We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kristie Hubler a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Kristie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
Hi! First, I want to thank CanvasRebel.com for inviting me, and allowing me to share my story! Thank you Dan!
My name is Kristie Hubler, owner of FabricatedFrames.com, inventor of the washable, fabric photo frame, and I was invited to tell my story on CanvasRebel.com! We are always learning, and I also want to teach people to learn from my lessons, but still go after your dreams. Just be careful, and protect your dream, like Chris Gardner says. So, want to use this gift from CanvasRebel.com, to share, to help others.
I think that it’s not just about learning our craft, but also to protect our craft from narcissists taking advantage of our gift, our talents. As my friend once said, “Kristie, you can’t be THAT Pollyanna about things.” We have to keep one eye open. It’s nice that people will say that they love our work, but you need some sort of concrete need of proof, be it on paper, in email to print, a signed contract, and honestly, sales, or royalties.
However, as Eric Larson, a Disney animator once said, “All we have is sincerity.” As artists, in our work. Keep being sincere, but protect what you create. Somehow, someway.
Canvas? Believe it or not, I create my art on letter size inkjet printer paper, card stock, sheet protector pages with Sharpie / permanent marker, and sometime fabric with textile medium, iron on transfer paint on ink and acrylic – I try to keep it simple and easy to handle, by drawing and painting on the table in front of me, or on my lap with a hard surface underneath. I haven’t worked with a canvas board since 1986, when I was 12, watching Bob Ross on PBS on Saturdays around 12 noon, then oil painting on my kitchen island, then drying on top of our washer and dryer with my mom patiently being careful with laundry, and also when I took an after school art class in 6th grade grammar school, where I used Liquitex acrylic lol. I use the Folk Art / craft store bottled 2 ounces of fluid acrylic now, with markers and colored pencil, along with the laptop, scanner, Photopea.com and Inkscape. I have experience using Photoshop and Illustrator, when I bought Adobe Creative Suite in 2013, but then they went to subscription services, and my old laptop died, so now, I use the free Inkscape and Photopea.com, because graphic art editing apps are getting expensive, and as work from my parents’ home artist, I have to be careful with money. I don’t have a shoe string budget – my budget equates to clear nylon thread! lol Currently, my art and printables sell on close to 15 different sites, companies that I receive my royalties from.
Rebel? Well, ok, yeah. I was the kid who questioned everything, everyone, asked, “Why?” all the time, and never settled for the adult answer, “Because” as an excuse or answer lol. I’m an Aquarian, typically unconventional, who just turned 50 on February 4th, who always wanted my own business, who fought and fights what I feel is daily narcissism that I see around me within others, and also their enablers. I’m an empath, who has felt spirits, somewhat psychic but on the low end of the totem pole in that department, I’ve had prediction dreams, trying to come to terms with those things, plus mental illness runs in the family. I have OCD, anxieties, and have dealt with a trauma, in regard to being sexual assaulted by a male family member. I’ve been to therapy, while going to college, although I must say, Law and Order SVU has been the best therapy. I hate seeing injustice. Oh, and I am left handed lol.
Was told as a child that if I worked hard that I’d be rewarded (I was a Salutatorian in high school), then was told later by those same people that I should get a “real job”, they would call my “what feels like a 7 days a week” business a “hobby”, but my passion, my work, it’s important to me. I am the artist, the designer, the inventor, the pattern maker, the owner, the accountant, the marketer, the website designer, the sales person, the office worker, the social media manager – the manager of all things. To some around me, that apparently is not good enough. Some adults expect perfection from me, more than I already expect from myself, even when I was a child, but they, in turn, do not practice what they preach, with “just settle like us” actions. They don’t dare try and do what I do because of their fear of failure. and envy on their part, because I am doing what they wish that they could do, but don’t. So, I dream and dare, then do. So, I guess I am a rebel.
How did Fabricated Frames, making fabric photo frames, their patterns, printables, and my art on home decor come to be?
Didn’t start out to make fabric photo frames, I really wanted my art on products, but wanted an “umbrella” business, to own a company for all products, art, and now printables, to be covered, and protected. However, when I came up with the invention of how I made the fabric photo frames, and kept improving on them, by making them the first WASHABLE fabric photo frame, I knew that I had to stay with it, and keep getting it out there!
