Crafty sisters inherit creative instincts from parents
Sisters Cara Protain (left) and Beth McAuliffe launched their business, Lilac Sisters Handmade Home Decor, in 2018.
“As kids in Indiana, we lived in five houses. Our parents would finish remodeling one and we’d move on to the next. Growing up, five years was the longest we ever lived in one place. It got to the point where we’d be watching them go from room to room, fixing things up. And when they reached that final room we’d go, ‘They’re almost done. We’re going to move again.’ Dad was a handyman. He liked fixing stuff. He did the carpentry, and Mom would paint and decorate a little bit. They put their imprint on each home. We definitely picked up things from watching them.
“When he had time, Dad did oil paintings. Mom was artistic as well. She could draw and paint, and she was always making stuff for things like graduations and weddings. She enjoyed making gifts special and doing something unique. Like one year at Christmas, my grandfather needed a new pair of shoes. So Mom got one of those old Fisher-Price toys that looked like a shoe. It was the old woman who lived in a shoe. Well, Mom decorated it really cute and put money inside, I think, and that’s how she presented my grandfather with his Christmas present. That’s just one example of the things she would do. I guess we got a lot of our creativity from her.”
— Cara Protain and Beth McAuliffe
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