#1,853 Baker Painting + Kristen.

This afternoon, my friend Laura, a potter and painter, showed up at my shop with a big surprise.

You recognize that smiling face?

She’s started doing these amazing, colorful, vibrant dog portraits that people are going crazy over. She’s building up her collection of them, and I was the lucky duck who got a freebie just for having a smiley dog. Don’t you love it? It’s sitting right over Ben’s desk now, and he swears he can hear Baker’s panting every time he catches the painting out of the corner of his eye.

I’m also feeling so very thankful for making a new friend in the stationery world, who also happens to be a Mississippi sister. Kristen, the owner of Thimblepress, has been such a help to me today—walking me through the way she processes orders with her own website. I’m learning (particularly fast lately) how amazing it is to make these kinds of connections with other small business people who are kind of doing what we’re doing… It doesn’t feel like we’re winging it so much.