I started Roots & Crowns in 2014, with exactly $1000, which seemed like a huge investment to me at the time. I didn't have any small business loans or family money to float my dream. It's been a bit by bit growth and pulling myself up by my own bootstraps ever since then. If I made an extra hundred dollars one month, it went right back into my work, maybe I'd get more ingredients that I'd been eager to work with. This has been my story ever since. 

I am hardly rolling in the dough, and some months are very tight, but I'm extremely grateful that I've managed to support myself by doing meaningful work that I love, and help others at the same time, for a few years now! When I decided to "rebrand" in late spring of 2019, I knew it would be a financially big leap. My decision for doing so was hardly just to look cool. I yearned for cohesion after years of making my own labels on my computer (I have absolutely no graphic design training), and to not be scrambling to keep all the various print-at-home-labels in stock. Not to mention the hideous amounts of printer ink I would go through and inevitably run out of at the most inopportune times. I also really wanted the outside of my products to hint at the quality and intention of what's within the containers.

So I put many thousands of dollars of new labels and bottles on my credit card, with the faith that just like my initial $1000 investment in my dream, this next phase too, will work out. I have designed every phase of my new website myself- from Etsy, to my first real website, and now this incarnation of rootsandcrowns.com I've learned to take photos that appeal to the eyes, versus my first photos back in 2014 when I thought laying a bottle on a yellowish wood table next to a leaf, and then increasing the saturation all the way up before posting it on Instagram, was a good look. 

I've come a long way, but I've worked really, really, really hard to get here. I tell you this to remind you what kind of small business you are supporting when you choose to add items to your cart, gift my work to others, and read my newsletters. I'm only here and able to do this because of you. 

So Thank You!