Today we’d like to introduce you to Anne Kay.

Hi Anne, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?

I grew up in a small town in the Midwest – a town that had one stoplight, an 8-isle grocery store, and streets lined with small businesses, including one owned by my parents. It was there I learned the sense of a community, supporting small dreams, and the value of hard work.

I met Annie, a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner just after we received Maclain’s heart disease diagnosis. I was in rough shape (ha, that’s a giant understatement!). My face swollen from all the tears and I remember feeling relief when Annie walked in the room. She tried to put me at ease with her warm smile, sincere energy and patience while I asked every question under the sun. I’d see a lot of Annie over the next few months leading up to Maclain’s birth. She, and the other nurses were incredible and provided a bright spot in a very dark time. Annie and I reconnected when I opened my little neighborhood shop. She’d shop and we’d chat. She inspired me to invigorate Red Lark’s social media (still working on that 😉) and we discovered we have a similar love for all things cozy, home decor, entertaining and Farmhouse Pottery.

Anne, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

For as long as I can remember, I wanted to “start” or “create” something of my own. For at least 10 years or more, I have talked about owning a bakery some day, but could never envision owning a brick and mortar and keeping another set of lights on. Then 2020 hit, and in addition to the incredible hardships that year brought, I had a very unexpected loss – my Dad died on December 8th and his death was the type of shock no one could prepare your for. Those kind of sudden life shits make you re-evaluate how you spend your time and energy. During the days and months following, I made a lot of cookies, because warm cookies made me happy. Each night, my family and I would bake fresh cookies to spark a little joy, and one night my husband looked and said “you should try vacuum sealing frozen cookie dough, and if it works, you should sell it!” From that day forward, my dream had a heartbeat, and I have taken little steps each day (some days more like giant leaps) to bring my idea to fruition. I now have a chest full of frozen cookie dough and pie dough at all times, an e-commerce site that I just updated, and I’m the buyer of more butter and sugar than I thought possible. I even have Sweeties swag for sale, if you can believe that. This journey has been a way for me to channel my grief, make people happy and create something of my own that I absolutely love. goes here