20 Year Anniversary Sale

Woohoo!!

It's time to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Netties Expressions!!

It's seems a little strange to me since I don't feel old enough to have a business which is celebrating it's 20th anniversary.

So, to be honest I didn't realize until just recently that this was my 20th year in business. I know, it's really a shame, but I've had a lot going on. If I would have been planning ahead I should have really centered this whole year around celebrating my 20th anniversary. Once I realized this, I decided that it was time to celebrate with a little history, some pictures of past products, and a SALE for all of you.

You can get 20% off your purchase at my retail location and through my Online Shop. The sale starts today and ends Thursday, November 2, 2017 at midnight CST. If you want to take advantage of the sale you will need to place your order before midnight (CST) on Thursday, November 2, 2017.

***this sale does not apply to custom orders, gift cards, paint workshops or wholesale orders***

If you're ordering through my Online Shop, the discount will show up once you've added the item(s) to the shopping cart. You can then view the shopping cart and check out what your savings will be.

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If you've previously read my "About Me" page, some of this will be stuff which you already know. I'll try not to repeat myself too much here.

I had thought that I would share my previous logo files here with you just for interest sake. I've created a number of logos in the 20 years since I started Netties Expressions. However after doing a bunch of searching I haven't had a lot of luck with this. Those were the days before I backed up all my data.

I found this design below. I remember using it for a very short time early on.

The logo which I used before the "butterfly" logo below had two hands holding a pink heart. I haven't been able to find it anywhere though. I probably used it roughly from 1998 - 2010.

The one which is probably the most familiar to my longtime customers is this one below. This is the only logo which I ever paid for. I had this logo designed for me in 2010 and used it up until 2015. In 2016 I decided that it was high time to update my logo as I was particularly tired of the pink color. It just didn't feel like me anymore. That's when I designed the logo which I'm using now.

This is my current logo. Interestingly, all my logos except the one above, have had a heart in them. 

I remember discussing business names with my older brother. I was 13 at the time and had someone coming over who I was going to design a birth announcement for. I was really stressed out because I wanted to do something professional. And if you want it to be professional, you've got to have a business name. 😊 Once you have a business name and a logo you can create professional looking invoices and put your logo on the back of your products.

I can still clearly picture my brother and I discussing this in my Dad's back office. I had a vision for my business and we weren't exactly seeing eye to eye on my vision. Doesn’t that sound like typical siblings? 😊 I was 13 and he was 15. I knew that it would be "Netties" something or other. I tried out different things and came up with "Netties Expressions". He thought I should do Netties Greeting Cards, Netties Stationery or something more specific to the actual products. I didn’t want to do that and remember explaining to him that if I did that, I would be limiting my brand to greeting cards only.

• What if I would decide to broaden my product selection one day?
• What would I do then?
• I’d have to completely rebrand and change my name.

I told him that the heart in my logo went together with the “expressions” part of my name. I was putting a little bit of my heart into each item I made and I was also expressing myself in the work which I did. I wanted to create meaningful items which would touch people's hearts. To be honest, that is still my vision to this day.

To create meaningful items that I can pour a lot of love into, which will touch people's hearts.

I'm disappointed that I don't have a digital copy of my very first custom order which was a birth announcement.

I have some images of greeting cards, bookmarks, a few signs and some wood decor which I created early on. You can see these below. 

It's been quite a journey. I started out doing birth announcements and business cards. From there I went to only making greeting cards and making lots and lots of them. I slowly expanded to making bookmarks, crafty books and wall calendars. And slowly through the years, my business evolved to where it is now today.

In 1999 at the age of 15 I started working part-time for my Dad in his accounting office. I eventually turned to working full-time for him. I'm now a partner in the 3-generation family accounting business and work there full-time. Netties Expressions is still my side-business or 2nd full-time business as the accounting business comes first. I've learned a lot of great lessons from watching my Grandpa and then my Dad run their own business, as well as learning from my own mistakes.

I set up my Etsy shop in 2010. Etsy has been a long slow process for me as I've put a lot more effort into setting up a website/online shop on my domain, www.nettiesexpressions.com, which I purchased back in 2008. I'm slowly working on publishing all my products to Etsy as well, but it's definitely taking time.

There's a lot of work which goes into running my own business. I still do everything myself except for the odd time where I have a cousin come in to help with some sanding or when I get my parents to help out for a couple of hours. That means that I do all the designing, advertising, bookkeeping & taxes, photographing my products and listing them online, making each item, pricing and tagging each piece and all the other little things which go in to running your own business. It's a lot of work, but I love it! It's a side job which helps me relax after a stressful day in the office dealing with bookkeeping, taxes and the deadlines which go along with all that.

I'm excited to see how Netties Expressions grows in the future!

Thank you to each of my customers who have supported me throughout these past 20 years. I wouldn't have been able to make it without each one of you.

If you're new to Netties Expressions, then welcome aboard!