Milso Owned Small Business: Love and Lettering by Katie

Hi friends!

I hope everyone is staying warm and cozy and had a fabulous Thanksgiving. Julia and I have been swamped with networking, creating new products for you guys, and hosting online vendor events. BUT we are never too busy to showcase amazing military spouse owned businesses! Today we have the pleasure of introducing Katie from Love and Lettering!

Katie's love story is so cute and almost serendipitous. Katie met her husband, Ben, when they were both freshmen cadets in Air Force ROTC in Milwaukee. Apparently, they actually grew up living 20 minutes apart from each other, but hadn’t met until college! Although Katie did not end up commissioning into the Air Force due to a medical diagnosis, she DID end up meeting the love of her life, and the rest is history! They got married just a few weeks before graduating from college, meaning Katie has been with Ben for his entire Air Force career!

Katie and Ben have been married for 13.5 years. They have two amazing boys - ages 5 and 10; as well as a 14-year-old chocolate lab named Tootsee. Katie is also a Registered Nurse! She's currently not working as a nurse while she focuses on her small business. She's also certified to teach indoor cycling, and currently teaches 3 spin classes a week on the Air Force Base where they currently live. What can't she do?? They've been stationed in California, Montana, Louisiana, Arizona, Alabama, and are now stationed in South Dakota. Katie says that she really started getting into the military lifestyle more recently:

"It wasn’t until the last two-three assignments that I really dug into military life and learned as much as I could about the different resources and benefits there were for military spouses. My own experience with the EFMP program and the referral process from having an autoimmune disease has also proven very helpful with navigating Tricare and sharing that with other military spouses. Military spouse life can be difficult at times, but I’ve found that there are truly some phenomenal resources out there that can help you find your tribe, figure out the complexities of military life, and so much more!" Katie recently started her business after their most recent PCS in June 2020. Due to the pandemic, Katie and Ben made the decision that she would put her nursing career on hold to stay home with their kids and homeschool for the year, especially since they just weren’t sure how the school year was going to shake out. Katie decided that was as good a time as any to take that leap into entrepreneurship, and she started listing a few items on her Spouse-ly shop such as stickers and hand-lettered prints.

Love and Lettering by Katie, features hand lettered prints, wood signs, waterproof stickers, mirror affirmation stickers, ornaments, and most recently fitness and seasonal clothing, mugs, and water bottles. Katie loves to take custom orders and bring an idea to life, especially acrylic and watercolor paintings! Her items are sold on the platform, Spouse-ly!

Katie is a pretty popular person. Recently, she was featured on the Podcast Veteran Voices by Supply Chain Now with Scott Luton and Monica Fullerton where she talks about how you can't pour from an empty cup. How cool is that?? You can listen to it here: https://supplychainnow.com/military-spouse-and-entrepreneur-vv41/.

She's currently working on all of the prep work for her holiday collections - we can't wait to see what she has brewing for the holidays! I'm pretty obsessed with her designs personally, she's incredibly talented!

Want to get in touch with Katie? She can be found on insta: @love_and_lettering_bykatie, on Pinterest at @loveandletteringbykatie or by email kmprill19@gmail.com. Additionally, you can purchase her products at spouse-ly.com/store/love-and-lettering-by-Katie.

I hope everyone is staying warm and staying safe while prepping for the holiday season!