My mother taught me to crochet at the young age of 4yrs. I was in the hospital getting my tonsils out; and, she was trying to keep me busy.. and out of the nurses' hair. My love for crafting continued to grow as both sets of grandparents and my mother were all active crafters. Grandma & Grandpa Speerly made all Christmas gifts for the grandkids by hand every year. A tradition I tend to continue with handmade Christmas gifts for family every year. I've dabbled in a wide variety of crafts, as you can see from my posted items. A neighbor taught me to macrame and make jewelry in 6th grade, I taught myself to knit from an old science encyclopedia in 9th grade... my love for crafting has kept me searching and learning new crafts through the years.

The American Dream is not to be enslaved to an employer, but to be your own boss. I embraced this dream at a young age with yardwork and selling greeting cards door to door. In junior high I enlisted classmates to help design homemade stickers, tatoos, bookmarks etc, along with penny-quarter candy from the Dime Store to sell at recess. Under The Rainbow began in 1989 as Ralyn Speerly, Specialty Merchandise. As a single mother, my goal was to create a way to work from home so that I could raise my children instead of a babysitter. I sold specialty merchandise, gifts, tools and knives door-to-door and stocked local shops. Remember, this was before the age of the internet.. you had to knock on people's doors back then.

I integrated my love for crafting in 1993 and registered the business name Under The Rainbow. The name, Under The Rainbow, came from customers and friends saying, "Check with Ralyn, she makes or sells just about everything under the rainbow.." In 1995 I began to do local craft shows and started leaning more towards mostly handmade products. I had a stationary location in Yorkville, IL, later on and began taking on other crafters' work on consignment. I was approached by a college kid with the idea of an online craft mall. At this time, I knew little about computers. After all, there were no computers in school when I graduated. He told me all about the internet and how it was the way of the future. He ran off with my money, but he seeded the dream of an online craft mall.

I went to the SBA for a business loan to hire a programmer and launch a web site, but was told that internet business was too high of a risk because it was never going to take off. SO, I began to teach myself about computers, spending many hours in the library learning html and web design.. Under The Rainbow's first web site was launched in 2003. Our first site was quite amateur looking, all html, no programming. We had PayPal for order processing, but all crafter items were updated manually via emails. It took quite a few more years to learn the programming to develop our member area and the site you see today. And it's a constant continuing education as coding technology advances and newer languages are introduced every couple years.