About

Hello! My name is Tammy Kichta. I live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with my husband (Shawn), 3 of our daughters (Elizabeth, Caroline & Penelope), my mum (who we call Mee Mee) and our 2 dogs (Poppy & Nellie)! It’s a house full of girls and I love it! 🙂 As you can imagine, Shawn is a saint, and luckily for me (and this website)…a software developer who works from home. I’m truly clueless on the computer, but I’m learning! 🙂

My business started back in 2006 when I turned my love of doodling, coloring & rhyming into a full-time job. I drew cute little cards that, at the time, fully supported my family in desperate times. I had 2 little girls then, and named my business after their adorable nicknames, Chickie- age 2 and Lulu- age 5. It was crucial that I was able to work from home to care for them and their dad, who suffered from mental illness and couldn’t be left alone with the girls. With the help of my parents, I set up at vendor & craft shows on the weekends, my friends had “card parties” in their homes and I sold locally in a retail shop. THANK YOU to SO MANY PEOPLE, you know who you are!! I took special orders for personalized cards, invitations and announcements. At one point I had to fill orders for over 2,000 cards. Word of mouth was the way my cards became popular & my creations traveled across the world! I was truly blessed, but it was a very dark time in my life…my cards were brightening people’s lives…while my life was falling apart. My marriage ended in a very necessary divorce for safety reasons. I became a single mom and slowly got completely burned out. I made cards morning, noon & night, I barely slept, I didn’t eat…I was on autopilot and extremely un-healthy.

But….as I FULLY believe, EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON! EVERYTHING. It was a lonely Saturday night, I put Lulu & Chickie to bed and went on the computer. Several ads for dating sites popped up. I was sad & lonely. Did I mention I’m totally clueless on the computer??? Somehow, I managed to create an online dating profile. Four days later, I met the love of my life, a single dad named Shawn. I know….crazy. We had a whirlwind romance, got married and had a baby girl named Penny. With three little girls at home with us, cards went on the back burner. They turned into a hobby instead of a 24/7 job and I became a full-time stay at home mom. Over the years, my customers would always tell me I should keep making cards…but I just didn’t have it in me. I missed it, but a lot of sad memories were connected to that time in my life. Instead, in 2018, I applied for a “creative” job in retail.

Fast forward to the present, May 2021. Although I loved my job & my coworkers, I didn’t love working nights, weekends & holidays. My job was physical & was draining the life out of me. I missed my family. I missed a lot. I had a management opportunity & when faced with a decision of 12 hour days, 5 random days a week…..I re-evaluated my life. I needed to be HOME. I felt like life was passing me by and I didn’t want any regrets. So I’m taking a leap of faith and re-opening “Chickie and Lulu”…(sorry Penny…I’ll somehow add a line of cards named after you…someday). 🙂 It’s almost FIFTEEN years later to the date and a lot has changed. I’ve never had a website before… Shawn has been so supportive! I have a little “studio” off of our bedroom and I’ve been drawing my little stick people non-stop. It feels really great to be home & now able to reach so many people through a website.

I’ve decided to stick with greeting cards & notecards at this time. My monogram notecards make great gifts for birthdays, teacher gifts, holidays and more! Contact me at tammy@chickieandlulu.com with any questions, I’d love to hear from you!

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for taking the time to read my “story”. I’m an open book, always have been, always will be. Just another reminder to be kind to people…you never know what they could be going through.

My family & I thank you for supporting my small business!

xo Tammy