Meet the Maker: Sarah, Creator of Smelly Faces – Oil Diffusing Soft Toys for Children

I’m so excited to introduce my amazing readers to Sarah Bodnar, creator of Smelly Faces! Smelly Faces are essential oil diffusing soft toys for children. Their huggable shape and oil infused brains that you put essential oils on for aromatherapy can be amazing tools to help children battling anxiety. A few drops of calming blends of oil and a huge hug from their soft friend can help children relax!

Hi, Sarah! First off, tell us a bit about yourself!

Hello!!! My name is Sarah and I live in upstate New York with my husband and two small kiddos. I married my husband 6 years ago right after he got home from Afghanistan at 21 years old. Since then we have lived in six different places, hoping we stay put for a while now though!

Can you tell me a bit about how Smelly Faces work?

Smelly Faces are stuffed animal essential oil diffusers! All you have to do is place 2-3 drops of your favorite essential oil on the wool “brain” and plop it back in the pocket located at the top of the head. Snuggle and Sniff!

How did you come up with the idea for Smelly Faces? 

After college I frankly was quite lost. Moving from place to place and therefore hopping from job to job I found myself struggling very deeply with anxiety and depression. One day after helping my aunt with photography for her book, I felt that creative spark again for a for a flickering instant. That night the name “Smelly Faces” popped in my head along with the idea for the potato shaped creatures. I had decided to take this randomness for what it was and move forward with it, setting all fears/emotions aside. The next morning, after messing around on a sewing machine, the original Smelly Face was born!

Do you illustrate all of your designs & branding yourself?

I do!! This is honestly one of my favorite parts. I have a background in digital media arts: animation so being able to draw, design, and brand everything myself gets me so pumped! I remember it took me a while to convince myself I was “fancy” enough to actually be a company. Branding and logos helped me a lot in this. It was a silly way to trick myself and feel “legit” but it worked! Cause if I have a mug with my company logo on it then it’s the real deal right?

You were into essential oils before it was trendy – tell me how you discovered them and decided you wanted to share your love of holistic health with others through Smelly Faces.

My mom got me into them! Five years ago, were they trendy then?  I think that aromatherapy can be so great for everyone. Just like a smell can bring you back to a favorite childhood memory, more vivid than you thought possible, I think the smell of essential oils can help provide a similar affect.

 

Which of your Smelly Faces is your top seller?

Probably the Unicorn!!!

You recently published a children’s book that is super cute! That is such a different creative process from sewing – tell us what inspired you to write & illustrate a book

Oh dang, writing and illustrating children’s books is my passion. I love everything about it. Creating a new world, exploring characters and building a story line makes me geek out hardcore. I could write a whole essay answering this question, but I shall refrain. If anyone is interested in the importance and impact that stories have on us read The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Jospeh Campbell. It dives deep into how stories are routed in all of us as humans. This topic sparks all sorts of passion in me.

How do you balance your busy shop with motherhood?

I value efficiency pretty highly. So when I do get time in my office I won’t spend too much time on any one thing. If there are too many hiccups I usually will just take that for what it is and move along. My husband works second shift so he usually plays with the kiddos for a couple hours in the early afternoon before leaving for work. This gives me time to sew. When I’m hanging with my babies I’ll often plot and plan in a notebook. I’ll also often get them involved in the process! Meaning, as I stuff a Smelly Face, they throw fluff at each other and draw on the cardboard box. Then after I put the kids down at night, I’m right back working again.

 

What are your favorite ways to unwind from the handmade hustle?

My favorite way to unwind is to watch an incredibly ridiculous movie that I’ve seen about 3,847,284 times. Dumb and Dumber & Billy Madison are both some of my classic go-tos but there are many on the list. Also, cranking Led Zepplin or Michael Bolton (the cheesier the better) usually does the trick.

What is your top advice for moms who want to begin to use essential oils for aromatherapy with their children?

That it is awesome! I’d say to do lots of research and pick which oils you personally as a parent feel comfortable with. Find a community of people you feel happy with to help you get educated on the subject!

Be sure to check out Smelly Faces online, and say hi on Facebook or Instagram!

