My Etsy History Part 3

I’m going to do a little fast forward here to wrap up the B & A shop days or this is going to turn into a 10 part series! 

At some point, a new customer wanted to take a premade $5.00 banner they had purchased and customize it into the $25.00 range but only wanted to pay the $5.00 and threatened bad feedback if I didn’t. I shut the banner shop. I never did banners for the money as I was probably making $2.50 an hour, but at the time of that incident it was my only creative outlet. It was a sad day.

It had been a good run though. 99.9% of my clients were some of the nicest, most creative, and funny and kind and generous people I have ever come across.  I want to give them all a HUGE public THANK YOU! You know who you are, your patronage and friendship is priceless to me ♥

Anvil Designs was conceived in December, 2009.

I was hosting a “stitch & bitch” for a group who had been stitch’n & bitch’n for a couple of years off and on. There were five of us that evening and we were all working on Christmas gifts. A friend had given me a dog tag he had made out of a washer that he stamped to personalize for my dog. I wanted to make one for a new dog I had as well as doing some for gifts. A couple of the gals loved the idea and one of them said her dad had some stamps so off she went to get them! Nothing we tried to make that night turned out worthy of gift giving but a seed was planted. 

In January, 2010 I/we opened Anvil Designs on Etsy, I had the support of 2 partners. My mojo was back!

The 3 bees in the banner represent the 3 partners. The rest is self explanatory. We had all read and were inspired by Sue Monk Kid's book The Secret Life of Bees. 
A few of our favorite quotes are: 

“After you get stung, you can't get unstung

no matter how much you whine about it.” 

"She liked to tell everybody that women made the best beekeepers, 'cause they have a special ability built into them to love creatures that sting. It comes from years of loving children and husbands.” 

“August: You know, somethings don't matter that much...like the color of a house...But lifting a person's heart now that matters. The whole problem with people"

Lily: They don't know what matters and what doesn't...

August:...They know what matters, but they don't choose it...The hardest thing on earth is to choose what matters.”

“The world will give you that once in awhile, a brief timeout; the boxing bell rings and you go to your corner, where somebody dabs mercy on your beat-up life.”

Things went very well for us at first. This shop took off like my others never had! There was a strong demand for this type of product. We got two nice wholesale accounts and conducted very successful trunk shows.

However, like this quote from TSLoB “There is nothing perfect...only life.” life went on and Anvil is down to just me now. My partners are like a sister and a daughter. The daughter has moved out of state and is getting married this year! I am so happy for her. She may even open her own Etsy shop once the newlyweds are settled. The sister and I will be doing some shows this summer. I'll put a notification in the shop. 
My day job shut the shop down for a while and the momentum was lost. The good news is I "quit my day job" and I'm here to create for you full time! I'm finally following my dream to make a living doing what I love and my mojo / soul is thankful everyday.