Tag: Strawberry Swing

Benay Shannon, Restless Spirits Distilling Company

‘HERstory’ roundtable distills women entrepreneur’s restless spirits into June 4 celebration

By Tommy Felts / June 2, 2022

When women are at the helm, there’s herstory to be made. A new Kansas City-based conference hopes to showcase it.  “The Sewing Labs proudly presents, Make’n HERstory, a celebration of women who use their creative muse to make a living and a life,” the nonprofit organization said, teasing its Saturday, June 4 conference experience.  The…

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Anne Lewis Marzette, Easy as Pie; headshot photo by @pilsonphotocoop

Dough-re-mi: Choir teacher’s pop-up pie hustle bakes her second verse from scratch

By Tommy Felts / January 24, 2022

On any given weekday, Ann Lewis Marzette can be found in the classroom, teaching and training students in the Kearney Middle School choir.  But when the clock strikes 3 p.m., she trades sheet music and scales for mixing bowls and measuring cups, embracing a side hustle that has her singing dough-re-mi — while customers serenade…

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Nicole Paul (aunt), Asia Lockett (sister and co-owner), Ebony Paul (co-owner), and Stephanie Fairweather (aunt); Brown Suga Bakes

‘People eat with their eyes first’: Why pop-ups were just a sample of this new bakery’s appeal

By Tommy Felts / January 12, 2022

Brown Suga Bakes began modestly — selling cookies out of lunch bags mid-pandemic, said Ebony Paul-Harris, detailing a strategy of starting small to achieve big results. In her case: opening the oven to a brick-and-mortar bakery and storefront in Olathe. “In the beginning, we used to make really small cookies. We also had a sample…

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Annie Austen; photos courtesy of Annie Austen

Annie Austen reinvents herself as a KC jewelry maker without tarnishing her influencer brand

By Tommy Felts / December 14, 2021

To reshape her 2020 “blahs and feelings,” social media lifestyle influencer Annie Austen picked up a pair of pliers. She’d been collecting jewelry-making kits for years — but never committed to putting the jump rings, clasps, charms, and other pieces together. An Etsy shop launched with her younger brother, Matthew, changed everything, as the two…

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Shop Small: Five ways to give makers a smile as wide as the person opening your gifts from Shop Local KC

By Tommy Felts / November 24, 2021

Editor’s note: Startland News explored Shop Local KC in Midtown as part of the newsroom’s five-part holiday gift guide that highlights locally owned shops and the makers within them. The items identified here were curated by Katie Mabry van Dieren, the founder of Shop Local KC the Strawberry Swing Indie Craft Fair. Featured stores, makers and…

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