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A Little Life Update - 2025 Edition

A Little Life Update - 2025 Edition

BEFORE READING: please note, this was hard for me to share because it involves more than just my story. It's been hard for me to open up lately as I want to make sure and respect the privacy of everyone involved. Please be kind.

Dear reader, 

I have felt called to write this for some time. If you’ve been following me for a while (I’ve had my account and business for nearly ten years) you’ve seen me go from a confident, shopaholic open book to a bit of a recluse, struggling often to know what to share and hurdling over business and personal obstacles.  I plan to write this blog as a train of thought post and am sorry for any typos or lack of brevity. I’m not much for structuring my writing or pre-planning, I’d rather share as I was speaking with a close friend as many of you have become to be.

Although I describe my past self as an open book, there’s a lot of my story I’ve kept close to my heart. I grew up a mostly only child in a close knit family. I had an ideal and adventurous childhood, attending a Montessori school set in an expansive arboretum. I’ve always been independent and sort of a loaner, struggling with relationships which I now understand to be attachment issues. Friendships have always been difficult for me to maintain, I always feel misunderstood and retreat back to the safety of my own company. My heart has always been anxious, majorly so, and I’ve always been an overthinker. 

My life became chaotic as a teen, my family unraveled at the seams after my great aunt and uncle committed double suicide. My father who I have always adored began struggling with addiction, and I did everything I could to seek help and support from a community that was frankly unwilling to acknowledge the problems. The dysfunction of my household led me down a path of pretty consistent trauma as I sought to find myself. I am survivor of sexual, physical and emotional abuse and as an adult have now been diagnosed with CPTSD. I struggle with migraines and often physical ailments which I understand now often times go hand in hand with trauma.

One of the ways I have always coped with my metal health battles is through creativity, mostly in the form of art making. As a child, I took every art class possible. I dove deeply into drawing in my youth. My dedication led me to being offered a full ride to a private art school in Portland. I had always wanted to attend school in Los Angeles but was too afraid to move from home and frankly knee deep in some deep traumatic events. The week I went to college, my dad checked into rehab. This bizarre combination of events left me feeling very lost and confused. I attended my first week of classes and immediately felt out of place. I barely passed my first year of school and attempted to drop out the following summer. My family encouraged me to return, and I spent two more years in a city I didn’t love with few friends, a shitty boyfriend, and what feels like a blurry set of memories. Despite my college experience not going as I had anticipated, I landed a job at Nordstrom and an internship in textile design. Both experiences helped me find myself, and at least pointed me in the direction of where I wanted to be going.

The third summer of college, I landed myself back in my hometown and had no idea what I was doing with my life. A few months later, I was living in my parents home and had freshly dropped out of college. I found out I was pregnant. My oldest, Paloma, was born premature and I can honestly say that no life experience has shaped me as deeply as motherhood has. I felt a sense of love and purpose that I had never had before. When she was a little older, I went back to work at Nordstrom and shortly thereafter (ten months to be precise) I discovered I was pregnant with my son, Orlando.

At the age of 23, with both a toddler and a baby, I told my dad I wanted to start a business for myself that combined both my creativity and retail experience. I had a few friends who had successful brands on instagram, and I hated the idea of putting my children through daycare. I started my company with a few thousand dollars from a SNAP loan and my grandmother. I printed locally on American Apparel tees but had bigger goals of manufacturing my own apparel. My business was booming, within about six months I was selling out. I worked closely with my manufacturer and visited LA several times to learn all there was to know. He was a great mentor and taught me everything I know now. I learned enough about the industry to partner with my manufacturer and quickly we built a booming business. I loved my job, I loved working with fellow female business owners and making their ideas become a reality, I even mentored a lot of my customers and helped them grow. I was successful enough to support myself and my children through what looking back was a very unstable time navigating life as a young single mother. I ended up back in my parent’s house several times, making many personal and professional mistakes. I learned through trial and error, it was really a rollercoaster.

