Filling the Nest: With Kids About to Fly the Coop, Two Former Stay-at-Home Moms Birth a Handbag Business

Two stay-at-home moms whose nests—and days—are beginning to feel a little emptier just launched Keeta Collection, (www.keetacollection.com) an online shop that features diaper bags, totes, messenger bags and purses, as well as custom, one-of-a-kind designs.

Ocala, FL,(PRWEB) March 20, 2006 -— With the carpool shuttling, party planning and homework helping winding down, Vicki Ray and Robbin Mills—stay-at-home moms for 20 and 7 years respectively, are pouring their creative energies into a new labor of love. Launched in March, Keeta Collection (www.keetacollection.com) is an online shop that features classic but funky handmade diaper bags, totes, messenger bags and purses. For Ray and Mills, who have several children between them taking off for college in the next two years and just one snuggled firmly in the nest, Keeta Collection represents their Act II.

With their disparate tastes (Ray favors the eclectic while Mills prefers the earthy) and talents (Ray works off the cuff while Mills works off a pattern), the two seem like an unlikely pair of friends and business partners at first glance, or even at second. Yet one look at their designs and you can see how well they complement one another. While most of their competitors favor obvious designs and fabric combinations, Ray and Mills prefer to first fall in love with one fabric and then look for another that pulls it all together in a new and surprising way.

Before launching Keeta Collection, the pair was known around town as the Jill’s-of-all-trades of handmade things, making everything from curtains to clothes for friends and neighbors. “Our first experience actually trying to sell our wares was at a home show someone invited us to be in. We set up a little table and put out our monogrammed towels and totes, and had a whopping single sale! It was kind of depressing, but boy have we learned a lot since then!” explains Mills.

From there, the duo began selling passively on eBay as a side hobby for spare change—something two friends with a shared love of fabric and ribbons did to pass the time. Once lunches and shopping expeditions turned to business plans and fabric store outings, the two knew that their hobby was demanding to become a full-fledged online shop and full-time business. That’s when keetacollection.com was born.

“I wouldn't trade any amount of money for being able to be there for my children and I know that Robbin feels the same way,” Ray explains. “But for us two mothers to now have the opportunity to realize our creative and entrepreneurial potential is a special way to celebrate this new phase of our lives.”

Keeta Collection (www.keetacollection.com) is an online shop where students, mothers, young professionals and grandmothers alike can find handbags that are as expressive as their personalities. In addition to their handmade diaper bags, totes, messenger bags and purses, Keeta Collection also offers custom, one-of-a-kind designs and will be launching a line of reconceived and reconstructed vintage t-shirts later this year. To learn more about Keeta Collection or its founders and designers, Vicki Ray and Robbin Mills, please write.

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