Here comes Jen, the Etsy Elf!

It's that time of year again. The time where I chain myself to my sewing machine and make teddy bears with almost every ounce of free time I have. Ok ok... I made that sound like a miserable task but truth be told, I absolutely love doing it.

For those of you who do not know, last October with much support from Dan, I bit the bullet and opened an Etsy store called HandmadeByTheMrs. I used to have a small variety of items but I had to limit my inventory when I moved abroad for a multitude of reasons...logistics, mostly. The one thing that I had a hard time giving up was my memory bears. Perfect strangers reach out to me to make these bears for them. They have a family member or friend who has passed and they may only have one shirt or article with which to remember them. They put their trust in me to send me this item, pray it doesn't get lost or damaged, and hope that the teddy they receive is not ugly, horribly, disfigured, have an extra arm, etc.

At first, this was something that I put out there in my store just to see how people would react. It was October and I didn't know if this sort of thing would be of interest for the holidays. Answer: heck yes. And boy was it worth it for the warm and fuzzy feelings that came along with the task. The most touching was a woman who asked me to make seven bears out of her grandfather's shirts. I did so happily and was so honored she had chosen me to do this for her family. On Christmas day I received a photo via email of her grandmother hugging a bear made from her late husband's shirt and I just sat there and cried. THAT is why I do this. So as I cut out piece after piece and sew bear after bear, I remind myself that I might just provide a happy moment to a family on Christmas morning... even if I have lost all feeling in my fingers from needle pricks.

I now have orders for between 10 and 15 bears and will likely need to start turning people away soon. Crazy as it's not even Thanksgiving yet. The buyers send their items to my parents house, and my dad's office secretary is kind enough to send them to me here in Ghana (I owe her big time!). I'm working on as many as humanly possible before I head back to the US on December 5. They will all come home with me unstuffed in my carry on. Upon arrival at my parents' house in Tampa, FL, they will be stuffed, finished up,  and shipped out with thank you notes to be delivered before Santa shimmies down the chimney.

They look a little odd unstuffed but here's what I've accomplished just in the last few days. You can go to the shop on Etsy to see some stuffed ones :)