Finding My Way Back to the Workbench 🌿

Things have been a little quieter around Brooke & The Broomstick lately

I’m not someone who shares a great deal of my personal life online. This little corner of the internet has always been mostly about broomcorn, crooked sticks, old crafts, beautiful things, and whatever happens to be scattered across my worktable

But sometimes life walks straight into the middle of your plans and kicks you right in the gut

Recently, we unexpectedly lost our Golden Boy, Poker

Poker wasn’t simply a cat who lived in our house, he was our family. He was a huge personality, a familiar presence, and part of the rhythm of our everyday lives. His absence has changed the house in ways I’m still discovering

And grief is strange

One minute you’re answering an email, folding fabric, or thinking about what needs to be finished next. Then something catches you…the place he always slept, a sound you expect to hear, a habit you didn’t realize had become part of your own…and suddenly the day looks very different

So I stepped away for a little while

Orders were shipped. Messages waited. Social media got quiet. The broomcorn sat where I left it

And I let it

I think sometimes we become so accustomed to being productive that we forget there are seasons when simply tending to ourselves and the people we love is enough

I’m slowly beginning to find my way back

Not with some grand burst of productivity, but in little pieces

A bit of sewing

Working on the Worry Women 🍎

Looking through fabrics

Thinking about brooms I want to make

Walking into my workspace and actually wanting to touch things again

That feels like progress today

And while I’ve been quieter, I’ve also had a lot of time to think about where Brooke & The Broomstick is heading

I’m seeing so many new broom makers emerging, and what a blessing that is for this old craft

Every new person who picks up broomcorn, learns the techniques, experiments, teaches someone else, or simply falls in love with making helps keep broommaking alive

There is something genuinely wonderful about watching a traditional craft find a whole new generation of hands

And at the same time, I’ve started thinking about what that might mean for me

There are new things on my horizon

I’m not stopping broommaking. I don’t think that part of me is going anywhere

But I am starting to wonder if this beautiful bloom of new broom makers is a blessing in more ways than one

Maybe seeing so many new hands picking up the craft means I don’t have to hold quite so tightly to the idea that brooms have to be the only thing I make

Maybe it means there is room for me to follow the next thread

To learn something new

To make something unexpected

To let Brooke & The Broomstick become a little bigger than I first imagined

What I love, after all, is making things

Learning old techniques

Playing with natural materials

Figuring things out with my hands

Taking something traditional and adding a little bit of myself to it

And lately, that curiosity has been pulling me into other places

Sewing tiny dresses

The Worry Women

Traditional Appalachian crafts

Patterns and teaching

And probably a dozen other things I haven’t even thought of yet

There is one more change I’ve decided to make, too

Once I finish the custom orders I currently have, I’m going to step away from taking custom broom orders for a while

And I’m just going to be honest about why

My ADHD brain does not love having a custom order sitting in the background waiting for me

Even when the customer is lovely! Even when there is plenty of time! Even when I’m excited about the idea!

Once I know I have that commitment waiting, it starts to feel like a looming contractual obligation in my head

It sits there

It nags at me

It takes up far more mental space than it probably should

And eventually, something that should feel creative starts feeling like something I owe

I don’t want to work that way right now

So I’m freeing myself of that expectation

That doesn’t mean I’ll never take another custom order again. It just means, for this season, I want to make what I feel pulled to make and then offer those pieces when they’re ready

I want to create first

I want to follow the idea while it’s alive

And then I want the right person to find it

That feels much lighter to me

Maybe this isn’t a departure from broommaking at all

Maybe it’s an expansion

Maybe this is simply the beginning of my next chapter

And the timing feels right

Winter is coming, and it has always been my favorite time to settle into my crafting rhythm

There is something about colder days and earlier evenings that makes me want to stay close to home, pull materials out, start new projects, and disappear into the making for a while

Winter has always felt like a season for quieter work

For learning

For experimenting

For sitting down with an idea and seeing where it goes

So maybe this is exactly the right time to let Brooke & The Broomstick stretch a little

There will still be brooms

There are handles waiting, broomcorn to dye, patterns in my notebook, and pieces already living in my imagination

And in the future, you’ll also be seeing my new little brooming project 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎

I’m not quite ready to share all of that yet, but it has been giving me something new to think about and something new to look forward to

And beyond broommaking, I’m dusting off a few other parts of myself too

Sewing

Quilting

Woodcraft

Old skills I already know, things I’ve barely touched in years, and probably a few things I haven’t even discovered yet

Losing Poker has reminded me to be grateful for the day

Each day

Each moment

Grief has a way of making time feel very real

It has reminded me that none of us know how many ordinary mornings, quiet afternoons, or creative evenings we’re going to get

And while I’m here, I want to explore as much as I can

I want to learn things

Make things

Try things that scare me a little

Pick up old skills

Discover new ones

Make mistakes, fix them, laugh at them, and keep going

I don’t want to box myself into being just one kind of maker anymore

I want to touch a little bit of as much as I can

There are only so many days we get, and I want to be awake for mine

I want my hands in this beautiful, messy, creative life for as long as I’m lucky enough to have it

Not away from the broomstick

Just a little farther down the path

To everyone who has sent a message, placed an order, shared my work, checked in, or simply waited patiently while things have been quiet…thank you!!!!

Truly

And to my beautiful Golden Boy:

Thank you for your time with us, Poker

You were such a good boy

We were the lucky ones

💜

— Brooke
Brooke & The Broomstick