In 2018-2019 I had my first big business boom, like big big. I worked with a marketing agency and invested in a huge amount of product, taking a loan from my business partner who had faith that I would be successful in my endeavor. It was during this time that I became a single mother. I wish I had handled that with more grace. I was so wounded and didn’t realize. It was survival mode, I look back with mixed feelings about how I handled things and the collateral damage I left behind. My brand boomed but it didn’t have proper infrastructure and my expenses were steep. With a series of errors both within and outside of my control, I ended up with a huge amount of debt. I was full of shame and worry. I vividly remember a Christmas where I took the tree down before the holiday. I had so much guilt as a mom, everything I did was for my children yet it was taking everything I had to keep going. I had no idea what to do.

It was then that I met my knight in shining armor, cheesy but true. My now husband Steven and I met right before that emotionally heavy Christmas. Things moved pretty fast admittedly, I found out I was pregnant and my kid’s and I moved into Steven’s house the week prior to the covid shutdown. I think March? If we survived that, we can survive anything. Sofia was born that November, things felt really secure and good. We got engaged a year later, and the following summer were married. The year before our marriage was my biggest year of business yet, I was on track to a million in sales. I had pulled myself out of debt and rebuilt my business. I was so passionate and excited, but my business partner who handled the manufacturing was coming unhinged. The person I learned everything from had stopped following his own procedures and we had an unfathomable amount of mistakes and issues in production. I took as much ownership as the sales position in our company, but the problems were out of my hands. It was so much stress. I worked hard to fix things for over a year, and finally walked away. My income was a less than a quarter what it was the year prior and after our marriage, our bills had steeply increased. Steven was wrapping up school during this time and planned to go into financial planning. I was nervous but hopeful about where life would take us.

The winter after our marriage, our basement flooded and my actual worst nightmare came true. I was unable to work to provide for our family. Our basement was my workspace and my inventory was mostly all damaged, half our home was gutted. I found myself trying to recover my business, struggling to financially support my family, fighting tooth and nail with insurance for a year to cover our flood bills, managing a remodel and of course the most important roles, being a mom and wife. I was drowning, deeply. I remember telling my husband on NYE that year I wasn’t sure how I could move forward. But I did. After leaving my business partner, my initial manufacturer did great for a few months and ultimately got himself in some serious debt. He ended up running away, literally, leaving me with around $20k in preorders that I had to refund. Between the refunds, lost inventory, and lost investment. My business was crippled. I dug my heels in and with everyone’s support turned around to launch one of my most successful drops ever for valentine’s day. That was the beginning of last year. I found a new manufacturer and faced a new year of challenges. I had no cash to invest, and could only take pre-orders. The pre-orders did great and so did my manufacturer at first but he was unable to maintain. Orders were late, past deadline, many refunded. It was a mess. I could hardly check my email, I had so much shame. I have always been a problem solver but there was so much going on behind the scenes. I didn’t know how to manage it all. I had felt like I was drowning the year prior, that was nothing compared to what I was facing at the time. Around this Steven was hired at a bank and started his journey into wealth management, I really hoped that would be a game changer for us.

In the spring of last year, I went no contact with my parents as a result of my dad’s long term struggles with addiction. I don’t feel ready to share a whole lot about this, and I am aware that it’s a decision that will draw scrutiny and confusion. I will tell you, it is a boundary drawn out of love for both my family (parents included) and myself. It has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I am not ready to speak on this any further currently, but it sits heavily on my spirit every day.

