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“How it all began, I don’t even know where to begin.  I was a stay home mom in the process of picking myself up by the bootstraps and trying to figure out something to do that would help me become financially independent. After many unhappy years of marriage I needed to find a way to take care of my kids and myself.   I had started a pattern business and was trying to make money that way.  It did pretty well, but it wasn’t enough. In 1998 I decided to open a web site and try selling my designs there... while setting that up I learned how web sites work and so I designed my own site. It was a lot of fun and kept me busy - it was my sanity. Then I met Tammy. She was a ray of sunshine in my life and we became best friends right away. We both worked on our sites and encouraged each other. I started to realize that she had amazing artistic abilities when she started showing me adorable and unique graphics that she had made. "Wow those are cute!".. "WOW, you are GOOD!" Then the "light bulb" went on. We decided that we could do this together  --  her designing the graphics and me trying to do them justice by setting them up in web sites for people. AND the coolest thing is, we would both be doing something that we loved! We dove right in and had takers right away, and have been so busy every since. Everything just really fell into place . . . a match made in Heaven!

Our friendship and business both grew. After lots of hard work and struggles, eventually I was able to move away from my unhappy situation and I owe a lot of that to Tammy.  She encouraged me so much and I wouldn’t be where I am now without her. God totally blessed me with her friendship and this business. I’ve  also met so many wonderful people who have become very dear friends -- another blessing.
I love my work. It is very rewarding and I can’t imagine myself doing anything else. Both Tammy are totally committed to this business and to quality.  We would love to help you design a custom web site. “

Jennie Rae
P.O. Box 764
Norco, CA 92860
jennierae@earthlink.net

“Back to "The Old Drawin' Board" is the famous line of Looney Tune's infamous character, Wile E. Coyote - super genius, became the name of our new business...

It all started around 6 years ago, after I moved to Arkansas from a two-year stay in Hawaii. I decided to open a pattern business. I started my creations in fabric and felt, sewed and painted, printed and packaged what I hoped would be a future for me. Let's just say it was the start of things even more wonderful than I could imagine. I decided to target them to the Internet to have a bigger audience and keep my start up costs low.   I was learning to write my own web pages and was having some trouble. That's when I met Jennie. She was a pattern designer who had already been in business for some time. I was amazed at how selfless she was. She not only helped me fill in all the missing pieces that I needed to build my web site but also gave me her friendship. She and I talked every day. Hours of chatting online, emails and instant messaging. Although she lived in California and I in Arkansas, the Internet kept us as close as sisters. A few months went by and some gals saw our work and asked us to design a web site for them. We thought, "why not?" so that was the beginning of our business. We decided that she would build and maintain the stores and I would design the look for them. We opened a storefront and it made itself.  When we started there were no other web sites like the ones we had on the Internet. We made "fabric" style backgrounds and whimsical characters to reflect other designers’ work. The amazing part about it all was we didn't have to try -- it just came to us and we feel it's a true Blessing from God - it felt "meant to be".

We didn't actually meet in person until a couple of years later. We went to the International Quilt Market in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  There we met up with Sherri Gool, my partner in fabric design, and had a blast! When we all met it was like those cheesy motion pictures where they play everything in slow motion. Running and hugging and jumping up and down, tears of joy and just really seeing your friend for the first time.  My life has been blessed with a richness of friendship, and it all started with a simple dial-up connection and some dreams of a business.

Jennie and I are as close as sisters and I treasure our friendship. I am blessed to know her and I am eager to see what God has in store for us.

I hope you all will stop by our little peace of heaven and see www.theolddrawinboard.com    Jennie works very hard to provide a low cost, high bells and whistles web site.  She has many affordable packages to choose from. Let me help to define a look for you.  Selling products in this day and age is all about image and I would love to be your graphic designer. Well back to The Old Drawin' Board.

Tammy Sherman
118 Sleepy Lane
Warner Robins GA 31088
ilustr8@alltel.net

Scent-sational Fact for January

January is named after the Roman god, Janus, who was always shown as having two heads. He looked back to the last year and forward to the new one. The Roman New Year festival was called the Calends, and people decorated their homes and gave each other gifts.

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John and I hope you can look back on 2003 with gladness, and look forward to 2004 with excitement.

Happy New Year and thank you for your continued love and support . . .

From everyone at
Cinna-Minnies!
http://www.cinna-minnies.com