Ending Food Poverty – The Lu & Ed Lunch Program

$1 from every Monster sold through luanded.com will go to end food poverty in American schools.

Lunch shaming is an embarrassing epidemic for children in America. When children have insufficient funds on their lunch accounts, most schools have policies where the child’s hot lunch is taken away and substituted with a brown bag lunch consisting of a cold sandwich and piece of fruit – or in some cases, they are forced to watch staff discard their tray of food into the trash, and are left with nothing at all to eat for lunch, a cruel form of punishment for a problem that they can’t control. You can read more about the sad epidemic of food poverty in American schools here.

I am passionate about creating change with this little monster making business of mine. I already make a monumental environmental impact by using only textile discards, which diverts tens of thousands of pounds of textiles from landfills annually, but I want to use Lu & Ed to directly create positive change in children’s lives as well. I’ve been working out the kinks for the Lu & Ed Lunch Program since January, and I’m so excited to launch it!

All through September, $1 from every monster adopted through my shop will be donated to pay outstanding lunch debts & load funds onto lunch accounts at *Riverbend Elementary in Clyde, NC, a school in a region with an incredibly high level of food poverty.

*My original choice to donate to received a grant and is able to offer free lunches to students for the 18-19 school year, yay! With the help of the staff, I selected Riverbend Elementary, a school where over 50% of students are on food assistance.

Beginning in September, I will take also be taking submissions for the next school to donate to in my Facebook group. 

Members can submit their child(ren)’s school or a school in their community through the 7th of each month, then I’ll create a poll for members to vote for the next school to receive donations. Members can add family or friends to the group to use their voices to vote for their local school.

The same school won’t be chosen twice in one academic year, allowing for a total of twelve schools that will receive donations from the Lu & Ed Lunch Program to pay off student lunch debt & load funds onto low income students lunch accounts, and to help fund summer lunch programs for communities where children face hunger at alarming rates.

How you can help:

Spread the word about the Lu & Ed Lunch Program – share this blog post with your friends

Join my VIP group & nominate your local school

Add your friends and family to the VIP group to increase the impact we can make together

Donate directly to your local public schools

Transformation Tuesday: Pajama Top into Toy Storage!

I always think it is fun to showcase what Mon-stors Toy Storage Bags & my monster toys are made from! This week, I’m throwing back to a Mon-stor I made in January from this fun blue on blue zebra stripe pajama top I rescued from the salvage center.

It was discarded for some fraying hems, I think, but was in great condition! I cut the sleeves and hems off, and cut it open at all the seams, to turn that discarded top into this fun Small Mon-stor Toy Storage Bag!

All those board books in the floor? They fit neatly inside to tame the never ending slippery sea of baby books around the house – plus, toddlers love to “feed” their Mon-stor their books and take them back out, making reading time even more fun!

This Mon-stor is currently available for adoption in my shop, along with several other Small Mon-stor Toy Storage Bags!

Tell me: what would your kids feed to their Mon-stors? Books, blocks, toys, dress up clothes?

 

Meet the Maker: Mindy of Milkweed Baby – Creator of the cutest high fashion baby shoes & teething accessories!

As a mother to a preteen AND a baby, I can honestly say it is super exciting to see how much the children’s fashion industry has evolved since my son was a baby/toddler! There is still a huge fast fashion market, but you can also build a lasting wardrobe for your child that is fun, fashionable & ethical through independent designers, makers & creatives! Today, I am so excited to introduce Mindy of Milkweed Baby & share her shop (plus a sweet discount code!) with you! She makes the most adorable, high quality and durable baby shoes I have encountered – Milkweed Baby are the only baby shoes we have ever bought for Zoey Rose, and the only ones Zoey will actually keep on her tootsies! Mindy is mama maker driven by quality & great design, and below, you can get to know her & see a sampling of her work!

 

Tell us about yourself:

Born & raised KC… and still here. But I think it’s great here! The only thing that would get me to move is a beach on the west coast! I had planned to be a golfer, I played in high school until an injury stopped all that. So instead of a golf scholarship I went to art school. I majored in painting at KU and dropped out with 3 semesters left because I was afraid of a “do you want fries with that?” degree. I worked a variety of jobs after that. The last was 9 years as a marketing coordinator for a seminar company. While working there I started my first business, by Mindy. I was laid off while on maternity leave 2 years ago and it was during that time that Milkweed Baby was born.

