I believe that any person that has any hand in creating the noise we call spam and wastes the time of their fellow humans should be inconvenienced in equally frustrating ways.

Here a few suggestions:

  • Red lights won’t change.
  • Their toothbrush is missing every morning.
  • Their food at restaurants doesn’t arrive in a timely manner.
  • Every time they bite into a taco it drips grease on their pants.
  • They can never find a parking space.
  • The 6′ 4″ Dude is always seated directly in front of them.
  • They constantly run out of milk for their cereal.
  • If they are a chick…their tights never stay up.
  • If they are a dude…their zipper won’t stay zipped.
  • Every time they are focused at work, someone places a completely unnecessary stack of papers on top of their work space and it can not be removed without each piece of paper being handle individually.

Feel free to add to my list. You will find more joy in facing your email inbox.

Casey

Frustrated with spam? Me too!
Frustrated with spam? Me too!

 

 

 

SHARE THIS: Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Sharing Behaviors

It seems to be vastly believed that Casey and I share a brain. We do not. We’ve actually had a customer ask if we live together. We do not. We do not share clothes. I don’t share one particular Chinese dish very well, and she never shares her last shrimp on a salad. We have been known to borrow jewelry from each other, but that is becoming rarer.

IMG_5263

 

However, there are some things we do share, and they are eerily funny. Last Thursday – Halloween – our stepmom stopped by the store for a quick meeting with me. She lovingly heads up the tagging of all the holiday ornaments, and she finished a few days ahead of schedule. We were able to meet on a few details, and then she was free for another year!

 

IMG_5261

 

As she was turning to park the car, she saw a woman in a witch’s hat trip while looking down at the curb. If not trip, then falter. When the woman stood up, it was Casey.

Casey was walking back from the coffee shop and her eye had caught the most amazing water deposits on a fallen leaf. She had stopped, with her arms and hands full, to catch a photo on her phone. She admits to tripping a bit on the sidewalk as she positioned herself for the perfect shot.

 

IMG_5265

 

Not an hour before Casey’s clumsiness, I was on my back deck, heading to work with my arms full of bags and boxes and my hands clutching my daily iced tea, when I saw photos I just had to take. Leaves plastered to the wood and still wet from two days of rain. Lichen brought to life by cooler temperatures and no sun.

The effort of getting my camera out of my purse while not putting a single item down on the wet surfaces was a balancing act worthy of a circus. I perched my drink inside my tote and I fleetingly wondered what my excuse would be if it spilled into my computer. Sure, it was lidded, but did that matter when you were bent over with a camera and the tote was sideways on your back?

 

IMG_5266

 

Four clicks later, I was in the car – tea perfectly safe – headed toward a meeting I didn’t want to miss with yet another amazing family volunteer.

Casey was clumsy on the curb, and I was not quite balanced on my deck. All for the perfect shots. And both at almost the same time. Sharing behaviors.

We freak me out sometimes.

Sloane

p.s. I’m guessing if we cause a big enough stink, Casey will post her photo to a blog. If only….

SHARE THIS: Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Copyright Casey Simmons and S. Sloane Simmons. People who steal other people's words & thoughts are asshats. Don't be an asshat.