Photo Rights: CBS via HelloGiggles

The friendship/workship transition is unique, and also really fun.  Not all friendships can transition into a functional business partnership and it takes a good balance and A LOT of communication to make it happen.

We are relatively new friends, and even though we have found super soul sisters in one another, we didn’t exactly meet in kindergarten, or on the playground, or freshman year.  We’ve never lived together and sadly, Tiff never got to experience Cait wearing far too many hemp necklaces, and Cait never got to see Tiff crusin’ through campus on a long board.

We officially met at our friend Emily’s birthday a few years ago, and then she left us, and we were sad.  Left to our own devices, Tiff made up an excuse about having to return Hello Kitty duct tape back to Cait.  (Cait does, in fact, own Hello Kitty duct tape.) Over big bowls of udon and talk of pretty things, we became fast friends. That was February 2013.  See?  Relatively new.  We thought we’d share a little bit about how Cait and Tiff became cait + tiff.

How did C+T come about?

T: I have a feeling something sparked in the very first moments of our friendship. I remember having our first lunch together and thinking “I like this chick. I like her voice. I want to make things with her.” And it just grew from there. We started hanging out a ton. Then the emails started. The back and forths with bullet points on new stuff we thought was cool where ever we were. It became obvious to both of us. We had to work together.
C: While working a number of jobs that didn’t fit, Tiff became the person that I could meet for cocktails and talk to about everything, from work to dudes to fashion and the mystery behind the ricotta ball.  There are not a lot of people in our development worker-filled city that a) have an interest in talking about fashion and b) spastically check blogs like I do. I remember calling her frantically after the Met Ball last year, because the dresses were up online and I needed to talk about all of them. Tiff and I were on the same page on this stuff and we wanted to make it into something awesome. So we did.

How has your friendship changed since you started working together?

C: We bring different things to the table, and she is a patient and wonderful teacher.  Our friendship is stronger than it was even 6 months ago, and Tiff is one of the few people I can be around when I dive deep into the feels.  I know I can depend on her for honest answers and actual critique. I don’t know how many times I have sent something her way, asking her to “please make this not suck.” And I think I am more accepting of her putting the letter ‘u‘ in the word favorite for no reason.
T: It’s definitely grown deeper. It’s no longer just having evening drinks at the favourite corner of a bar. Growing a business together is just now another part of us. At first we were probably a little nervous about how to approach differences of opinion. But it’s been really natural in how we’ve created this open environment that makes it comfortable us to say “hey, I think we could probably choose a different font.”

What’s the unexpected perk of working together?

T: Leaning on each other. And learning more about each other’s mad skillz. Caitlin is such an amazing writer.  I still remember reading one of the posts from her old blog.  I thought “damn get that girl a publisher.”  I am literally beaming when I read her posts now because they are just that amazing. And my writing is still developing and my brain primarily works with pictures. So with Caitlin as an co-editor, she has this uncanny ability to translate what I’m thinking when I write a bunch of gobbledygook into something that’s closely resembles prose. This is particularly helpful when I’m hyped up on caffeine and write down all my thoughts. Or I’m completely stressed out and can’t write anything.
C: Tiff is a Swiss Army Knife of a human being: every time I think I have her figured out, she’s all BOOM I can do this other awesome thing too! I knew she was cool before, but she knows everything about everything. I didn’t expect to use Google so little in this project. She’s Wikitiff.  She is also the reason why this blog is so pretty, and is great at sharing her talents and being my Blog Yoda. (Bloda?) I think working together has brought out strengths in both of us, and the way we can lean on each other to fill the gaps is so great.

Has your style in fashion, music or design changed since you started?

C: Tiff has a great eye for prints, and I usually go for easy solid colors and clean lines. She has this really fun colorful style (hello…neon yellow shorts and Hawaiian shirts) and I love it. She inspires me to try things that I wouldn’t have thought of before, and I find myself playing with clothes and finding treasures, rather than just dressing for speed.
T: I’ve always definitely been a little rough around the edges. Perhaps that’s part of my style. But ever since meeting Caitlin, I like to think that I’ve become more refined in how I dress. Not just cleaner lines and being more put together, but also sliding into appreciating the finer things in life whether it comes to food or the clothes I wear.

What excites you most about moving forward?

T: I cannot wait to have an office. It makes it so much more legit. Our relationship and work has been confined to cafes, bars and couches. But in a couple of months, we’re going to have something to call our own, make a mess in and make things. And we can do it whenever we want.
C: Oh man. Um, everything? I can’t wait till we get an office and make it the the most amazing little creative cave this side of the Mekong. I am excited to have morning dance parties in that office. I am also pumped to do more design together, paint textiles, make bizniss cards, make more pretty things, and turn our little blog into something much, much bigger.

PS – Can you tell we’re on a MTM kick?  That’s Mary Tyler Moore for you newbies.