Beingindustrious

When Brooks graduated from Fargo South, her pastor gave her a wallet card that said, “Emily means ‘industrious,’” Whether it gave her perspective or was prophetic is only a guess. But she lives up to the characterization.

Brooks graduated from the University of North Dakota. “I majored in communications because it covered a lot of broad topics and having an English teacher for a dad, writing and grammar came easier to me.”

After graduating, she worked in Grand Forks as an advertising sales assistant for BBI International’s Ethanol Producer Magazine. While she loved the position, her husband’s career in geography brought them to Fargo. Then they started their family.

As a stay-at-home mom, Brooks wanted to make her time at home productive and contribute to the family’s finances. In 2012 with her creative juices running rampant, she started Taea Made. She makes personalized and custom gifts and specializes in up-cycled pieces.

Her mom, a home economics teacher, taught her to sew at a young age. Brooks laughs, “I was careful not to walk barefoot on the carpet in Mom’s sewing room. Pins and needles were lost in the reddish-orange shag like land mines.”

Today her main focus is machine embroidery. She has several sewing machines … embroidery machines, a regular sewing machine, a serger, a cover stitcher and a vintage machine from the 1950s.

NDSU pillows made from retired band uniforms are popular. Brooks says, “The Gold Star band director, Sigurd Johnson, wanted to put the old uniforms to use. These beautiful materials are special and shouldn’t go to waste. So we began making pillows and then added bags. Sales help fund the band.”

Custom orders range from memory pillows to photo jewelry. Recently she made a lap blanket from a mink coat for a customer.