What's In a Name?

Pick Up Sticks. We’re asked all the time how we came up with that name. And we thought fessing up would be a great way to begin one of our blog posts. But of course, we want to save that story for the end of the post – the best for last and all that. . .

I love you cousin!

Before we give you that tidbit, we want to talk about blogging. We are, first and foremost, family. As most of you know, Glena and Sabrina, the owners of Pick Up Sticks, are cousins. Practically sisters. So similar in appearance that frequently customers will initially meet Glena in the booth during show season, and then come back later, mistaking Sabrina for Glena. If you’ve wandered the website, you’ve read their bios (about which we’ll do an in depth post later. . .). I can tell you, as their pal the Blogwriter, that these girls’ creative business streak goes way back. I have a lot of stories, but we’ll save those for later. 

Bisbee, AZ - Sabrina's Trailer Trash Birthday Weekend

Some of the stories involve water skiing with boys from Texas, some involve a dalmatian in a swimming pool, some involve dancing with questionable cowboys, some involve trailer trash proms. . .

But wait! This blog is all about profession- alism. All about business. Maybe just a little about fun. Or a lot about fun. What we hope to do is to let you know what’s going on with Pick Up Sticks and give you information that will both entertain you and help you market the line to your retail customers. At Pick Up Sticks we’re all about the customer. Sabrina says that when she’s designing, she envisions the woman who will be buying our charms, and the reason she’ll be buying them.

So, we’ll tell you more about Glena and Sabrina (hang in there – I have some really great trailer trash prom photos to post. . .), and we’ll introduce you to Jalaina and Candace and Brenda, the girls you get to talk to every time you call the studio. We’ll post some photos of us at work.

We might even show you Sabrina’s adorable husband, Bruce, in his order-filling apron, surrounded by the poodles (yeah, we’ll even devote a blog post to the poodles. . .), and Glena’s mom Anna Lee at the table surrounded by baggies and charms.   Because all these people are family as well, in the best possible way.

We’re excited for you to get to know us better, and from time to time, we’ll also post info you send us. We want to know all about you. The best part of running this business is going to shows and meeting all of you and hearing the stories about your retail stores and how Pick Up Sticks works for you.

So here goes. If you have a great testimonial (and thanks to all of you who have already provided one), e-mail it to marketing@pickupsticks.net, send some photos along, and we’ll include your story in the blog.  Be sure you let us know who wrote the copy and all the names of your principal players.  We want to give you full credit!

Oh, by the way. The name thing? Well, in the beginning we were Sticks and Stones Jewelry Company. We were searching for fun names for what we were doing, way back in 2000, and the husband of one of our pals suggested Sticks and Stones. Whimsical, fun, playful – just like our jewelry. But when we got out there in the world and started doing well, we had to register our name. Checked out Sticks and Stones, and it was taken by a tableware company. So we had to sit around the table in the backyard and drink several Coronas with lime and eat lots of freshly made pico de gallo and think hard and someone, somehow, came up with an even better, even more playful and memorable name. Now we’re Pick Up Sticks. And very happy being who we are!

More later. . .