Begin at the Beginning
The journey of Analisa’s Cositas begins back when I was just a girl. I wanted very much to be just like my older sister, Elaine. She is five years older than I am and always seemed to have so much fun doing things without her little sister hanging around. I was stunned the day she asked me if I wanted to sit with her while she made some beaded bracelets. I of course jumped at the chance and then began the journey to where I am today. I watched her make some stunning pieces of jewelry and some gorgeous, beaded works of art.
Vintage Christmas Tree circa 1988 Photo Source: Ebay
From there, my love for making jewelry began to grow but then quickly fizzled out. I got involved in band in high school, went to college, had a kid. All of that took my focus away from anything jewelry related, well, other than wearing jewelry. I’ve always had an obsession with earrings.
What Changed?
A few years later (ahem… read some 10-12 years later) some college friends took a beading class and began to buy beads and supplies and one of my friends even tried her hand at a jewelry business. All the while, I kept focused on school and work and didn’t return to making jewelry… yet.
My friend hiding behind bead storage boxes circa 2008
It wasn’t until my friend asked me to help her prepare for a craft show that I started beading again. It was like riding a bicycle. Everything I had learned when I was younger came flooding back. With the help of YouTube and a few classes later, I was suddenly buying my own beading supplies and creating all the things, and so it began.
Terrible lighting, terrible phone camera, but we thought we were pretty cool circa 2009
What’s in a Name?
In 2008 I started really creating again and by 2012 I launched Analisa’s Cositas as an official business, with all the paperwork and everything. The origin of my store name has nothing to do with SEO or internet friendly searches or anything like that. I know it’s not easy to spell or remember, but it’s my shop’s name and well, my momma named it. You see, my parents are both Spanish dominant and learned English at school. My mom interchanges the languages very easily and one day while I was making some jewelry, she said “Mija, you’re going to make a lot of people very happy with your cositas”. In Spanish, cosita means little thing, so my mom was telling me I was going to make people happy with all of my little things.
Left to Right: My dad, my son (then age 13) and my mom
So was born Analisa’s Cositas and hundreds of craft shows and thousands of customers later, here I am, trying my best at launching my online shop and making it work. COVID threw my family a curveball as it did so many. I did so much of my business in person at craft fairs that switching to online really has been a learning experience, but I’m here for it. I don’t know if I’ll go back to craft shows, but I do know I will continue to create awesome jewelry pieces for everyone.
(2009) 
(2019)
I hope you’ve enjoyed my journey to where I am now, and I hope you’ll stick around for many more years to come! I’m excited to grow my store front and to continue to provide quality jewelry at affordable prices.
Analisa