This year, the floodgates have broken. The emotions and trauma I have been running from for years hit me like a ton of bricks. While my business was still in shambles, I was deep in grief. We grew a huge garden and I spent months loving on my kids and husband as possible. I saw a therapist twice a week, I was doing all the right things. One day, Steven and I went on a walk with my youngest Sofia. I bent down to get her out of her stroller, she looked at me and said, “Mom, there’s a baby in your belly.” Steven and I laughed it off, but I took a test anyway. The test was positive. I was confronted with all the fears of raising another child with so much going on, so little income, and a broken family. Steven and I told ourselves it must have been meant to happen, and embraced the news. A few weeks later, I miscarried. We had just told our kids. It broke me. I  leaned heavily on therapy, yoga, and self care. I lost many friends through it all and struggled to find myself again. I strongly  identify as mom, wife, business owner but am struggling to understand the rest. I learned to appreciate what I have and take great joy in the little things. I ultimately understand how blessed I am for all that I have. I fought every day of my life this last year to wake up and keep fighting and stay positive.

You’re probably saying to yourself, omg, I can’t keep reading. When does it end? Well. Not here. Last fall, after a big chat with my manufacturer, I felt as though we had worked out the kinks and invested everything I had into two collections for the holiday. He shipped me 10% of my order and blocked me. It was dejavu, the previous year all over again. My only saving grace was paying via credit card so I was able to recoup some of my losses. I have since reconnected with an old project manager and feel good about the direction things are headed, but it is hard for me to feel overly positive without feeling apprehensive. So much has felt out of my hands, yet still on me to fix.

So here we are, today. I’m sitting in silence in the sunshine writing this all out. I feel relieved to share and also nervous about being so open. For the past year, I’ve been coming on my stories not knowing what to say and feeling like I’m bringing everyone down. I’ve now caught you mostly up, however there’s one more thing. Steven ultimately didn’t feel like banking was his calling, and I have been our sole provider since he quit in October. I spent a lot of time resisting him switching careers, but I really felt like we were swimming against our current. Steven is now pursuing firefighting like his dad and frankly I have never seen him so motivated. He’s aced all his tests and will start volunteering soon, hopefully he can land a job with the city this spring. Please send your prayers or good juju or whatever you believe in that that will happen.

Somehow, despite it all, I still have some glimmer of hope. I believe in myself and my ability to regrow my business as I have had to do so many times. Although I struggle with my very public mistakes and complications, I am proud of my resiliency and determination and so incredibly thankful for all of you that have stood by me. I know I have not been the most engaged and I thank you for your grace. If you are still reading this, thank you, from the bottom of my heart. I know many of you are struggling, especially in this economy. I wish I had more to offer other than solidarity. I wish I had more to say other than keep going. I’m not out of the weeds yet, but my gratitude and faith have strengthened deeply through all that I’ve been through. I’m slowly finding some appreciation for my struggles as they’ve taught me so much. I hope that next time I write a life update, I have some good news to share. I’m not sure what it will be, but for now I’m healing and growing and for now that is more than enough.

XO,
Blake

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How to Start Your Own Tee Company (Just Like Mine!)

How to Start Your Own Tee Company (Just Like Mine!)

BEFORE YOU BEGIN:

Sit down and spend some time dreaming up your designs, buy a fun notebook to store ideas and sketches. I recommend starting with 3 designs, which is 450 pieces total.

Our minimum order is 300 per style, 150 per design. 300 tees is about a roll of cotton, so we don’t make any less or would produce a ton of wasted material.

While our minimums can sound daunting, they are totally doable. I’ve seen small shops succeed time and time again.

Start to brainstorm about your intended audience, the story behind your designs (always good to have a great caption to pair with the tee), and whether you plan to make gender specific or unisex. I recommend starting exclusively with kid’s tees, or women’s tees. Once you’ve grown a bit, you can add from there. It’s just good to establish some kind of customer base.

Come up with a brand name, make sure the website/IG are available, and make an Inspo board on Pinterest based off the vibe you intend to create.

BEGINNING:

Let’s say you pick 3 designs, where do you start? We can recommend a ratio of sizes (18m-6y) or you can pick your own. You’ll want to nail down your numbers with us and place your order, the fun stuff comes after. We’ll get going on the cutting and sewing, and you can plan your colors and designs. We take 50% deposit up front and the rest is due at completion, about 4-6 weeks later.

