A few years ago I just wanted a hobby — something to do with my hands that wasn't a screen. I picked up a needle, a hoop, and more tutorials than I'd like to admit, and started hand-embroidering whatever I could find fabric for.

Then I discovered machine embroidery, and that was that. Completely, hopelessly hooked. What used to take me a whole evening by hand, a machine could do in minutes — and suddenly I could make things I'd only ever imagined.

So I started making little gifts. A name on a burp cloth for a friend's new baby. A monogrammed towel for a housewarming. Nothing fancy — just things made with one specific person in mind.

Then my friends started asking if I'd make them one, too. Then my family. Then, somehow, strangers — friends of friends, people who'd seen a photo online and wanted something of their own.

Eventually I stopped calling it a hobby and started calling it byryembroidery.

Meet Marvin — my English Bulldog, who has contributed exactly zero stitches to this business despite acting like head of quality control. His resume includes an Olympic-level napping ability, a snore audible through two closed doors, and a face that makes total strangers stop mid-walk to ask if they can say hi (they can — he expects it, honestly). He is, by any fair assessment, a very good boy with very little interest in the family business — but one look at that face and you'll understand exactly why he ended up as the logo. Everyone who meets him gets it immediately.