About

My Story

I've spent a lot of time on YouTube watching craft videos and trying to recreate them. Sometimes they turn out pretty cool (admittedly, there have been many failures). I started to get into hand embroidery in high school. My dream is to make a quilt where every patch has embroidery of something meaningful in my life (an ongoing project). Then, I started playing around with resin during the pandemic project period. I got some flowers from my mother's garden and pressed them

Rose gold chain and circle bezel necklace with hand-pressed flowers and resin

between the pages of my many unread books. I ended up with about 50 necklaces in total. It was just in time for the holiday season—so I gave most of them away to family and friends. None were perfect. I struggled with bubbles, runny resin, and burnt flowers, and despite it all, the finished products were well-received. There is something beautiful about imperfection. Of course, I'm always continuing to improve and the next batch will have fewer errors. Yet, I'll always treasure my first few.

However, I spend most of my time writing. I earned my literary arts certificate in high school and double-majored in English and Psychology at university. I even pursued my love of the English language further by becoming a certified English as a Second Language Teacher. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but what ones do I see? That's what I love to do—find those thousand words.

Behind the Name

The story behind my company name comes from a tiny misunderstanding and a history of misspellings. My name is Keely (no extra 'e'). I've seen it spelled and heard it pronounced in an assortment of ways over my life (and I haven't lived very long). 

Sometimes it upsets me, especially when the error comes up in official documents, but most of the time, it amuses me. The way "Keelye" came about comes from my middle name. Over the years, I could easily create online accounts with just my first name. Now, it seems there have been enough Keely's that I have to get slightly more creative—hence, the 'e.' My new employers were unsure about how to spell my name when creating my new accounts and went ahead and called me Keelye. 

In terms of my logo, you can see the K and C for Keelye Creative. And then, there's the hidden eel—another nod to my name. Keely with an eel in it—so as not to be mistaken for Kiwi, Kelly, or Kailey.