I am often asked how I started my business or where the idea came from so I decided to tell my story. Thank you in advance for taking the time to get to know me; it’s quite a story!
BLOCKSetc has been a work in progress since its inception in June 2005. I am originally from Lancaster, Pennsylvania where I grew up surrounded by truly authentic farm houses nestled in idyllic Wyeth-esque landscapes. As a young girl I would dream of someday living in a farmhouse full of charm and character and raising a family. I LOVE history and anything that conjures a past, a story or has had a previous ‘life’; there is something mystical about the imaginative qualities of actual things. When I got a little older my father would take me ‘antiquing’ and I relished just being among old pieces as I would imagine the life they may have once had. When I married and moved to Michigan with my husband, I begged him to consider buying a farmhouse, so we could literally live inside a piece of American history. After lots of searching we found a farmhouse in need of some TLC but one that oozed charm and character and had a story to tell. With all the naiveté of 26-year-old newlyweds, we bought the house dreaming of its potential. For 8 very long years we chipped away at project after project while starting our family and working ‘real’ jobs. I finally had a reason to shop for antiques and I filled the house with old farm tools, period pieces and folk art.
On one of my shopping trips I stumbled across and old drawstring bag that had been tossed into a basket on the floor of a staged living room. The basket was filled with wooden knitting needles and an old shuttle from a trestle machine and had been placed at the foot of a wooden rocking chair that was donned with a hand sewn patchwork quilt. The little scene caught my eye and I was drawn to the clunky bag. I opened the musty linen to find an assortment of old fashioned alphabet blocks, worn from years of use and play but still colorful and almost oiled with wear. They were as rustic and as authentic as you can imagine, and my mind started swirling with scenes of kids sitting in front of fireplaces on braided rugs playing with building blocks. Once home, I discovered the blocks revealed an assortment of letters and I was super excited to find that I was able to spell my son’s name, BROCK, from them and they immediately found their way to a shelf in his toddler room. Every room in the house was officially submerged in Americana history. Life was good.
I was the Alumni Director at a small Liberal Arts College and my husband was working in his field of OSHA as a regional safety manager for an aluminum recycling company. I loved my job but all I ever really wanted was to be a stay at home mother.
In 2004 I had a 1-year old daughter, a 3 year old son, I was pregnant with my third child, working full time and juggling renovations, housework and daycare. I was busy, but I loved being a mother and a wife and learned to appreciate the ongoing constant construction that brought chaos. My only sanity was my solitude in the wee hours of the night as I painstakingly scrapbooked baby memories for my children. I would sit among crafting totes and bins; I would rummage through piles of cutesy paper and themed stickers; I would belabor decisions like which decorative scissors I would use to edge my photos with. One night, buried among embellishments and stickers on what was once a dining room table, I wondered if there was a better way to preserve baby memories.
Sure, there were silver spoons and rattles, bronzed baby shoes and picture frames but what about something different? Unique and truly personal? What if something could be rustic and charming and would someday be full of character like those wooden alphabet blocks I found in that antique shop? What if I could make something that would someday tell a story? Then it hit me. What if I could make an alphabet block like the ones I found but personalized with the baby’s birth details?
And there you have it; the birth story of the baby block! For weeks I researched lumber and wood working equipment, I revisited marketing chapters from old college textbooks, I read every article on the internet I could find about starting a business and I learned how to build an e-commerce website. When my 3rd child was born I resigned from my position at the college and became a "mom-trepeneur". I started slow and small and my goal was to be able to spend my days with the kids but attempt to recover some of the loss we experienced when we went to a single income household. By day I was home with the kids living my farmhouse dream and having a blast raising them. I eventually had a fourth child, and as they grew so did my business.
There have been a lot of changes over the years, but I love how I can continue to evolve by tapping into my creativity. Thank you for reading my story! -Erika
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