Once your order is placed, you’ll want to pick your colors. This is my favorite part! We use the Pantone color system, which is basically a universal color language. Want to see your color options? Click this link and select FHI Cotton TCX from the dropdown menu. You can also download the Pantone app on your phone to pull colors from specific images that inspire you. That’s my personal favorite method. I also find inspiration by the color's names. 

For 450 pieces, 3 designs, you’ll send us your 3 Pantone colors about two weeks after ordering. Once we’re done cutting and sewing, your garments will head to the Dyehouse where they’re dyed to your specified Pantone colors.

When the Dyehouse is finished, your order heads back to us for quality control and is ready to be picked up by the printer.

FINALIZING YOUR DESIGNS

I strongly suggest starting this process with some knowledge of Adobe Illustrator or having a graphic designer on hand. I personally can help you with your designs if you need it, but will charge by the hour. You’ll need three designs for the front, as well as a design for your size labels which will be printed on the inside of your garment. You want to keep your art SIMPLE. That is my biggest piece of advice. Don’t make it too busy, don’t pick too many colors, think about how it will look on the tee. Another big mistake I’ve seen is picking art that is too similar to the color of the garment, or font that is too skinny to read once someone puts a filter on the image. You want your design to be iconic, bold, and stand out. 

Now is a good time to go to youtube and look at the process of screen printing to educate yourself a little about how the design is printed on the tee. This makes everything easier for you, us, and the printer we use. Once your designs are finalized, I’ll tell you exactly what is needed to send to the printer.

While printing isn’t our provided service, we have a great one on hand and they pick up directly from us. We’ll help you coordinate your printing, pick it up, and ship it right to you when it’s finished.

SELLING

This is a unique process for everyone, I recommend using Shopify as it is super user friendly and the templates are great. You’ll want to get a newsletter subscription to collect contacts and keep in touch with your customers, I recommend Mail-chimp.

Crisp, high resolution product photos are a must. David from Up Photo Co is great for that or you can take and edit your own. 

Create your instagram, the first posts can be your inspo board you already made from instagram. Start networking and getting the word out there, share your BTS with family, friends, and your personal instagram following. Reach out to us if you need tips or help with this part! We’re on board and happy to coach whenever we can.

Alright guys, that’s all for now! Interested in starting? More questions? Just email me (Blake) at hello@jeanandjune.com. It's a wild ride and a huge learning curve, but it’s been the coolest perk of this job to help make your ideas a reality. I'm happy to use my experience to try and make this a smooth and user friendly process for everyone, I'm looking forward to hearing from you!

