"Did You Know?" #5

It seems like our "Did You Know?" series are pretty well received, so we think it'll be an on going thing for us from now on!

Well, for those of you who have been following our blog for a bit, you probably know that Eva and I are good friends that have known each other for a while. But did you know for how long exactly? It took us a while but we dug up what is most likely one of the first pictures of us "together".

As you can see from the date stamp, this was back in 1997!! Eva and I were in different church youth groups at the time but our groups had a joint outing to Longwood Gardens. Can't really say we got to know each other well at that point though, probably were more acquaintances. But boy do we look YOUNG in this picture!!

It wasn't till we met again after college when the churches that we attended had combined that we got to know each other better and found out we had really similar personalities and design tastes! I'm sure if you asked us back in 1997, we would have never imagined we would become such good friends and business partners.

And there is an extra little treat for many of our readers that know Lisa from expandng, because she is in this picture as well! If you don't know her or have never read her blog, go check it out, she is awesome!

Is there anyone in your life that you have known for a while but didn't become good friends with till after a long period of time? 

Zi

"Did You Know?" #4

Did you know that I (Zi) was born in Malaysia and so is Eva's husband, Alston? And Eva and my husband, John, were both born in the United States. So our cultural situation is sort of the opposite of each other. It's funny how this creates some common likes and dislikes among us.

For example, Alston and I both love to eat durian and Eva and John both really dislike it! When our families returned to Malaysia on separate occasions, Eva and John were both asked to try this wonderful "king of the fruit" but unfortunately, they both still didn't become a fan. Maybe we will just have to try again next time we are back =)

*Image taken from medic-herbal.blogspot.com

Don't know what a durian is? It is a tropical fruit, commonly found in South East Asian countries like Malaysia and Thailand. It is green and thorny on the outside and has several sections on the inside containing yellow fleshy meat wrapped around rather large pits. The smell is very strong and is often considered stinky by people who do not like the fruit. Fun fact about durian, when the fruit is ripe and ready to eat, it will fall by itself from the tree that often only happens at night so there aren't too many incidents of it actually falling on a person!

Any durian lovers out there? Let us know in the comments section!

Zi

"Did You Know?" #3

Most of you may have already guessed that since both Eva and I are SAHM (stay at home moms) and WAHM (work at home moms) we get most of our sewing and designing for BOJ done at night after the kids are in bed. But did you know that our supportive husbands are usually our cutters? Meaning they usually have the job to help us cut out the patterns in fabric and we do the sewing. It is usually around this time, that they start to "question" our designs, like "Honey, does this design really need to be this small?" Or they start to get their creative juices running and say, "There has got to be a way to make this easier. Is there a punch or a machine that can cut this shape out in 1 step?" Maybe we will get another business idea this way, who knows!

Some of the designs that have been more "work" were the transportation line and the lunch buddies. If you haven't checked them out before, why don't you stop by the "honeycomb" store and see what they are all about!

If there is anything you would like to know about BOJ or Eva and I feel free to ask us in the comments and we will try to answer them in our next post!

Zi

"Did You Know?" #2

Did you know that the Monsters Magnet line was created totally by coincidence? We were both trying to come up with more boy friendly designs and showed up at our next business meeting/play date with monsters as one of our designs!

If you missed it the first time they came out, make sure you check them out at our "honeycomb" store. Also, there were coloring pages for our monster elections between Mittens and Pajamas! Get all our previous coloring pages at our downloads tab up top.

Any questions you would like to ask about Bumble of Joy? Let us know in the comment section and we will try to answer them in our next post.

Zi

"Did You Know?" Series Intro

In January, we will be doing a little series of posts called the "Did You Know?" posts. They will give you some little known facts that hopefully will give you more insight into Bumble of Joy as a company, our products, and also Eva and I as designers!

We will still have other posts mixed in throughout the month but hope our readers will enjoy some "behind the scene" looks into Bumble of Joy.

Also don't forget we would love to share some of our reader's labor stories, so send them on over to bumbleofjoy@gmail.com.

So here we go with the first "Did You Know?" post:

Did you know that one of the first Bumble of Joy hair clips were made by Eva as birthday gifts for E2 and E3? The "original" designs were the strawberry and apple hair clips which became Sassy Strawberry and A+ Apple.

With those designs as starting off points, we have come up with more designs for our hair clips and with more to come! If you haven't checked out our "honeycomb" store in a while, I suggest going for a visit again today!

Let us know if there are any things you would like to know more about Bumble of Joy and we will try to answer them in the coming posts!

Zi