An introduction, from Angela

Hi there! It is so exciting to finally be making this blog introduction! Our Etsy shop has been open since June 2010, and the only thing that people really know about us is the small information that is given in our profile there. This blog will be a great tool for our customers to get to know us as 'real people' even though we may live miles and miles apart.

Kristina and I decided that we should each do a separate introduction, to make things more personal. I will go first:

My name is Angela, and I started my life out in a small town in North Dakota with my parents and two sisters. I am the middle child in the family, bookended by a very creative and imaginative older sister and an energetic, enthusiastic younger one. I think that their personalities really influenced who I am today. Together we would spend hours creating treasure maps to hunt from and made small crafts to 'sell' to our parents quite often. Summertime meant outdoor adventures and fort building. We also attended our very own 'school' in our basement, run by non other than my older sister who is now an elementary school teacher.

My mom was a loving and caring nurse at the local Nursing Home and my dad the high school principal, and later the technology coordinator at the school. They gave my sisters and I the best upbringing possible, encouraging us in everything we wished to do. I personally had a passion for design, and particularly loved to create floor plan layouts and house designs. My parents were 100% supportive of my ventures, even going to the point of framing my drawings and hanging them on the wall.

When it was time for me to leave the nest, I chose NDSU (North Dakota State University) to pursue an Architecture degree. It was there that I met Craig, a gentle and loving soul, who was entering the Engineering program. Over the next 3 years we learned more about each other, and more about ourselves as well. In 2002, while still in college, we made our commitment to each other when we got married. We finished up 2 more years of college, each getting our respective degrees, and then bought our first house in a small town in MN, near the town where we had both found jobs.

We lived in that house for about a year and then decided to move closer to our jobs. We found a grand old house in a historic neighborhood and fell in love with it, even though we knew it would require some up-keep. We moved into this house in May of 2005 and found out shortly after that we were expecting our first child!

Daniel Robert was born in November of 2006, and at that point I left my architecture job to be a full time stay at home mom. Two years later Daniel became a big brother when Isaiah William was born in February of 2009. Our house has been full of fun and mischief ever since our boys entered our lives, but we wouldn't have it any other way! We are now expecting our third child, due in March of 2010.

I came up with the idea to start Taffie Wishes in early 2010, while planning Isaiah's first birthday party. It seemed that the store bought decorations, complete with popular cartoon characters, didn't have that innocence and simplicity that I was looking for. I wanted to create party decorations that could be loved by both children and their parents. Our very first products were up for sale in our Etsy shop in June of 2010. We have experienced steady growth since then, and look forward to even more opportunities in the future!