Returning to my roots
I have shared a little of my story here and there with some of you, but I wanted to introduce myself to those of you I have only just met or those who have just started following me.
I was born in 1981 on a cold...just kidding. I won't take you back that far. Growing up, my mom was very talented with flowers and decorating and even opened her own business in 1994 in Edwardsburg, a little town by where we lived and I went to school. I would help her at her floral shop after school and on the weekends, which is where I learned to make wreaths and developed my love for florals and decor. Fast forward a few years, I graduated in 2000 from Edwardsburg and married my high school sweetheart in 2002 and our son Jackson was born in 2005.
I started making wreaths here and there from my home in Osceola, IN just for myself, a friend and an occasional craft show in 2005. My husband accepted a job in North Carolina in 2009, so we picked up and moved halfway across the country with a toddler to a place where we knew no one. I started making wreaths as something to do with my time and with encouragement from my husband and some friends, I started selling my wreaths on Etsy in 2010. I had no idea if anyone would like them or if I would even sell any. I was shocked when my business exploded. I found myself doing what I loved as a full time job from home. I would make designs up and they would sell out. Then I had people who wanted to customize their wreaths and I started adding some of those into what I offered. Then in 2015, my husband again took a transfer, this time to Oregon, all the way across the country, literally! We lived apart for most of that year, while he secured a place to live and I packed up our house back in North Carolina. It was a rough year juggling moving and my online Etsy business.
During the first couple years in Oregon, my passion for wreath making and home decor grew. In 2018 I opened our first brick and mortar store. Our following grew and we met so many wonderful people. It was great to be a part of the community and connect with people aside from those who I would occasionally email with online. We added wreath making classes, Instagram tutorials and grew both my wreath making and home decor business in store and online. We even added subscription boxes that customers can sign up to get a box delivered to their door at a discounted price!
Then 2020 happened. It hit us all. We moved to our current location during the pandemic and decided to switch from a regular hour business open five days a week to a once a month market open just one weekend a month. This gives me time to restock for the next holiday or season without being stressed out about making sure the store is set up and only having a day or two to reset.
Which brings me to now. Before our move, I felt myself missing what I started out doing - making wreaths. I have been making them since we opened a store front, but I wasn't devoting time to making wreaths like I used to do and I miss that. I did it when I could or when an order came in and it was really getting to me that I had pulled away from wreaths. So over the holidays and after some soul searching and lots of thoughts on how I wanted my business to look, I have decided I am going back to my roots. I am going to shift my focus to making wreaths the focal point of my business. Don't worry, the home decor is still going to be here and I want to do more with showing you how to decorate your home with my wreaths and the home decor I sell in the shop. So look for those posts to come here on the blog. Every week we will showcase a wreath for an upcoming holiday, or a fun 'how to decorate' post or spotlight an item from our shop with a product review from a guest blogger here and there.
We also have some exciting news coming soon about updated shopping days. Stay tuned for more on that later!
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