XO, Blake

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A Little Life Update

A Little Life Update
Hey guys! So much has transpired in so many ways since I wrote my last blog post and I’ll be honest, at times it’s been hard for me to open up and be vulnerable about everything going on. Social media can be such a blessing (in my case my livelihood depends on it) but I think we can all agree on how easy it is to feel pressured into portraying a life that is exciting, put together and glamorous.
At the end of last year, I can’t say I was in the best place. The business was doing great, but I was working non-stop to support my family and in many ways felt as though I was swimming against my life’s current. My skin was always broken out, my energy levels were low and when I did stop working and tried to sleep at night, I’d lay there and worry about the future and all the unknowns. I have and had a lot to be thankful for, I’ve just always been one of those people who has a very strong sense of direction. My grandfather always refers to it as my "internal north star". If I don't feel like I’m heading the right way I tend to panic. This year has also brought on a ton of learning lessons for my business. If there's anything I know as a constant, it's that entrepreneurship has a way at challenging you every time you reach a place of comfort and stability. All of a sudden there were new hurdles to tackle like keeping our fabrics consistent as we grow, communicating from a distance with my business partner, and frankly just learning to keep up with a workload that exceeded the abilities of a single person (me).
Spring came, I decided to make some changes. As some of you know, I run jean and June and also manufacture for other companies. I’m still figuring out this balance, but I knew I wanted to get Jean and June on a track that allowed it to grow exponentially in a sustainable way. I signed on with an ad agency (that I’m still with) and to make that huge investment worth the risk I made sure that systems were in place to keep up with the growth I knew would happen. I found a fulfillment center from a really solid reference, that was huge. We shipped everything down to them and turned on ads. I noticed a difference that same day. It was exciting. My personal life however was a mess and had been for quite some time. As some of you know, I had been separated from the kid’s dad a few years back and we were back together trying to make things work. The one thing I’m thankful for is that when the day comes and my kids ask me if I think there’s any way things could have worked with their dad, I can give them a completely honest answer and know that I tried my hardest to make that happen. It just didn’t, it doesn’t. I’m starting to recognize more and more now how much pressure we put on ourselves as women, partners and parents. I'm also increasingly aware of other people's opinions about me, especially as a mother. Anyway, that pressure escalated to the point where I felt completely suffocated and ultimately our relationship ended after we cohabited for quite some time.
Single motherhood, man, it’s tough. I sometimes wonder if I didn’t get back together with the kids dad just to avoid how tough parenting alone really is. The juggle is so real, and so is the mom guilt. Without disclosing too much, I have my kids 100% of the time right now. I’m constantly seeking the balance between motherhood and work, and I'm so aware of where I am financially at all times. Lacking the security of a consistent paycheck makes me a little crazy at times, especially since I'm the sole provider for my little family. I work my butt off to provide the life I want for us, then feel guilty about working too much. It’s a bit of a vicious cycle. It’s lonely too, not having someone to look at or laugh with when your kids do something adorable, or to tell you to take a deep breath when the day has been long and the bedtime routine seems never ending. It’s things like this that keep me off my Instagram stories. It feels messy, raw, and frankly I’m a little shameful. I'm always wondering if people will judge me and my choices, and I hate it when people feel bad for me. I will say, the kids seem to get it, on some level. The energy hadn't been good and we’ve now managed to find a good groove. Ultimately having happy parents is in my opinion the best thing a child can have, even if that means they aren’t happy together. I recently started posting on my personal account just because I can be a little more candid there, not always worried about the image I have as the brand owner. Ultimately the business is so important to me and our family that I tend to over think things and get a little in my head. Then I become a hermit. I’ve been thinking a lot about how I can bridge that gap and share more behind the scenes. Most of my life is spent on the computer, making spreadsheets and working on emails or design. Posting stories on my laptop seems a little blazé, but I’ll figure it out. I always do. Staying engaged and authentic with all of you is so important to me. Feedback is always encouraged.
Now, back to the business, the fulfillment center crashed and burned. Really. It was a nightmare. I’ve never felt so frustrated and discouraged by any experience as a business owner. I lost money but also felt like I let my customers down. We had everything shipped back here pretty immediately after realizing things weren’t working. The same day that our two 600 pound palates of inventory arrived I lost my only employee. I rented a warehouse space and tried to get back on track, only to then place an order of 750 of the wrong sweatshirts. Whoops. Probably the lowest point of the year.
Since then, I’ve been trying to find the right pace as we’ve grown tremendously. I have gained the amazing support of my assistant Abbie who I honestly count my blessings for every day. Life is as nonstop as it was, but I also feel alive and full of purpose and opportunity. Visiting our facilities in LA is one of my absolute favorite things to do, I can honestly say there is no job I’d rather be doing. I’m hoping to relocate close to work sometime soon, it’s just about figuring out the details and making the right moves. In addition to all of this, I just signed on with a local fulfillment center that I’m really excited about, we also have a few huge orders coming in that should mean a full restock for the first time in forever. It feels like I’m finally catching up and getting my stride. It makes me truly believe that for every down there is an up, you just have to keep moving and not look back. Keep. Moving. Forward.
The thing I hear the most from people is that they don’t know how I do it. I think I mentioned that in my last post. Frankly, I don’t. Not always. I tend to throw myself into every situation and just learn as I go. I’m always failing at at least one aspect of my life, but I’m also always giving it my all and I’ve found a tremendous amount of strength that I didn’t realize I had by pushing myself through those moments of fear and doubt. Good things happen on the other side, typically.
I’m so thankful for all of you that have supported, encouraged, or just been here with me for this journey. I am certainly human, no matter how polished I try to appear, and I’ll always be willing to share as much of my story as I can. We’re all learning, right? I hope there’s a thing or two I’ve shared that you can relate to, or learn from, too.

