pretty little package

welcome to my world....the world of paper.

first, a little bit about myself. i knew all my life i wanted to be an artist. i went to school for graphic design, then moved away from home to enter the hectic world of design in the big city. it didn't take me long to realize that designing for other people left much to be desired. the designs you work so hard on end up being sub-par by the time clients get their grubby little hands on them. i never seemed to be happy with the end product, thus never having anything to add to my portfolio that i could be proud of. this job was not what i had envisioned. then i found my way out...

it all started with my wedding invitations in the summer of 2001. being the crafty person that i am, it was a no-brainer that i was going to make the invitations to my wedding. i enjoyed doing them and got such fabulous reviews that i thought the invitation biz might be my answer. that year for christmas i did sets of handmade greeting cards for all my friends and family. everyone loved them. my new passion started to emerge. instead of doing invitations, i decided on greeting cards. this way i could design what i wanted and not have to deal with bridezillas. (which, in turn, would be the same as working in a design firm with clients who don't know good design from bad)

while still working my full-time design job, i started the job i hoped would someday allow me to stay at home and raise babies. by the spring of 2002 i had designed a small line of cards and taken them to some local stores. to my surprise nearly everyone placed orders! i attended the national stationery show in may of that year. slowly my business started to grow.

fast forward to february 2004...it was time...time to finally quit my "real" job and focus full-time on my business. i was so excited...and scared out of my mind. it has been a great ride. since then i have hired 3 part-time employees to help with production, 1 assistant, and a great line of reps. it's been difficult going from a 2 income household down to 1...especially since we just had a baby in december. yup, that's right. i quit my full-time job where i made a good sum of cash and then get pregnant...why not? sounds rational to me! so now i'm running a business AND raising a baby. slowly but surely this business is growing. someday i'll even be able to pay myself on a regular basis! what a thought!

so that's pretty much my history. i'm a wife, mother, business woman just trying to hold it all together in a pretty little package.