It all started with my first taste of adventure...
It all started with my first taste of adventure...
A seed of inspiration came upon our return to the Pacific Northwest after a mission trip to Mexico, and we longed to return to those precious people our hearts became knit to. The seed sprouted with my creative friend Debbie’s idea to raise support by crafting handmade gifts, so we got to work!
Today our two friend team with a dream blossomed into Spring Creek Cottage, a family business specializing in hand-painted signs and cards. Working alongside my husband, Gary, and our two daughters, Tyra and Veronica, is an incredibly fulfilling experience. Working from home allows us the flexibility to travel to spend time with our son, Stephen, who is serving his thirteenth year in the United States Coast Guard.
And yes! We made it back to Mexico. Our journey in Querétaro continued as Gary and I embarked on two more missions in Cabo with Mexican Medical Missions, allowing us to experience the country’s vibrant culture while further contributing to the local communities.
This ignited quite a spirit of adventure in our family. Soon, we found ourselves saddling up for a cross-state cowboy ride with North American Mounted Missions, responding to multiple disaster deployments with Samaritan’s Purse U.S. and International Disaster Relief, and even going on a missions trip to the remote Carpathian villages in Romania. Like individual flowers that combine into a bouquet, each of these experiences has our hearts blooming with joy as we impart skills and cultivate friendships while sharing the powerful hope of Jesus Christ with our global family.
Our joy is cavorting in creativity with customers to craft a lasting gift for those they love. We desire for each shopper to delight in a personal experience tailored to their dreams, an endangered form of customer service in an increasingly mechanized and automated world. How? Using loving hands to create beauty that touches the heart. We meticulously craft each gift the old-fashioned way: one at a time, in our cottage, by our family, with love, for you.
Our family lives in a cottage farmette along Spring Creek, a native salmon run at the mouth of Oakland Bay, flanked by the beautiful Olympic Mountains, Pacific Northwest rainforest, and the sweeping Salish Fjord. Inspiration comes with the sunrise at this spring-fed wetland watershed where flora and fauna abound.
We moved into the dainty brick cottage in 1993 following the newspaper ad for a house, “with a park-like setting.”
Great-grandmother Bonnie often said, “a house is not a home without flowers and shrubs, and the land isn’t complete unless it’s growing food and a flock of chickens.”
Bonnie was an inspiration for cultivating the land and friendships, something that continues in our family today. The vibrant blooms and organic textures in our park-like setting influence the vivid color pallet we create with, and the burgeoning forests that frame our cottage gardens have created a deeply rooted appreciation for stewarding the natural resources around us. We create our handcrafted gifts with locally sourced, sustainably forested timber, and reclaim much of our materials. This old-fashioned way of living has become a family legacy; with each handcrafted gift, we hope to sow seeds of inspiration for future generations to enjoy their family and flourish in the environment surrounding them.
To our customers: your support means the world to us. Our family extends our heartfelt thanks for your support, and we eagerly anticipate the privilege of serving you for years to come.
-Kathleen Esterly
