Over the past few years, my husband and I have discussed the idea of creating our own company. The idea originated with our hobby farm back in Minnesota. It was a picturesque backdrop of farm country and century old barns. It was perfect for dreaming up gardens growing produce for farmers markets, work sheds for handcrafting decorations and furniture, and venues for summertime weddings and gatherings. It was there that our dream of T&K took root and began to grow. Saying goodbye to that farm was one of the harder moments of my life. As I drove down our driveway through the corn fields and turned onto the dirt road that would take us to the highway, I barely had it in me to take one last glance back at the property of my dreams. However, while we left the farm behind, we did not leave the dream of our little business behind. It has traveled with us as we moved to Arizona and then on to the islands, slowly changing and building to meet the inspiration of each area. Both my husband and I love to create. We find peace and fulfillment in building and re-purposing items. Our goal is to create in a way that also helps to protect the future of our planet. With all the moving and with a growing family, as well as the devastation of a typhoon, turning this dream into a reality has been a longer process than we anticipated, but it remains a dream nonetheless. As another aspect of this blog, I will be providing the stories behind some of our products.
Living on a small island is paradise in many ways. However, anyone who has experienced paradise knows that, even in paradise, things are not perfect. One of the challenges of a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that most people and companies have never heard of, is that it is not always easy to find the things that you are looking for. It is nearly impossible to go to one grocery store and find all of the items on your shopping list, most clothing and home goods are bought on-line, and we often look to our friends to bring us back coveted items on their trips to the mainland. One of the smaller items that I have found to be difficult to find here are cards. Birthday cards, wedding cards, Christmas cards, Thank you cards. Family members’ birthday’s pass as I search for a single card expressing well-wishes for their anniversary around the sun. Then, when one is finally found, it is always less than desired. This year, we had much to be thankful for: our anniversary and my birthday were at the end of July, my older son turned three in August, my friends threw me a baby shower to welcome our newest little boy, and friends and family generously sent gifts when the baby was born. I was overwhelmed with gratitude and the desire to send a thank you card, but with the demands of a new baby I hardly had the time to drive around the island going into and out of stores hoping to find those elusive thank you cards. So I decided to make my own. I had already designed a birth announcement and birthday invitations for my older son in the past, and, further in the past, I used to enjoy creating Christmas cards that captured the theme of the year that was just passing. I realized that I very much enjoy the creative aspect of making cards and the ability to personalize them.
As new designs are created, they will be added to this page. Hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoy creating them! Please check back for a printable download of my first Thank You card, seen below.
