Hello, and welcome to HappiHello!
In this first blog post, you’ll get a behind the scenes look at the artist / owner / maker / marketer / accountant / booth staffer behind HappiHello: Eileen Ann. This blog will serve as a home for HappiHello news, tutorials, fun facts, and more.
And with that introduction, let’s get started!
How I got started
Crafting has always been a lifelong hobby of mine. I started crafting at 9 years old when I received a bead making kit as a Christmas present. I loved opening up the physical book and adjoining bead kit full of sparkly beads and trinkets. I’d pore over each page for hours, sucked in by the process of taking a bunch of seemingly random supplies and slowly, but surely, building something beautiful out of them.
I then moved onto scrapbooking, cardmaking, painting, ceramics, crochet, drawing, and whatever else I stumbled across at Michaels. For years I dreamed of working at Michaels as a sales associate for my first job. When I turned 15, I marched into the Michaels in Braintree, MA and asked for an application. I unfortunately was too young to work there, so they told me, “Come back next year!” I instead took a job at the East Milton Fruit Center Marketplace, a gourmet supermarket in the next town over, for the gap year.
I went back to Michaels when I turned 16, and I got the job! As they say, the rest is history.
Launching HappiHello
In 2016, I participated in Twitter NYC's Holiday Bazaar as an employee doing 'this crafting thing' as a hobby on the side. I was still mainly focused on climbing the corporate ladder. After an exciting decade working in tech, which included an IPO, an acquisition, and two unicorns, I needed a break. After some soul searching, I knew I had to follow this creative fire inside me, so I resigned from my corporate job in early 2022 and took a leap of faith.
On May 31, 2022, I launched HappiHello - finally fulfilling a lifelong dream of opening a small craft business. It has only been a few short months, but I'm loving every minute of it and am so excited to see where this next chapter will take me this year (and beyond).
Fast facts
- Hometown: Quincy, MA
- Favorite season: Autumn
- Favorite color: Teal
- Favorite drink: Moscow mule
- Favorite cuisine: Thai
- Favorite movie: Forrest Gump
- Dogs or cats: Dogs 🐶
- Dawn or dusk: Dawn
- Roller coasters? No way
- Horror movies? No way
- Crafting: Hell yes!
- One item I can’t live without: Chapstick
- One item I can live without: Charging cords
Let’s stay in touch
I love meeting paper crafts and stationery enthusiasts.
- Be sure to sign up for the HappiHello newsletter below.
- Follow @HappiHello on Instagram.
- Get in touch on the Contact page.
-Eileen