Three years ago I launched CAKE&WHISKEY from my mint-green 1940’s kitchen table. Two years before that I was covered in sticky, sugary fluff helping my son run his mail-order marshmallow company. Earlier still I was taking custom orders for handmade bags and aprons that I would sew from that same kitchen table into the wee hours of the morning while my babes slept. And before that, I was a star seller on eBay, making ends meet with the sale of vintage DVF dresses and Hanna Andersson jumpers. Interspersed in that decade, I was writing fresh content for my blog and navigating my way through the world of freelance writing.
Whew!
For those years, while my little ones napped or played with blocks, endless loads of laundry tumbled in the dryer and Sami and EJ’s latest drama on Days of Our Lives unfolded in the background (ahem), I worked from home. And what I found is that it is both amazingly glorious and enormously grinding…usually simultaneously. Self-discipline became my bedrock because distraction reared its head every hour of every day. Self-affirmation became my closest friend when there was no one to give me the high five I deserved. Self-motivation became the skill that I eventually mastered, because without it I would be out of business.
This issue is an homage to women around the globe who are doing some really amazing things in the world of business, right from the home offices, kitchen tables, front steps, snuggly beds and cozy nooks of their homes.
Some are doing so by choice, others because there is no other option.
Some are corporate, others are entrepreneurial.
Some stay barefoot while others are breaking out their Frye boots to board a flight.
Some are wanting to make their mark. Others look for no fame at all.
What proves to be the thread that connects them all is calling the comforts of home a perk of the job.
Gone are (most of) my days at the mint-green vintage kitchen table. Today I sit at a real office desk with swivel chair. I have a business mailing address and hold meetings in a bona fide office space.
There are days I miss the routine of pouring a fourth cup of coffee from my own coffeepot and listening to Grover’s latest mishap on PBS from the other room while my kid drops more Cheerios into the couch crevices. I miss doing squats and jumping jacks between emails, prepping dinner at 2 pm instead of 6:30 and having a girlfriend drop by for an unexpected visit. I miss letting my mood dictate my work hours (Shutting off that too-early alarm with a promise, “I’ll just work late tonight.”). I miss my marathon wearing of yoga pants (You really CAN wear UGG boots with a sweater and 2-day-worn yoga pants to Starbucks and look PERFECTLY legit!). Most of all, I miss Sami and EJ.
Okay, okay…I tease.
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