Why FAMILY STYLE?
Growing up, we rarely, if ever, went out to eat for meals. More often, my family would cook dinner and eat together. Typically, we would have a big pile of steaming rice, a large boiling pot of Hmong chicken soup, and a side of kua txob (Hmong pepper sauce). When I was thinking about this collection, I thought about what felt like home and immediately I thought of this meal served “FAMILY STYLE.” Honestly, I didn’t even know it was called “FAMILY STYLE” because it was just the norm.
FAMILY STYLE is crowded together around a table full of food we are sharing together for a meal. FAMILY STYLE is laughing so hard that it’s hard to breathe because the inside joke goes so deep. FAMILY STYLE is feeling so stuffed from the food and company that you’re smiling ear to ear.
This past year has been full of reunions and gatherings. As we are reconnecting, I hope we do it FAMILY STYLE.
-pajnucci
How it all started
Being in isolation sucks.
During the pandemic, I was fortunate enough to live in a co-op with 12-14 roommates. It was such a blessing in disguise to have so many people around. At the beginning of the shut down, we only had each other and filled our “social calendar” to the brim. We did simple things like Tiger King watch parties, to more extravagant festivities like dressing up for fancy poker night that lead to converting our living room into a dance hall called, “Club Q” (Q for quarantine). Since we had no where else to go, we made lunch and dinners for each other. Every. Single. Day. We had some amazing meals, like a 12-foot long roasted yam sandwich, to soul healing goddess bowls. It was such a special time in the co-op, and we called it the “All In” era.
Since everything was shut down, this also meant that the ceramics studio I was going to was also closed. I remember lying in bed crying in April 2020 because I hadn’t been able to do ceramics in weeks and had no clear timing of if or when the studio would reopen. My partner walked in and said, “Pajnucci, we can buy a wheel.” I replied, “Really? We can do that?” Shortly after, we bought a Shimpo Whisper wheel, my partner scavenged Craigslist for a kiln, and that’s how our studio started.
Now that the world is slowly opening up again, we get to reshape how we gather after being apart for so long. We can again start to have dinner parties where we include a talent show and an impromptu juggling crew pops up. We get to have messy dinner tables where we play games to guess “Who Wrote That” on little pieces of paper. We get to swing at piñatas and jump for candy just because we can.
After years apart, one of the world’s greatest needs is gatherings. Everything is better
together.
- pajnucci
About together
Together’s mission is to gather meaningfully through everyday objects.
Gathering meaningfully can look like sharing a morning coffee or laughing so hard at a dinner party that you’re crying.
We believe in a world where we always show up together with our whole selves to make the world more bright, authentic, and brave.