Hi friends,
Most of you know from Instagram and the newsletter that I said change was coming. I've been getting so many letters I thought maybe I should just quit being quite so vague and explain some things. I actually tallied today how many cuffs we've made over the past 7 years and about fell out of my chair. We've handstamped, handpounded, custom sized, convoed back and forth relentlessly with customer after customer for approximately 25,000 cuffs. TWENTY FIVE THOUSAND CUFFS!
I'll never forget the first one I made. I was like... well this is cute, but I'm not doing that again! The process was lengthy and not all that fun. I held my breath while stamping. I worried about getting it just right. My hands hurt. My ears rang. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine it becoming what it is today. And the only reason it did was because you wanted them and the Lord opened the doors. So I walked through it...
He gave me a dream a few years in to "let it go and watch it GROW". That was so hard to do because it was my baby and I truly thought you bought them from me because you knew I was making them all! Where's my laughing emoji?!?! But then He sent me my Tamara. And I remember telling her I'll never hire you because it will ruin our friendship and I just value you too much! Well 25,000 cuffs or so later and I can tell you it did nothing but bring us closer. I could never have done it without her, nor would I have wanted to. I'm sobbing writing this because if any of you've ordered from us you know Tamara is wonderful at what she does...which is to nail down the blank details. She's an artisan. She does beautiful stamping and CARES so much about getting every detail just right for you and for me. She's been my solid. My sounding board. The one to keep me from leaving this a million times over and I'm forever grateful for her. I love her with all my heart. He also brought me Adele, Deanna, Dawn, Nicole, Tisha, Pam, Mike, Meg and Stacie!! Gracious. These people are so dear to me. I don't even know how to express it into words. They all filled such a need and made this job fun.
That leads me to the next thing. You've asked if we are going to close the shop for good, and the honest answer is I don't know. I know I've felt the urging to go deeper. To make the business more ministry based and He's planted the seeds in me. I have an idea of what it's to look like, but there are a lot of details to nail out before I can move forward. I'm going to a quiet place. A place I haven't known in years and I'm going to listen and obey. I do know that custom words are not part of it, and that some gifts I've been sitting on for the past 7 years ARE.
We will offer small, very scaled back mini opens a few times a year possibly, but I'm not sure when or how that will look. So stay tuned for the rest of His story... And it is His story because He's writing something beautiful and I just want to be a part of it.
Be a blessing.
Photo by Meshali
