More About Us
I, Nellie, have always loved Greeting cards for as long as I can remember, I loved giving them and I Loved getting them, and honestly until I had to write this lil "about me" section for our shop, that nugget about me had not even crossed my mind until now..... Funny how there can be something about you that you don't even think about. Lol, Maybe I am not as good at self awareness, as I thought I was.....Lol
I also loved being pen pals and writing cards and letters of encouragement to many, some were to soldiers during the Vietnam war, my brothers and friends of theirs, and really never thought much about any of that until I started blogging almost 10 yrs. ago. But, in my wildest dreams I would have never thought I would be creating and making my own Greeting cards one day.
My career field of choice was being a full time MOM and I knew it was my calling from God and felt like I was made for this.....but as you know our lil birdies grow up and leave the nest and I was never a woman who felt her life would be over when that happened, but I just never knew what God had in mind.....
How our Card Business got started.....
It all started with my Mom who lived 8 hrs. away from us had to go in a Rehab center, because she had COPD and had to be on oxygen 24/7 and was so weak she lost the use of her legs..... I tried my best to get her to live near us, so that we could look out after her and visit her and hopefully bring her home when she got better.... but she was a stubborn lady. So, she chose to stay, since she had lived in the same place her whole life.
Anyway, we had been to visit her, and we did some things to make her room look nice and put up a bulletin board as well, so they could put her cards up for her to see.
So, the next morning after we came home, I walked into our office to check my email, and was thinking to myself, I should go buy some cards to send her to put on her bulletin board, and this thought went thru my mind, "Why don't you use that card making package", and I remembered immediately a card making package my sister-in-law had given us many years before, and the real amazement was that all of a sudden I wanted to do it!
Now, if you only knew how afraid of the computer I was at that time you would know how just how miraculous that was........
My husband works with computers all the time and had tried to teach me many times, but it was like only if you tie me to the chair. Seriously!! I believe that voice in my head about using that card package and the fact I had such a desire to do it, all of a sudden, was definitely from the Lord..
Anyway, as soon as my hubby came home I told him what happened... he was both shocked and excited about installing it and so with his help at times, I began my adventure in making cards to send to my Mom... every day, for almost a year. It was good for both me and my Mom, as it was at least something I could do for her from the distance and gave her something to look forward to daily, and hopefully made her feel loved and remembered. One of the ladies at the nursing home said my Mom got more mail than anybody at the nursing home, which was a comfort to hear when she passed away. That was over 15yrs. ago....
I really got a kick out of designing the cards as I have always been artistic and done a number of different crafts over the years, but this was totally different for me since it is all done on the computer, and the fact that I liked doing this on the computer was really strange for me! Lol
So, after my Mom went to live with Jesus, I just continued to make cards for family and friends, and a few friends that knew about my card making asked me to make special cards for them to give to their loved ones as well. Of course, like anything the more you do it the more proficient you get at it, so at a certain point, I began having thoughts about this being a retirement business for us as my hubby is gifted with computer skills (from his job) and could do a website. More and more of these thoughts came and I truly believed they were coming from the Lord, so I realized that if that were to be true, then I would need to have my own graphics as I knew that I couldn't use graphics from the card-making package to sell cards, so I continued to make cards, but now with my own graphics or graphics that I found that I could use for free.
But, what I didn't know was that I couldn't use their templates or fonts either. So, when I found that out I wrote to ask their permission. So, hoping we would probably get permission since we would be using our own graphics, hubby began to build a website for me and we thought we were on our way to starting our business but, we were stopped dead in our tracks because after numerous calls and emails and months, we never were able to get permission, and I was broken hearted thinking of “all the hard work we had both put in”.
Then I was beginning to think did I just miss God on this thing, and really wanted confirmation if this was the direction we were to go in. So, over the next several years we started researching to try and find out how professional card designers make their cards, and it just seemed like everything we did just turned up with nothing, so I was frustrated and a bit heart broken, but was also glad if this was not the direction God wanted me to go, then I didn't want to go there, and just needed to accept it. Which I did. As I didn't want to be trying to knock down doors God didn't want me to go thru. Yet I was never a woman who thought when my kids left home that my life was over, and it was also about what do I do now that I have worked myself out of a job. So, Lord what do you want me to do, and the answer “He spoke to my heart made no sense at the time”. He said "Take care of your husband," and I thought well Lord, I think I am doing that! But, it became crystal clear what He meant 2 weeks later. On the eve of our 35th Anniversary My husband went for a stress test and was taken from the Drs. office (in an Ambulance) to the hospital and wound up having to have open heart surgery. Thus began a whole new way of life for us. First He had a 6-8 week recovery and we had to completely learn about and overhaul our diet and begin an exercise regimen... It was actually one of the best things that ever happened to us, as my husband was the Dr's star patient and he continues to do well still, since November 2005.
I continued making cards for others through the years, as it was a way I could do something for someone else while I was having physical issues of my own that kept me somewhat home-bound. I also started a blog in 2009, due to my hubby and a dear friend's encouragement. It has been a great joy and lots of fun to meet and share life with so many talented and amazing ladies, and due to blogging it has also supplied me with lots of photos for my cards as well.
About 5+ years ago With a whole lot more to the story, one day hubby came across a card package quite by accident, as he was searching for something for work. So, we were able to preview it, it was quite different than the old package I had used but, we decided to buy it anyway, which meant now, I had to re-learn a whole new way of making them, and also rebuild cards that I had already made prior to that time. An exercise in frustration I might add, but at this point we definitely felt this was no coincidence and it was God's direction for us, which is a great feeling I might add. So, it has been a long time in coming but I began setting up an Etsy shop, hoping to start my shop that way. Again this took more learning of new things, and a lot more work, and everything was looking good and getting close to me being able to open, and I was very excited about the prospects of opening and what the Lord was gonna do with it. Then all of a sudden ETSY decided to change the size of their photos, and what was a great image that showed my cards well, now were too small to even see the details, so once again I was stopped in my tracks......
At that point, I thought well, the Lord said it is to be a retirement business and hubby is not retired yet, so I am not doing anything else until he retires, cause evidently it isn't suppose to be until then....... Also around this time we felt the Lord changed our mind about how we were to do the business as well, rather than mailing out cards that were bought, we felt the Lord leading us to make them down-loadable cards, so people could print them at home themselves.
So about 2 years ago, once hubby was retired, he started building a website for us, and I began designing new cards and rebuilding a lot of my old ones with the new card package, and we had a goal to make 100 cards before we opened our shop, and we made our goal, but still had other things to do on the website, but we felt during March of 2020 during the Covid19 Pandemic, the Lord said Open it now, and offer free cards, as it can be a help to folks during this time, so that's what we did., and we will see where the Lord wants to take us..................