 

When did you first find your love of creating?

I don’t remember a time when I didn’t love creating.

 

Have you always been a textile sewist?

NOPE! I learned to sew when I was 27. I wanted to make a gift for each of my bridesmaids, so my mom helped me sew them each a bag. And that was that! I was hooked!!!

When did you begin to create baby products/How did this become your central

focus?

I started making baby shoes in 2010. I’d been making a variety of things, coffee cup sleeves, totes, bow ties, knit ties, clutches, aprons and so on. Nothing felt right.

I was at a pop up and saw how people couldn’t control themselves with baby items. They are just so cute! So I decided it was the market I wanted to get into.

I did a bunch of research and found the soft soled shoes that I thought looked cool were really hard to find. So that’s what I was going to make. And through a bunch of trial and error, I worked it out.

 

What sets your baby shoes apart from the rest?

1. My style (I don’t do ugly). 2. My quality (read attention to detail & perfectionist nature).

 

The baby & children’s market is heavily saturated and highly competitive –

what is your advice for makers in this industry to help them stand out &

grow their client base? Find your style identity and stay true to it. It’s really easy to pander to the audience, but it’s not satisfying. “YOU DO YOU”. Get your product in front of as many people as you can. If you are passionate and make a good quality product, people will buy.

 

How did having your first baby impact running your small business?

This is complicated. Having my first baby almost killed my business and made my business my full time gig. I basically took a year off when I had my daughter, and during this time a local gal hard core ripped off my designs, undercut my price by a mile (she uses lesser quality materials) and moved in on all the local shows. Also during this time, I was laid off from my full time job of 9 years… so this became my full time job. I have to say, I thought it would be easy to work and take care of a kid! HA!!! Only someone without a kid would make that assumption!

 

What can makers & small business owners expecting a baby do to prepare

their business – and themselves! – for such a big change?

You know, so much depends on what kind of kid you have. Mine rolled over at 6 days old, so she could never be left alone. My best advice is to prepare your finances to have some down time. Amp up as much stock as you can before baby comes so you can still keep up with shows and online without needing to make much (prevent people from moving in on your “turf”).

Expect the unexpected.

 

What is your favorite method of self-care as a mama & a maker?  

Walks, Sleep, Wine, meal planning (it’s the only way we eat healthy), and every 3 weeks I get my eyebrows waxed

 

Do you bring your baby to events you vend at? If so, how do you balance motherhood & face-to-face business transactions with customers?

Mostly we have my mother-in-law watch my daughter while my husband & I run my booth at shows. However, we are about to do 2 big ones where childcare is not going to be an option. So we will see. I think the plan is to get a cheap tablet and load Daniel Tiger on it. And coloring books and crayons. Probably, my husband and I will take turns chasing after my daughter and making sure she doesn’t break any ceramics or topple any displays. And my husband will have to leave me for a couple hours each day to handle her naps.

Mindy’s daughter rocking some Milkweed Baby shoes!

How many pairs of your handmade baby shoes does your own sweet little baby

have? 

She has 1. I know, I know. Everyone always gasps when I tell them that. Here’s the deal…

I love all of my fabrics, so choosing is impossible. So I just pick 1 or let her pick 1. I make a pair & that’s it. I need to be making these shoes to sell because I need the income.

I recall something about the cobbler’s child has no shoes?

 

What is your favorite color?

Green (many shades of green… aqua, seaglass, olive, mint, kelly, emerald… just not hunter)

What is your drink of choice while you sew?

6am-5pm COFFEE

5pm —> WINE (shiraz or rose)

 

Television or music while you work?

Music (TV is too distracting and I really need to be looking at the sewing machine)

 

Lastly – Have you ever made yourself an adult size pair of slippers?

No. Maybe next year!

I hope you enjoyed getting to know Mindy of Milkweed Baby! Be sure to visit her on Facebook & Instagram, and you can use code LUANDED to save 20% of baby shoes in her online store!

code valid 2/1 through 2/28/18

What Mon-stors are Made From: Stop! It’s Snuggie Time!