I want not only my products licensed, where a manufacturer is the licensee, and I am the licensor, I also want my art licensed. I envisioned my art on products as a teenager. I really visualized it. Little did I know that one of companies I envisioned having my art licensed on their products, would pull a stunt to get around paying, by holding a contest for art on their fragrances, and little did I know that a fellow artist would win the contest by stealing a piece of art off of my website, years later!
I LOVE FABRIC! I would hide around rounders in So-Fro (now Joann Fabrics) in the mall, feeling the fibers, and I would wrap scarves around my dolls like they were wearing Pucci, who I did not learn about until later lol. I knew that people could take scraps of fabric, or their loved ones’ clothing, and repurpose it into a frame, like my customer who had me repurpose her late husband’s neckties into frames, and then she had her good friend, President Clinton, sign the photos of himself and my customer’s husband, in the frames! A highlight of career, my business, my life! I just communicated with her last week, in fact, and the family is still enjoying the frames, I’m told!
And then, through my inventor crafty mind, thanks to my mom getting me into crafts early, even cake decorating and candy making, or when I would draw house floor plans or make mock up houses using my brothers’ Construx or Legos or Lincoln Logs – I would just scope out all the fun supplies in fabric or art stores and try things. “Let’s try this supply or that one!”
I was lucky in life to have a variety of crafts to get my hands on. Pastels, oil painting watching Bob Ross along with a painting class in 6th grade, ceramics class in high school, home ec sewing in 8th grade. Pen and ink – not so good lol. I love acrylic, the more fluid 2 ounce bottles, markers, colored pencils. And now, I find myself taking clean line drawings, going over them, but with the sheet inside a sheet protector page, and going over the lines with Sharpie markers! Then I scan the art, and fill it in the the fill bucket /button. This proved valuable, when I had to manage time, with a project where I was asked to design for a company, rendered concept ideas. I also used the painting / Sharpie marker line art on sheet protectors concept to make a 3 second bit of animation, which is on my YouTube channel.
I use Inkscape and Photopea.com, and for all the artists out there, I highly recommend using them! They are free! Inkscape is open source, but great for word art, and then I open it and play with it in Photopea.com, open source, but a site that you can actually save your work to your flash drive with!
I created my own font, “Fabric Font” 2 years ago, based on the logo that I created for my business – I had no money to hire someone to make it, so I made it lol. I used tracing paper, inkjet paper, pencils and markers. More on the Fabric Font later. I type in Inkscape, “export as” under “File” to save with a transparent background, and then play with it in Photopea.com with layers, and save as .psd, ,png / .jpg, and .pdf sheets for printables!
My “hand” is light, and I tend to use markers and acrylic more today. A Disney animation historian said that my hand was light, to the touch on paper, but then later he back-peddled and said that a Disney animator has the same lightness to their drawings. Its hard to be bold, and have strong lines, when you are just plotting and trying to figure out layout and colors, you’re just playing in the beginning of making art, so how can a person be bold and firm with their hand, and line weights?
This all came about with trial and error lol. It’s like I wanted to do more than design and make fabric photo frames, but for some reason, a celebrity who I met, a person who I believed in, and valued their thoughts, based on their own struggles in the arts, who I spoke with at the time when I started my business, in the early stage said to me, “You have to pick a name for your business!” Honestly, when I grew up, I never thought that I’d be doing the things that I do now. I would envision changing my name, but not have a business name lol.
