5 years. Wow.
We have been setting out reminders of God’s word for you all for 5 years. Our goal and mission has stayed true from the start and we couldn’t be happier about that. We’ve wanted to create products that draw you back to Him as the world so easily takes over. Whether by wearing a shirt, drinking a coffee and looking down at that mug, or putting on those sunglasses to be reminded to fix our eyes on Jesus, not what the world has to offer… Jesus.
In the past we’ve always celebrated with a big sale. Come back tomorrow for that as we continue our Deals Of The Day. We’ll have two items listed for 40% off. Be sure to check your email. >> Today we thought we’d recap how we got started and what our name means since we have a lot of new followers. We will also be including some of our favorite photos from past photoshoots as you all have always loved our photos.
Very first photoshoot in 2015
How we got started
The summer of 2015 was a summer my faith was growing like crazy. I was lucky enough to grow up learning the Bible so I had a solid foundation but I never felt like I knew the Bible. I was at the point where I wanted to own my own faith and not my parent's faith. To know what the Bible really said and not just what I was told.
I was diving deep each every morning connecting with Jesus, which was a new practice for me, yet I felt 30 minutes into the day's chaos, it was lost. So I wanted to memorize scripture. But have you ever tried to memorize scripture? It's super hard!! So I'd put Post Its up and around with different verses. Put it in frames, on barnwood signs, on the bathroom mirror but I felt it never really worked. I needed something to be with me throughout the day and not just at a glance.
Enter the idea of putting God's word on us.
At that same time my mom wanted some fun shirts designed for a family weekend celebration. So I did it for her. Then it clicked... I never had an audible voice from God but I do feel like He put it on my heart. When you feel the stir over and over again... it probably means something. And each time I'd wake up, sit, and do my devotion the idea of scripture on my shirts kept coming to me.
So before over thinking, because when we over-think we sometimes talk ourselves out of things, I went for it. I chatted (briefly) with my husband, came up with designs with my favorite verses, found an online company, downloaded online images, did a presale and went for it. Before I knew it a few items sold. So I ordered them and two weeks later they were in!! YIKES!! Now what?
2015 and 2016 photoshoots
Luckily God is a God who provides and He gave me some really supportive friends who would model and an insanely talented friend who is a photographer. He reminded me of past jobs that taught me a little of retail, marketing, branding and creating a website. So we launched at that time Carly D Design.com (my graphic design company at the time) and started selling August 2nd, 2015. I felt super inadequate, lost, and unqualified. But God kept reminding me He uses or qualifies the unqualified.
My first $300 order went fast so we ordered another that Fall, then again in the Spring, and again and again. Slowly but surely we keep ordering, learning, improving, and expanding in different areas. * Spoiler alert * This year we are bringing coffee mugs, journals, pens, and prayer cards your way! God has been so good and I feel insanely blessed that He chose us. We aren't perfect. We screw up a lot. Sometimes follow our own lead and not His. But He corrects us and reminds us and brings us back to His purpose for this company.
To create reminders for us throughout our day. Reminders that go with us. Help us. Correct Us. Encourage Us. And Inspire us. Reminders that show us and others whose we are.
Because we are his.
photoshoots 2017
What Does Six Notes Mean?
A lot!
It's the backbone of who we are.
We were operating under my graphic design company, carly d design. This didn't represent or tell anyone who and what we were as a company so we rebranded. One passage that I kept coming back to was Deuteronomy 6:5-9.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.
The first verse about how to love God with all your heart, soul and strength drew me in. But the rest of that passage hooked me. It was what told me the applicable action steps to get to that deep relationship with God. Loving Him with all that we are.
To love God and follow His commands we needed to impress His word on our heart. We needed to do more than just read it, we needed to study it, learn it, and live it. And one way to live out His word is to talk about it. It also says to tie them to your hands and bind them to our foreheads... well, they may have actually done this in ancient Hebrew times or maybe even today for those who practice traditional Judaism but probably not for us in our cultural context. So we need to figure out why they did this. Well, they did this to tangibly remind them of God, His Commands and His word. These symbols were meant to constantly draw them closer to God. To live in a constantly relationship with Him. Not just in the mornings but all day every day no matter what.
photoshoots 2018
When thinking about how we wanted to create our Business around this passage, we needed to think about a way we set our reminders in our current day. When I need to be reminded of something, I take out my pencil, a handy Post-It note, and start my list. The idea of Notes came to mind and we fell in love with the new business name Six Notes Clothing.
As for the logo, we worked with a small business owner on the idea of combining and S for Deut. 6 and N for Notes. But it wasn't quite working. Then through sketching one day, we worked out a 6 and the tip of a pencil to represent "Notes!" This is now our current and forever logo and brand.
So if you thought it was a "V" you now know it's a pencil tip ;)
Don't worry, you weren't the only one.
Six Notes Clothing - Be Reminded and Show Whose You Are
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. - Deut. 6:5-9
photoshoots from 2019
Thank you to everyone who has been in support of us along the way, friends, customers, our beautiful models, those who have helped share our post through social media, held events and of course our photographers. This has been quite a journey and a fun one at that. We feel so blessed to continue to be able to continue this mission through Six Notes and we pray you feel the power in wearing God’s word. Someone once said to us that “God’s word is God’s power and God’s power is God’s word” and how true that is.
And be sure to stay tuned for more fun things to come! We have an exciting Fall planned. With Corona and all.
