A Personal Reward of Sorts

Hey, I got a tattoo! Nope, not my first.  It is actually my 3rd tattoo.  My first was when I was 16 and my second at 18.  Needless to say I am not overjoyed by either of them.  They don't have much meaning, other than the reminder that I was too young to think the whole, "lifetime commitment" thing through.  But this tattoo has been 2 years in the works, thinking, imagining and working...HARD.  So, as the title states, my 3rd tattoo is a personal reward of sorts. 

At the beginning of the year I decided to set some goals for my business.  One of them was to get some local recognition.  Community is very important when running a small business.  My first year of business brought a lot of exciting opportunities nationally and internationally but Wind and Willow Home was not recognized much in the Minneapolis, MN area.  In short, early in 2013 I was able to partner with some amazing local shops, Forage Modern Workshop and the Walker Shop.  Through these two local partnerships my products caught the eye of Midwest Home Magazine and to my surprise (jumping up and down joy) they decided to put a photo I had taken of my neon pink 7" bowls on the cover in addition to featuring my products as "Best of the Twin Cities 2013".
Wow, what an honor! Up until this point I was taking all of my sudden product success with stride, keeping my head down and working as hard as I could, keeping in mind that if I got too exited it could all go away.  After reaching this set goal it was time to give myself a little reward.

The original design was drawn by the talented artist Paula Mills of Sweet William.  I had fallen in love with this drawing about 3 years prior.  I love the softness of the overall drawing and the intricate geometric detail in this piece.  I had wavered between this and some other designs but every time I found something new I always compared it to this light as a feather print.   After contacting Paula to make sure it was OK to use her design,  I met with Jason Solarz, a talented tattoo artist at Outta Place tattoo in Northeast Minneapolis who had been recommended to my husband by one of his friends for his great talent (and environmental design & architecture degree...line weights are quite important here) and the design was in progress.  We had to modify it a bit to be sure the detail was sufficient for a tattoo of this size.Three painstaking hours under the tattoo gun and...

Light as a feather by Paula Mills of LovelySweet William

I am thrilled with the results so far.  I still have to go back for some final touch up but man, this really made wearing my swimming suite even sweeter this Summer.