05/06/2026
Good Morning! I just wanted to share our story with you, for anyone who hasn't heard it. February of 2012 I attended my first "trade show event" at the civic center in Lebanon, MO. I had handmade hair bows and spent every dollar I made at the show buying merchandise from other people. I started making hair bows because I had a little girl born in 2011. I started selling them so I could stay home with her. There came a time where I realized hair bows weren't gonna cut it- they took a long time to make and you couldn't sell them for very much and keeping up with the trends ate up a lot of the money. I sold a lot of hair bows and turned around and bought a lot more ribbon- I wanted to have lots of options, and I did. But I added purses and other small items that I didn't hand make, and eventually I had a full scale boutique. I started selling snap jewelry in 2013 and in 2014 when I had another baby I decided to have sales reps and at one time I had 8 people buying and selling my brand of snap jewelry, snap jewelry is probably one of my favorite things ever tbh. Over the years I have attended 100s of craft shows, trade shows, fundraisers, paddle parties, home parties etc. It has been a lot of fun, but in 2023 I went to a trade show that was a flop- shows have not done well since 2020- there has been a significant change and I decided I had dragged my inventory out of my car for the last time. I was done. My brother had died earlier that same year and I needed a break. I decided to take a year off and reconsider how I wanted to run this business, I knew I still loved parts of it and I wanted to incorporate my brother into it. A couple months after deciding I was taking a break, my friend offered me the building at 5 state Road P. I had wanted that building for years and I couldn't pass up on it, so I said yes and decided to rename my company The Feral Cat after my wild brother who died in 2023 and in April 2024 we opened the doors for the first time as The Feral Cat LLC. I found out that my life didn't really have space to be consistently open- especially after memorial day when airbnb season takes off (we manage a couple) we still tried to wing it but, people were coming to shop when we weren't there because we had to work and that's not fair for anyone. So, we dropped one of airbnbs to be more available at the shop and to be able to put the kids in the various programs they would like to be in- which also interferes with having consistent hours. In the meantime, we have decided we want to be a handmade shop primarily- we want to provide custom, sentimental and personalized items that people will hold onto and not throw in the garbage and - if we find good deals on other items we will occasionally grab those items for you guys as well. With the inability to be consistently open a certain set of hours each week, we have decided to just choose a couple times a month to open to the public and use the remainder of our time creating and making appointments for custom creations. We are currently getting a shipping area created and getting more organized on the backend so we can ship and create and still have a shopable space. We are so grateful to everyone who has stopped by our shop and purchased from us, we hope to be the place you think of when Wanting something sentimental and custom made. So, this is our story and this is where we are at in this life and we are thankful for absolutely everyone who has been a part of it. Please stick around to see what's next- I think it will be really fun.
