(Pictures jacked from Eric Nolan’s blog and Kristin Hubick’s Facebook page.)

After months of planning and coordination, dozens of meetings, nights and weekends spent flyering and gathering inventory and supplies, a week of 16-hour days and one final non-stop 36-hour marathon push, Homespun is open. The Wife and I are sleep deprived, humbled, and proud, which is how I imagine we’ll feel in about seven weeks when Amanda brings our son, Zeke, into the world.

It’s been a wild ride since the first Handicraft Exchange in 2007. The fair has metastasized from 38 vendors in the Irving Theater to 100+ vendors sprawled throughout the Harrison Center for the Arts and the surrounding property, from a single annual event to as many as four a year. In 2009 we started talking, only half seriously, about opening a craft boutique but the response we got at Pecha Kucha 7 made us believe it was a real possibility. We entered the Pepsi Refresh challenge on a lark and thanks to voters, we won a grant which put money in our pockets and landed our mugs on national television. Family, friends, neighbors, and strangers pitched in through Kickstarter, and a number of people donated time and energy to helping us build the store out. The support we’ve received has put us in a position to succeed. We can never fully articulate how we feel about all of you but here’s my feeble attempt.

Thank you mom and dad Mauer – without you this store doesn’t exist, period. You helped us up every time we stumbled and took care of us when we were too busy to take care of ourselves. You offered constructive criticism without discouraging us and believed in Homespun even when we weren’t convinced we could make it happen.

Thank you mom Rader for pitching in the last few weeks, when the white box really turned into a store.

Thank you Karli Kujawa-Smith for creating Homespun’s visual identity and producing our beautiful marketing materials, stationary, etc. Thank you Travis Smith for the IT consults. We’re not mad you two are leaving but we are a little sad.

Thank you Nikki Sutton for making Homespun pop, for figuring out a way to seamlessly integrate retail, gallery, and teaching space and made it inviting for people of all kinds. The space is gorgeous and unpretentious, just like the objects that we sell there.

Thank you Larry White at the Small Business Development Center of Indiana. You saved us months of stress and took the guesswork out of opening a business.

Thank you Ryan Page for giving us a clean canvas to work on and for solving so many problems on the fly.

Thank you Eric Nolan for making a sign that grabs the attention of passersby and tells them in an instant that something different is happening at 5624 E. Washington St.

Thank you Chris Foster for the workshop tables.

Thank you Carl Leck for painting our logo above the cash register. It’s one of the things in the store that people are commenting on consistently.

Thank you Steve Koers for helping us do the things we didn’t want to hassle with and for not killing us with billable hours.

Thank you Dan Huffman for making Homespun safe and secure and for helping me reconstruct our front door.

Thank you Frank and Jon of Umlaut for tackling the task of turning 12′ concrete forming tubes into shelves. Your creativity, flexibility and diligence should instill confidence in future clients.

Thank you to our new neighbors Ryan and Jessica Thomas for bring water and soft drinks to our grand opening party. Who knew that we’d need more than beer?

Thank you Clay & Staraya for being cheerleaders.

Thank you Indy Star, Metromix, Nuvo, Indy Monthly, the Broad Ripple Gazette, Clear Channel Indy, and WFYI for sharing our story.

Thank you Aubrey & James, Sherri, Amy, Mandy, Megan, Lori, Nich, Brooke, Megan & Tim, Lynne, Melissa, Becca, Chris Vannoy, and Damon for pushing, pulling, lifting, moving, taping, painting, washing, wiping, chopping, and screwing Homespun together. If we forgot someone who pitched in, we’ll make it up to you. Thanks.