Veteran Owned- Proudly Made In the Heart of the Ozarks!
In 2011, life took our family in a direction we never expected. My husband was injured while serving in Afghanistan, and although my plan had been to return to teaching—I have a degree in History with a minor in Secondary Education—God had a completely different plan for me.
And apparently, that plan started with a knock on my front door at 6:30 in the morning after PT.
We were stationed on a military base, and I had started making wreaths for our own home. People began asking where I was getting them. Then one morning, there was a knock at the door and a soldier standing there with a very simple question:
“My wife wants to know where you got your wreath.”
I told him I had made it myself and would be happy to make one for them if they just covered the cost of the materials.
And y’all... I WAS ASLEEP. 😂 I certainly had no idea I was having my first business meeting!
But that one wreath became two. Then two became more.
When we eventually moved home, the orders and requests kept coming, and I realized this little creative hobby had somehow turned into something much bigger.
The funny part? I was supposed to be a teacher, not a floral designer!
So I did what teachers do best: I started learning.
I researched. I practiced. I experimented. I made mistakes. I got better. And all these years later, I’m still learning something new every single day.
What began as an unexpected opportunity became an incredible blessing for our family. It gave me a creative outlet, a way to contribute to our family, and eventually a career and business that I truly love.
But perhaps one of the greatest gifts this business has given me is time.
I'm a wife, a mother, and now a very proud Nana to two grandchildren. Because I've been able to build a business around our family instead of building our family around my job, I've had a front-row seat to helping raise those babies. School pickups, ordinary afternoons, special moments and all those little everyday things that don't seem so little once they're gone—I get to be there for them.
And around here, “family” definitely includes Archie and Andy, our two dachshunds, who are convinced they are an essential part of Polka Dot Wreath Co. I'm pretty sure their official positions are Quality Control and Management. 😂
Through all of it, I've learned one of the greatest lessons of my life: sometimes the unexpected turns are the ones that lead us exactly where we're supposed to be.
That little hobby became Polka Dot Wreath Co., and today it's my full-time business, my creative passion, and a way for me to do something else I never really left behind—teach.
Turns out, God did let me become a teacher after all.
He just changed my classroom. ❤️
And I'm incredibly grateful that the classroom He gave me also allowed me to be a wife, Mom, Nana, dog mom, business owner, maker, and teacher—all at the same time.
Come follow along with Polka Dot Wreath Co. and see what we're creating, learning, laughing about, and getting into next!
