As we moved through the month of November it reminds us to reflect on all our small blessings. So much had changed over the course of the past few years. Sometimes life moves so fast we forget to appreciate all the little accomplishments that has helped us on our path to the next journey. For those that don’t know our beginning let me give you a quick snapshot of where we started to where we have evolved.
In the very beginning we were born from an idea my mama had said unknowingly, just how big those four words would lead to. She was sick in the hospital fighting yet another illness. While Mom was holding her therapy doll she saw me bring in a another baby I had brought home, to use as a therapy baby in the memory care I worked at. We were all smiles and giggles. Laughing and having fun talking about all the babies when I asked her if we should get more. It was then she said those four words, “lets buy them all”! Laughing we made plans to “buy them all” being silly and playful as we always did in her goofy ways.
Just a few months later Covid struck and the isolation began. Not long after, mama was taken from us on May 4th, 2020. Passing away from Covid. The hole that tore through me was like no other I have ever experienced. The utter grief of losing my best friend was so unbearable. I continued to work at the memory care, caring for my residents and later being assigned to the care for those affected with Covid. Watching the pure heartbreak in my residents lives and those they loved led me to talking with my family about giving painting a try. As continuing to buy therapy babies to donate, was becoming too costly to keep up. They of course encouraged me to give it a try but honestly, I was so heartbroken I was completely stuck and unable to move past my grief.
August 14th 2020 my beautiful daughter Kelly discussed with the rest of the family and decided to buy me the necessary supplies and materials needed to give crafting reborns a try. When my supplies came in my husband had created me a perfect workshop off the back of our laundry room and make shift salon, where I used to do hair on the side. For the next year I threw myself into my work trying to drown out my sorrow. I would work full time, come home and dive right into painting and creating beautiful babies. I would stay up for hours putting all my focus into learning the craft. Little did I realize as I locked myself away from the rest of the world only focusing on painting, I was healing little by little. The waves of grief and tears came further and further apart being replaced with pride and smiles thinking how Mama would have been so proud to see me painting like she once did.
As time past we were growing fast. Out growing the tiny workshop, my amazing husband converted the rest of the entire lower level of our home into the new workshop/nursery and boutique. Once only painting one baby at a time, to now painting over seven at a time has been so crazy. With the amount of time put into building the nursery and hearing all the stories from the families we have helped, helped to make the next big decision, leaving the memory care to work full time in the nursery helping those I loved in just a different capacity. Making such a big move inspired us to start a second chapter of the nursery, the baby boutique. With the help of the boutique and sales from our babies we have been able to continue to help others and have just a little extra to help offset the loss of the income we once had.
So what does a typical day in the nursery now look like? Well, with the huge amount of growth we have done we have went from just painting to honing into the skill of really creating hyper-realistic babies like none of our others. So each day we not only are creating beautiful babies but we are balancing running and maintaining a website, dealing with all the tasks the online business requires, keeping up with ordering stock and inventory doing the bookkeeping, marketing and everything else it takes to balance two sides of the business, all while working on improving our skills everyday to send our babies on their way to bring smiles to those that need them the most.
So without all of you who have been our number one supporters we would not be where we are today. For that, we can’t thank you enough in helping making our mission happen. Over half of all our babies have been donated to some pretty amazing people with amazing stories of their own. So as you can imagine the baby boutique has been a huge help allowing us to continue to do what we love, bringing smiles to people’s faces. Life and values have become so different. We have learned, it’s the small things in life that matter the most. Not how much we have or make. For that, I wish you have just enough of what you need and a season full of small blessings. Bringing countless happy memories and smiles to your faces to last a lifetime!
Have a happy and safe holiday season my friends,
Ginger Kelly
