Happily Hooked is more than just a magazine to us. It's the place where we come, just about every day, to share what we know with you, with our coworkers, with our friends.
We've become a family, and we work together to create the happiest place on earth for crafters, one smile at a time.
With that in mind, I wanted to let you get to know each of us better. Next up, Cara Louise, Customer Fulfillment Manager. You know her as the good and caring woman behind the scenes at our amazing Customer Service department. She's been with Happily Hooked longer than anyone else and has seen everything you can imagine. You can check out her bio here.
On to the good stuff …
Hi Cara! We know that you are everything Customer Service and Fulfillment. In fact, you just about run things behind the scenes here! But, I want to know what you do at Happily Hooked from YOUR point of view. Can you explain what a “typical” week is like for you — let’s say nothing extraordinary is going on at the moment and things are relatively “calm.” (haha) What is it like for you that week?
Well, I LOVE to solve puzzles, and that’s what a lot of my time is spent doing. It’s amazing how tangled and knotted a customer database can become, even when things are calm. The amount of behind-the-scenes work that is required to keep a membership site like ours going is pretty significant. “Automatic processes” break and need to be given a well-placed kick to get going again. Or, customers buy with a completely different name and email address but can’t tell us what those might have been… it happens!
I see my role really as making sure that our customers’ experience with us is as tangle-free as it can be, and when they mention an area that’s being “knotty,” I do the investigating to find out what’s going wrong and ensure that it gets straightened out as soon as we reasonably can.
(This is my thought process: Cara when a customer contacts us with a question. ~MAK)
When did you learn to craft? What is your FAVORITE thing you ever made? Do you have a favorite stitch? What don’t you like to make? What is the worst project you’ve ever made?
I started to craft because my mother crocheted, and I wanted to do what she did. She was rarely without a project, each of us kids had our own handmade afghans, I got my older sisters’ mittens and hats when they outgrew them. I could just feel all the love that was put into all of those projects.
After I got the basics in regular yarn, I ventured into thread crochet and I am still most proud of my very first project in the thread. I was only about 10 years old and made this (see below) just by looking at one my grandmother had made. Using the very hooks she had used, AND the very thread that had been hers. This is most special to me because my grandmother was no longer with us when I was born, so being able to reach back into my heritage like that just thrills me to this day over 40 years later!
Cara created this doily when she was a child from just looking at her Grandmother's version.
What do you like most about working at Happily Hooked? I’m going to leave this one wide open.
I am continuously amazed at how all of my tasks here just fit my personality and fit my passions. It honestly rarely feels like work. Even when things aren’t so calm, and there’s a 300 working-hour month (yes, it’s happened) it still is really a feeling of I “get to” invest my time here, rather than I “have to.”
I love it all — helping our customers, solving the puzzles they create, helping my department members grow in confidence and knowledge, beating our membership database into submission, advocating for what our customers are having trouble with to other team members who can help make it better, maintaining the knowledge base for helping our customers to help themselves — it’s all just so perfect.
When you aren’t working, what do you do? What’s it like at home? What do you do for fun, and what do you do to relax?
For many years, the husband and I would remark that one day we’d love to live at the shore, but we never really thought that would happen. But we have now been living at the shore for 2 years, and that is so incredible. I could sit for hours and just watch the waves and talk to the seagulls. That is pure relaxation for me!
We’ve got an adorable toddler grandson now too, and he is quite the little character. Here he is wearing the hat I designed for him (which was featured in an issue of Happily Hooked's Pattern Pack Pro!)
You can find this adorable hat that Cara designed in the Pattern Pack Pro Issue 67, April 2020. It's called the Inside Out Sunhat. Download it here on Ravelry.
We visit our son, daughter-in-law, and grandson often. They are so great to just hang-out with, and we always enjoy the time.
And we have a preschooler grand-nephew, who just happens to LOVE all the crafted things I make for him! I’m always sending along another little critter, or a hat, or slippers.
Tell me a bunch of random personal facts, Cara, just for fun! Go:
Our readers would definitely be surprised if they ever met me in person as I am really quite shy. Online I can be witty and sociable and all the things I just can’t be in person. I think I just need more time than other people do in order to get thoughts from my brain out into some form of communication.
If I try to carry on a conversation in real-time it’s very awkward and full of painful silence. Most people who only have a passing acquaintance with me would probably call me “stuck-up” because rather than torturing myself with conversations I usually just park myself in a corner with my crafts! (I can verify that Cara is incredibly sweet and I would NEVER call her stuck-up. I would gladly sit in a corner with her and crochet! ~MAK)
I have to share this with everybody, too. This was my Lovey-Dove (see below). He was also very appreciative of every project I worked on and would always come to inspect it, and usually end up taking a nap on it. He was with me for 11 years, and I really miss him.
The very sweet Lovey Dove appreciating some crochet.
That bird is incredibly sweet, and it doesn't surprise me at all that he belonged to Cara. Cara is thoughtful and considerate and appreciates good work. I'm not sure about the nap thing, but it seems to me like she NEVER sleeps because she's always helping customers. Even on the weekends when “normal” people should be taking it easy. And speaking of helping customers, I asked Cara for some advice for you all. I figured that she probably answers the same questions a LOT.
If you aren’t already a subscriber, you might want to check out what you’re missing. I LITERALLY loved it so much I applied to work here.
It turns out that the people here are lovely. The magazine is wickedly cool, the patterns are amazing, and the customer service is EXCEPTIONAL #becauseCara. And, if you want to have access to all the previous issues, too, check out the Lifetime Membership, because crochet know-how NEVER goes out of style. Until next time …
Author Info
I've been crocheting since my mother taught me as a little girl. I'm lucky to be working with Happily Hooked and I can't wait to share everything yarny and hooky with you! Yarn over, peeps! Yarn over!
