As we prepare for our birthday next week (yes, mark your calendars for our anniversary sale on June 27th!), it seemed most appropriate to remember our story. Stories sustain everything we do and in the shuffle of all that needs to get done in a day, I don't want to forget the one we're writing here. So back to the beginning we go.
In 2014, as most of my previous law school classmates were heading into their second years as practicing attorneys, I was trying to figure out how to launch a website with 25 cards and 3 art prints, a collection that I had been mulling over for a few months, a painting bootcamp of sorts as I hadn't picked up a paintbrush in over a decade. It was a whirlwind of coding bits and pieces where I could make sense of the < >, divs, /, />, driving around town meeting with printing partners, most times with very little success, soliciting the help of my dear cousin to shoot images for the website launch, and putting together sample kits, praying that someone would pick up the line.
Within the first week, we had three amazing shops order through the website and that was enough to get me going. I was packing everything out of my little IKEA inventory closet that Clarence had put together for me, high gloss doors and all. By the first month, I was shipping to about 25 shops and the business steadily grew, along with an organic audience who was drawn to the story of a girl who had no formal art training and an unsuccessful legal career, pursuing what seemed like a far-fetched dream.
I need to pause here and give a virtual hug to my mom, who ran a thriving wholesale business since I was four, and her sisters who started painting and printing greeting cards 15 years ago, before they were a thing. Watching the way my immigrant mother built her business with little knowledge of the english language in a foreign country has made it all that much more possible for Donna and me to be where we are, working mamas with daughters, privileged to live a life we love (more on this here).
Yes, we believe in making essential things beautiful. But beyond our product offerings, Donna and I are most proud of the community we’re building and the commitment we’re constantly come back to - that we’re doing all things with light, love, and integrity. If you’ve been journeying with us for awhile, you’ll have seen that we choose to say slow when the world says go, that all of you mean more than we’ll ever know how to say, and that our brilliant team is what makes Our Heiday possible. We’re most excited to see how our company shifts and grows as this little seed that continues to sprout.
In the midst of life-threatening pregnancies, growing pains of scaling, three studio moves, new product offerings, and all the curveballs in between, we’ve made it to year four. Such babies in the grand scheme of companies, but the little milestones make up the big ones. Celebrating means we’re choosing thankfulness; gratitude for the opportunity to be here, to have a voice, to contribute in a meaningful way. Gratitude for a God above who walks before us. Here’s to many, many more.
cheers,
pat
