Where did this idea come from?

Hi, my name is Julie & I'm the owner and creator of Lift My Mood! I was inspired to start this business by my mother. I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease in June 2016. I began rigorously treating in November 2017 when it started to cause major complications. I had to leave my job and drop my Master's program in Marriage & Family Therapy. I spent 100% of my time learning about, and treating, Lyme Disease.

At the time, my mother and I had watched a few mystery box unboxing videos together in the months leading up to my medical leave. She decided to buy me a mystery box from e-bay to cheer me up and take my mind off of everything during a time when I really needed it...& it worked!

So being the creative person she is, she took it one step further. She went shopping for a bunch of things that she knew would make me smile, and created a completely PERSONALIZED mystery box/bag for me (seen in the photo above)! Best mom ever.

It cheered me up so much and inspired me to create a business like one we had never seen before in the mystery box industry: PERSONALIZED Mystery Boxes that could be customized in any way for anyone.

In 2017, “Lift My Mood” was born!

With my mother’s amazing idea, and my wonderfully inherited creativity, I decided to create "Lift My Mood" to send smiles to people (and pets) everywhere!

We wanted to leave the process fully open-ended, so people could tell us EXACTLY what makes them smile and we could shop for, and pick out, each item individually, based on what each person tells us about themselves.

I started out small, in person & on Etsy. When I found out that liftmymood.com was available for purchase in 2018, my husband encouraged me to make an offer to buy it. After paying for Lyme treatment I didn’t have enough money to buy a website. I sent a message anyway, with an embarrassingly low offer, and it was received by a man named Robert.

After explaining my story to him and my reasons for starting this initiative, he offered to give me liftmymood.com for free.

With my mother's inspiration, my husband's encouragement, the perseverance I inherited from my father & a generous act of kindness from a complete stranger, I was able to get my little (super quickly growing) business off the ground.

Whether you're getting a box or a basket for yourself or for someone else, shopping or visiting us in our Thrift & Gift Shop or you’re just here to follow along on this journey with us, we're grateful for you and so excited to lift your mood and make you smile. :)