Our journey began almost 21 years ago. Within minutes of meeting each other we were dreaming about potential entrepreneurial things. We went on to raise our first 7 tinies together, spent countless hours sharing meals and shared a commercial space with two different businesses. My husband and I ran a coffee shop and Chris Ann sold her antiques on our third floor. Our lives took a major shift about nine years later and had our families move miles apart. But, distance was never a deterrent.

We continued to dream and scheme a start up or some kind of collaborative venture. One day over sweet potatoes fries, we decided to start blogging and LoveFeast Table was born. We wrote together, attended conferences together and met amazing friends through this joint venture. We kept dreaming and in 2010 we started LoveFeast Shop. We went to market, walked the floors for hours, discovering decor items, gift items and other products that spoke to us. We tend to have a similar aesthetic, but together it became honed and refined as a LoveFeast look.

We started this baby as a way to stay connected, always intending it would be a slow grow, one that would grow with our growing families. Our families were our priority. With nine kids between us and two amazing husbands, we never wanted to take away from that; we wanted LoveFeast to enhance our already full lives. Well, LoveFeast grew and the time demands on us as well. Even though our kids are in similar life stages, I have had 3 at home, homeschooling them for years. My husband and I also have a business that was growing at the same time. The hours I could give to our growing business LoveFeast, didn’t change, but the need did.

I began to reevaluate my priorities and realized I was becoming overstressed at trying to keep all the balls in the air. And something had to change.

In December of 2014, I stepped down from LoveFeast Life, LLC and handed full reigns over to Chris Ann, my best friend.

Our friendship is intact and our belief in one another is stronger than ever. I have no doubt in Chris Ann’s ability to take LoveFeast in amazing new directions. She is passionate about this space and about the brand that is being built. After all, it was built on scraps of dryer lint and dreams, hand over fist, by two friends who enjoyed the journey they were on.

LoveFeast Table and LoveFeast Shop, will take some new turns in the coming year. Chris Ann is still dreaming and scheming what that will look like and I know she’ll keep you posted.

I may pop in every now and again.  My husband and I own a home remodeling company, Ripristino Remodeling and are in the process of fully gutting and flipping a home, as well as gutting and remodeling our own, new home. We will be up to our arms in constructions, design and creativity. I may come in and share a glimpse into what we’re doing.

But, for now, if you’d like to keep in touch with me, you can find me at these places:

Blog: potlertribe.com    Instagram: kristin.potler     Email: [email protected]

I’ve built some amazing friendships through this space and will forever be grateful! Life’s journey is full of twists and turns, may we never be fearful of what those changes bring!

All my best,

Kristin Potler

co-founder of LoveFeast Life

I’ve known you for 20 years, almost as long as I’ve known my husband. We’ve raised our babies together, parented our littles through scraped knees, hurt feelings and joyful discoveries. We’ve talked countless hours on the phone and worked side by side while on skype. We’ve moved states apart with the resolve it was just the beginning of a new chapter and not the end of an old. We’ve argued and struggled and wrestled when our first born-ness wanted to be heard…and we listened. We listened to the intent of each other’s hearts. We leaned in, even when it was difficult, pulling out the beauty in the pain. We laughed together through the tears, we rejoiced when our kids walked across the stage and realized they had made it! We’ve shared more meals, then I can even begin to count, in different countries and at each other’s tables.

My dear friend, my wish for you this year is that you continue to ENJOY and savor each and every moment that the day brings. That you do what you want and you continue to blossom into the fullness of who you were created to be. I pray that wherever this journey leads you, you will be blessed, it will be good and those around you will recognize you as the person I know you to be…kind, pure of heart, creative, strong, brave, wise, fun, full of JOY and my friend.

Happy Birthday Chris Ann!

I love you (too).

~Kristin

I can’t imagine doing my life without you!

Two weekends ago Kristin and I were together in Baltimore.  Which makes being apart today, Kristin’s Birthday, somewhat bearable.

Happy Birthday to my bff and biz partner!  Here is to another year filled with JOY and all sorts of good things!

Over that weekend we savored every moment, doing the things we love, sharing dinner with friends, planing and talking over our business and catching up.  Of course in order to run our business we talk everyday on the phone or skype, but nothing beats being together in real life.

Nothing for us is ever too far removed from sharing time together at the table.  We did some of our meetings over tea.

and others over cappuccino.

It was about 5 years ago now over sweet potato fries that we hatched the plan that became our business.  Who knew where we would go after we started taking the steps that would lead us on our LoveFeast journey.

“I think we dream so we don’t have to be apart for so long. If we’re in each other’s dreams, we can be together all the time.” ~ A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

LoveFeast Table & LoveFeast Shop is run by us ~ two friends from two different cities who have step by step built our online boutique and lifestyle blog to inspire you to experience a beautiful life.

Looking for inspiration for 2014?  Choose a ~  One Word For The Year

Velvet Pumpkin Season is under way at LoveFeast Shop.  We are so excited to hear so many wonderful things from our customers this season!  Many of you have discovered we’ve added a phone number at LoveFeast Shop so we’ve had the pleasure of talking directly to our guests and hearing how they will be celebrating, sharing and decorating with their velvet pumpkins.

