11.27.2016

Handmade Holiday Gift Guide • Just Be Designs

@justbe.designs for IG
Pinterest is @justbedesigns
Holiday shopping deadline is Dec 15. My turnaround time is 3-4 business days and I do not ship internationally yet.


Jillian in her own words...

My nick name is Beans or Beandip :) When I was younger my family called me Jillybean and as I got older my brothers shorten it and started calling me Beans. Now, my husband has picked it up and added the Dip! Maybe, because I want nachos for every meal, haha

This is a story all about how my life go flipped turned upside down...ha! But, seriously I was born and raised in Northwest Indiana right on Lake Michigan and am a Midwest girl at heart.  My love for the beach and sunshine brought me and my husband down to Florida after having our twin daughters. Yep, one winter and I was out! I am ok with never seeing snow again in my life, and spending my weekends in the sand. We now have three daughters, MacKenzie 11, Kaylee 11, and Presley 8. Two dogs, three cats, a few fish, and a one eyed hamster...yes, I know, I live in a petting zoo. We are big sports fans and love football and all the Chicago teams, GO CUBS! I have been coaching girls basketball for about 4 years now and I love it so much. When I am at work, I play with flowers all day. I have been a floral designer since I was 16, just about half my life.

My business is Just Be Designs, and I make fabric wrap bracelets, headbands, and bangles. I am currently working on a apparel line as well, launching 2017! I started this business a little over a year ago in October 2015. I have another small business where I hand paint wood signs and other crafts and I really wanted to change it up and do something that my kids could wear and moms could afford to get themselves a piece of jewelry thats busy life and kid friendly. The name of Just Be Designs came from the phrase I say so often that I want to "just be" You know those nights when dinner isn't done, or thought of, the kids are running around, you have no clean towels and you want to "just be". Just be happy with your life and where you are in it, happy with your family, your friends, and yourself. To Just Be is a way of life that I strive to live by and want to represent. My brother had a bad bicycle accident and we almost lost him and he is one of the most carefree, happy, giving souls I have ever met, and I am blessed to have him as a brother and when he survived all the surgeries and therapy, I knew that being happy with life is the most important gift we have, LIFE. I give some proceeds of certain products to anti-bullying campaigns in a small effort to reach out to those who at some point maybe they don't realize the gift of their life and just how important they truly are. 



My biggest dreams and goals for my shop right now seem to be endless and ever changing. I want to be able to stay home more with my girls and volunteer more. I hope to one day be able to give more back to the charities I hold dear with bigger sales, and possibly a storefront with beautiful products from other small shop and handmade artisans. To showcase style with positivity.

My favorite part of being a small shop owner is seeing someone wearing one of my bracelets! It is so heart warming and cute when I see a little one rocking Just Be! I would say one of my least favorite parts is cleaning up my office space after working! HAHA, adding products to my site can also be a little tedious work that I try to put off.

Something many people don't know about me is that I am a Pastor's daughter. My three brothers and I grew up in church all the time and moving around the area our whole childhood joining different churches and going on revivals. Crazy world that can be sometimes.

My biggest accomplishment for my business right now that I am most proud of is actually being a registered business! With all the responsibilities of paying taxes and everything, I feel legit now! 

I would say I have an obsession with Christmas!!! I start decorating way too early because it takes about two weeks to finish! We have a very fun, colorful, candy themed home during the holidays and we love it! We have three trees so we always go out ornament hunting each year. Our favorite Christmas tradition would have to be watching Home Alone and just cracking up every single time. It is the best! 



Shopping small to me has become a way of life, I have always loved craft fairs and little downtown boutiques. Growing up in Indiana we were surrounded my small town love and markets. I know how hard other shop owners work and what they have to sacrifice to make that beautiful scarf, or hand painted family ornament, so to me it is about showing them you love them and their talents. They you appreciate their time, their families sacrifice, those nights they stayed up late, knowing they had to wake up extra early to bake cupcakes for their kids birthday. To know that I didn't purchase all my kids Christmas gifts from a big box store makes me so happy, and honestly cute packages coming in the mail fill my heart!! Throw some twine on it and I want to buy it! LOL

I love thinking about what life must have been before every corner had a Walmart or Walgreens and being able to walk to the corner store and actually know the owners. To be able to go to your local market on the weekends and get your gifts there, or trade for items you were looking for. The idea of family, community, fresh, handmade is dear to my heart and something I hope to pass along to my daughters in this world of endless technology, and hustle and bustle. I want them to  embrace the fact that now they can go online and order gifts and choose to do it still with a handmade artisan, not always Amazon :)

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