Rooted Soles

Popped in to see .sallade today at her studio. Custom fit her painted sandals and finished them on the spot! Felt good to see an adult and make something. I love the small dots she choose for me to paint. Thanks for the order and letting me make in your studio today Laura!





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The work must continue until we live in a world where EVERY SINGLE PERSON has the same rights, protections and opportunities.

I’m no longer spending time engaging with people to try to get them to understand, to get them to care, to get them to realize that their personal gain and their personal experience isn’t the most important. I’m not trying to change anyone’s mind. It’s way beyond that. I’ve continued on the journey and left you behind. If you say All Lives Matter, if you think Breonna Taylor’s sentence makes sense, if you think the president is a savvy businessman who is draining the swamp, if you’re still talking about Hillary’s emails, if you’re not wearing a mask, if you cashed your stimulus check but bitch about hand outs— I’m leaving you behind.

What I am focused on is connecting with everyone that already believes and getting them to do MORE. To take action, to vote, to donate, to examine themselves and take responsibility for their part, to change. Because I believe when you get down to it, there are more people who believe in the two signs in this photo than those who don’t.

I don’t post this to center myself. I post because the momentum in the white community is waning and that can’t happen. DO NOT shrink back into the comfortable ambivalence your privilege affords you. Spend your energy where it is most effective. Do not get caught up in efforts that drain your energy and don’t promote change. Need a tangible way to help today? Donate to and reach out to 5 people to make sure they have a voting plan.

Well well, who is this handsome guy?

Meet Dusty! If you came out to last year you got to meet him, which is where this photo was taken. Dusty and I have been together for 15 years and married for almost 11 of them. We met at a bar I worked at in college.

Dusty is one of those annoying people that can basically make anything with his hands and does it extremely well. He grew up on job sites and worked as a foreman for his father’s construction company. He climbed towers. He’s a furniture maker and an incredible craftsman. He currently works for a high end custom furnishings company out of Philly. He has a passion for manufacturing technology. He single handedly glued the soles for all my kids’ boots for the first 3 years and cut many many outsoles by hand for me.

He can be funny, though he fully embraces dad joke humor. He’s a fantastic father to our two kids. He likes “drinkable” beers. 🤔He’s cautious and can be reserved- in many ways we are a perfect balance of one another. He believes in me and he believes in us.

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And so it is incredibly exciting to finally be envisioning a brand that we will build together. A brand that will help create a lifestyle we’ve always wanted for ourselves. And we’ve decided to share the building process. We aren’t going to wait until everything is perfectly executed and we are ready to launch. We are going to share the entire journey. And we can’t freaking wait!