My Story
I came into this world as a surprise…
An early “present” my grandmother would say as she was unaware of her teenage daughters pregnancy. Shortly after being born, I was adopted by my grandparents just before Christmas.
My grandmother played the role of my mother creating a childhood that made me feel different.
I was shy as a kid.
My grandmother tried to break me out of my shell by exposing me to a variety of experiences that ranged from soccer, to t-ball to bowling.
Despite her best efforts, life at home had often been filled with conflict and chaos.
As a teenager, I knew I wanted out and something different for myself.
I left home at 17 years old
and it changed the trajectory of my life. I left to attend Bentley College and living on my own shaped me in the most positive way, preparing me for the independent life I was seeking.
After graduating, I went on to work in Finance, but soon realized I hated the corporate world.
I was miserable and completely unfulfilled with the work. Changing roles, moving companies, and a return to graduate school left me with the same dissatisfied feeling.
I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur after living through the fall out of the 2008 Financial Crisis that left me disheartened by the job losses, market crash and the mortgage crisis.
Finding a creative outlet, opened up a whole new world.
While planning my wedding on sites like like Etsy & Pinterest I fell in love with the elements of design and DIY projects. It was during this time, that a friend had shared a hand-knit scarf she made that prompted me to say,
“I love this! I’ve never seen anything like it.”
My business spark began.
“What if we could make these and sell these?”
Soon after I called every yarn store and bought a ton of yarn on my credit card. Soon after, a business partnership was formed and Third Piece began.
I took out a personal loan for $20K and hired a woman from the local yarn store to help design & knit scarves, hats & mittens.
Orders soon came in from Henri Bendel, Bergdorf Goodman and other leading fashion retailers.
The concept expanded into pop-ups around Boston and hiring knitters in the Boston area to fulfill all of the orders that were coming in, creating a modern day cottage-industry style operation of local women.
The original Boston based Third ‘Piece Makers’ that helped bring our hand-knit collections to life.
These women inspired me and I fought hard to keep the production locally-made with their help.
I did everything I could to keep production local. It was the element of the business that became integral to my personal learning creating connections beyond the craft.
Taking the leap into a storefront.
A failed business partnership pushed me to move forward in going all in to open a retail store in Boston’s historic South End.
The space went on to later close following the fall out of the pandemic, but this little shop served as a healing space for myself, our customers and community that walked through our door.
It was here that I truly saw the transformative powers of knitting.
Try, Fail, Pivot & Rebuild
Third Piece evolved to be so much more than the small hand-knit fashion label it started as.
For me, being an entrepreneur has always been about creating the life that I want to live and finding my own small way of leaving a positive impact on the people, community and world around me.
Welcome to my personal website where I share my life as an entrepreneur, founder and mother that is working to build a creative life.
