ABOUT ME + MY STORY
Shoutout to my perfect Insta-husband who always helps me take great photos.
HEY THERE
BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE!
Many of you are friends and family already, but for those of you who have never met me, let me introduce myself! My name is Khirstie, I’m 26 years old, I’m married to my mountain man of a husband Jacob, I’m a dog and cat mom to Kodiak and Hippo, and I’m an avid creator of all things and a bohemian soul. I am the owner and the face behind Artisan & Co, although you’ll often see Jacob behind the booth at our pop up shops or helping me pour candles like the amazingly supportive husband he is. We currently live in Lacey, WA where we are spending our days lost in adventure as often as possible and are finding who we are in this new era of our lives together.
I started this business first out of a need for affordable natural skin care and a curiosity about how everything in the world is made, but also as a creative outlet for my emotional health. Although I’d been building up to it for years, I officially launched Artisan & Co. in 2017. Back then things were pretty scatterbrained, with everything from nail polish to gemstone bracelets and cat photos. Today, it’s still totally scatterbrained, but I finally know who I am as a creator and while I have a million different product ideas at one time I have one definitive creative voice behind everything. I create so that others can have something beautiful and uplifting to look at or use or wear to encourage them through the rollercoaster that is life.
Let me get real for a few minutes and let you in on a little bit
about my childhood and how I got to where I am today.
I was born in Landstuhl, Germany to two incredibly strong and unique parents, and grew up as a Military Brat bouncing around from state to state with my grandmother June in tow. The first 18 years of my life were spent with my head into books and art projects and absorbing as much as I could from as many imaginary worlds as possible. I’ve always been socially awkward and introverted and I’ve struggled with depression for much of my adult life, but I’ve really come out of my shell in the past few years with the help of some amazing friends and family and being able to focus on my passion and building this business.
Family has always been my number one priority since day one. Both of my parents are these incredibly career driven and immensely intelligent people who always wanted to provide more for me than they had growing up and sacrificed by working long hours and dedicating their lives to our country. My dad spent 26 years in the Air Force and continues to work in civil service and my mom has spent decades as a government contractor. They were always off to some crazy place like Djibouti, Africa or Germany or were working on projects I still to this day will never understand. But I was never alone, because my amazing grandmother (my mom’s mom) came to live with us to help raise me when I was 2 years old. While my parents were making sure there was always food on the table, she was always making sure I had something to do with my hands and taught me everything from cooking to sewing and knitting to painting and writing and more. My grandmother was born and raised in the Highlands in Scotland and was a journalist, poet, artist, and OG feminist. All together we were dysfunctional and we all had our own problems, but we were a family and supported each other in whatever way we could.
I was already spiraling into a dark place in high school and had absolutely no idea who I was as a person. I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia when I was 19 and was dealing with the slap-in-the-face reality that comes with that. It only got worse when my grandmother, who was basically my second mom, passed away from lung cancer not long after. But her last words stuck with me and while it was hard, they got me back on track and headed into the direction I was meant to be. The very last words she spoke were “don’t cry, only smiles.” It seems so simple, but for anyone who’s ever been in a dark place or experienced loss, you know just how hard it can be to smile when you feel like doing anything but. I’ve repeated those words to myself every. single. day. since. I was working on a double major in Psychology and Fine Art at the time at the University of Mary Washington, but realized that the only thing I really knew in life was that I loved everything there was to love about art and holding some form of paintbrush, graphite, or tool in my hand. I dropped my Psychology classes and poured everything I had into my BFA and have never looked back since.
Jacob and I met while at UMW, fell head-over-heels for each other and we’ve seen so much life together since. We’ve been together going on 8 years and he is my best friend and all around favorite person in the world. He understood the inner battle I was going through in ways no one else had. Since we met, we’ve weathered all kinds of storms and survived everything from my Fibromyalgia diagnosis, to the loss of my grandmother and a few friends and pets, to my parents separation and divorce, and the disownment by his parents. It’s been one hell of a ride. BUT, we’ve also had some pretty amazing wins too, from the fated day we met, to falling in love with our adopted furry babies, to getting married, to starting a business together, and to dropping everything back in Fredericksburg, VA, renting a moving truck, and driving literally across the country to find ourselves calling our favorite place to travel our home. And through it all, I’ve just kept repeating, “don’t cry, only smiles” and we’ve just taken everything one step and one day at a time.
You might be wondering what any of that has to do with starting this business. Let me fill you in.
Since the very beginning, I’ve always known I wasn’t cut out to work for other people. I’ve always been headstrong and stubborn, and my brain works like an internet browser with too many tabs open at once all day every day. I’ve had a handful of super random jobs, from babysitting and nannying to freelance graphic design and after completing my BFA, I worked as a Creative Director and graphic designer for a tile distribution company. While I loved the work I did, I was never happy with where I was going in my career. I didn’t have the flexibility to explore all the things I wanted to create and all the passions I wanted to explore. I realized the only way I was going to be happy in my work life, was if I was working for myself and set right to making that a reality. At the beginning, I worked 3 jobs all at once just to make my vision of becoming a business owner happen, and my saint of a husband put up with my lack of time and energy and grumpiness while doing so.
Before the business really became a thing, I had already dug into all this research on how to make my own skin care products and I’d grown up learning how to make jewelry from my mom and grandmother. After finding out I had a chronic illness, I became obsessed with finding ways to keep from getting more sick and really started paying attention to what I was putting into and on my body. I had always had issues with skin sensitivities and allergies to things like Shea Butter and many preservatives and I realized that I wanted to know exactly what was in the products I was putting on my body. I began making my own facial oils, lotions, cleansers, bath salts, even my own makeup and because we were ballin’ on a budget as newlyweds I was making my own jewelry for every occasion that called for it. I started to share the things I was making with my family and friends and people started offering to pay me to make all of these things for them and that was when I realized what my business was meant to be! I started a website and social media pages and signed up for my first pop-up markets and set to work building Artisan & Co. I became the Artisan behind all of my visions, and the Company became every outlet from skincare, to inspirational jewelry, to candles, to photography, and more and will continue to grow into every new product vision to come.
Because of the support of my amazing customers and how quickly they helped my business grow, I was able to quit my job and go full-time with my business within the first year of starting out. You all helped me get to where I am now, and there are only greater and greater things to come.
I still everyday struggle with my emotional and physical health, there is so, so much to the story of my life and my family’s life that’s left out here, but every single day I’m working and striving to be better. I’m so excited to be able to have this business, all of these little pieces of art that I create, and now this blog to be able to share the journey of life and joy and love with everyone.
