So Mostly I Love Everything. SMILE.
Hi, it’s Chinwe!
The So Mostly I Love Everything Market & Co., or The SMILE Market, was originally an Etsy shop I ran selling handmade greeting cards.
The name is a little odd, but it represents our belief that most things can be loved—joys and sufferings—through God who is the Good in all things. In fact, the only things that can’t be loved are sin and evil.
In college, I put a pause on my own shop and pursued a non-profit to help other creators sell their work as well. We sponsored artists’ booth fees to sell their own work at craft fairs, while providing them mentors and workshops throughout their experience.
Supporting artists and hand-craftsmanship on the foundation of virtue.
It was great to see both the positive impact on the artists, and how their pieces themselves began to represent The SMILE Market. Eventually I found myself surrounded by a team that would help promote the business and its growth; however I was with a support system that made me apprehensive discussing the topic of values and the principles we would stand on. More than anything, I felt forced to advocate for more modern ideas of morality— ideas I thought undermined the notion of love, family, and true happiness I have treasured from my Catholic faith.
So I started over.
Encouraging tactile crafts are at the core of what we do, and now we are rooted in the True, Good, and Beautiful. TSM is transparent in our goal to stand apart from a culture that is hyper-focused on pleasure, and to build a crafts marketplace focused that is re-imagining how to better help craft businesses, while focused on virtue.
And that’s the story (so far). Thank you for all the support, and please share with others.
Peace!