If you haven’t visited our site yet this spring you should. A lot has changed. There are two additions to the workbag line-up, including the Zip-tote

and the Workhorse
.

We also have introduced new “greener” materials, including ecofriendly kvadrat cotton and bark-tanned suede.

In the mood for fall, originally uploaded by A Page.

Sometimes you need to take your work with you, even when you are stopping in
at the pumpkin patch. We are enjoying the colors of fall.

Hanging out in at Jackson Lake Lodge, originally uploaded by A Page.

You never know where you might see one of our bags. This one was found resting in the glow of the fireplace at Jackson Lake Lodge. I can’t say that it was doing too much work. It was full, however, of cool vacation items like a pair of binoculars, a camera, a notebook, pens, maps, and various other “must-haves” for a Yellowstone/Grand Teton vacation. Where will we spy our next bag?

Along comes the Maharam slim computer bag from S.STEIN. If you have not experienced the beauty of Maharam wool yet, you will be completely bowled over by it’s beauty. Sherry has spent countless hours in the studio, making one prototype after another, until she finally landed on this. It also comes in a variety of suede colors.

Our bags have traveled a bit over the last year. You would never believe the sites they have seen.

The green toolbag checked out a very cool UFO watchtower in Antonito, Colorado.
And our new toolbag checked out Monument Valley.

Bags not pictured here went to various wonderful places, like Ecuador, Aspen, New York, Miami, Mexico, and Spain. All in all it has been a good year for the old bags at S.STEIN. We can’t wait to see where the new ones will go!

Jude in the garden

Originally uploaded by A Page.

I stopped in to visit my friends Judy and Michael the other day, and found Judy out weeding in the garden, and guess what she was wearing? It’s true, one of our toolbelts. She loves it!

I was organizing my shelves of bag samples from the last two years the other day and realized I had this fascinating trail of design samples leading back to the first ideas for the Toolbag - from the “what WAS I thinking” to the “ok, this is starting to go someplace”, to “awwww, i wrote “love your work” on the back of this bag!!”

its been hard work (but we love work, don’t we??) but a fun and
fascinating journey, birthin’ the Toolbag, which started the S.STEIN Workbag line. So, I thought my friends and customers might like to see some of the Toolbags journey so I took some product shots of some of the Toolbag and Gearbag “babies” so my friends and family
can share my obsession! xoxo sherry

You probably know that Sherry and I are business partners at a distance; she lives in Santa Fe, and I live in Portland. Which one of us has the better end of the deal? I can tell you that I am green with envy, and it is not just the moss collecting on my north side from endless months of rain, or the pallor of my skin. I complained enough this winter that Sher decided I needed a bag to go with my emotional state, my complexion, and my springy green environment. Introducing…Shamrock, available in early May.

Spring into spring with a bag that that carries the tools of your trade, and lets you fade into your environment (if you live in the Northwest as I do), or helps you stand out in a crowd (if you happen to dwell among the muted hues of the high desert as Sherry does). Wherever you live, this bag is a breath of fresh air, one that you will never want to leave home without.

Please let your friends know about our incredible bags. You could change someone’s life.

We are busily working on laying the foundation for our new company that extends the S.STEIN brand into an eco-friendly line of products. Sher and I each held focus groups at our homes with friendly audiences. Our other partners will be doing the same in the coming weeks. I invited a ton of people to mine, and was hoping for a mix of men and women, but ended up with women only for one reason or another.

My group was fascinating. One topic we discussed was work, and what work is. The work that the women don’t get paid for outstrips the work they do get paid for by many times. All of the women in my group were engaged in teaching of one sort or another as part of their paid work. I might add here that none of them do this full time because their other responsibilities in life require that they are there for those. One woman had no children at home, and the rest did. Some of the common threads of unpaid work were:

cleaning, of course
tutoring
volunteer work (mostly related to child rearing but not all)
driving (kids in modern times need to be driven everywhere)
organizing
social coordination–all of the women were married and responsible for coordinating social activities.

I found myself relating perfectly to all of these jobs.

I usually feel lucky compared to other women I know because my husband cooks and does laundry. He never has, to my knowledge, cleaned the toilet, but he does vacuum from time to time. When he isn’t traveling for work, or isn’t at work, he shares car duty. Nonetheless, he is a man, and as I was talking to these women in my dining room last night the point hit home quite succinctly.

A couple of the women who came to the group brought their children with them. That was fine. If I wanted them there I needed to accommodate kids too. Ken said he would look after them, and set them up with a movie to keep them out of our hair. Not five minutes into our discussion, the screaming and laughing voices of children drowned out our own voices. I went to see what was going on. All four of the kids were playing in my office of all places. I pushed them out to the great room, banishing them from “our” half of the house.

I wondered where my fabulous husband was. So, I went hunting. I found him stretched out on our comfortable bed reading a novel, completely oblivious to what was going on anywhere else in the house. I tried to remain calm. “Ken, can you give me a hand with the kids?” He seemed confused. “I mean, you did say that you were going to keep them contained.”

When I returned to my group I could feel my anger welling up. When is the last time that I stretched out on a bed to read a novel? I know, it was the last time I went on a trip without my family. I should add that he has just returned from a three week long trip to Brazil where he was studying concepts of time on the beach of all things. Clearly, he learned the lessons there all too well, and has not adjusted to the hectic pace of family life in the northern climes.

So, in the end, I am just like all of these other women, and my husband isn’t any better than any of theirs, but he does do laundry and cooks. The next group I do is going to be all men. I am dying to hear how they define work and how work defines them.

Surprise of all surprises. Advertising actually works! I don’t mean advertising in the conventional sense. We did sign up for Google adwords and all of the usual stuff. What works the best is advertising by word of mouth. And guess what else? It costs the least. It costs the least but requires the most insistence, and the most work. Every day I sit down at my computer with the goal of finding just one convert, one person who will click a link and visit our website. One person who will think that our products are cool–which they are–will post a tidbit on their blog about us, and kaboom, we get a few orders. Amazing.

Sherry’s life there in Santa Fe is a bit different that mine, since she is the main woman (I’m kind of the behind the scenes gal–the one building the set; she is the star on stage). You can tell she is really busy–going berzerk– because she doesn’t have time to post to our blog, although one day we hope she will. She is there working to fulfill orders, designing new bags, and doing whatever else needs doing on the production end, including paying the bills. I, on the other hand, have the luxury of living my life online.