See here, I have this thing called a brother.  His name is Chris.  CHT are his initials.  That H in the middle stands for Hall which is significant because it’s Mom’s maiden name and Hudson shares it along with two of my nephews.  That H ties us up really tight with one of those hard learned sailor knots or boy scout knots…you choose.  We have quite the long history since he’s been my brother since I was born.  I’ll tell up front we can butt heads like most siblings do at some point, but we also love each other.  Since Mom died things have been hard and tricky and different and complicated, but we’re working on it.  What it comes down to though is we love each other.  And he’s my brother and I’m his sister…his only little sister in fact.  It’s a good gig being the little sister.

We’re very different individuals, but we share a creative stroke which shows its color through different outlets.  Today Chris launched a personal project called Made South.  And it’s kind of totally cool.  Being a Tennessean and living in the south our whole lives has made Chris pretty passionate about not only USA made items, but in particular southern items.  Made South searches the American South to find great things made by great people and then shares the maker’s story and product with others.

They launched today and launch days are a pretty big deal.  They are nerve wracking and exciting and it’s hard to put yourself out there in this new and vulnerable way, but when God gives you a passion and dream, fear takes a back seat.  I hope Chris will really enjoy this ride.

I’ve already signed up.  In fact, I was up bright and early this morning signing up and I got to be the first member.  Chris text me, “Well it’s only fitting that you are the very first member…”.  I like that.  So now that I’m all signed up, starting in March we’ll receive 3 really cool Southern made products delivered right to our door.  Which is totally awesome because I love getting mail.  And we’ll get this little package 4 times a year…12 different Southern made products along with their makers stories.  Holla.

I’m always looking for different and unique gift ideas and I love to support local businesses and handmade products, so this was a no-brainer for us.  Every time I go to Africa I take GooGoo’s.  I know that’s totally weird, but I do it so that I can share something made not only in Tennesse, but Nashville specifically with the people who are going to share a piece of their home with me.  I’m so excited to learn about some new Southern products outside of GooGoos 🙂

Made South is only taking 200 memberships to start out with.  If you’re interested, head on over and check out their site and request an invitation.  And when you sign-up, spread the love and share the info with your friends.  The more the merrier.  You can follow Made South on Facebook HERE, tweeting over on Twitter HERE and they’re instagramming HERE.

So proud of you Chris.  Proud of you for taking this leap of faith and trusting God with your dreams and passions.  Proud to stand beside you and share Made South with the inter webs.  Excited to see where it goes and so excited to be along for the ride with you.  Mom would be so proud. Love you!

Happy Friday!