I started Holy Noley in 2015 with little more than a few dollars and a dream of making cool jewelry and being an ~entrepreneur~. I had no prior knowledge of running a business but felt that jumping in feet first was the best way to learn. I opened up my Etsy shop in March and it wasn't long before I was hearing that "cha-ching" sound. I worked hard and sold at some craft fairs, essentially learning everything on the fly. Creatively, I played and experimented; often changing my offerings in an attempt to get to the root of my style and the art that I wanted to present to the world. I loved every minute of it because Holy Noley was my baby and I was proud of how much I had achieved.
However after two years there just didn’t seem to be room for Holy Noley anymore as my life started to get more and more complicated. Bri and I decided to start looking for our forever home at the end of 2016. We finally found it after many heartbreaks and closed in May of 2017.
Two weeks later on a trip to Acadia, Maine, Bri asked me to marry him at sunrise at the top of Cadillac Mountain.
And two weeks after THAT we found out he was in kidney failure and would need a transplant. I'll forever remember that night. He was getting out of the shower to go in to work and the phone rang. Seeing that it was his nephrologist calling after 8 PM, my first instinct was to pick it up. They said his kidneys were functioning at less than 15% and he had to go to the emergency room immediately. The next week felt like we were living someone else's life as he stayed in the hospital and began dialysis.
Our life and the vision of what was to come came to a screeching halt and getting Bri a transplant and healthy suddenly became our most important priority. And any hopes I may have had about juggling Holy Noley on top of settling into our new home and planning a wedding faded away. With pain in my heart I said “goodbye” to Holy Noley and instead turned my focus on the challenges we were going to face.
On May 10th 2018, Bri received the gift of life from his sister Eri in a truly selfless act.
After almost a year of dealing with dialysis, medications and restrictions, we were thankfully able to close that chapter and start to move forward with all the plans we had to put on hold. Recovery took time but ultimately it brought our family and friends closer than I could have thought imaginable (and we were all pretty close to begin with!).
After the transplant and recovery, it was time to plan our wedding. On September 6th 2019 we were married in the most amazing celebration of love and life that Long Island has ever seen. It was truly the best day of my life, made even more special by everything we had gone through to get there.
Once the dust of the wedding and honeymoon settled, I decided it was as good a time as ever to pick Holy Noley back up. But with some much time passed, Holy Noley no longer felt right. I felt like I had outgrown the business in many ways. Creatively the work I had been making no longer resonated with what I wanted to make. And the name and business I had built no longer felt like my baby, but like a stranger I didn’t know.
How could I move forward with creating jewelry when nothing felt right? I decided it was best to wipe the slate clean and start fresh. A new name, a new style.
Coming up with a new name for the next chapter was HARD. With Holy Noley, it was a play on the nickname that Bri gave me when we started dating. But when thinking about the next chapter, I wanted a name that sparked joy but also would remain timeless. I tried many iterations and combos of words, tirelessly searching the internet for words and phrases that sounded cool or had cool meanings. Every so often I would settle on something and think “This is it!” But it wouldn’t be long before something didn’t feel quite right about it.
Then one day it came to me - ANBE Designs, pronounced “Ann-bee”. Although much simpler than any of the other names I had come up with, this one felt right and continued to feel right no matter how much I mulled it around in my head. And what does ANBE stand for you may ask?
A - for my dad Agostinho, who left this earth when I was 16 but continues to guide me in life
N - me, the business bitch behind the brand
B - my husband Brian who is my number one fan and whose strength in the face of challenges is something I truly admire
E - my sister in law Erica who gave the selfless gift of life to my husband and who shows me what courage and determination look like on a daily basis.
I wanted this new name to serve as a reminder of the people that inspire me and I believe that it captures what I was going for perfectly. So now I humbly present to you ANBE Designs, the next chapter.