09/04/2026
Hi! I think something that normally isn’t pictured with a small business is the nitty gritty behind it all.
The sitting on my office floor at 1am after already working a full day, trying to figure things out as I go. Wanting to make more, do more, learn more. Dreaming about someday having a little studio filled with things I’ve made and designs I’ve created, while right now I’m just working with what I have and figuring it out along the way lol.
The truth is, this stuff takes time.
I’ve always been creative and I think I’ve wanted something like this for as long as I can remember. But I’ve realized the thing that brings me the most joy isn’t even just making things. It’s seeing someone else love something I made. Seeing someone wearing it, putting one of my stickers somewhere, buying something as a gift, or just connecting with something that came out of my brain.
I actually made my first T shirt design in 2013 for an art class and I remember how cool it was seeing other people walking around wearing something I created. I really haven’t thought about that in years until now.
I’ve stumbled in and out of this little creative world so many times since then. I officially put a name behind it and opened my Etsy shop as Slightly Bitter 5 years ago, and it has been a LOT of figuring things out through trial and error.
And I’m still figuring it out.
Tonight that apparently means learning what emulsion is and how the heck I’m supposed to burn a screen 😂
But this little reboot of my shop has felt different. I’ve never been this consistent or put this much of myself into it. I’ve started taking bigger chances, getting into apparel, trying things that scare me a little and just telling myself I’ll figure it out.
Maybe it is a silly little dream, but sitting here at 1am still wanting to keep going after a long day at work makes me feel like maybe it isn’t.
I genuinely smile packing every order. And every person who buys something, shares my stuff, comments, shows up at a market, tells someone about me or just supports what I’m trying to build means so much to me.
I have SO many things I want to make and so many ideas for what I want Slightly Bitter to become. Sometimes I wish I could skip ahead to the part where I have that little studio, orders lined up to pack and designs selling out. But I know that’s not how it works.
Things take time.
And I really hope one day I can look back at this, sitting in that studio I keep imagining, with a business that has grown into everything I hoped it could be, and smile because this is how it started.
On my office floor at 1am, making mistakes, learning scary new things, working with what I have and just believing enough in this little dream to keep going. 💕✨