Faces of Long Island celebrates the uniqueness of everyday Long Islanders. In their own words, they tell us about their life experiences, challenges and triumphs. Newsday launched this social media journey into the human experience to shine a light on the diverse people of this wonderful place we call home.

‘It feels good to have your own business and be able to create your own hours and do things on your terms rather than for somebody else all the time.’

Brentwood

“We got inspiration from Instagram to start this particular business. We saw an ad for the machine that we use called the Glowforge. They were showing how you can engrave on a laptop, on a phone case…even on macaroons. We’re like, ‘This is a Cricut on crack. This is cool!’ We decided we have to get this and start a business together. We just have this entrepreneurial mindset because our parents were entrepreneurs. So, we got the machine. We’re always good with gifting things, but a creative personal gift is always that much better. And it’s more fun to give.

“We’ve always done those kinds of gifts and now this kind of took it up another notch. So, that’s how we started, and it’s pretty much been endless since. Instagram is where we began and had people DM us for anything custom that they were thinking of. And we recently opened up the Etsy store. It feels good to have your own business and be able to create your own hours and do things on your terms rather than for somebody else all the time. You put the hours in and it doesn’t always feel like hard work.

If your heart is feeling like you’re not in the workspace that you need to be, try different things.

“It’s so much better than working with coworkers. We have our fun banter. We love to sing so sometimes we’ll have music on while we’re doing our projects. We did a fair in the Islip town hall in 2019 and somebody passing by said, ‘I’ve been watching you girls for hours now and you need to get to work. You’ve been doing a lot of laughing and you guys seem like you’re having too much fun.’ I mean we’ve definitely bickered a little bit haha. But at the end of the day, whatever I can’t finish my sister’s there to do and vice versa.

“So, it’s almost like having two of yourself to get something done. If your heart is feeling like you’re not in the workspace that you need to be, try different things. For a long time, I was in a mediocre position thinking, ‘What am I doing? What talents do I have that I can use?’ Every time somebody gets one of our works, they’re just so blessed to have it. I feel like that was God telling me, ‘This is the direction I want to bring you. Get out of that place that you’re in and come into this rewarding profession where you can work with your family and be a blessing to other people.”

Interviewed by Jay Max

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Faces of Long Island is produced by Newsday Consumer Marketing. This content does not involve the reporting and editing staff of Newsday’s Editorial Department.