This is a tiny house. They have solar panels and compost toilets, so you can park anywhere. I see some amazing tiny house dinner parties in my future.

Have you ever said to yourself, I could be doing this so much better? Those words rang in my head as I decided to pack everything up and leave California.

I love California, but it’s not a pet fashion town, and my entire business exists online––––with ninety percent of my clients living east of the Mississippi. I missed so many great opportunities in 2018 because I wasn’t on the east coast. From New York to Florida, pet fashion thrives. I needed to be there.

So I rented a 6′ x 7′ x 8′ pod and spent a month figuring out how to get my apartment to fit in it. West Hollywood won’t allow storage boxes on the street, so I hired a moving company to get my stuff to the pod. We got there and I freaked out! Even though I’d been a total nerd, using a design program to diagram out every square inch of this oversized suitcase, the thing just looked so damn small. Like if you had a walk-in closet this size, you’d say, walk-in–––really?

A universal truth: empty space is deceptive.

Everything fit!  With my tiny Fiat packed to the gills, Woofie, BeaR and I set out on our four-day journey across what is truly the most beautiful country in the world. I felt my mind expand as I pulled away from the safety of my old life, drinking in the different color pallets and landscapes each state offered. After forty hours of driving, we pulled into my mom’s driveway in Pennsylvania.

She’s getting old, and she’s been the biggest supporter of my entire crazy life, even when she believed I was making massive mistakes. She always had faith. With her entering her ninety-fourth year, I wanted to be there. I could make it work. NYC is an hour away, Atlanta and Florida will be a fun road trip. finally I’ll get to meet in person all of the lovely people I’ve worked with online over the past 7 years.

I emptied what would become my room, ripped up the carpet had new floors laid down and set up an amazingly functional studio for both designing and photographing the pups, the clothes… come what may.

Lola with Fiona and Jade Belmont. The dress is vintage organza and taffeta with appliquéd flowers on it. I cut out some flowers and sewed them on a lovely linen and silk twill.

What’s next? Twinning!

My business took a turn a couple of years ago, where more interest came from Instagram than from Facebook. I have become pet stylist to several influencer pups. I’ve taken solid steps to expand on that.  Before I left California, I wrote a couple of articles for pet magazines. I want to build on that, along with my love for twinning, topping it all off  with several people / matching pet charity shows. The big dream: to make that tour an annual thing, taken in a 16′ tiny house. That’s a dream with a lot that has to come  before it, but without dreams, you just get old.