Am I alone in thinking that Snuggies are absolutely fabulous, if quite impractical if you aren’t 6’5″? I think part of the reason I adore them so much is because I frequently get these in donations & find them at salvage centers and I can make sooooo many Mon-stor toy storage bags & stuffed monster toys from them! Today, I’m showing off a few from a recent upcycle of this beautiful blue Snuggie!

To make Mon-stors, I also use things like curtains, sheets, pajama pants, dresses or skirts for the lining. Here, I used this curtain that had a some stains from bleach splashing it.

I combined those two, to make this huge Mon-stor toy storage bag! (He’s still available in my shop, too!) My big toy storage bags fit a LOT of toys – 9 Build-a-Bear sized stuffed toys, almost an entire load of laundry, 11 pairs of jeans, or a butt load of MegaBlocks, haha! They are ideal toy storage for play rooms or kid’s rooms, or make great hampers for pre-teens! Smaller children especially love “feeding” their Mon-stor toys – it makes cleaning up fun!

Now, like I mentioned above, I can usually make a LOT from an adult sized Snuggie – here are two other Mon-stors I made! This one is lined with vintage fabric that was donated to me – it was going to get thrown into a box on the curb for the garbage man, and a friend scooped that box up & brought it to me instead!

This one is also lined with some vintage material – a table cloth another person’s grandmother was going to throw out, but they rescued and put in my hands! This small Mon-stor toy bag is also available in my shop!

I also made a few stuffed monster toys from this awesome, vibrant blue, but unfortunately it was right before The Big Crafty event I did in July in Asheville, so I sold a  lot of them before I snapped photos because of the pre-show chaos! I did snap this photo on the 4th of July, which has two of the four or five I made in it! I can’t remember exactly how many I was able to squish out of that Snuggie.

If I were pressed to say, I may say that Snuggies are my favorite textile discard to work with. Unfortunately, they were a “trend” item and a TON of people bought them during the hype… to later throw them into donation bins or worse, just into the trash bin. But due their popularity, I do receive them in donations or find them at salvage centers frequently, often in mostly usable condition. If they are stained or worn out in places, I just cut around the stains and use those bits for dicing into stuffing.

Saving the world – one monster at a time!

 

What Mon-stors are Made From: From Pajamas into Mon-stor Toy Storage Bags

A lot of people ask me what I mean when I say I use textile discards, so I wanted to bring back my “What are Mon-stors made from” series! I’ve made a LOT of monsters lately and don’t always remember to snap a before photo, but I do have a few from when I received a lot of donated pajamas – some may have had missing buttons, a small stain, a tear or some every day wear, and would otherwise have gotten tossed & ended up in a landfill. Instead, I gave them new life & turned these funky pajama pants…

Into these two cute, fiery Mon-stor toy storage bags! Small Mon-stors are perfect for taming car clutter in the minivan, toy storage in the playroom, holding pajamas & a book for bedtime routines or as an overnight bag for sleepovers with grandparents! Both of these cuties are available for adoption in my shop, along with several other Mon-stor toy storage bags, stuffed monster toys, sensory blankets and more – all made from upcycled materials!

After I make the monsters, I turn the smaller scraps into stuffed monsters, sensory blankets, tooth pillows, etc. Once I’ve used as much of the materials as I can to create product, I use the smaller scraps for facial features like mouths, tongues or irises in the monster eyes, or cute little monster horns/ears! Once I deplete all the bits big enough for that, I take those super mega itty bitty scraps, go at them with the rotary blade, and dice them super fine to blend with polyfil for stuffing – so there is absolutely no landfill waste from their production!

I hope to bring back these posts at least once a week to demonstrate the sustainability and process behind making these toy bags, plush toys & such. That, of course, involves remembering to take “before” pictures and snapping photos of the process – I usually get so excited as I root through donations & salvage center scores after I wash them that I forget to snap a photo & dive right into making monsters! Ha! But I do have a few “before” photos stored up on my computer & will work to pair them with their finished monsters for weekly posts for you guys!