XOXO, BLAKE

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Made in LA

Made in LA

One of my absolute favorite things to talk about is our manufacturing process. The first time I visited LA and stepped behind the scenes, I fell in love with everything about it. When I started my company, I knew I wanted to be involved in the manufacturing process. If I was contributing more "stuff" into the world, I wanted to feel good about that "stuff". My trips now to LA are always a whirlwind; the whole process behind the fashion industry is so gritty, nonstop and not at all glamourous. I love that about it, though. It feels great to be immersed in the energy. I'm going to walk you through a summary of every step behind our tees and sweatshirts, I hope you find it as fascinating as I do. 

STEP ONE: CUT

First things first, the fabric. We have a few fabric suppliers we work with. We use all cotton, no synthetics (they won't dye properly). The fabric is knit in LA, typically from yarn sourced from India. The fabric arrives in rolls and is delivered to the cutting facility.

When we start an order, the first things we need to know are a. What are we making? b. How many are we making? and c. What ratios are the sizes? That last one will make more sense in a little bit. But for an example, let's say we are going to make 300 women's sweatshirts. We typically make 50 XS, 100 SM, 100 MED and 50 LARGE. That's a ratio of 1-2-2-1. This will make more sense when I talk about the next step. Once we have all the information, we send it over to our pattern-maker and she prints out what's called a marking. It's essentially a guide for cutting the fabric pieces, you can see it pictured below: 

Essentially, If you have a ratio of 1-2-2-1 over 300 pieces, you're going to roll out the fabric in 50 layers. The sizes with a ratio of 1 are going to be cut once (50 pieces), sizes with a ratio of 2 will be cut twice (100 pieces). That will give you the proper amount of garments. They literally cut the fabric with a saw, it's pretty cool to see.

STEP TWO: SEW

Once the fabric is cut, it's ready to go to the next spot: the sewing facility. We have our own sewing facility, you'll see it pictured below. The sewing part is pretty self explanatory. There's important details like stitch quality, using all cotton thread, ect. but I won't bore you with the specifics. The tees are sewn and then will be ready for the dyehouse.

STEP THREE: DYE

The dyehouse is probably my favorite part of the whole process. I talk about "vintage washing" and "garment dying" a lot and I'm excited to actually explain what that means in this blog post. Typically, when you buy a shirt, It's sewn from fabric that's already been dyed. That means, when you wash your shirt, you're going to end up with something a little different than how it looked when you brought it home from the store.  We use a process called garment dying, meaning our shirts and sweatshirts are dyed AFTER they are sewn. They're washed in huge washing machines with dye (or pigment) and enzymes to break them in and make them ultra soft. They're then dried before printing making them pre-shrunk.

Once the tees are finished dying, they go through quality control and are picked up by our printer. The printer silkscreens each tee and ships them to our warehouse so we can get them out to you.

We also make blank tees for other brands, for more information about that you can contact us at hello@jeanandjune.com.

Thanks so much for reading! If you have any questions feel free to leave them in the comments. 

XOXO, BLAKE

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How to Be a Mompreneur

How to Be a Mompreneur
This is my easy to read 5-step program on getting to the source of what really makes you tick and then figuring out how to bring home some bacon with it.

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