Hi guys! It’s me, Patricia, the owner and boss babe of Winnie Lu. It’s been a hot minute since I created my first two blog posts (um, 2017 I think? Oops!), and lately I’ve been itching to have a place outside of social media to create and write again. So here I am! Life gets busy, ya know? But I’m so excited to get my fingers typing again and share even MORE content, inspiration, pretty products, a few thoughts, and motivation with all of you! 

So here it goes…

How about we start with another introduction to who I am and why the heck I’m qualified AT ALL to run a business, tell you what you should buy, or be in your social media feed everyday. Haha, I promise I do kinda know what I’m doing! 

1. I grew up in Iowa, lived in 7 different towns throughout my childhood due to my Dad’s job (manager with UPS), and my last move was as a junior in high school to Denver, CO. That was quite the experience coming from small town Iowa!
2. I went to Iowa State University, and I have a bachelor’s of science in history and a minor in sociology. I also studied and played music extensively with the ISU wind ensemble, symphony orchestra, and the Iowa State wind quintet. 
3. Although my degree is in history (I also studied and interned with Iowa State Museums during my undergrad years and post college), my love of retail kind of fell in my lap when I needed a job after graduating and the store in the mall was the first place that would hire me!
4. Over the past 9 years I’ve worked as a sales associate, sales floor management, backroom/shipping coordinator, eCommerce website manager, and a social media manager. I’m just a jack of all trades over here! Oh yeah, add BOSS and CEO to that growing list :) 
5. Needless to say, I have the experience and knowledge to back up what I do! I’ve put in the time and hard work to be able to be in this position now and get to create a community with all of YOU!

Enough of the serious stuff. How about a few fun personal things now?

1. I’ve been married for almost 8 years to my husband Bryan, he’s a former aerospace engineer turned sales engineer (I know, don’t ask me how that happened, haha!), and we have two pets. Winnie, our black lab, is 4 and Luna, our tuxedo cat, is 6.
2. We’ve lived in MN now for almost 8 years and we never want to leave. Anyone else out there feel that way after moving to this beautiful state.
3. I enjoy exploring the outdoors, bike rides and running, fishing, hiking, ANYTHING and everything on the North Shore, a great patio dinner, decaf coffee, decorating our house, and spending time curled up on the couch with Bryan and our pets.
4. Fav coffee - vanilla latte from Mocha Monkey in Waconia, MN and the Cafe Miel at Smith in Eden Prairie, MN. I’m a bit of a Miel connoisseur so you can trust me on this one… and Penny’s coffee shop has the #2 Miel option. Ugh, I can’t get enough!
5. We just sold our first house last week and now we’re building!! Woohoo! So lot’s of house updates are coming your way soon!
6. My favorite thing to do right now is come outside to our deck in the mornings and enjoy the warm weather and sunshine with a cup of coffee.
7. Also, I love summer and I HATE winter. Why do I love Minnesota so much? 

A few final thoughts…

Needless to say, but the past four months have been so difficult on everyone including myself. Between a pandemic, racial tensions (especially here in MN), and running a small business, I’ve been a tad bit stressed. Something I keep reminding myself is to continue living everyday to its fullest and trying to give myself a little grace. At the beginning of the stay at home order here in MN, my personal life took a backseat to my business, and now that has flip flopped and my business has taken a backseat to my personal life. Things change everyday (almost every hour it seems like!) and the best thing we can do is just learn to ride the waves. For me, it’s the waves of emotions that are hard to control. One day I have a long list of sales come in and deliveries to make and I’m jumping around in excitement. The very next day sales are down, there’s bad news coming from every news outlet, and I just try to keep it together mentally. 

So my advice for today? Ride the waves, do something that brings you joy everyday, and just take a moment to pause and reflect. We’re all in this together. 

Xoxo, Patricia