In hindsight, I wished I picked a broader business name than Fabricated Frames, but at the time, I felt pushed by others in business to focus on things in business, that I’d tell you now, don’t focus on, because people are out to sell you services, and you’ll be in debt before you start by listening to them. Yeah those things are important, like logos, and sites, and such, but focus on developing your craft, get it created at a manageable price for customers to buy, and retailers, who I’ve also dealt with – long story. However, because of time, I thought it was clever -much better than Kristie’s Krafts. lol Too many people use their names that start with a C or K with the craft word in the business name. I wanted to be different. lol
Kristie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Growing up, I wanted to create designs for fabric and fine china tabletop. However, I also wanted to designs homes. At one point, my friend and I wanted side by side brownstones, and we’d be psychiatrists. Maybe a social worker. Spent an afternoon in our county mental health center, and …discovered that I would serve humanity better in other ways, plus …I have a hard time compartmentalizing my emotions. As well, I wanted to sing and be a songwriter. I could have, my high school music teacher wanted to write a recommendation to Berklee School of Music for me to go into their songwriting program, but I wanted to do art. Art or music? Music or art? Both are important to me. I later scanned my song’s sheet music, uploaded it and put it on products on Cafepress and Zazzle, and then later integrated it into printable patterns for my frame ornaments and other crafts. When I was first selling my art on products, on Cafepress and Zazzle, products that I can’t make at the moment, like mugs and metal or glass objects lol, I was seeing people use famous composers’ work, like Mozart, scanned and uploaded to go on products. I thought, “Ah … they are stealing!” Then, I thought, well why don’t I put my OWN song, that I created, composed and wrote all by myself, and put it on products?!” So I did. I composed that song when I was 15, but at the time, I didn’t know how to “write” music, so I sang it into my tape recorder. 3 years later, I took an arranging and composing class in high school, and used the song to write it down properly on manuscript paper with a felt tip pen.
Had lots of ideas on what to be when I grew up, but designing for the home, especially decorative arts, home accessories- that was my passion. Didn’t start out wanting to be a picture framer. I really wanted to get my art onto the fabric, not even thinking for fabric photo frames, but for the surface design of other home products. And besides, framers work with really expensive art, canvases, shadowboxing sports shirts, and that’s not my thing. My “schtick” is more home accessories / giftware related. Soft goods, personal, and now printables.
I got into creating and selling printables when a customer asked if I could sell my frames as sewing patterns. I was so thankful that by then, I had started playing with the sewing machine, to create washable, sewn, fabric photo frames. So, I created a rudimentary pattern printable, with what technology I had at the time back in 2006. By then, dad had me making house shape kitchen potholder / oven mitts for his real estate customers to give as Christmas gifts. So, I was sewing more. “Oh! You sew? Can you make this?”, and it would be a new type of product. That, plus my hinge and hanger press arm’s nut broke, so luckily, I had developed the washable, sewn photo frame. And I’m so glad that I did! It really happened by luck. One project liaisons into the another.
And then, I figured, people / crafters are going to want the photo frame, if sewing, to be washable. No one ever made the fabric photo frames washable! And the ones on the market were heavy, the easel hinges would always pop off. I remember when I would work in stationery in the department store, if I were working in that department, the manager would always ask me to put the frames out back in their boxes, and I found so many with broken strut leg, easel hinges, and turn buttons popped off! So, I knew that I was NOT going to use what they call “turn buttons” and when I worked with the hinges, I had to make sure that the strut leg stayed on. The Therm o Web interfacing adhesive helped. I played with it before on a project before starting my business, and integrated it into a crucial part of my frames, early on. Also, the manufacturers use glass, some use acrylic plastic, but not the pH neutral / acid free acrylic that is available on the market now. A lot of the frames manufactured are done so overseas, and retailers buy 1000-5000 units at a time, at a fraction of the cost that they sell them. To the buyers, its about the look, not so much the function, sad to say. One buyer asked if I could make 2-3000 units within a 2-3 day turnaround. No. lol I work from home, in my parents house. I use acid free sheet protector pages for my photo sleeves, in lieu of glass or acrylic. Another bad feature on the manufactured fabric photo frames was that whenever they would do the inner corners of the picture window, where the photo shows through, they would never “finish” the corners, the fabric always frayed, corners never cleanly adhered. So mine are always “finished” in every way that they can be, because you want your work, your projects, your home decor, products, to look professional!
Have you ever had to pivot?
Always wanted to be a business woman, to be my own boss. I was picked by my principal and head of departments in high school to attend a Rotary Youth Leadership summer conference. I didn’t believe it when they picked me, but when I got picked, it really made me think that all things are possible, and that people believe in you. The conference had an assembly, hosted by the lawyer who hosted that PBS late night college tv “class”, “Ethics In America”. I was picked to be in a “druthers” like game for the panel on the stage. It was a mock, “What if …”, where we were world leaders, and given a crisis, and asked what we would do. I was chosen to be Secretariat of the UN. Let me tell you, that situation can change a person, and it should be for the better. I learned that my choices were just as critical as the bad guys, and what NOT to do as a leader. They say that if you are not scared as a leader, that you don’t deserve to be a leader. I learned that a real leader protects their people and the resources. If a person is in it for self serving wants, then they don’t belong being leaders.
