About Me As far back as I can remember I always loved to draw and paint. As a little girl all I needed to keep me occupied and happy was a pencil, paper and a tin of water color paints. We lived by the edge of the woods and many creative subjects for my works of art were the flowers, trees and animals around me. In high school, my art teacher taught me how to oil paint. I learned to paint still lives and portraits, but landscapes were my favorite. At the age of 15 I was selling my oil paintings in a small restaurant. The owner hung my paintings in the dining room to add ambience while people were eating, but he let me put a small price tag in the lower right corner and that's all it took to start a small business. I went to college here in New Jersey, graduated with a major in sociology and still oil painted for extra spending money. I then secured a good job doing social service work. I found that I loved working with people but social work was emotionally hard on me. I thought about how I'd like to work with people, but do something to make them happy. Then it occurred to me - why not share my love of art and creativity with people? So I opened up a small craft store called "The Craft Jubilee". I sold art and craft supplies retail and taught all kinds of craft classes at the store. I designed an adult education class called "Holiday Crafts" which I taught in different high schools at night during the Spring and the Fall. In 1980 I designed, wrote and published a book called "Holiday Wreaths to Welcome the Holidays". Many craft distributors ordered my book and it sold nationally very well. During the years of my retail business and busy class schedule I married and had 2 children. It became more difficult to juggle the responsibilities of running a retail business and taking care of the family. I decided to become a stay-at-home Mom, a decision that gave me many wonderful, treasured years raising, teaching and nurturing my children. My creative spirit still thrived as I designed, painted, sewed and crafted for both my children's school projects and school parties - my cupcakes for each holiday were the talk of the school (only kidding, but they were cute)! My children are older now - my daughter's a junior in college (majoring in computer graphics!) and my son is a freshman in college - and guess what? I have time! And what do I like to do better than anything else? It is to design and share my love for creating with all of you. I seem to have many great ideas, so the natural solution for this was for me to start a pattern company, hence the beginning of "Happy Heart Patterns". I hope all of you enjoy my designs - when I look at a finished fabric rag doll or completed wood teddy and they bring a smile to my face, I know they are ready for you. So with a smile and a piece of my heart I wish to you a happy and creative future! Ginny Lettorale