We’ve had so many lovely chats with our customers it’s like we’ve enjoyed a cup of coffee over a table together!

Many of you have given gifts of PINK pumpkins to friends and sisters.  We’ve heard about festive gatherings of pumpkin decorating and celebrating.

PINK pumpkins given and shared with sisters, mothers and friends.  ~and good news! We’ll be carrying PINK pumpkins past October!

We took time this fall to stop and dream ~ with our sisters too.

We’re glad you are a part of our friendship, our business LoveFeast Shop and our journey.

We’re loading up the shop with festive and unique decorating items right now.  Beautiful dishes, hides, velvet pillows and fur gifts coming soon!

Happy Fall! Chris Ann & Kristin

How are you celebrating this fall?

“There’s a friend that sticks closer then a sister.”

For almost 20 years I’ve been blessed to call Chris Ann friend. We have shared the ups and downs of life…the births of our children, baby showers, multiple meals around the table, trips to Mexico & Italy to name a few, emergencies, new businesses, closed businesses, moves that took us oceans apart and kid’s firsts…first dances, first driver’s licenses, first steps, first graduations…with many more firsts to come.

Our friendship has been full! There are times we finish each others sentences and even states away, will often call to share a new item we purchased only to find out the other one bought the same thing earlier in the week. There is an unspoken comfort in the friendship we have, a security of knowing the other is always there and will always be there.

All this to say…

Happy Birthday Chris Ann!

I’m thankful to call you friend and sister.

~Kristin

Are you on Instagram? It’s a fun downloadable app for capturing and sharing photos.  Kristin and I have found it to be a creative and fun outlet for capturing and sharing beauty, memories and inspiration!  On Instagram you can see a bit of our personal moments as well as some shop “behind the scenes” happenings in our LoveFeast Shop.

Follow LoveFeast on Instagram HERE

Where we share behind the scenes ~ our life, our shop and the beauty & inspiration we find all around us on our journey!

Our summer looked a little like this ~

It was a great summer!  How about you?  What were your favorite summer memories? 

Today is Kristin’s birthday!!  Our tradition around LoveFeast Table is to write each other a birthday post.

Distance means so little when someone means so much.

People often ask us how we manage our business and also our 18 year friendship, with 10 years of it living apart in two different states.

While we both have kinks in our necks from holding our phones for hours and lots has changed as our families have grown, a lot of things have not changed at all.  For some reason early on, we pretended to live our lives like we both still lived just down the street.

The first years after we moved, there were long talks on the phone sitting on our porches, pulling laundry out of the dryer, putting dishes into the dishwasher, watering the flowers, chirping instructions to kids, and general picking up of things that go with the day to day life of keeping a home. We kept on recounting our days and our children and our lives, while letting the interruptions be part of the rhythm of our conversation. We didn’t set apart time, we didn’t keep time. We did time.

Live like distance means nothing.

We have a little saying around here….”Truth or Denial”.  Many things in life can be flipped either way.  Distance can keep you or apart, or distance can mean nothing.

We set out…without saying it out loud, or maybe we did say it out loud and I don’t remember…to live like distance means nothing.

Of course starting this blog, LoveFeast Table and our online boutique, LoveFeast Shop certainly has strung us together on a daily basis for the last 5 years.  These years have been exciting years, of hard work and big dreams.  But, before we did all this, we lived life right down the street, together.

We didn’t set apart time, we didn’t keep time. We did time.

Happy Birthday to my best friend of many days and conspirator of big dreams!

Wishing you a grand day!

We started writing about our Friendship Story. You can read Part 1 HERE and Part 2 HERE and Part 3 HERE.  We’ve had so many people ask us about it, we thought it was about time we began to write it out and share it. We’ve been friends for 18 years…there is so much to tell! Just to give you a glimpse, we lived in the same neighborhood while raising out first 7 (Kristin 4, Chris Ann 3) children. We sold both of our homes within a month of each other with Chris Ann’s family moving back to Minnesota and Kristin’s family traveling the world. We wanted a way to see each other, so a few years ago, we started a business. (And our plan is working!) Thanks for joining us on this journey! It will be fun to share with you how our friendship has grown throughout the years.

I remember as we left the nursery after the first time we met Devon and Kristin that the nursery care giver had said, “I never saw two babies that age actually seem to interact with each other.” We figured if our small babies got along so well in the nursery, their parents probably might get along too.  And, so we hoped for the best.  We enjoyed their son’s first birthday and then our son’s.

One afternoon I sat, round and pregnant folding laundry on my sofa.  To my surprise there was a midday knock at the door.   I could see someone familiar at the side door and I waved her in.  A familiar face came in.  Notoriously bad at recalling names quickly, I stuttered a greeting.

“I’ve got you something I wanted to drop by.  I’m in-between classes,” Kristin said as she handed me a gift bag filled with a tiny hat and mittens.  I looked up quizzically.  She smiled, “if you have a girl,” she said.  (She was right of course.)

“And, I got you these too.” and she reached out her hand towards mine.  As I opened my hand, she poured 7 or 8 small silver beads into my open palm.

