Hi friends! Renee here:) I am the owner of PartyHappier, and I cannot thank you enough for visiting my shop! If you're interested in learning about how this crazy venture began, read on below!

As cliche as it sounds, PartyHappier is truly an extension of my inner child. As a kid, I was constantly coloring, journaling, or scrapbooking, and while my hobbies and passions have morphed a bit over time, one thing has never changed: I am obsessed with paper crafting. That obsession is what led me here today, and when I think about where I started compared to where I am now, I almost have to chuckle.

Flashback to 2010. I graduated with my Master's degree in Student Affairs Administration and began working as a career advisor at a private college later that year. Living alone in my first "big girl" apartment in Milwaukee, WI, I was looking for something to do in my spare time and decided to buy a ton of scrapbook paper along with some envelope templates. I started making cards and envelopes for my friends and family, and without having a clue what I was doing, I opened an Etsy shop. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that didn't go so well, so I shut it down after a few months. I still continued to create things on my own and eventually moved to Madison, WI for a new job.

Living alone in my second "big girl" apartment, (are you sensing a theme here;), I continued to make a few more items, including banners, confetti, and mini envelopes. Then one day, I happened to stumble into a local store that carried various makers' items, and that lit a fire under me. I was convinced my items would be a perfect fit for that store, so I got to work, reopened my Etsy shop in August 2014, and listed a bunch of products for sale. I contacted that store once I had some items to show them, and boom! They started stocking my items, and I also started making some pretty regular sales on Etsy.

Over the next several years, I expanded beyond just paper products and somehow ended up with nearly 1,000 unique items in my shop. Say what?!;) All the while, I was working all day at my full-time job, and working on PartyHappier orders on nights and weekends. Let me tell you, working essentially two full-time jobs is not for the faint of heart! But the weird (or maybe not so weird) thing is, even though it was really hard to keep up at times, I never once wanted to give up on PartyHappier. So, I kept at it and even began expanding into more local stores over the next couple years. Then, in March 2022, my literal dream came true when I experienced the perfect storm of events that allowed me to quit my full-time job and turn to PartyHappier full-time. With the encouragement and support of my partner, I've been able to continue on this full-time journey of doing what I absolutely love, and I am so excited about the future. I hope you'll stick around to see what happens next!