Why Shiny Newts?

We had trouble picking a company name, but our then six-month-old son helped with the decision. He held a little plastic toy of a newt and said "newt." For parents what's cuter than a little baby saying his first words? So that's where we got the newt part.

The shiny part came about because of television. Leon and I had been watching a lot of FireFly at the time, and the word "shiny" was used to mean awesome, cool, the bee's knees, da bomb, sweet, and super. You get the idea. It's a happy, "shiny" word. 

As luck would have it, ShinyNewts.com was available, and our company name was formed.

Later reasearch showed that the State of Colorado only has one native newt, since the state is so dry.