More about who started all this:

Hello! My name is Annette and I'm delighted you're here. I founded this little company and it means quite a lot to me. I would have loved to do a little video intro, but as we will be working with vulnerable folks I don't want to have my face splashed across all our socials. I'll be meeting employees in public and in their homes and don't want to endanger them and myself by being ostentatiously visible. It's unfortunate but it seems vital to keep privacy all around.

So now that that's out of the way I can now drone on about myself! I grew up in the Pacific Northwest with the vague goal of doing something good and useful for a living (the originality!). I did not study business (some very practical social science degrees here) so this is a new venture for me. I have traveled a good deal, and worked a wide assortment of jobs (education, fundraising, retail, etc) , and those experiences certainly put me on the right path to start this little business. But of course I also have my mum to thank, as she is the one that taught me how to embroider when I was quite young.    

So, I suppose this is where I say how I thought up this glorious little company. I had the embroidery notion in my head already (since I’d remembered I enjoyed doing it mid pandemic) and had started some fun little designs. I think embroidery has great potential to be a bit silly and fun, and so many designs I was coming across were quite serious. Beautiful, but serious. So off I went and made some whimsical little adventuring hearts and thought that might be the extent of my voyage into embroidery. But I was (gloriously!) wrong.

Around this time I was reading Poor Economics (a must read), and also came across some shirts that donated proceeds to a charity in the UK. A fantastic idea, but I wondered what exactly was happening throughout the supply chain of that shirt. Of course it was listed as a sweatshop free item, but I feel that’s the bare minimum and perhaps we, as a world, should aim a bit higher. Then I had a grand ‘ah-ha’ moment (of course I proceeded to find it all so exciting I could not get to sleep for hours, because *of course* it came to me as I was trying to get to sleep): why not merge some poverty reduction concepts *with* a business that is fun and has long term growth potential? Take embroidery, a very portable craft, teach vulnerable folks to make simple designs, pay them an “excessive” wage, and hopefully be a small part of them improving their lives.

So now you're all caught up! I have some grand aspirations for this company and am excited for what the future holds. Thanks for being here, and if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them!