It all began in 1995. Our third child, Reid, was born severely ill in March of that year. Later, we were told that Reid was the sickest baby to survive in the history of Eau Claire and Minneapolis medicine. 26 surgeries, 3 months in Minneapolis Children’s Medical Center, and two years of ‘round the clock care, Reid’s recovery is nothing short of a miracle. Today, you’d never know he had the beginning he did, and he’s perfect. We are blessed.

When Reid came home from the hospital and for two years after that, he could not be exposed to very many people because of his severely damaged immune system. We were essentially house bound. I couldn’t work and the kids couldn’t go to day care, and we were left with some incredible medical bills..

That Christmas we made all our presents for everybody. Then the phone started to ring. In February, I proposed the business idea of ‘Collins Designs’ to my husband, Lanny. Maybe there were a lot of people out there who wanted things we could make?? I’d do the patterns, design, finishing work, and sales; he’d do all the carpentry (after he got home from work). We did things this way out of our garage for 5 years. We met great people; customers and fellow crafters all over Wisconsin and Minnesota.

When all three of our kids, Morgan, Haley, and Reid, were in school full time we considered our venture successful in that we had made ends meet while Reid recovered at home. We were going to dissolve the company and move on. Lanny was looking forward to working only one job! But then, I got to thinking again…. What if we really had something here?? So we formed ‘Sawdust City’ because Collins Designs wasn’t available as a national LLC.

We were lucky Morgan was doing a school project on our area’s history while we were trying to come up with a new company name! Sawdust City is Eau Claire’s nick name, and what our shop looks like most of the time!! This area is rich in logging history, and we have a Paul Bunyan logging camp museum here in Eau Claire. That’s how Paul & Babe came to be in our logo. Lanny's own grandfather, Gerry Miller, was a real lumberjack, living in the logging camps for months on end, using teams of workhorses to help move the huge logs. Fun, how it all works out isn't it?!

Lanny quit his job to run our shop, and off I went to Chicago to exhibit in the Chicago Gift & Home Show in the Merchandise Mart, and the rest is history.

We have a great (big, I think anyways, compared to the garage days!!) shop on the north side of Eau Claire, WI, and 20 super employees. Without them, none of this would be working so well.

We have the best web-developer in the world, Bill Leskinen, owner of William Lewis Web Development, who works day and night to see that we have top positioning and all that stuff I don’t understand. Thanks to Bill’s efforts, the New York Times called twice and featured 3 of our products on two separate occasions, among many more great things!!

We are amazed daily to be able to go to work and do something we love, creating things that people want to have in their stores and in their homes, all over the United States. We are fortunate to have great people all around us, helping in everyway, to get it all done.

Thanks for reading! I hope to hear from you!

Liz