From Junk Drawer to Keepsake: Why I Started Keepsakery

For every parent with piles of art, mystery feather crafts, and a full heart.

If you’re anything like me, your house has… stuff. Crumpled artwork. Photos printed (but never framed). Birthday cards you couldn’t bear to toss. Maybe a handprint turkey or two.

We keep it all because it means something—because these are the bits of childhood we want to remember.

But somewhere between wanting to save it and actually doing something with it… life happens. The stuff piles up. The memory bin gets shoved in the closet. And we feel just a little guilty every time we see it.

That’s why I created Keepsakery.

It started with my own kids’ artwork—piles of it. Paintings, scribbles, glued-on googly eyes… all shoved in drawers, bins, or stacked on the counter with a vague “I’ll do something with this later.” And then, of course, the guilt. The feeling that I should be preserving this magical phase, but didn’t have the time (or energy) to figure out how.

So I started making books. Simple, beautiful books that let me keep the best parts without the clutter. And something amazing happened—my kids loved them. They sit down with their art books like they’re reading a story about themselves. Every page brings a new round of questions:
“Did I really paint that?”
“Why did I draw a banana with a face?”
“Was I a baby when I made this?”

That’s when I realized this wasn’t just for me—it was for them too.

These books give our memories a home. They remind us how much we’ve grown, how much we’ve laughed, and how much love lives in the messiest, most colorful corners of our lives.

Keepsakery was born from that moment—when a pile of drawings turned into something lasting. And now, I want to help other families do the same.

Because these years go fast. But we can make them last—on purpose.