Meet the Maker – Kelly of Freak + Pocky

Hey guys! I am excited to share this interview showcase of Kelly, one half of the new online shop of handmade fandom fun & geeky cuteness, Freak + Pocky, with you! On my vacation, I was able to stop in Lexington, KY and spend the night with Kelly & Josh. They are SO cool and I am so eager to introduce you guys to such a fun maker, creative spirit and geek girl soul sister. I think you guys will love her just as much as I do! Without further ado, let’s get to know Kelly!

Kelly, Me & Zoey!

Hi Kelly! Tell us a bit about yourself:

I’m Kelly – or better known to my gaming friends as Pocky, the pocket-sized healer.

I’m a 30-something crafty nerd living in Kentucky with the geek of my life, who I married 6 years ago, and our 14 year old rescue mutt Skylar. I have some nerdy degrees (B.S. in Electrical Engineering & M.B.A.) and work at a zombie job, but would rather spend my days making things + playing games.

When I’m not slaying the zombie job or being the poppet master, I can usually be found gaming with my friends or curled up with Freak and the pup catching up on anime or binge watching tv shows we are seasons behind on.

Gir Poppet Doll

When/how did you learn to crochet?

I learned to knit + crochet when I was 11 years old.

My mom was learning to knit and crochet in some group that was meeting at our church. When she came home to work on her project I was mesmerized at how you could tangle up yarn to make a sweater. So I did what I always did…bugged her to teach me because I wanted to learn to do whatever craft my mom was doing.

That was over 20 years ago and I’ve seldom put down the yarn since.

Link Poppet Doll

What got you started as a geek? What was your first video game or geeky obsession?

 

I like to say that I was raised to be a geek. The first movie my parents took me to see – I was just a wee nerdling at the time – was The Empire Strikes Back. I don’t remember it, of course, but I’ve always loved the original Star Wars Triology.

But what really got me started was gaming. I started out on Atari, but Nintendo is where my true gaming love really started. In our house, as an only child, I had to fight my parents for a turn to play. And my dad would organize Nintendo tournaments for my friends and I, which I kinda threw when I picked a game I knew this one boy was better at than me. And yes, I’m still a Nintendo fangirl.

Meeseeks Poppet Doll

How did you first intertwine crafting & fandoms? How did you first bring your love of fandoms & craft together?

 

The first project I designed that brought my love of yarn and fandoms together was a surprise birthday gift I was making for my husband, when we just started dating. I designed a stocking hat after Link from Zelda, and a matching Triforce scarf.

It wasn’t until I first came across amigurumi, specifically Creepy Cute Crochet by Christen Haden, that I started finding new ways to make nerdy things. And now I just can’t stop!

Dobby Poppet Doll

What is your favorite fandom?

 

Ummmm…I honestly can’t decide. I love Doctor Who. Sherlock. Supernatural. Firefly. Star Wars. Sword Art Online. Invader Zim…I could seriously go on all day.

What are you thoughts on a female Doctor?

 

I think it’s great and can’t wait to see where they take the story with her!

Secretly I would love to see Simon Pegg be the Doctor, but I know that really wouldn’t make sense since he’s been a villain.

Zombies, werewolves or vampires?

 

Zombies, no question! I’m a huge Walking Dead fan!

In your honest opinion, should they reboot Firefly?

 

The answer is always YES! The world needs more Captain Mal!

Baby Groot Poppet Doll

What Poppets are next on your to-make list that fans can look forward to?

 

Well, my list is longer than I am tall, but a few that I’ve been brainstorming recently are: some Star Wars characters, Leela from Futurama and Shaun from Shaun of the Dead.

How do fans submit suggestions for Poppets or place custom orders?

 

Right now the best way to reach out is by emailing hello@freakandpocky.com.

Since each poppet is handcrafted, we do have a limited number of custom orders we can take at a time. If we’ve reached our limit at that time, you can be added to a wait list and contacted once we’ve caught back up.

Can people order poppets of their favorite actors to gift at Cons?

Absolutely! Right now these are done as custom orders, so just send an email to hello@freakandpocky.com with the request and we can hash out the details.

Thanks for taking the time for the interview, Kelly! Happy launch day – and happy birthday! ♥

Head over to visit Kelly’s shop, follow their adventures on Instagram and be sure to give them a “like” on Facebook, too!