Went to a now defunct for profit 2 year college, that aired commercials frequently (found out later that that should’ve been a clue, a red flag) studied in the early 90’s, was told, mom present, that we could make $100,000 per year, on average. Received an associate degree in interior design. Years later, the DoJ forced the school to close, as it was under investigation.
I received a GREAT education, I learned the profession, the skills, but I wish, in hindsight, that they would teach naive students, people pure of heart, ok perhaps naive but with good intentions, on how to deal with narcissists, how to leverage more to be quite honest lol. Came out of school, seeing “sales” jobs for furniture stores. I wanted to design and create, not sell! lol I refuse to kiss your know what, or sell my soul, to make money. Unfortunately, any field with the word “business” in it is …well, let’s just say it – they don’t care about your needs lol. It’s all about making money, and pleasing shareholders with maximum ROI.
I recently watched a 35+ year old YouTube Disney World video, and an exec was on record for saying something to the effect of, “For a quality guest experience, you have to treat your employees well”. It’s sad that many don’t.
I can say now, after 24 years, that I’m glad that I own my own business. That’s why I think many people have “side hustles”. People don’t like to be owned by their employers. I never wanted a “job”. I want to earn money.
All the while going to school, must confess, I had some personal traumas, was going to therapy, and dealing with my state’s prosecutor in trying to get justice for my family. School was my sanctuary, drawing, space planning, especially shopping for samples and swatches, kept me sane, and got me focused, kept me optimistic about life, even as a worked part time in a department store, and then continued full time after college, because I was …burnt out, but I knew that I’d eventually do …something creative, to make some kind of living at it. Got my degree, was emotionally tired, more so because of my personal trauma. So, I stayed on at the department store, as I figured out things with my life.
During that time, I witnessed many horrible workplace actions, where a foot fetish guy lunged at my foot, had a stalker follow me in my workplace, and almost lost my life, had I not taken my break 15 minutes earlier, I would’ve been shot and killed, like the 15 year old girl, who was minding her own business, about to walk down the same mall steps I did 15 minutes earlier, caught in a bank shoot out in the mall. What bothered me was when the operational manager and security decided to leave the doors open, even though rumor was going around by phone from store to store, saying the shooters were still in the mall. I felt violated, again. I said, “That’s it”, and just stopped …respecting the bosses. They didn’t protect me, or any of us, like they should have. Year later, the store, the company, closed.
Finally found a new job, but was only there for 6 weeks. Was laid off, told that there was no money to keep me, even though 3 weeks earlier, the owner went all out spending on the work Christmas party, drunk when he encountered me. During that time, though, I bought some business books at the local Barnes and Noble, and I’m not going to lie, during my lunch break, I read them and took notes in my cubicle lol.
Learning the craft – before that, I had to learn about being an employee and being in the workforce, before becoming a boss. More so what not to take from employers, as far as being an employee, so I could become a better boss to myself. The micro aggressions, the backstabbing, pitting worker against worker, unions, the NLRB, OSHA, To learn any craft, you have to be ok with being self-employed, being alone, and keeping focused on your craft.
I was physically depleted. However, towards the end of those 2 weeks of crazy, I was contacted by a magazine, that also is now defunct, and went belly up after the project, to create my fabric photo frames, using a certain fabric from another manufacturer who was selling in Target, both of us to be featured, with my tutorial that I “mostly” wrote. I had to work on that quickly, too. I kept getting requests from the editor to pare down my tutorial. I can’t help it if there are critical steps not to be missed in making my frames. It was pared down to 6 pages, including pattern illustrations, and even a supply that I don’t use, was thrown into the article. What I learned? The media …first off, I believe in journalism, true journalism, and if I could pick another field to work in, I think investigative journalism is a very noble profession. That said, when money is involved, some media, unfortunately, only care about the dollar. Well, let’s face it, media sells advertising. When I saw that product supply that I don’t use, put in as a supply, I thought, “Well …ok, I guess that could also work.” It just made me realize, wow, if that situation could happen to me, in a craft sewing magazine, then imagine what happens in all other media. Again, it was a great experience, I’m thankful, but I also now am hesitant to take things at face value, with what I read, more so now as I get older, and double check things before sharing, using credible sources. Critical thinking skills are so important.
