Heart to Heart...

Life unfolds in interesting and unexpected ways sometimes, doesn’t it?

When I decided about a month ago to focus on one thing – that one idea – in my shop on Etsy, I don’t think I had fully thought out where this could go – what this could become. I’ve had two epiphanies in the last week alone.

One – I’m a big believer in recycling, re-purposing, re-using. Being the daughter of a woman who grew up during The Great Depression, I come by that honestly and was trained by the best! So when my recent creation of Beau Blue out of a remnant of chenille fabric I had left over from pillows became such a hit, I remembered the chenille bedspread that covered my childhood bed. And I had the idea to start searching for old, gently used chenille bedspreads and re-purpose them right into cute little stuffed animals. When I mentioned this idea to my son he liked it (being a recycling guy himself). He added, “You know, you could go to Goodwill and places like that and pick up some cool tee shirts and make little creatures out of them, too.”

Voila! An idea is born. But before I started driving all over town to find tee shirts, I looked to my own closet first. I have several tee shirts that I still like but no longer wear. So I took a couple of those and made a little experiment . And he got good feedback.

So good, in fact, that I started receiving special requests – “I have a tee-shirt that holds special memories for me. Could you make it into a little stuffed animal?” Which I think is very cool but kind of freaks me out at the same time. I have a fear of taking someone’s one-of-a-kind special tee and – oops – slipped with the scissors… Nervous? You betcha’. Still an idea I think I may pursue, though.

My second “aha” moment, as Oprah would say – seeing that there may be a place for me and my friends in comforting sick children. I had an order the other day for the little giraffe, Joey, in my shop. He was going to 6 month old little girl who had just undergone a heart transplant. I have no words… And just the other day a friend told me of her friend’s granddaughter who was most likely going to need a liver transplant. She is 4 months old. Well, I’m giving that little darling a “sugar bear/baby bear” from my shop. Because two of these in one week really made me appreciate that my children were – and still are – in good health. Now, I’m thinking on a way I can make a difference with my little critters – if only for a moment – in the lives of sick children. I know the idea will make its presence known to me when the time is right.

Maybe that’s why from the very beginning I put tiny hearts on every one of my creations. From the heart to the heart…