Casey and Sloane, Author at The STUFF Sisters

Cancer on the Run

On achingly beautiful days – days full of falling leaves, crisp air and sunshine – cancer lives with us. It doesn’t present itself, it just waits for us to find it.

On such a day not many days ago – with his cancer apparently on the run – our father met with two tumors that didn’t play with the team on the first go-round of chemotherapy. It was a day mixed with a little bit to celebrate and a whole lot to continue to deal with and worry about. Our dad needed a mental and emotional break from cancer – we all did – before starting his next therapies. He will now have to wait longer for that much needed break.

We at STUFF spend months preparing for our holiday open house – Wings of Hope – every year. This year, November 5th and 6th will be the days at STUFF that are meant to remind us that when one of us has cancer, we all have cancer. The days will be full of laughter, tears, food, drink, smiles and friendship.

Wings of Hope is special to us: we remember our family and friends lost to cancer, we re-commit to our fight to find a cure, and we thank the universe for keeping our parents – both cancer survivors – standing with us on these special days.

We hope you will join us at Wings of Hope and shop. We will proudly donate a part of your purchase to benefit cancer research at the KU Cancer Center. Our friend Susan Henke Miller showed us the way years ago – to keep cancer on the run we need piles and piles of research.

It has been the loss of friends and family and the battles in and outside of our tribe that have taught us that we can’t stop looking for cures and treatments.

Join us this weekend at Wings of Hope. Together, on these two special days – and every day – we can help find a much needed cure for all cancers.

Sisters, Co-owners and Believers in Hope

Quirks & All

It is finally Christmas Eve, and we are snuggled in at Sloane’s home. We closed the store at 5:00 today, and the last two gifts we sold were to two different young men for their grandmothers. The day was filled with quirks and lots of laughter. We had to drop one of the cash drawers on the floor from three feet to get it to open…. A customer had to tell Casey what an item number was after Sloane had told her three times…. The Minsky’s pizza guy told us he would miss us next week while we are away from the store…. And, yes, we popped a bottle of champagne at 12:30 to share a mimosa toast with our shoppers – which may explain some of the quirks.

Now we are having a sing-along of holiday songs led by a 5-year-old in red polkadot PJs while a 13-year-old performs a “light show” with lit LED balls on strings…. early presents very well received.

We wish you a very merry Christmas… quirks and all.

casey & sloane simmons
sisters & co-owners

Thankful for the Dream

Two little girls, many years ago, decided to play office. They set up shop right there in the warmth and security of their grandparents’ basement. They had everything they needed: phones, paper, pencils and support staff.

Casey (left) and Sloane (right) at work in the office, circa 1971.

Our grandmother played along with our every fantasy and grand scheme. Some days our office was just for “plain business” and sometimes it was the back room of a very busy restaurant or store. Whatever it was, it was awesome.

But it wasn’t real.

What we have now is real, but it’s still two girls – women if you must – having the times of their lives. We’re looking back, as we always do at Thanksgiving, and we are counting our lucky stars in an economy that hasn’t been kind to all of our friends in small business. We haven’t laid a single person off – in fact, we’ve hired and trained new people. We haven’t reduced salaries – in fact, we’ve invested in training our employees for more responsilbilities. And we’ve added more local artists to our mix – which only strengthens our local economy.

We like to think all of these goals and dreams started years ago in a basement in Mid-Missouri. They may have, but we’ve handed over the outcome of that dream to our customers.

We hope you can come and shop at the most amazing store that’s just chock full of treasures. We need you like we always do, and we can never thank you enough for believing in the dream of two little girls.

Have a happy Thanksgiving and glorious holidays.

casey & sloane simmons
sisters & co-owners