The History of The Butterfly

The Butterfly is a store in the small town of Flora, Indiana. The business has been in my family since 2002. My mother, Jill, took over the business which was mainly tanning, balloons, and party supplies. (Remember Flora is a small town, so often our local businesses have a little bit of everything!) She named the store Tan Line & Balloons. JIll wanted people to know what her store was about by the name. She eventually turned Tan Line & Balloons into a gift shop that also offered tanning and balloons. My mother was very well liked, and many customers said that they kept coming back because they loved visiting with her.

I was married on June 19, 2010. The picture below shows a picture of me and my mother on my wedding day. Days after returning from our honeymoon, our family learned some devasting news. My mother was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma...CANCER. Her best friend (also named Jill) and I helped keep the business going while she began treatments. Eventually my mother decided it was time to close her business. On December 24, 2010, Tan Line & Balloons closed. My mother was very brave and fought hard but she lost her battle with cancer on March 27, 2011.

The store sat empty until October 2011. Then my father, Scott, asked me to help him re-open the store. I enlisted the help of two close family friends, Jill and Kayla. We remodeled and painted. We also decided to change the name of the store. My mother always loved butterflies. Butterflies made her think of her late sister and mother. We tossed around names for a day or two. Then it came to us. We decided to rename the store to honor my mother. The new name was now The Butterfly. At the time, I was still working full time as a teacher. I was managing the store (part-time), doing book-keeping, and ordering inventory.

Then in February of 2013 I was pregnant and had complications that led to bed rest for 5 (LONG) months. Then I had my beautiful baby boy, Colton, on June 23rd. I was still teaching and now my husband and I had a newborn baby at home. I stepped away from my duties at The Butterfly. Just before my son's first birthday, we found out that we were expected our second son. My husband, Torey, and I decided it was time for me to leave teaching. My father approached me about taking over the store. So in September of 2014 I officially became the owner of The Butterfly. Our second son, Cody, was born on November 17th!

I had owned The Butterfly just over a year when my husband and I decided it was time to expand our business. After requests from potential customers that found us on Facebook, we decided to start selling our merchandise online. That is how www.shopthebutterfly.com was born. We are beginning the adventure with a popular line of jewelry called DaVinci. It is a high quality line that our store has carried since it was Tan Line & Balloons! It has been popular with our local customers, and I hope that you love as much as we do. We eventually would like to add more of our products to our website, so keep watching for more!

Thank you for supporting our business,

Jayme Collins, Owner of The Butterfly