About Toni and Karen

It has taken me 38 years to decide that I wanted to be my own boss and own my own business. Being married to a "lifer" in the military, I had decided years ago that a career may not be the thing for me with all of the moving about that we had done.  I had always planned on going back to work after our two children were in school full time but somehow time managed to slip by and I found myself with children in grades 5 and 6 respectively and still no clue as to what I wanted to do.

In early 1999 our friend and financial representative, Tony Copple of Investors Group dropped by to go over our account status and have a coffee.  At that time he told us that I should start a home based business of my own. I thought about this during our one year posting to Argentina and continued to ponder the issue after our return to Canada in December 2000. Still I had not come up with what I thought of as a great business idea. During the summer of 2001 I saw something in a stained glass store in Petawawa where our family spends most summers camping. What I saw was a book on stepping stones. I fell instantly in love with this fabulous idea and spent the better part of that year conducting research on the subject. Finally in March of 2002 I registered the business and T & K Designs was born.

The first few stepping stones that I produced took an inordinate amount of time.  But it didn't take long before I had developed the skills to cut the stained glass and mount the pattern and pour the concrete to turn out some very lovely stones.  Today I feel very confident in my abilities not only in making stones but also in designing my own stones. Two very good examples of my own designs are in the Argentine Woman and the Frog Pond. I have no intentions of ending there as creating my own designs is probably the most satisfying thing that I have ever done.

When I first started this business venture I had decided on the name T & K Designs as I felt that this would be the perfect daughter (Toni) & mother (Karen) venture. Although my daughter (Toni) has to date only made one stone (which I might add did turn out very well) she has been having a hard time juggling her social life, hockey and school - working on the business has taken a lower priority. At the age of twelve it only made sense to me that she enjoy her childhood and I know that she will be able to help out at a later time. Toni looks forward to the summer of 2003 when her schedule will permit her to play an active role in helping her mom and who knows... one day she may even take over the business.

There is nothing I want more than to hear someone tell me how much they have enjoyed my stones in their garden and that they have been in their garden for several years.