What a year and gift 2025 was 💝 I thought it would be fun to share a little recap of our year, both personally and professionally! 2025 asked a lot of me- creatively, emotionally, as a mom and as a business owner. It stretched me and taught me lessons I'll carry forward.
✨We started off 2025 with a family vacay to Cabo, including a brand photo shoot while on location - because, why not?! Vacation always serves as a time for a creative reset and brings new inspiration.
✨We launched new items including new Valentine’s themed pieces in the Ever After collection, and processed so many orders, many from an annual winter online trade show, where retailers place large orders to fill their boutiques!
✨Celebrated 5 years of business! We quietly celebrated Derive turning 5 at the end of May. While I had every intention to do some kind of local party to celebrate, life was frankly just busy and I didn't make it happen. Should we do something this year to celebrate when we turn 6?
✨Lots of outdoor adventuring with Crew and trying to find a good balance of motherhood and owning a business. We tried to fill our spring and summer with all kinds of outdoor adventures around home and included a week at the coast in Pacific City. It was so beautiful and a bonus was stopping into one of the boutiques along the 101 that carries my work! It's always fun to see what I create out in the wild.
✨Took on various custom orders which always sparks creativity. In case you didn't know, I take on a few custom orders per month as time allows- and its filled pretty regularly with bridal orders (including jewelry for entire bridal parties, mother of the bride, etc) but I have also been taking on a variety of custom requests including once of a kind rings, bolo ties and more. To inquire, email any time to shop@derivejewelry.com
✨The beginnings of the Wayfinder collection and a new chapter for our pieces! THIS- is something I have been dreaming up since starting this business- but there had never been a "good time" so I realized I just needed to make the time or it would never happen. So many hours late into the evening, trial and error- cutting, sawing, filing, soldering, more filing... just a few of the steps that go into making one of a kind settings made to be filled with beautiful stones. I really enjoyed launching this collection and adding to it when I can. This year I plan to continue to add to it and look forward to watching how the pieces continue to be embraced with such love. This is the work that fills my creative cup the most!
✨Finding out we’re pregnant with our rainbow baby! 🥹 Words cannot fully express finding out we were expecting again, after an early loss not long before. The universe has a way of surprises - good and bad, and one of the greatest lessons for us was patience and acceptance of what is, while being so grateful for what we already have. Just when we were giving up, we were surprised in the best way and I decided to take things very easy over the summer/fall to support my growing baby and my body the best I could!
✨Making pieces for donation requests is something that really does bring a lot of joy and is a little way for me to "give back" at this time without taking me away from home. I love to support good causes when I can!
✨Friends trip to Arizona- the vibes were good in Sedona and the turquoise treasures I came home with were amazing. Crew was so unbothered in first class 😅 and the whole trip made for some great memories with our best friends, and of course new inspo for designs! Something about being a business owner/ jewelry maker is that I am always thinking about new designs or business ideas even when I'm not in the studio. I had looked up some possible new supplier options while we were in the area and scheduled site visits- which led to making a great new connection with a turquoise supplier that I have been ordering from on repeat! It's always so good when I can source stones from as close to the actual "source" and in this case from several of the mines in Arizona and Nevada.
✨I said NO more than ever to make space for family, adventuring and other opportunities within the business- I gave up doing most pop up events. This was one of my final pop ups out at Brasada Ranch. My business has grown in ways that pulls me away from being able to spend the amount of time planning, prepping and working the pop up events. So, I gave up my annual spot at the NWX farmer's market for the summer, and said no to other big events like Summer and Fall Fest, that I had done in the past. Being pregnant with some early physical restrictions from my doctor was a key factor, and during that time stepping back made me realize the importance of making space for other opportunities and it yielded great results personally and in business. I do still plan to do pop up trunk show style events here and there, but now if I do them, they are solely for fun and not with any pressure! It is something I enjoy from time to time as a way to personally connect with my local customers and meet new people, I'm just happy with my decision to not commit every Saturday all summer to them anymore!
✨Hired my first assistant! Thank goodness for Rachel and Jade 🙂 - part of stepping away from so many pop up events allowed me time to invest in other areas of business: growing production with Jade, and hiring Rachel who is my virtual assistant helping with many things being the scenes. I'm currently hiring a second production assistant and we are happy with the growth this has allowed the business, while free'ing up some of my time so that I can be a more present mom.
✨In the summer, we decided to sell our house and remodel our other house! It was bittersweet to leave my studio space that I had custom built from the ground up, but alas, with our growing family, the layout of our other house that we had been using as an investment property was simply more practical and kid friendly! So, we packed up the studio and moved out! I do miss the canyon views and the fox family that would visit regularly in the backyard, but we do love our current space too!
✨New studio and home remodel! I got to pick out all new finishes as we practically gutted our investment house and brought it back to its former craftsman style glory! I got to go a little bold with my carpet leading up to the studio. A bonus is that my new studio is attached to the house, and I can hear the kids while I work which is really helpful for me personally. I was feeling too "detached" out in the backyard studio before. Pros and cons of course when it comes to being productive.
✨Soaking in the summer as a family of 3 for the last time! The reality that our lives were about to change again and Crew would soon be "sharing" our time hit me pretty hard. Managing my time as a creative has always been a challenge for me, so I find ways to help me stay on task and on track so that my time in my studio is as productive as possible. I have a little timer cube to help me stay on task and remind me of a hard stop!
✨Welcoming baby sister Indie and settling in for the winter!
Our sweet girl Indie Pearl joined us early November, and we enjoyed a cozy, wintry newborn bubble! We did a pre-Christmas staycation at SunRiver Resort which is always so nice. I took actual time off this time around ( and still taking it really easy as we are still in fourth trimester! ) We are all doing great!
✨Takeaways from 2025: Progress over perfection- and knowing I cannot do it alone. The to do list as a small business owner/designer/maker is never ending. It could mentally drain me if I let it, so a big accomplishment in 2025 was accepting I only have so much time in the day to give to my business as one person, and deciding to grow our team to give me the help I so desperately needed.
By letting go of certain things, I was able to create a one of a kind collection of work that I had been dreaming of doing since I started this business. We were also able to welcome 61 (!) new retailer accounts this year bringing the total independent retailer locations to over 250 who carry my work! Not without the help of my amazing production assistant Jade! This year is just getting started but we have continued to welcome new retailer accounts and looking forward to adding many more.
2026 is looking amazing and off to an incredible start. While it is already proving to bring some new challenges- silver and gold metal market prices, anyone?! We have no doubt that as a team we will accomplish new and great things this year.
Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart for your loyal support of my business!
🫶💛✨
I hope you enjoyed a little look behind the scenes of what I was up to last year personally and professionally in our very first blog!
