We have to ask, do you have a story behind your company name?
My company name comes from the name of two of my boys, Fox and Hill. I had another baby boy in 2020 so we joke that he is the "baby" in Fox Hill Baby

That is so cute! Tell us more on how you got started?

I originally started my shop in 2011 after my first son was born as a way to make extra money and work a little less then at my full time job. It ended up turning into my full time career. Over the years I took classes on surface pattern design so am now able to not only sew all the items, but also design the fabric I use.

That sounds fun!

My favorite part of my process is designing the prints! There is something so exciting about taking something you drew and seeing it come to life on fabric.

What inspires you to create?

I am very inspired by my children. I love to design cute and playful prints that make them say "awwww!" I'm also inspired to create items that are made in America and stand out from the crowd.

Do you have a favorite item you have created?

My favorite item I create is our clothing. The organic knit I use is milled in the USA and my designs are printed on the fabric by a company in North Carolina. I love that I am able to make an organic product completely made here in the USA. Plus the fabric is unbelievably soft and cozy!

Take us through a typical day in the studio for you?

As a maker who is also a mom to 3 boys, my studio time is split between taking care of them and sneaking in time to design or sew. I'm definitely in that nap time hustle club at the moment!

In prepping for Jackalope, what will you be bringing to show in Olde Town Arvada?

I will be bringing cozy organic baby and toddler leggings, t shirts, hats and bibs as well as baby loveys, blankets and big kid blankets.

What did you miss most about in person events?

There is nothing like connecting with people in person! Instagram is great but I'm so happy to see people in real life again :)

Us to! And final question, what do you love most about Colorado?

My favorite part of Colorado is absolutely the mountains. My husband proposed to me on the top of Pikes Peak and now we love to spend time in Rocky Mountain National Park with our three boys.

That is so sweet. We can’t wait to see you in person this September 18th & 19th when Jackalope takes over Olde Town Arvada. See you soon!

Where to see more of Fox Hill Baby:

Website | foxhillbaby.com

Instagram | @foxhillbaby

1. How did you get your start in the handmade community?

We started our business together as friends and moms of toddlers going to the same Waldorf school, where we were first exposed to needle felting and all things wool. After spending a lot of time together making things for fun, we decided to sell them to a wider audience. We were so excited when were accepted into our first local craft show! Here we are four years later. We feel very excited to be a part of the handmade community and among so many talented designers.

2. What do you feel makes your work unique and truly your own?

With us you get two creative brains for the price of one! The two of us collaborate on every creative decision and we always agree! We loooove color and texture and beauty, aren’t afraid to let our creations be whimsical and even...<cough>..cute. We aren’t trying to take someone else’s work and do it better, we are making things we’ve never come across before in the needle felting medium. We are always learning and exploring and best of all we are having fun doing it!

3. What or Who Inspires you?

When receiving custom orders often the person ordering will offer many intimate details about their lives and their children’s lives. These gems are sources of amazing inspiration to us as we feel so honored to be a part of their lives, if for just a moment. We are inspired by fairy tales and stories. Visually, we are inspired by beautiful children’s book illustrations. Colors and textures will get us purring like kittens. The creativity of other artists of any form are always inspiring.

4. What is your creative process like?

We start with discussing the client's wish list of ideas and each of us pulling from our inspirational Pinterest boards or books. Then we come back together to collaborate and sketch out a design (or two). Whichever one of us feels more passionate about the design usually creates the actual crown.

5. What is the coolest artistic tip you have ever received?

To trust ourselves and our creative eye.

6. What can we expect to see from you at Jackalope?
We are working on some new crown and wall hanging designs exclusively for Jackalope. We will have coin purses, slippers, mobiles and home decor as well.

7. Where can we learn more about you?

You can follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter (mirthdesignsstudio) as well as our website mirthdesigns.com

1. How did you get your start in the handmade community? 

I got started in the handmade community in 2011. I had just had my first baby (Hill) and was back at work in my social services job 6 weeks after he was born. I decided to open an Etsy store to sell baby blankets with a goal of being able to stay home 1 day a week with him. I met that goal within just a few months and was able to quit my full time job the following year, just 18 months after I opened my store.

2. What do you feel makes your work unique and truly your own?

I have always enjoyed the process of curating the fabrics I use in my store to pick fun and unique designs that would be hard to find anywhere else. I also very recently have started to design my own fabrics and am currently making the transition to just using my own designs. I have them printed on various base fabrics through Spoonflower, which is an amazing digital fabric printer located in North Carolina. I love that I can keep most of my supplies made in the USA. You won't find too many in my online shop as I am making that transition because I am stocking up for the Jackalope show while selling off my current inventory!

3. What or Who Inspires you?

My biggest inspiration are my two boys, Hill and Fox. I would have never had the guts to quit my job and make my living as a creative if not for my extreme desire to be home with them. They also get to test my new products and help me decide what is the best kid approved stuff for my shop. 

