The Queen of Poms: Meet Stacey

Without a doubt, two of the most popular questions we get are, “Where do you get your pom poms?” and “Are they faux fur?”.

Well, our pom poms are definitely faux fur, and to answer the first question, we buy approximately 90% of our pom poms from Rose&Purl.

At Tuula Collective, we always strive to support as many small businesses as possible in everything that we do, and we are SO EXCITED to work with Stacey again this year. 

We recently had a little chat with Stacey to get to know her better, so let’s dive right in!

Tanya: You’re a mom of two littles and run a successful small business. Knowing that every day is probably different, what does a “typical” day in your life look like? 

Stacey: I don’t know if there are any “typical” days in the Usborne house haha. We have two young girls (15 months and 3.5 years old) so things are usually go with the flow. Most days while the girls are awake, I don’t do much work. If anything, it’s usually printing shipping labels or social media posts. Otherwise all my work gets done after they go to bed.. or the (very very) rare time when they’re both napping.

A typical work night will include anything from cutting fabric, sewing and stuffing pom poms, to knitting orders (with a little selfing knitting thrown in there).

Tanya: You and I laughed when I mentioned chatting about work-life balance. While it can be so hard to achieve when running a small business, what do you try to incorporate in your life to try to achieve some balance with your work and personal life?

Stacey: This is such a tough one, and for a few reasons! For starters, evenings are pretty much the only time I work on Rose&Purl…I definitely struggle with not constantly thinking about how to better and grow Rose&Purl. Keeping my work at night helps keep our day to day routine closer to normal (as normal as it can be with two small humans) and lets me focus more on the girls during the day. It doesn’t help that my husband also runs his own business, and from home. We both struggle with walking the fine line between work/life balance. 

Tanya: How did you start your business? What was the first product that you offered?

Stacey: I started Rose&Purl when my oldest, Leah, was almost a year old. I needed something that was just for me, that didn’t involve “momming”. I had first learned to knit when I was in high school and hadn’t picked it up in years. I wanted to make Leah a baby blanket she could have forever. The knitting bug spiralled from there and I hopped onto the knit hat train. From there I purchased a faux fur pom pom on a whim, but was never super impressed with the quality so I started searching how to make my own. It wasn’t until the fall of 2017 that we started selling faux fur pom poms. Although baby blankets were the first item I sold,  I actually don’t sell baby blankets anymore and our hat selection has expanded significantly since then.

Tanya: What trends are you seeing in faux fur pom poms? 

Stacey: I don’t think that they’ll be going anywhere. I think that people are still loving the look they give their finished products. I’m seeing a lot more bright coloured pom poms instead of the more natural colours. This isn’t totally up my alley, so I have a hard time getting into that.

I tend to lean towards greys, browns and creams - with the odd pink and rainbow thrown in there. Every now and then I’ll grab a sample of some fun faux fur and throw a poll up on our instagram stories to see what you all like! Personally, I’m a sucker for the perfect neutral pom pom.

Tanya: I’m curious - which one is your best seller and which one is your personal favourite?

Stacey: Fawn is definitely our top seller, with silver fox as a close second. And actually, fawn is my favourite too. It’s the perfect brown and in my opinion goes with everything!

Tanya: What’s one of your goals for this year? What can customers expect to see from you for the upcoming season?

Stacey: My number one goal for this year is time management. Since the time I have to work on Rose&Purl is limited to evening and the odd few hours on a weekend, I really want to work on prioritizing my time better. Thankfully this is something I’ve been working towards all year so I’ve already made strides in this direction!

You can check out more about Stacey and Rose&Purl by following her on Instagram @roseandpurl!