I thought I’d share a completely different type of post today. A post sharing how we work around here. I think this may give our customers some insight as to why we’ve chosen the name Homestead Emporium. I’d like to give you a peek into our ‘world’, through photos.

First off, we live on the west coast of Canada. I know most people believe we have a lot of snow, a lot of the time, but actually, where we live it’s normally quite the contrary. I say normally, because this winter, for the first time in the ten years we have lived in this area, we will have a VERY white Christmas indeed!

Here’s a photo I shot the other day of my horse, which sums things up quite well.

To give you an idea of the layout of our ‘homestead’, here is a photo of our home, and on the center/right you can see our workshop/cabin.

Our cabin is where we do all our sewing, cutting, fabric storage etc.. Our home is where the computer is stationed. If you see the upstairs balcony off the front of our home (it’s the building on the left of the photo) that balcony is right next to where I am sitting at the moment. This area of our home is where I do all our packaging, listings, any computer/web work etc.. When I’m conversing with you all via email, I’m sitting just inside the house with french doors next to me leading to that upper deck.

Here is my view from that deck.

Isn’t it beautiful? As you can see, we live amongst mountains, and lots of evergreens. This area of Canada is absolutely stunning from it’s beautiful mountain tops (you can see one in the very far distance in the center of the photo) to it’s gorgeous ocean views (none which we have from our home, but it’s not far from here!)

Here is the cabin, from the front. This is where we go each day that we work. My younger children come with me most of the time, and on this particular day only my middle child was home. Here she is with our little dog, and one of our medium sized dogs heading to the cabin. Only our little lap dog has the priviledge of coming to work inside with us though. The other two larger dogs can’t promise me they will behave, so they hang out on the deck, on my wicker outdoor furniture, waiting for us to come back out and play with them.

When you are a Homstead Mama, you dress for success! Especially when the cold weather comes and you have to leave your nice toasty woodstove to go work in the cabin.
This is what dressing for success means in my world…

Rubber boots and a warm pair of socks! That will keep your feet nice and cozy for a short trip to ‘work’.

Once inside the cabin you’ll warm up quick, if only because of our ‘fake’ fireplace in here.
We have a countertop and sink, which comes in very handy at times! We also have a full bathroom in here, which also comes in very handy! I wouldn’t get near as much work done without it! I’d be spending half my time taking children to the bathroom in the main house, and myself too of course.

That table is where our snaps are put on, and where the younger girls  usually cut their cotton balls.
Right now the counter top is loaded up with fabrics, it’s not usually quite this neat. ha ha! The table is usually covered in half finished projects from cotton balls to pads, all stacked and awaiting serging or snaps.

The cabin is newly finished, and we’ve had our place for sale for quite some time, which is why everything is pretty neutral, and there’s no pictures on the walls. If this were a cabin I would be using long term, there would be MUCH of my photography ALL over the walls. Believe you me!

For now, we remain inspired by the windows. Big beautiful windows which I absolutely love.

To the right of this photo you can see where I have my machines. The bare table is where our eldest daughter and I do all the fabric cutting. This table is normally covered in fabric cuts, waiting for me to sew them together. My favorite place to work is at the serger, right in front of the window.

Would you like to see the view I see as I work/sew/serge?

I really am blessed to have such beautiful views everywhere I turn.

On the left side of our cabin is an area we’ve deemed the children’s nook. This is where our children do a lot of their book work (we homeschool) and their reading. They also keep their dolls and some other toys in here, and LOTS of coloring supplies. They often use the round table for coloring as well.

It wasn’t always this way though. Often people will exclaim how ‘lucky’ we are, but this has only come from a LOT of VERY hard work.
The cabin we work in now, certainly didn’t look this way when we first purchased this place, and it was a FAR cry from being somewhere that I could work in! Here’s what we started out with.

     

We’ve come a long way, and we’re glad to finally be done and enjoying the fruits of our labour!
At one time, our entire business was crammed into our tiny house. And yes, for 7 people, it is tiny. Just over 600 square feet downstairs, and just under 600 square feet upstairs! We were all VERY glad when the cabin was complete and we were able to move the fabric, and machines out of the house! We feel very blessed indeed!

I’d like to take a moment to thank everyone for your generous support over the past years. We truly appreciate you, our loyal customers!
Without you, Homestead Emporium and our  Homestead, would not be the same!