4. What is your creative process like?

My creative process starts with sketching my ideas/motifs for a design and then taking them in to adobe illustrator to digitize them and set them in to a repeat. Once I am happy with the colors and scale I upload them to Spoonflower who then ships me my awesome new fabrics!  All of the cutting and sewing is done in my home studio, where you can find me sewing while watching Supernatural, Dr. Who, The Office or any British mystery show. Netflix is my best sewing friend!

5. What is the coolest artistic tip you have ever received?

The best tip I have ever received was in an art business class, and it is something that you hear all the time. It was just to be yourself. Nobody else sees the world as you do or is going to draw (or whatever creative thing you do) the same way you do. You don't have to try to appeal to everyone because if you are true to yourself you will find your people :)

6. What can we expect to see from you at Jackalope?

I am bringing blankets for babies and big kids, clothing, bibs, burp cloths and bags.

7. Where can we learn more about you?

You can follow along on our instagram @foxhillbaby and shop our online store foxhillbaby.com or find us on Etsy

1. How did you get your start in the handmade community? 

My mother taught me how to sew when I was about 7 years old and I never stopped.  I made my entire wardrobe in high school and my first job was at a bridal shop altering wedding gowns, bridesmaid dresses, and even my classmates prom gowns.  After college, I moved from a small town outside of Pittsburgh, PA to Los Angeles where I made a career for myself in the fashion industry as a production manager, product developer, and fashion designer.  I started my first business, Iron Doll Clothing, when I was 26 years old making uniforms and athletic apparel for roller derby skaters all over the world.  And then, like most stories, I started a family and was forced to scale way back on everything I did.  I let go of my first business and returned to being a fashion designer for someone else's small business.  While the fast fashion day job paid the bills, it lacked personal creativity and expression.  I yearned to be hands on, back at the sewing machine, and often day dreamed of the little outfits my mother sewed for me as a girl and the special bond it created between us.  It became obvious that a girls clothing line was the perfect side business for me and my family.  In August 2016, I slowly started to explore Etsy, local markets, and began following business bloggers who focused on helping handmade businesses.  The handmade community was absolutely fascinating to me and honestly a little mind boggling.  I seemed to have the opposite problem of most makers.  Having a background in mass garment production, it's very easy for me to figure out how to make 100-1000 of the same thing.  I was used to working with employees, I had pricing knowledge, product development experience, and understood wholesale very well.  But I couldn't really wrap my brain around producing and selling on a smaller scale.  And yet the intimacy and personal attention given to each piece, each customer, really called to me.  Spending quality time on design was why I fell in love with sewing in the first place and I wanted those feelings back in my life.  I started both an online Etsy shop and a Shopify shop and immediately signed up for several local Spring markets - all before I really even had finished product to sell!  But it motivated me to hit the sewing machine hard and soon my first Spring collection was released early 2017.  Even now I continue to fall in love with the community, the people, and the customers.  It's a very unique and loving place to be.

2. What do you feel makes your work unique and truly your own?

My husband, Jorge, comes from a family that's been in the pleating and stitching business for two generations.  He owns an 11,000 square foot facility outside of downtown Los Angeles called ACE Pleating & Stitching and does specialized fabric manipulation for the garment industry, costumers, and high end fashion designers.  He handles the complex machinery and technical steps that bring my visions to life.  If a machine doesn't exist to accomplish the look I want, he can Frankenstein one together for me.  I have the eye for fabrics and colors as well as the skills to bring our customers high quality, well fitting garments.  Our daughters are our models, our inspiration, and our number one product testers.  It is a combination of artists and family that make our clothing so unique and personal. 

3. What or Who Inspires you?

Family.  My mother, father, husband, and my girls are my biggest inspiration.  My parents both worked full time jobs and still managed to raise two kids while enjoying hobbies like building their own house and growing their own vegetables.  Artists at heart, they had a hands on, do it yourself approach to everything.  Their work ethic and creativity runs through my blood and I'm so proud of all they have done and continue to accomplish.  My husband is the same way, hard working, very attentive to details and getting the job done right through quality over quantity.  And our two beautiful children, viewing the world through their eyes brings fresh perspective and beauty to our surroundings.  Everything is new to them and it's really forced me to slow down and take in the world around me.

4. What is your creative process like?

I'm a very visual, paper and pencil, trial and error kind of person.  I have to see the finished product in order to make design decisions.  I love scrolling through fashion photography, lifestyle brands, and magazines.  I feed off the emotions imagery projects and hone in on those trends and ideas.  Then I create mood boards of colors, silhouettes, and photography that inspires my collections.  And finally, I hit my studio, drafting patterns, cutting samples, and sewing.  I'll repeat the sampling process, tweaking the patterns, cutting and sewing new samples until I am satisfied with the final product.  It's a very tedious process, but completely worth it when I hear a customer notice and praise every detail I put into the piece.

