Great Pour Decisions is, in short, my playground! ⚽️

My mom and I always go on a Mother-Daughter Ski Trip ❄️ and for the last few years we'd been going to Whistler. Tradition has it that we buy matching hoodies every year.  Well‚ one can only have so many Whistler hoodies, so January 2019 was when my search for the perfect hoodie began!  

I came across a few that I liked but nothing that I LOVED.  Then I came across a quote: "I Ski Like A Girl, Try to Keep Up".    🙌 Yes! Next I found a Graphic Design that I liked, so we were getting somewhere.  I reached out to the graphic designer, a fierce female solopreneur named Diana who lived up the California Coast, to see if she could design something for me.  Low and behold, the design she came up with was MAGIC.  💫 It was perfect.

I contacted a girlfriend who has all the answers (no joke).  She told me that Bella&Canvas clothing was the best and the most comfy (#truth). They're also made & sourced locally, sustainably and are environmentally INCREDIBLE. Kellie also connected me to a local printer in Leucadia. A small mom 'n pop shop called Shatto&Sons, just the kind of place I wanted to support. Ryan Shatto shared the difference between "silk screen" and "vinyl" for my design. Well, only THE BEST for Mom so silk screen it was! The only problem? I had to print a minimum of 40 Hoodies. 🤔

Challenge accepted! I texted the design and a pic of the hoodie to a few girlfriends who ski (read: SHRED) to see if they might be interested in one. Enough gals were keen that I was like "Why not! Let's do it!". Then we were off to the races (or the printer)!

I'll never forget when I put on my hoodie. I was like "Holy [cow] this is so comfy", but I also stopped... "Wait, I'm doing something cool. Something that I'm proud of‚ I'm supporting good people, and it's just so 💯 me!" It was something I'd never felt before and I loved whatever this feeling was. I couldn't wait to mail one to all the girls who said they wanted one.

Something even cooler happened once the hoodies were out there: They wanted more! Once they wore the hoodies and their friends saw them in it (and felt how soft it was... Seriously, I'm not joking about the soft bit), they wanted one too. Then I had to ask Diana for a Snowboarding design 🏂 similar to the ski one, to cover ALL my shredding friends. I guess it snowballed from there (pun intended 😉).

Next was the equivalent graphic design for surfing: my other favorite activity 🏄‍♀️. Diana NAILED IT yet again and came up with 2 designs that I'm obsessed with! Surf's Up!

Me: "Well, I guess I'm starting a company!"

Next? I, of course, had to start incorporating wine somehow, and think of a company name! What better name than this hashtag I started using after a big night out: #greatpourdecisions. Normally it was accompanied by a facepalm and bourbon emoji 🤦‍♀️ 🥃 whilst going through pics of the previous night's embarrassing moments 😆. And I still think it's perfect 👌

TADA! Great Pour Decisions was born... And with a name like that, the possibilities were endless!

I started coming up with wine-related things like a Wine Key, Champagne Stopper and a Wine Tote.   The twist?  This being My Personal Playground means that they weren't just any wine key/champagne stopper/tote, they were my absolute favourite in each category.  

A number of years ago I went to Napa with my BFF Andrea, and we each bought this wine key from a fancy shmancy winery. Of all the wine keys, it's the one we both have used every day ever since. Well, I tracked that bad boy down and THAT is the wine key with my brand on it. 🍾 The champagne stopper?   Similar story: It's the best and most sturdy stopper I've ever found AND I managed to find it in rose gold. Freakin' ROSE GOLD!!! (stoppers are set to land in March 2020, FYI).  Lastly: my trusty wine tote.  Well, if you know me, you've seen it.  I bring it everywhere.  Hell, I might have left one at your house (you're welcome).  It's a heavy-duty canvas bag that holds two bottles and I bought like 20 of them a few years back as Christmas gifts.  I kept 5 for myself because I knew I'd leave them places and never wanted to have zero (and for the record, I only have 1 of my original bags left so I did the right thing!).  This might have been the hardest to find, but my trusty merch contact (yet another referral from one femmepreneur to another) tracked em down and‚ they're awesome!

I think you get the idea as to how the biz started. And new things are coming including a number of collaborations! Some wine-related, some not, and all of it ignites something inside me that I never want to lose, and supports good people all the while.

Stay tuned for some fun things on the horizon, and thank you to all my supporters and members of my tribe. You know who you are, and I won't let you down! Let's enjoy the ride!

Cheers 🥂,

Jenn