Summer Pop Up Shop!

We are having an in studio summer Pop Up Shop!

Please join us, June 29th, 10am-2pm.

We will have our entire collection available.

Plus, new colors, special edition bags, seconds bags and tiny clutches!!! 

Come see where your favorite bags are made, meet all of us and shop the pop up!!

Looking forward to seeing you there!

xxo,

Wendy

p.s. find the facebook event page by clicking here.

things to come

We will be updating The Carrier collection this week...keep an eye out!

xxo,

w

June + we are moved

We have finally finished our move to the new house.
This week I began my new hour long commute to the studio.
When I left for the studio this morning at 6 am, it was 37 degrees.
12 minutes into my drive I cross over Lake Arthur.
The 70 degree and overcast day yesterday, with the drop to 30 degrees during the night, led to this incredible scene.
I may have made Parker a few minutes late for school to stop and take this photo but, we both felt it was worth it.

What can we say... we're human and mistakes happen!  As a result, we have a few slightly less than perfect Moop bags and we're making them all available to you at a big discount. 

25% off Seconds Bags starting now, until they sell out.  

Enjoy!

xxo,

Wendy

Messenger no.1

Don't forget Father's Day coming up.

Messenger no.1 is our favorite bag for the men in our life.

xxo,

w

Raspberry Cocktails

It seems only a week ago temperatures were fluctuating between very warm and very cold but we have turned a corner and it is now hot. Yesterday it reached 91 and today is expected to be somewhere close.  So, last night we made tacos and raspberry cocktails.  Here's my recipe:

using a mason jar add:

8-10 fresh raspberries

8 fresh mint leaves

2 oz tequila

muddle until your mint and raspberries are nicely busted up.

fill your mason jar with ice.

screw on lid and shake 32 times.

top off with strong ginger ale and a straw.

sit on porch.

enjoy!


p.s. to make this non-alcoholic, simply leave out the tequila and replace with seltzer.

On relationships...

I just read the news about Kathreen Ricketson.  She and her family went away for what was to be a year long vacation, adventure, learning experience resulting in a book.  But, shortly into the trip, she and her husband drowned while swimming with their children.  I am so shocked and saddened...I just can't imagine...

One of the things I have learned the most from running this business is that it is not just for me, but has always been about the relationships, conversations, organic processes of growth, development and change surrounding it.  An unexpected reward has been to get to know the people who carry the bags we make in our studio each day.  The attachment of phrases like "made with love" to a handmade object can be both kitschy and artificial, but, in reality, a relationship begins when you purchase a bag from us. Whether we start a conversation or not, you are carrying around something that we personally made. We all come to the studio each day and, while working, share the stories of our lives. Our daily conversations about life's problems, joys and excitements, shared over the hum of our machines, is all a part of the process of making our bags. Often, I receive emails from people who recognize this and share their own stories of change, growth and adventure that their Moop bags were able to tag along for. I love these emails more than anything.

Kathreen was one of these people. She carried several Moop bags and we became part of her stories of personal experience. Kathreen was a huge supporter of small, independent and handmade communities and has had an impact on more people than she ever knew. For a business like Moop, it is these personal references and promotions that are the most meaningful and impactful and have helped us build our customer base one person at a time. Building a business this way is slow and making a career out of a life of making will not likely make you the wealthiest person in the neighborhood, but it will create a life that you are in love with living. This is why I continue to do what I do. 

While it is easy to share in happiness, sharing in sadness and loss must also happen and I felt I needed to share this for Kathreen. She and her husband's unexpected passing has left their children without parents. A trust fund has been set up by family members in the name of their children to help pay their expenses in the coming years. Every small bit we can each do will make a significant difference for Kathreen's children and will help to celebrate in memory her dedication to a life well lived.

MOOPSUMMER sale!

We are so anxious for summer! These freezing May days have us wishing for warm summer nights, campouts, pool side soirees and fireflies! We're hoping the release of our newly updated Backpack helps to nudge those warm days along.  To celebrate our new bags (not only the Backpack...but, checkout the new orange Letter Clutch!!) please enjoy 10% off everything in our shop from now through the weekend with the code: MOOPSUMMER entered upon checkout. Fingers crossed it starts to warm up! xxo, Wendy p.s. sale code is valid only on moopshop.com or moop.etsy.com and is good from 3/14/2013 through 3/19/2013. Not valid with any other offers.

On dieting

I am a snob when it comes to diets...meaning: I don't diet. I eat right (whatever right means), we make most everything from scratch, we eat vegetables at every meal, we never ever eat fast food (this is true) and we exercise. We also eat out (never at fast food places), bake cookies, make cocktails, eat french fries and really thoroughly enjoy our eating habits, which in turn makes us enjoy life..we do stuff, we hang out, we make things. It's pretty great.  But, give me a blog about a specific diet or a story of a person dieting and I will read it all the way through.  Mainly because we have a few food allergies in our house (not sensitivities, but full on allergies, the kind that make you have to go to the hospital if you have certain foods) and I like to see what other people are doing, the neurosis that ensue when you limit what you eat and the recipes. But, I also find it incredibly annoying when people with gobs of money and loads of personal assistants give advice on how to live and eat "right" because, sure, if I had a personal chef, $5000 a week to spend on groceries, someone to clean my house, take care of my kids, run my business, dress me each day, brush my teeth for me, etc. I would eat "right" all the time, too.  So, when I read this article on The Cut, I laughed a lot.  

And, just like the author, I felt superior.  

Then, I wanted to buy the cookbook. 

Because, I need it for my collection.  

Also, I have nothing against celebrities. 

Especially when they're good at what they do (hello, Royal Tenenbaums!).  

Plus, Gwyneth should know that the name of her blog sounds a lot like the name of my business....we should team up.

Good morning

We are not completely moved in to the new house. But, several nights a week we've been staying up there.  It's hard not to. We just love it so much.  During the week when we stay up there, Parker and I get up at the awful hour of 5AM in order to get her to school on time (the new house is an hour north of where we currently live).  

This was the 5am scene this morning.  

It really turned awful into awfully beautiful.