Remember how I said there were big changes in store for The Spotted Elephant? Its time to unveil some of them RIGHT NOW! I think I'm embarrassingly excited about this and I'm afraid I've built it up a bit too much.... but its just nice to be excited about something again! And so, without further ado....

We're Moving! And changing the name of the blog AND our business! Eep! Why would we do this? The main reason for the change is that we want to break into the Etsy world and, wouldn't you know it - there are other Spotted Elephants out there. In fact, there is a Spotted Elephant Boutique which is doing lots of business selling (of course) baby and children's items. And as much as we love the Elephant, we certainly can't take over the world with a repeat name. At first, the idea of changing our name and identity was difficult to swallow - but the more we thought about it the more it made sense and began to sound like a great idea.

The Spotted Elephant started out as just my little blog in 2006 (and even that was originally called Zipperific for a short time) - a disjointed place where I occasionally wrote about random topics for the fun of it. Back then, I rarely even crafted and had just learned to knit. In 2009 I started using The Spotted Elephant as my business name for the custom crafts I would sell once in a blue moon. But so much has changed even since then. The most important change being the addition of Randy to the team. Of course he was always there for moral support, but in 2010 he became an integral part of the actual production team as well - knitting hats, piecing quilts, building display structures, designing our website, and plotting our eventual world take-over.

When I reflect on how much of a joint venture this is now, changing our name to reflect that seems like the only thing that makes sense. We have felt a sense of "us against the world" during certain times of turmoil that has bonded us even more closely than we already were (and we're coming up on 18 years of bonding time - as we met 18 years ago come August - WOAH - typing that number has floored me a little.) And this time of reinventing our lives as solidly childless (for now) has caused us to want to loudly celebrate the things we do have going for us - the biggest, bestest of which, is our marriage/friendship/partnership. In other words, we love us. I know - we can be kind of unbearably happily-ever-after at times. But we feel like we've earned it and we're going to publicly revel in it for a while (think of it as our version of a wallet full of photos of our kids).

So. Without FURTHER ado.... we are pleased to introduce.....

Hitched and Stitched

Get it? Because we're hitched.....and we stitch. I guess it doesn't really need that much explanation. :)

Hitched and Stitched will be our new business name (we will be converting The SpottedElephant.com to HitchedAndStitched.com) and the new name of the blog. From here on out, this blog is moving, and we're tickled pink to invite you to drop in at our new address (if that's not where you're viewing us from already!):

www.hitchedandstitched.blogspot.com

More on why we decided to move from Wordpress to Blogger in a later post. For now, bask with us in the glow of our shiny new space and get acquainted with the new surroundings. I'm sure that as we settle in we'll do some rearranging and redecorating from time to time, but for the time being, we're proud as can be of our new little home. Stop by and see us!

P.S. I know you're probably not worried at all about Sweet Pea (the Spotted Elephant), because unlike me you probably don't anthropomorphize everything you come into contact with- but if you are worrying, don't! Sweet Pea is not going to get left behind or forgotten (ohana). We've packed him up along with is peanut stash, and he's moving with us and will still be a part of the parent "company" - probably as the mascot of a future product line. Ha - don't we sound fancy - product line!