Week #5: Quilter #5 Kirsten Smith of Lovespun Studio

Hi there, 52 Quilter friends! I am SO thrilled to here pirating the 52 Quilters blog, Instagram and Twitter feeds this week. A HUGE thank you to Chris for the invitation. Of course, I already feel like I'm behind the 8 ball a bit because our Monday started here in snowy Lafayette, Indiana, with a 2 hour school delay-- which equated to something like a 4 hour blog delay. What can I say, sometimes life just doesn't go exactly as planned, so I roll with the punches.

I am Kirsten Smith, wife of almost 12 years to the love-of-my-life, Jeremy, {I'm not even trying to be all gushy-- it's one of the good kinda real-life things}. We have two kiddos-- a 10-year-old son who loves to draw, act, play Minecraft and create with Legos and an 8-year-old daughter who enjoys, singing, playing on her Kindle, crafting & sewing.  My background is in corporate communications and public relations, but I left that world back in 2008 to focus on my family and our home for a while. While I've missed the corporate world in many ways, I wouldn't trade those early "mommy years" for the world! Now that both kids are in school during the days, I've dusted back off my working mojo and even melded it with my love of all things fabric.

Because I'm quite possibly insane, I am currently running two businesses as well as attempting to find the time to blog over at www.lovespunstudio.com. I can't do it all and do it all with excellence, so often the blog is the thing that gets pushed to the side. I'm totally OK with that. You have to give yourself permission not to do it all!

My first business is my Lovespun Studio shop. My shop has become mostly known for my Zippy! Organizer Wallets, which are cash-budgeting friendly {especially for those doing the Dave Ramsey system! It just so happens that Sari Ditty, Week #2 quilter makes something similar too-- we totally didn't plan that! Hi Sari!} I do most of my sales through Facebook rather than Etsy or my website, but you can find them both places. If I'm honest with you all, I'll just stop and admit right now that I feel like a quilty imposter. I don't love the act of sewing nearly as much as I love pulling different patterns and colors of fabric together. That's what really makes my heart pitter-patter. My handmade shop always seems to come in second place for me to my other business, which I absolutely adore: A Happy Trip.

A Happy Trip is my travel planning and consulting business. I specialize in cruises, all-inclusive resorts and all of the MANY Disney destinations. After investing hours upon hours upon HOURS researching and planning for our own family vacations, my husband finally said, "You really should do this for other people too!" What a brilliant idea it was-- because I couldn't possibly love helping people plan and book their perfect trips any more. What makes most people break out in hives due to stress is loads of fun for this nerdy researcher/planner/organizer girl!

The only full-size quilt that I've tackled thus far!

But back to stitchy talk. I used to decorate in neutral colors and keep things fairly plain and boring until around 2009 when I found myself drawn to blogs like Diary of A Quilter and Tanya Whelan and Jeni Baker's In Color Order and I realized that color makes my heart sing. It made me happy, and I wanted to spend all day looking at blogs filled with amazing fabric. So not only did I go buy a sewing machine off of Craigslist and start stitching, but I brought color into my home and into our life as well. I could never go back!

My favorite quilter is KelbySews! We had a chance to meet at a workshop once, and I won a quilt that she made. Her color and style is impeccable.

I hope that I get to know a few of you and make some new friends this week! You can find me ALL OVER the Internet! Right now I'm crushing on Japanese fabrics-- which I use for my wallets, so you might see a lot of that this week!

Instagram: www.instagram.com/lovespunstudio
Twitter: www.twitter.com/kirstencsmith
Facebook: www.facebook.com/lovespunstudio AND www.facebook.com/ahappytrip
Website/Blog: www.lovespunstudio.com AND www.ahappytrip.com

Post by Kirsten - Week #5:  Kirsten is the owner of two businesses, Lovespun Studio, featuring the Zippy! Organizer Wallets other handmade accessories, and A Happy Trip, planning & coordinating incredible vacations and getaways for her clients! Kirsten shares her heart, her life and her passion for sewing and her advocacy against human trafficking via Lovespun Studio at http://www.lovespunstudio.com