5. What is the coolest artistic tip you have ever received?

I have never forgotten this quote from Gwen Stefani talking about her time spent working with Prince She [Gwen] explained: "Prince, who is one of my idols, gave me some advice when I worked with him, 'Have you ever just tried writing a hit? Like, don't just try writing a song, try and write a hit song'. I remember him saying that and me thinking, 'Yeah, you're right. Why would you write anything else?'"   (I just spent 15 minutes on google trying to find this quote, because I wanted to get it just right LOL).  Whether it be my career or my personal creative adventures, I'm not here just to make clothing, I want to create something that makes people so excited they can't stop talking about it.  They love it so much they recommend it to their friends and it becomes their favorite go to piece.  I design so it evokes emotion, memories, and they can't live without it.

6. What can we expect to see from you at Jackalope?

Jackalope attendees can expect a fun, minimalist booth filled with whimsical infant and toddler girl's clothing made from fresh organic cotton prints and textured fabrics featuring our signature modern smocking. They will be able to see and feel in person the pieces we have in our online shop as well as a few "exclusive to Jackalope" handmade pieces!  Shoppers can easily find the perfect handmade gift of clothing for that special little girl in your life.  Or perhaps if they are due to update their family photos? If so, expect the perfect outfits for photos that will help tell the story of your family for years to come.  And finally, you can expect a warm welcome, a heart filled hello, and a good conversation from me, Rachel, the maker.  I love to talk about handmade, family, community, and I look forward to making new friends.

7. Where can we learn more about you?

My favorite meet up is Instagram, search for @duchessandgoose and you'll find beautiful lifestyle photography, outfit inspiration, and lots of emojis.  To see close ups of our clothing or to learn more about me and my family, visit our online store at www.duchessandgoose.com  I also make special appearances on facebook, pinterst, and etsy also under @duchessandgoose

1. How would you describe your style? 

Girly vintage whimsical! I'm an Interior Designer and retired to stay at home with my two littles. That need to create and work with colors was killing me so I dove into this full time. I LOVE pretty much ever style. So you will find I'm quite eclectic! However at the Boutique shows I try to rein it in to a particular theme.

2. What do you feel makes your work unique and truly your own?

Because I'm not stuck on one style I find that makes me a bit unique. My styles are always changing with what inspired me that week or that season. 

3. What sort of things inspire you?  Where do you look for inspiration?

Honestly it's like a hampster wheel in my head! I can get inspiration from anything! Something as small as a ribbon can excite me and then the wheels start turning. "This ribbon will work perfectly with my stripe skirts and I'll make a shirt to match!" I find myself dancing in Hobby Lobby a lot! 

4. When do you feel the most creative? 

In the morning with a good latte or at night...I'm a bit of an insomniac. 

5. What's the coolest artistic tip you've ever received? 

The eye can make a color work. When I was in school to get my degree I bought a wine colored chair with intentions to recover it because my room was more orange, but the chair worked out amazingly to my surprise! A local artist and I were talking about this and she told me that,  "the eye can force a color to work even if they don't match perfectly." This is so true and it actually makes things look more interesting if everything is not matchy matchy. I've used this thought in my creations all the time! 

6. Where can we learn more about you?

My Instagram is the best place to learn more about me at: Lollipop Chic Bowtique. 

Where does your inspiration come from?

    I'm inspired both by nature and myths, I love travel and adventures.  When working on paintings and art I try to integrate that experience of adventure or the unknown with touches of home and nature.  When sewing I create or choose textiles that reflect my experiences or ideas.  I create wearable art, I find things I enjoy and talk about them or integrate them into my pieces.  I guess I'm inspired most by everyday life, any my work is a reflection of the 'things' I find valuable.

When do you feel the most creative?

    I feel most creative when I'm creating. I usually need to be alone, sometimes with music, and then remind myself what inspires me, if there are recent images from a trip we took or thoughts I had while traveling, I look at my journals, research images and get to it.  I find that when I'm creating, I completely lose track of time and can stay up all night just drawing or sewing.  I think painting is my favorite which is why I paint each silk screen by hand instead of using photo emulsion techniques, it's what separates my tee shirt fonts apart from other designers.  Each and every shirt is screened with my bare hands and handwriting.  There is something magical about creating with our physical bodies, don't get me wrong digital has it's place too, but you can feel the love of something handmade. 

Where can we learn more about you?  

    I have my blog hawksandhoney.com  where you can find out more about my everyday life and projects, adventures and thoughts.  I'm all over the place, I like to keep busy and the blog is a space for me to document all things worth sharing. You can also find me overgramming on Instagram @jenniferlindschutsky.com where I post too many photos of my favorite people, places and things.