At the age of 16, I had a dream to open an online shop selling modest ladies' clothes and dolls' clothes, and my original idea was to call it Sweetpea Gifts and Goodies. After thinking it over, I decided that I could put the doll clothes under that name and sell the ladies' clothes under the name of Sweetpea Garments of Grace. The idea kept growing when I thought of selling other handcrafters' work, and Mama and I came up with the name Willow Ranch. I bought products off her that she had sewn many years ago but wasn't able to sell at the time, and divided them under my different business names, as well as asking my brother Daniel, who did woodwork, and Auntie Bets, who did knitting, if they wanted to sell their products through Willow Ranch. Daniel coined the name Outback Hut to sell his products under, which has today developed into both Outback Hut (here and here) and Outback Electronics. Auntie Bets was all too pleased to have another outlet to sell her products, so Betsy's Boutique quickly took its place on Willow Ranch.
I finally launched the business in November 2021 after just finishing home-school at the age of 17, and very excitedly posted my first order the very next day. But business did not take off like I was expecting, and I was rather disappointed. Then in June 2022 we had to start packing to move house because the property we were living on was going to be sold, so Willow Ranch went into storage for a while. We left our home in September 2022, but we didn't have a house to move to because of the housing crisis at the time, so we lived in a tiny little cabin on the church property for about 5 months. Then we were offered somewhere else to live, so we moved north to the place where we are currently living. I picked Willow Ranch up again at the end of last year, after we had settled in here. It's slow progress, getting a business to take off. I have listed my products on eBay in an attempt to market Willow Ranch without spending lots of money.
In mid- to late 2023, we built ourselves a 4.8 x 4. 8m studio to house all our sewing supplies and workspaces for our sewing and office work.
Welcome to the studio!
Here is the front of Willow Ranch Studio with a custom-made sign hanging next to the front door.
As you step inside the door, our sewing workbench is to the right, and to the left around the corner where you can't see, is our office desk. On the far left of the room are floor-to-ceiling cupboards, full of fabric. Straight ahead and underneath the table in the centre of the room are drawers where we store our notions and haberdashery items. The table is custom-made, stretching about 2.4 x 1.5m with adjustable legs so we can change it to the perfect height for whatever project we happen to be working on.
On the back door is a mirror... (You can see the office desk too, on the far wall)
The rocking chair makes a wonderful place to sit and hand-sew, with a lovely view out the window!
The sewing table where we do most of our work has a window above it to let in lots of light.
The view out the window is beautiful!
I store the Willow Ranch products in boxes on shelving in the storage room next door...
We enjoy working in our little sewing room... With air-conditioning for the heat of summer, which also works as a heater for winter, and lots of storage for organisation, it's a very cosy space to work in - and the beautiful views out the window make it even better!
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