Atelier Lorelai may be a new chapter, but it is not the beginning of my story as a maker or entrepreneur.
For as long as I can remember, I have dreamed in businesses: imagining what I could make, how I might present it, and who might love it enough to take it home. The names and materials have changed through the years, but the instinct to create something beautiful and build something meaningful around it has always been there.
It Began in a Little Yellow Playhouse
As a child, my little yellow playhouse was as much a workshop as it was a place to play. I made tiny pillows for dolls and clover-bloom potpourri, turning whatever I had into something of my own. As I grew, the ideas grew with me, ranging from bridal garters to couture drapery.
I did not yet have the language for entrepreneurship or brand building. I simply loved the complete process: imagining an idea, making it by hand, and creating a little world around it.
Moseys and My First Online Business
Around 2008, I started my first business selling bow-adorned flip-flops that I called “Moseys,” along with tutus and fun patterned tote bags. It was my first experience selling online, and I was among the early users of Twitter and Facebook business pages, back when businesses building communities on social media still felt new and genuine.
I also sold in person at fairs and markets, an experience I loved and have never forgotten. Those early years gave me my first real understanding of what it meant to place something handmade into the world and trust that it would find the right person.
A Different Season
After I had my first child, my priorities shifted. I decided to finish my master’s degree and pursue a higher-paying career in higher education. Entrepreneurship moved out of the foreground for a time, but the ideas never stopped. I continued to imagine businesses, products, and the stories that might hold them together.
That season also gave me experience and perspective that would later shape how I approached creative work: with greater intention, a stronger understanding of communication, and a clearer sense of what I wanted a business to mean.
The Storybook Goods Years
In 2016, I formalized all those years of making, experimenting, and entrepreneurial adventure with the launch of Storybook Goods.
Storybook Goods grew to more than 50 retail partners across the United States and Canada, and I had the opportunity to design pieces for several celebrity clients. Through the years, my work and entrepreneurial story were featured in Somerset Home, Martha Stewart’s Dreamers Into Doers, House Beautiful, and other media outlets and organizations that encouraged women in business.
Those opportunities were meaningful, but the most rewarding part was, and remains, the continued encouragement and support of my clients. Many returned season after season, trusted me with their celebrations, and made the pieces I created part of their family traditions. That kind of connection cannot be measured by a feature or a sales number.
The Atelier Lorelai Chapter
Atelier Lorelai brings the whole story forward. It is not a departure from what came before, but a more refined expression of the work I have always been drawn to: handmade, personalized pieces shaped by beautiful textiles, careful craftsmanship, and couture-quality details.
The bows that appeared on Moseys all those years ago feel especially fitting now. What began as a playful signature has become part of a much more considered design language, one grounded in heirloom quality, timeless color, thoughtful monograms, and pieces made to be brought out and loved year after year.
Looking back, I can see a continuous line from the little yellow playhouse to Moseys, from fairs and markets to Storybook Goods, and now to Atelier Lorelai. Each chapter taught me something about making, building, adapting, and beginning again without losing the heart of the work.
Atelier Lorelai is the newest chapter in a story I have been writing for most of my life. I am deeply grateful to the clients who have followed along, returned through the years, and continued to make room for my work in their homes and traditions.
Thank you for being here and for giving handmade things a place in your story, too.
