It’z Story for American DollHouses
It’z Fact
Caitlin and Mom (aka Kathy O'Brien)
Conceptualized, created, and designed by Kathy O’Brien, licensed Architect, who resides in Chicago, Illinois with her family.
It’z Story
It’z Purple came about because my daughter needed a Christmas present from Santa (December 2010). For most parents this would be a non-issue; most kids have a long list of “I want” from Santa. However my daughter is not like that. Her future husband will be a lucky man — she wants for very little. She typically just wants to spend time with me, and if the stars are willing, to have me play dolls with her. Now I love being with her, but for me personally, playing dolls is torture, pure torture. I truthfully would rather clean the bathroom then play dolls. Now my daughter loves her dolls. She has an American Girl and an Our Generation doll and can play endlessly with them. So I thought a doll house would be the perfect gift for her. Well, simply put, there aren’t any mass produced doll houses for 18” doll houses! I could only find one guy online who was building custom doll houses for a small fortune or the price of a used mid-sized car. I love my daughter, but the expense was too great for a custom dollhouse.
Now I am an Architect, so I decided I will just build her one. Well, that wasn’t as easy as I thought either. I would have had to make everything from scratch because no one makes doors, windows, siding, etc., for this scale of doll. This would have not only taken forever, but also cost me a small fortune too! And of course I know none of you folks would ever leave shopping to the last minute for Christmas, but I was a very bad mom this particular year and had nothing for her…nothing! So I stepped back and said I am smarter then a silly old dollhouse. I just had to think about the objective, break it down and go from there. And that’s exactly what I did. I came up with the simplest, most obvious solution I could and the birth of It’z Purple – American DollHouses occurred.
Now my daughter was thrilled with her dollhouse from Santa. All the girls loved it. They all played endlessly with it and I thought ‘Hey I think I have something here’. I told my husband that I had decided to close up my architectural office and build doll houses instead. To his credit instead of telling me I was crazy (although he may have thought it), he said go for it. So I did. I spent months looking for a manufacture in the US. I then spent months looking in China. I learned about SEO’s, meta tags, customs, shipping, patents, and so much other stuff my head was spinning. My husband jumped on board and started reconfiguring our life savings and here we are…It’z Purple has launched its first toy It’z a DollHouse.
It’z Purple is for children. It is dedicated to helping keep our children’s childhood youthful and innocent. It is about having fun and maintaining a sense of humor. In this day and age it is easy for us parents to get lost in work and the stresses and demands of being parents, but our children can keep us grounded and aware of what really matters in life. There will always be another bill to pay, another chore to do, another problem at work, but our children’s smiles are like magic. Those smiles can do so much for us if we take the time to join the fun. I don’t know where It’z Purple will evolve to; you will need to help with that. But I do know it will center on family and joy. So come join the It’z Purple family and have a bit of fun.