I have loved playing with clay ever since I can remember. Any kind of clay, modeling clay, ceramic, playdough, silly putty: you name it. I was fascinated. My Mom and Dad always encouraged me and bought me whatever clay was out there. By the time I was in fourth grade I was quite good at making little animals and cartoon characters. I used to enter my figures in community and school fairs: I always placed first. I sold little figures to my classmates for 35 cents each. That apparently, was the start of my entrepreneurial ways.
	When I was 10 or so my mom took my sister, Jamie and I to a local craft shop for a small art class. On the last day of the class, our teacher taught us how to make bread dough baskets. From there, I was hooked! Jamie and I began experimenting with the dough by making cookie cutter ornaments, and then painting the figures. We enjoyed this, and when I was in 8th grade, Mom took us to a local gift shop and showed the owner our work. She gave us an order that totaled $ 49.00 for each of us! We were in business! We had great fun making ornaments together, but I found that I just didn't have the patience for all the painting. So I began to experiment with coloring dough and free forming the design. My first design was my Moose (style # 10220), which is the only design from that original group that I still make today. When I had several good designs in my inventory, my Mom took us to more stores and we got more orders. Jamie and I bought our first car together when I was 15 and she was 16, but after a few years she decided to go on to other things (she got a real job lifeguarding). I made ornaments all through high school and then into college at UC Irvine. In my sophomore year at UCI, I began dating my future husband, Mike. During this time, Mike's mom introduced me to her good friend who worked in the buying offices at Disneyland! To my incredible delight, the buyers ordered ornaments for a shop in Bear Country. This truly was a dream come true for me in many ways, because 1) I am a Disney fanatic and 2) because once you can say that you sell to Disneyland, anyone will at least talk to you. College graduation brought some big decisions for me career wise, but I was helped along by a trip with Mom and Jamie to Disneyworld, where their Christmas store buyer gave me a huge order. Soon after, I got my first department store order, from the now defunct Buffums chain. Through it all, it never occurred to me to work anywhere else but out of my own house, although many people began asking me when I was going to set up a factory and hiring people to work for me. I began to give the idea some thought, but only in the back of my mind. In 1987, Mike and I got married. We live in an apartment in LA for the first 2 years of our marriage. I made ornaments there, but we had no garage, so at least once a week I dragged all my ornaments back to my Mom's house in Orange, CA to glaze them in her garage. In 1988, I got order from both Macy's West and Bullocks Department Stores. At that point, with all of my accounts together, I was making just under 30,000 ornaments a year! I made each one individually, as I always had, but boy did I work fast! I kept up with that crazy pace for few years until I was faced with a huge challenge. I was pregnant! Andy was born in February 1992. After a year of baby, ornaments and no sleep, I realized I couldn't continue to do everything. Again came the thoughts of a factory and employees. But I have to tell you, I couldn't face the thought of having so many complications. I honestly want to keep things simple, and keep working at home, so that's what I did. I began dropping accounts, and yes even some realized I couldn't keep up, and they dropped me. I chose to keep my Macy's account (by then they had bought up Bullocks), because they were my biggest and favorite account. In March 1995, our son, Matt was born. As the kids have grown, they've taken up more and more of my ornament making time and that's the way I like it! However, as they become more independent I find myself able to work while they are in school and after they go to bed. In the last few years I've taken on some retail craft shows, and I'm looking into a bit more wholesale work. And now, of course, this website. I look forward to, in between working in the classroom, bible study, Little League and AYSO, your orders on the internet. I thank you sincerely for your support!