DontBlameTheBacon

We are three sisters who share a love for bacon and all things creative. All our items are handmade and many feature repurposed materials. We’re hoping this shop will inform our work — we want to learn from our customers — and take our creativity to new places.

A note on our name: It's awesome, we know, but we also understand it's a bit elusive. So, here's the story.

We started talking about opening an Etsy shop about a year ago, but took our time putting the pieces together and could not settle on an appropriate name. Names are important. And if they're good, they make people curious. And so when we were trying to label this thing that represents us and our work, we spent a lot of time over-thinking it.

Then this summer our dad had a heart attack. It caught us off guard and slowed us down. And, as we were processing what had happened, one of us suggested that our beloved bacon may have been a contributor to dad's heart issues. To that suggestion, Ren quickly responded, "Hey, don't blame the bacon."

Something about that line stuck. Ever a bacon-loving family, it wasn't just our allegiance that made us admire the quip. It represents an understanding that sometimes the reasons behind the things that happen in our lives -- the bad and the good -- aren't so simple. Even if our blame is justified, we shouldn't get stuck on it. Sometimes the healthiest way to respond is to move forward and to find outlets for processing and expressing the things we experience.

The week our dad had his heart attack and subsequent surgery, we all worked through the shock in different ways. As we spent our days in waiting rooms, a few of us found creativity to be an outlet and started to funnel some of that energy into getting this shop off the ground. And "Don't Blame the Bacon" became our moniker.

We hope our shop inspires you to keep your head up -- to recognize the good in your life, to latch on to it, and then to create some more.