“I thought you might like them.”

She was in the classes at the college nearby and had to get back.  We quickly exchange a thank you and goodbyes.  And then I was there with my laundry pile midday staring at a small Disney Tweety Bird hat and mittens for a baby girl and tiny pile of small silver beads.

Later on that night I told my husband about the visit and how surprised I was that she had stopped by with little tokens midday when we barely knew each other.

My husband said, “I think she wants to be friends with you.”

And, I smiled inside my heart.

READ PART 1 HERE.  READ PART 2 HERE.

This is the second part of our Friendship Story. You can read Part 1 HERE and Part 2 HERE. We’ve had so many people ask us about it, we thought it was about time we began to write it out and share it. We’ve been friends for 18 years…there is so much to tell! Just to give you a glimpse, we lived in the same neighborhood while raising out first 7 (Kristin 4, Chris Ann 3) children. We sold both of our homes within a month of each other with Chris Ann’s family moving back to Minnesota and Kristin’s family traveling the world. We wanted a way to see each other, so a few years ago, we started a business. (And our plan is working!) Thanks for joining us on this journey! It will be fun to share with you how our friendship has grown throughout the years.

As we enter 2013 we’d like to say thank you to all our friends at LoveFeast Table.  This year has been a great year of growth for us.  We have enjoyed this year getting to know the customers at LoveFeast Shop better!  We love your notes sharing stories of how you are using our products and what important and special moments you are making with them.  From gifts to welcoming decor ~ we love to hear the “back story” on how they are making your life more beautiful.  We also have enjoyed sharing stories from our table this year through our lifestyle blog, here.  We are encouraged by your comments!  We love to hear your feedback!  We are thankful for all the business relationships that we have enjoyed this year as well as the special friendships we have made through the virtual blogging community.  Never did we realize that when we began this journey ~ it would all become so real.

Wishing you all the best in 2013!

Chris Ann & Kristin, owners/curators/writers/editors of LoveFeast Table and LoveFeast Shop.

We’re looking forward to updating our LoveFeast Shop in 2013 ~ We can’t wait to share with you what we’ve been working on!

Join us at the table!

Our DECOR category covers all the things that inspire us about decorating the home.  In this category you will find organizing tips, home DIY projects, garden, and decor inspiration.

In FEAST you will all things related to feasting.  You will find inspiration for parties, tablescaping, baking and creating a atmosphere for entertaining.

Our STYLE category is a catch-all for inspiration that comes from fashion.  We’re going to share our favorite products, accessories, jewelry and anything that we give our LoveFeast STYLE stamp of approval to.

Our LIFE category is where we share a bit more of the behind the scenes of the LoveFeast lifestyle. We share in LIFE our friendship story, things that inspire us like our families and travel.  We will be sharing more here about our online boutique, LoveFeast Shop.

We hope you take a bit of entertaining inspiration away from our lifestyle blog!  We hope you join us here as often as you can! 

We always have a chair to pull up for you at our table!

What’s going to be new for you in 2013?

Join us on Pinterest ~ Instagram ~ Twitter ~ Facebook or sign up for our Newsletter HERE!

We were a little nervous. We’d never been to their home before and here they had invited us to celebrate their son’s 1st birthday with them. We pulled up and squeezed our Hyundai Scoop in behind a few other cars. There were a lot of people here. We unbuckled our son, popped the trunk and got our gift out of the back. Linking fingers, we walked up the sidewalk towards the house. We heard a lot of voices coming from the back yard. “Do we go to the front door or just walk around back?” I asked Devon. “Let’s just go around back,” he said.

We gingerly rounded the corner only to be greeted by the church pastor. “Hey! Welcome!” After a few introductions, Chris Ann came out from her kitchen door, walked over and thanked us for coming. We plopped our son on the blanket under the tree with Chris Ann’s son and preceded to make small talk with a group of people who obviously knew each other pretty well. We were the new kids on the block. “Yes, we just moved back from Colorado…No, we’re both from Maryland…We’ve visited the church a couple of times…Devon is training at a French restaurant in the kitchen. Yes, this is our first son.”

I don’t remember much more about that day, only to say, it still felt somehow right that we were there. Devon and Todd seemed to talk to each other pretty easily, our boys were the same age and Chris Ann and I had conversations yet to be had, lingering between the awkwardness of just having met.

After extending an invitation for Todd, Chris Ann and their son to join us the following week for our son’s 1st birthday, we left with friendship possibilities plowing us forward, to explore more.

READ PART 1 HERE.

This is the second part of our Friendship Story. You can read Part 1 HERE. We’ve had so many people ask us about it, we thought it was about time we began to write it out and share it. We’ve been friends for 18 years…there is so much to tell! Just to give you a glimpse, we lived in the same neighborhood while raising out first 7 (Kristin 4, Chris Ann 3) children. We sold both of our homes within a month of each other with Chris Ann’s family moving back to Minnesota and Kristin’s family traveling the world. We wanted a way to see each other, so a few years ago, we started a business. (And our plan is working!) Thanks for joining us on this journey! It will be fun to share with you how our friendship has grown throughout the years.