Good morning all! Meet Sophia...she is one of the new images from Paper Pretties that was released last night! Christie Ortman is the owner of Paper Pretties and we have been working together for almost a year now. During that time we have become friends and even though our business relationship will soon be ending, our friendship will remain. When Christie first told me she was developing her own lines of stamps I was happy for her but also a bit bummed...I can admit that right? I would be losing a good wholesale account and there would be another stamp company in the world and since I knew Christie had good taste I knew they would be cute! Christie was also privy to my unreleased artwork, things that were in production and I valued her opinion and was concerned that I would be losing a good sounding board as well. But luckily for me, my good friend Alma, the Cat's Pajamas Lady, has a wonderful outlook on things like this and after hearing it, it made so much sense that I've adopted it as my own! Her outlook is that every stamp company that finds a market and is supported in this industry financially is good for everyone else. It draws new people into the marketplace, people that will at some point branch out and explore other styles and companies. Since the core of me is basically a "there's enough for everyone" kinda gal, it was easy for me to see the value in that logic and to rapidly transition into what I hoped would be a mentor to Christie like Alma, Robert, Karen Lockhart, Gina K, Em, the Lizzie Anne gals and Julie Ebersole have been to me. This road would have been much rougher and no where near as fun and amazing as it has been without them! Each one has been free with advice and guidance whenever I have asked and often just when they sensed I needed it. That's the beauty of all of this, in a world where there is so much competitiveness that these fellow company owners, who in the strictest sense of the word are my competitors, have offered me a leg up instead of a shove down. I will always value and treasure these experiences and hope to do the same for others. I know of people in this industry that have gone about building their companies in a fashion that is far less than in integrity and in the process have cut themselves off from the very support that has been so pivotal to my success. They will never know the joy I feel by being supported by fellow companies and for that I feel very sad for their loss. So, enough of of my philosophical banter...go check out some stamps! And I *believe* sometime around the 19th of January, there's gonna be a new sheriff in town over at TCP...stay tuned!