We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Crissie Hoskins. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Crissie below.

Crissie, 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.

I’m a creative at heart. Most of what brings me joy in life involves creating—something—anything. It could be a logo, photoshoot, jewelry, baking, drawing on the sidewalk, or even making my own lipgloss and makeup. Making things with my hands from raw materials and creatively solving problems fills my bucket.

I’m a Creative Director at Stoltz Marketing Group by day, so when I come home, I need to get off a computer and use my hands. I’m a mom of 3 very, very, very busy kids, and the thing that we all really enjoy doing together, aside from movie nights, is making things.

We are a blended family, and while that’s a beautiful thing, it means I only get to see the kids for half of their lives, which is a brutal pill to swallow. So when we have time together, I want to make the most of it.

I have a 13-year-old stepson, Evan, and 2 daughters, Hollan (9) and Izzy (12). The girls and I started making polymer clay jewelry together in January of 2023. Like most things, I get in deep quickly. It’s expensive. We spent so much time creating and finally decided to make this real. Let’s actually start a business so we can spend MORE time together, focused on learning about running and growing a business, making products, honing our skills, marketing, and more. It’s building an even deeper bond between us and giving the girls something to feel really proud about.

Even naming our company was a group effort. Lala is the name that my oldest gave to her baby blanket 12 years ago. She never went anywhere without it, but now, as a 12-year-old, Lala stays home a bit more. To us, Lala is also just a blissful, carefree, and low-stress fun state of mind. We want everyone to live and love a life full of lala.

We are now close to a year into our business, and we’ve learned a lot. The girls love creating new colors, names, and styles. To maintain the high quality of our products, I have to have more oversight than I think the girls would prefer, so their interest ebbs and flows. They cheer when we get a sale and love packing the orders.

Looking ahead, Love Lala Life isn’t just about creating fabulous and fashionable jewelry together; it’s our quirky experiment in mixing business with family and tricking my kids into spending as much time together as we can fit between dance classes, school, and work. At the end of the day, Love Lala Life isn’t just some business venture; it’s the wild ride we’re all on together, a real-life crash course in getting creative and just rolling with it.

Crissie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I took a trip to my birthplace of Tucson for my high school graduation to spend time with family. While there, my Aunt Janet taught me how to wire wrap necklaces and solder rings. I dabbled a bit as a hobby in college and even had a small jewelry business in my mid-20s. But when I had my daughter, priorities changed, and I left that behind. I’ve always had a passion for jewelry and creating, so I knew it would come back around. Last year, I got bit by the jewelry bug again and dug in deep. I was spending so much time and so much money. Working a full-time job, driving kids places, etc., and putting my head down on jewelry took time away from my family. Precious time that is so scarce as it is. So, I invited my kids to join me in the making. My stepson wasn’t as interested in earrings, so it was just the girls and me. We had so much fun and created so much. But, spending a ton of money and time just to give things away was…not smart. So we decided to make it real. Start a business where we could use it as an opportunity to learn together, fail together, learn about business, marketing, and money, and just make lots of stuff that makes us smile.

We started with polymer clay earrings that are lightweight and fashionable. We use a lot of translucent clay, which tends to look a bit different from the traditional polymer clay work you see. Looking back at some of our inaugural pieces, we have come so far. We still aren’t great at self-editing, so we have a lot of options, but that’s kind of how our brains all work. We love variety. We love color. We love neutrals. We love statement pieces and understated pieces. We love it all. We want our pieces to be fun to wear and so lightweight you can’t tell you are wearing them. We are now starting to get into silversmithing, which, for safety reasons, is more of a me thing for now. But the girls still love help melting down silver into decorative balls to use on our rings and pieces.

To make this work, we have to have fun. We have to have fun together. Making the jewelry has to be fun. Selling it, wearing it, and talking about it has to be fun. If it’s not, it’s not worth it. So we are having a ton of fun.

When people see our brand, it should be clear we don’t take ourselves too seriously. That’s not a Lala way to live; we hope our work shows that.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

I met one of them in 2011 and the other in 2014. The first time I met each of them was in a hospital room when the doctor placed them on me for the first time. What a freaking gift and dream to call my little girls my business partners. They inspire me. They are so creative and so full of energy. And then….are also 9 and 12-year-olds who I occasionally have to bribe to help out. I can’t always compete with Minecraft. ;)

But I couldn’t be more proud of every second we get to spend together. They make this all worthwhile.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I still have a very small audience. As I write this, we are in the low 900’s for followers. But our strategy is not to take it too seriously. Post as frequently as we can without overthinking it. The algorithm is this tricky little minx we are always trying to appease. I am a professional photographer – but at the end of the day, I knew if I had to get my camera out for everything I do, I just wouldn’t have the energy to get it done. So, I’ve worked to hone my cell phone camera and try to rely on that for most of our content and even product photography. I know it’s not ideal, but it’s what works for us and a challenge I’ve enjoyed tackling. By using a phone, it makes capturing and creating content a less intimidating and more immediate process.

I am also pretty, pretty, pretty darn uncomfortable being on camera, so that’s something I’m working on. People don’t want to feel like they are just being sold to. They want to be on the journey with you. They want to know you, know your story, know what failures you’ve had, and how you’ve learned. I try to mix a bit of all of that in with some actual products. I also just try to show up and genuinely lift and support other artists. The online community can be a really wonderful and kind place. Understanding that my audience is a mix of other artists looking to learn or find a community, as well as customers looking for some new jewelry, allows me to post content for both.

Contact Info:

• Website: lovelalalife.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/love_lala_life/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shoplovelalalife

Image Credits
Myself and my husband, Greg Hoskins.