The Story So Far

Hi, I’m Kristen, and I'm the hands, heart and largely unsupervised imagination behind Miss Ellany’s.

Miss Ellany’s began, as many of my favorite things do, with a book, a bit of inspiration and an idea that wouldn’t get out of my head.

I had recently read Grimoire Girl by Hilarie Burton Morgan, and I loved the idea at the heart of it - Creating a book that becomes a record of your life and family. Not simply somewhere to write but somewhere to keep the things we learn along the way, the traditions we create, the recipes we make over and over, the stories we tell and all those small pieces of ourselves that might otherwise disappear.

I wanted something like that.

But I wanted mine to grow and change. I wanted to add to it, take it apart, rearrange it, carry it with me, and make it completely my own. I especially wanted notebooks I could easily buy again and again - ones that could eventually be labeled, shelved and passed along to my kids without requiring an elaborate index to figure out where the hell the Cherry Crap recipe lives amongst their mother’s other longwinded notes.

And because I love a good random diary, while we're at it I wanted it to be able to hold one of those too.

I also wanted it to look like it belonged to me. To be a little unique. To feel special but not so special or costly that I was afraid to actually use it.

So I started making.

One cover became another. Materials changed. Designs evolved. I experimented, took things apart, rebuilt them and followed every “but what if I did it this way instead?” that crossed my mind.

I gave them to teachers, my friends and their kids, hell I even made one for the woman who performed my hysterectomy (she loved it 😏😂), and I listened to what worked and what they wished it had so it could work even better. But the most interesting part was watching them take what I had made and turn it into what they needed all on their own.

They found their unique ways to use it. They discovered their own ways to journal, organize their ideas and very specific ways to make it theirs. They started to make accessories, repurpose things they already had, and I watched them return to themselves in ways they hadn’t in a long time.

And somewhere in all of this, I realized I was returning to me too.

What I was making stopped being simply a journal cover and became the beginning of the You✦System — a collection designed to change with you instead of asking you to change for it.

It became a Companion.

And the idea for Miss Ellany’s grew right alongside it.

Because it wasn’t just for grimoire use. It was really for miscellaneous use. It’s a miscellany. Get it? 😉😂

And then I stumbled onto something I somehow hadn’t planned at all:

Miss Ellany’s had been ME the whole time.

There it was, just hiding in plain sight.

That happy little accident became the heart of the brand (quite literally) and the ME heart became my maker’s mark.

Today, every Companion is made individually by hand in Albuquerque, New Mexico, from the first cut to the final details. No two are ever exactly alike. Pattern placement shifts, fabrics tell slightly different stories and small variations are part of what makes each piece its own.

There is a quality standard here that I deeply care about but I think it’s equally important to tell you that these pieces aren’t perfect. They’re made by an imperfect human being for other imperfect human beings, and I think there’s something pretty special about that.

In a world that can feel increasingly focused on perfection, hurry up culture, and how well we measure up to someone else's standards, Miss Ellany’s is a place for the rest of us. A place to be who we are without apology, to slow down enough to enjoy the lives we’re actually living with the people we love, and to put as much good into the world as we humanly can while we're here.

There are Companions for the many pieces of an adult life, smaller ones meant to travel alongside you, and the Garden Gate collection created especially for younger hands and growing imaginations. There are Bookmarks, Accessories, Seasonal Chapters and whatever else my brain convinces me absolutely needs to exist next.

But underneath all of it is one idea:

Return to Yourself ✦ Return to ME

The little ME heart you’ll find on every Companion is more than my maker’s mark. It’s a reminder that amidst the appointments, grocery lists, plans, responsibilities, ideas, dreams, half finished thoughts and everything you carry for everyone else, there should still be a place that belongs to you.

A place to write things down.

A place to figure things out.

A place to begin again.

You don’t need a perfectly organized life to start. You don’t need beautiful handwriting, a complicated planning method or a fresh Monday in January.

You just need somewhere to begin.

I’m so glad you found your way here.

✦ Welcome Home ✦

 

Until the Next Chapter,

Kristen

Maker & Founder, Miss Ellany’s