Oh, and I also found out from a credible source, that I should have been paid for the article. Seems that craft how to magazines are supposed to pay those whose articles are published. I just thought that it was good exposure, ha ha, story of an artist’s life, that line, and then this person proceeded to state that payment was the norm. I talked to the editor, they begrudgingly agreed, sent the payment form but then went mysteriously under, and I didn’t get paid. I was offered a settlement but I didn’t bother. What bothered me was that I learned on their social media from a customer that was mad because they ordered 4 subscriptions right before the magazine went under, and never received them. That was sad.
I sent the art, and then the samples and tutorial, and crashed, physically. Then while waiting on the issue with my frames and tutorial to be published, the rep came back to me, saying we have another shot at getting in the store chain, but this time, rep said that we’ll take our time, and rep will use better manufacturers. The rep hooked me up with a person who bigged themselves up to me, in email, and by phone. This person sold their business, living off of the earnings, and partnered with the son of a professional football owner, want to make their name in business, out from under dad’s shadow. This importer said that they were even in India working on making my prototypes. This importer had me working on a side project, for home textiles, table linens. I had to turbo drive my learning of Adobe Illustrator to make the repeat designs. I’m proud of them. I was given photos, to use as inspiration pieces for the designs. I sent my art to the rep. Weeks go by. Last minute the importer comes to me and says we have to start from scratch. The art doesn’t represent what the company represents, brand wise, the importer thought. I told the importer that I was going by specific instruction by the buyer, on what the buyer wanted, but I agreed with the importer, saying, “Yeah, what the buyer asked for doesn’t represent the store’s brand.” I was tasked with coming up with art for products, product design, using inspiration photos that the importer. And asked to do it within 48 hours. Luckily the family went on vacation, I was alone, and did it within 53 hours. The manufacturer rep was ticked, as if I jumped sides, but I was stuck in the middle.
Weeks go by, I find the deal is dead. The importer was ticked that the rep didn’t give the importer any sales, for another project, that I was not working on, mind you. So, the importer screwed over the rep.
Then I found out about another traumatic family secret …and I lost it. Let’s just say my abuser did worse than I thought. I couldn’t sleep for weeks, falling asleep around 6 in the morning for weeks. Weeks before find out about this traumatic news, I had a nightmare where my abuser held me down as if to rape me. This kind of put me in a walking depression for weeks. It totally shifted me sleep pattern for years.
The art and magazine projects for 2014 were during a lull for me, time wise, and focus wise, because for about 3 years, up until then, I was babysitting my nephew 3xs a week, overnight. Then he went into preschool, so I could finally focus back on my art and products.
By the end of the year, my brother had another child. And then 2 years later another child lol. From 2010 until right before Covid, I babysat for 2-3 times a week, at one point a toddler and infant at the same time. I was exhausted, and I’m not even a parent. And then, during Covid, I home schooled one of the kids.
Business? What business? lol At that point, I felt depleted. Like my mojo was lost. I did less art for years. I felt violated. Too many companies shamelessly using another artist or small business – me! Around 2015, after I did the Zazzle tutorial project, I was finding more companies selling printables. Those are pdf files, letter or A4 size, to print crafts, patterns, cards, invites, calendar sheets, even my small frames’ patterns for 2×3″ photos fit on one sheet, to print and make.
I sold on ConnectingThreads.com, Craftsy.com, and now I sell on Etsy, TeachersPayTeachers.com, Classful.com, BuyFromTeachers.com, KDP Amazon, Lulu – Oh, I self published a frame pattern book on Lulu and Amazon! So far, I’ve sold 24 copies lol. I also sell printables on Creative Fabrica, Craftsuprint.com, I have printables listed in Michaels MakerPlace under product listings, And now Zazzle sells printables, via their folded card and poster listings.
