Thursday, February 24, 2011

Here We Are!

Jill and I are so excited to be here in "blogland" and are ready to share the goings-on of our crazy lives!  Its been two years since With A Twist, LLC was formed and there have been many bumps, twists and turns along the way!  I've dug up some photos that tells our story from the beginning...

 

June 2009- Jill (on the left) and I about two seconds after we decided to start a business together, thus our first "business meeting"!  Although there is no evidence of it, I'm sure this was followed by a glass of wine, toasting to our future!


It was shortly after that day (during an outing with our Girl Scout Troop), when our company name was born, "With A Twist"!  Really, who doesn't love a good martini?  We had actually already come up with our first product and we liked the double entendre (twist of doorknob and a twist of lime)...get it?  There is a picture of us (of course I couldn't find it now, when I want it), which is evidence that our drive to thrive outweighed our fear of using power tools...seriously, there were sparks flying everywhere!  I'm not joking.  We even wore goggles!  I'll be searching for that picture for the next twelve hours I'm sure!  In the meantime, here are some other memories to share with you.


August 2009- This is Studio A (aka Jill's garage) where our first product was created.  We all start somewhere, right?  Originally, exclusively sold at Nest Home & Gifts, these vintage doorknob hangers are now also available in our Etsy shop "With A Twist Designs".

We produced several collections of our vintage doorknob hangers from this space.  We primarily focussed on perfecting our look of these items and began taking on custom orders.  Eventually, we outgrew the use of just this space and began using my garage, as well as the upstairs "scrapbook" room, which is now lovingly called, "Studio B"!  This is mild compared to what kind of messes we make now!

 June 2010- One year into the business and the next product we produced came directly from this salvage excursion (a barn that was scheduled for demolition) in Snohomish County.  We stocked up on the naturally aged wood that was eventually upcycled into signs!

Our very own Vana White...I mean, Jill Anderson.

If we could have, we would have scaled the walls to get this bracket!  Love it!


Believe it or not, the raw materials salvaged over a year-and-a-half ago, still fuel our current custom orders! We now are in our third phase of product development and have tons of ideas in the works!  Its so fun to see where we started from and realize where we are today.  We always enjoy the creative process and though it is a juggling act with our kids and families being the most important things to us, we love this new adventure!  To our families and friends who have been there from the beginning and watched it unfold, thank you, thank you for all of your support! 

Thanks for stopping by and come back often to visit! 

Hugs,

Cheree and Jill