This is devastating news to bring you. I think the best way to deliver it is by sharing a post Cody wrote for her personal blog, which I will copy and insert here. You can see the original post at this link.
This is incredibly difficult to write for me, and it may not be the most
coherent post I've ever done because it's a very emotional subject for
me right now and I imagine it always will be.
After 11 months of awesomeness, Trace and I have decided to close the doors of Daft Crafts,
the brick and mortar shop we
opened last July in Independence, MO. It's not like we weren't getting
enough foot traffic - in fact, last week we had customers come in that
were visiting the I
nternational Quilt Market
who had heard about our store from all the way in Australia. They were
in Kansas City visiting from Australia, and made it a point to come
visit Daft Crafts. Astounding, huh?
And our doors aren't closing for a lack of support from the community.
Quite the opposite - we have had the most amazing band of artists and
customers. The artists volunteered at the shop, filled the shelves with
incredible art and handmade wares, taught work shops and made donations
of their times as well as art and office supplies. We have regular
customers we see weekly at the workshops and who stop in at least once a
week to shop. We have worked closely with the local animal shelter to
set up a cat fostering program to help them increase the amount of cats
being adopted by fostering cats in Daft Crafts, who can be adopted by
our wonderful customers! Being such a large part of the community and
getting to know all the beautiful people who have been involved at Daft
Crafts has been such an honor and touched my heart. I will never forget
any of them and hope to keep in touch with everyone that has been a part
of Daft Crafts.
So, you are probably wondering
why are we closing Daft Crafts then? I still ask myself this as well, and have to keep reminding myself why it is for the best.
During the
twelve week breast cancer scare,
I lost my grandfather, and a very, very dear person in my life had to
begin dialysis. These were devastating blows, as when I learned the
news, I was still battling with the fear that I may have breast cancer.
It was a very difficult time for me. And I spent more time during that
chaotic, depressing period at the shop and lining up promotions and
advertising for my artists than I spent with my fiance that I moved
half way across the country for
and my six year old son. I began to feel like I really needed to
re-prioritize my life. I talked to Trace and we have struggled with the
decision since the end of February.
Two weeks ago, a few weeks or so after I got my breast cancer screening
results (which were all clear, thank God) a very dear friend of mine got
not-good results on her mammogram and had to have a lumpectomy, which
thankfully showed the tumor to be benign . But I knew then when I heard
what my friend was going through, that terrible wait between
appointments and tests to get an answer, what our decision would be. I
need to make more time in my life for the people who need me, and I need
time to cope with things. My life has been in turmoil since February
and I need time to heal and collect myself. I need time with my family.
It seems so selfish to me since I am taking a valuable resource away
from the community, and it hurts so badly but I know that this is the
right thing to do for my family, and they are the most important thing
to me. ♥
I will miss Daft Crafts and all the amazing people it has brought me in
touch with SO much that it literally hurts my heart. I can't think about
it without tears rushing to my eyes. These past 11 months being a shop
owner have been amazing, and I love everyone it has brought me in
contact with. The experience has been phenomenal and I plan to stay
active in the artist community. I will continue to promote indie
designers and artists via social media, and I hope to revisit being a
shop owner in the not-too-distant future. I have already made plans to
volunteer at
Scrivner's in Leavenworth so that I can stay involved with local artists while helping another shop grow, and I am very excited by this.
I wrote this article for The Examiner, a local paper here. They wanted
to showcase me talking about why I wanted to open a shop that sells
handmade things, and asked me to write the article for them. So I
decided to focus on the economical and environmental impact of buying
handmade versus buying from big box stores. I had limited space for the
article, so I had to really condense my thoughts on this to make sure it
would all fit on the page. I wrote this a few weeks ago and it just hit
the streets this Friday, and though it's bittersweet, I wanted to share
it all with you now.
The Value of Buying Handmade
When you buy handmade from a local artist, you aren't just buying a
bow, dress, wallet, belt, hat, blanket, toy, or what-have-you. You are
buying something that someone made a personal investment in. They
invested their time, energy, and supplies into that one thing that you
purchased. The money from your purchase often stays local and is often
times invested back into your community - at the grocery store, post
office, gas stations, and local stores to buy more supplies for the
artist to continue their trade. When you buy from an artist, you are
supporting a person, an individual, not a corporation. You are
supporting their lifestyle, their dreams, their goals and their hopes.
Your purchases have power - make them count!
Buying handmade doesn't just give you a warm-and-fuzzy feeling of
doing something great for your local economy though. It also has it's
environmental benefits as well!
When you buy local, and buy handmade, one of a kind items, especially
from eco-friendly artists, you don't have the waste of energy and
resources that happens in big box stores -Thousands of products are made
(where's the individuality in that?), individually wrapped,
packed in a larger box, stacked with other boxes, saran wrapped and
shipped to distribution factories. They are then divided, extra
packaging is discarded, and shipped when needed to big box stores, who
then throw away all the extra packaging, and stick them on a shelf
waiting for a person to buy it. Real personal shopping experience,
right? When you buy from a local artist, they make the product in their
home or studio, and then it goes from their hand to yours. Or a local
shop's shelf to your hand. Or it's packed and shipped to you if
purchased from their online venue. Not even a fraction of the amount of
fuel, packaging waste and pollution from factory production occurs when
you buy handmade, versus buying from big box stores. Why not make every
purchase have a positive impact - on the economy, and the environment?
I am proud to be an owner of an establishment that thinks big with
small actions. Every product in Daft Crafts is handmade, or items that
have been revitalized to keep them from the landfills - old books turned
into sketch books, suitcases turned into art, watch parts turned into
jewelry, game pieces turned into kitchen ware. All of our products are
unique, and each artist brings a new form of creativity to the mix. Our
art education workshops every Wednesday and Saturday help encourage the
community to think creatively and try new mediums, and reduce their
product consumption and replace it with a means to create for
themselves.
♥ We are still exploring options to transfer ownership, but if that
doesn't happen June 14th is set to be Daft Crafts last day open. Thank
you to everyone for all your support, this has been the greatest
journey.
Our hours through June 14th are 11-4, Tuesday-Saturday, with closures on Thursday, 5/24, and Friday, June 1st, and Saturday, June 2nd for out of town trips.
