Episode 160 · October 29, 2024
Sallie Dale: Growing a Business and a Family
with Sallie Dale, Founder of The Urban Acres
35 min
Sallie Dale: Growing a Business and a Family
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In this episode
In this episode I sit down with Sallie Dale, founder of The Urban Acres, and honestly, this conversation is such a joy. Sallie has been creative since she was a little girl staying behind at the craft station when everyone else rotated to the next one. Her mom nurtured that gift, gave her the tools and the time (and let her get messy), and you can feel how much that shaped who she's become today.
We talk about how The Urban Acres started back in 2014 as a humble blog about backyard chickens and DIY projects, and how it has grown into a thriving punch needle business shipping hundreds of kits a month. Sallie shares the Mrs. Meyer's Homemaker Hunt she won in 2016, the trip to New York, and how that moment opened doors. But what moved me most was hearing how she rebuilt her work around her family, replacing her teaching income one kit at a time while pregnant with her daughter, Dot.
I love that Sallie is so honest about the hard parts too — crying on the kitchen floor, feeling like she couldn't do it all, and the moment she felt the Lord remind her that the business wasn't just a blessing for her, but a way to bless other people. Now she's hiring stay-at-home moms in Tulsa to wind yarn from their own homes, letting them earn an income without leaving their kids. It's a beautiful picture of what it looks like to use your God-given gifts and talents to lift others up. If you've let your creativity slip to the bottom of the list, this one is a gentle nudge to start again. Keep going.
Key takeaways
- Creativity rarely needs to be 'useful' to be worth your time — Sallie makes the case that slowing down to create reduces stress and reconnects us to a part of ourselves we've let go of.
- Big things can start small. The Urban Acres began as a backyard-chicken blog in 2014 and grew, 10 kits at a time, into a business shipping hundreds of punch needle kits a month.
- You are not free. Sallie's husband reminded her that doing everything herself was costing her the most valuable thing she had — her time — which freed her to start delegating.
- Replacing an income is doable in steps. While pregnant with Dot, Sallie spent a summer building her shop kit by kit to replace her teaching salary so she could stay home.
- Hand your gifts to others. By hiring stay-at-home moms to wind yarn from home, Sallie turned her business into a blessing for other Tulsa families — and freed herself to focus on designing and teaching, the work only she can do.
- Kids are capable of more than we think. Giving her four-year-old time, a little instruction, and the chance to try it led to an hour and a half of focused, screen-free creativity.
- Being present takes intention. Sallie's personal growth this year meant putting the computer away and waking earlier so her family comes first — and giving herself grace when 5 a.m. becomes 5:40.
“I heard the Lord say to me, I didn't just give you this business to be a blessing to you, but so that you could be a blessing to other people.”
“You're treating yourself as though the work that you do isn't costing you anything, but that's not true. It's costing you your time, which is the most valuable thing of all.”
“It's a luxury to get to be creative instead of a necessity. So that's really what I want to help bring people back to.”
“Kids are capable of a lot more than we think they are. It just takes a little bit of time for us to explain something to them, to show them, and then give them the opportunity to do it.”
Resources mentioned
About Sallie
Founder of The Urban Acres
Sallie Dale is the founder of The Urban Acres and a mother of three (soon to be four). A lifelong creative, she won the Mrs. Meyer's Homemaker Hunt in 2016 and began blogging her DIY creations in 2014. Today she designs signature punch needle patterns and curated kits, bringing an old-school craft up to date and employing stay-at-home moms in Tulsa to help bring it to life.
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