So, I have my art and product patterns selling everywhere, well, where ever I can put them up for sale!
Crafters can print my patterns for my products / crafts onto card stock, vinyl, Therm o Web Ultrahold or HeatnBond Lite or Featherlite, or washable inkjet fabric, with or without my art for fabric and card stock, cover with a self laminating sheet or decoupage. They can even buy mat board at Michaels or online, even smaller piece that can be cut with a paper trimmer.
And I created my own font! I created my “Fabric Font” a simulated lengths of fabric draped and folded to form letters and numbers, 110 characters total, all 94 keyboard characters plus space, and 15 symbols like copyright, British sterling pound, even pilcrow! I made it for my business logo, Fabricated Frames, on tracing paper, letter size, and then expanded to all letters and numbers, for calendar letter size printables and calendar tea towels. By 2020, printables were the thing, especially with being home and home schooling parents, so I was being asked to expand. First it was caption tag sheets for cards, but that was tiring because I was having to pull each character one at a time, and reformat the words. It took forever, and so I decided that I would figure out how to make the Fabric Font a real, typing font.
When I focused on printables, because I was babysitting so much, and because it’s flexible, it allowed me to design all sorts of things, with little overhead. I make samples and prints of course, but it’s a very accomodating for an artist.
I found TeachersPayTeachers.com through a Facebook group that I was on. The admin recommended TpT. And then TpT let me sell my printables.
Covid hit. I had 1 year of studying real teachers sell their teaching / learning printables, where I was selling cards, my patterns, and graduation card printables lol. I am not a teacher, but I come from a teaching family. And boy, did all this serve me well during Covid, because I had to home school my 2nd nephew in first grade during Covid! It was a challenge! Plus, he is like me, very sensitive, and was a young first grader, so the maturity was well in proximity lol. I really had to pull things out of me to help him. I cried the last day we were on screen with the teacher, not going to lie. It was so cathartic, a release. Now I help the neighborhood kids, and have them product / craft test. What I learned? We have to teach how the child needs to learn, not how we feel they need to learn. It’s about the child. They did not ask to be born. I even tell kids to demand to be taught the way that they need to be taught. I’m still that kid myself, being treated like a kid, even at 50, because I’m not a parent, and I live at home with my parents, so I know nothing, right? We were all once children. Try to remember that.
So, I’ve had to pivot a lot. A little too much. I love challenges, proving myself, but for me – I challenge myself, not to compare to others, but for myself.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I have to be resilient. I have no choice. Bow down to evil? NEVER!
Yes, the magazine deal went through, then they shut.
Yes, the retailer deal went dead. They went under and closed all their stores.
The crown art taker went into another field, media I read. The company who used the crown stolen from me went under.
Their brands went down because they took short cuts and didn’t care about who they used to get where they wanted to go,
I stayed the course.
I know that I have art, and especially products, that I didn’t set out to make, but discovered that I could, I designed them, made them, and sell them.
I’ve had so many, near grabbing the brass ring moments, and still I go on.
You can’t let negativity bring you down. Otherwise evil wins.
Life is a winding road. People focus too much on the negatives and not enough on the positives. “What did you learn Dorothy?” It has always been in me, to accomplish what I set out, and do things that I never thought that I could. There is always tomorrow. You can turn lemons into lemonade. Love what you do. Stay focused like a hockey left defense player – defend your team, or be a center player – get the puck in the goal. Learn to say no to things that aren’t right for you, or to people who want to use you for profit. We are not transactions. We create love.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://fabricatedframes.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/kristie.hubler
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/fabricated.frames
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristie-hubler-7927148/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/fabricframes
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/user/fabricatedframesCom
- Other: https://fabricframeskristie.etsy.com https://www.zazzle.com/store/fabricatedframes/products?qs=download https://zazzle.com/store/fabricatedframes/products https://craftsuprint.com/kristie-lynn-hubler https://www.creativefabrica.com/designer/fabricatedframescom/ref/1439948/ https://classful.com/kristie-hubler/shop https://teacherspayteachers.com/store/fabricated-frames Email me at [email protected]
Image Credits
All photos / images, art, photos of products with my art, printables, designs, patterns, Fabric Font, are copyright protected by Kristie Hubler. All Rights Reserved.