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Today, I bring you a giveaway from SouleMama Sponsor A Child's Dream Come True. In Debbie's words:
"A Child's Dream Come True serves families, schools and crafters by providing inspiring natural materials for toy and doll making, art, and handwork. We're family owned and just the right size to offer personal customer service. Come take a look at our very large selection of wool felt, felting wool, fiber craft kits, art supplies and more."
Join them on Facebook for notice of special offers and craft projects!
SouleMama: Tell us about your background and the inspiration for your business.
Debbie: I was lucky to have grown up believing it was normal to be creative and was encouraged in subtle ways. Supplies were readily available; my art and crafty endeavors were never criticized; my mother knit and sewed for her family so handwork happened in our home. When the cousins got together we would play outside or dress-up or make art while the adults visited. There was no technology to distract us from being children and expressing our creativity.
I was attracted to fiber even back then. As a young girl, I loved the texture and recall picking fuzz off my hand knit sweater to tease into fluffy balls of wool. I knew nothing of spinning or felting. I just liked the feel. I had quite a collection of trolls too, those little dolls with scrunched-up faces and lovely colorful wooly hair. I hand sewed a complete wardrobe for them. Cute little felt garments consisting of two holes for arms, a snap at the back and a bit of rick-rack for embellishment.
During my high school and college years in southern California I studied arts and crafts with a few business classes thrown in upon my mom’s suggestion. I took everything offered through the arts department at our community college, classes at local shops, some university extension courses and a summer intensive at Penland School of Crafts. I had no grand plan. I was simply following my interests and my heart. It was while working a few years in a weaving and spinning shop I began dreaming of having my own business, someday.
In the meantime though, needing to earn more than can be made as a retail clerk, I became a bookkeeper and continued in that field for many years. Once married and starting a family my husband Bob and I moved from the city to the rural desert and I stayed home with the children, sewing, cooking, raising chickens, making toys and enjoying being a mom.
While considering options for schooling our oldest I came across Waldorf education. As you can guess, the handwork and arts-integrated aspects of the curriculum drew me in. We learned more and then chose this holistic education for our two children. It was during this time I found out about A Child's Dream, a mail order catalog of natural craft supplies for teachers and families operated by Waldorf early childhood educator Ronna McEldowney.
In 1991, Ronna asked us to produce A Child’s Weaving Kit for her catalog. We agreed and started Naturally Creative in 1992. I developed a few more kits and for ten years we sold them through Waldorf schools, A Child's Dream, Magic Cabin Dolls and other catalogs as well as toy and fiber shops. The children helped. It was a fun cottage industry which gave me confidence building experience so when A Child’s Dream was for sale in 1999, I felt ready to dive in. After putting the catalog online we changed the name to A Child’s Dream Come True.
My background in Waldorf education comes from home schooling our older child, now 29, and being involved in the 1992 founding of the Sandpoint Waldorf School in Idaho. Our younger child, now 24, attended the school while the older one continued home schooling.
So to sum up I would say the path that led me to my work today began with the encouragement of crafts in the home when growing up which was furthered by my continuing interests in handwork and the eventual exploration of Waldorf education as a mother.
It has been 12 years now and I feel so fortunate to be loving what I’m doing and expressing myself in this way with this business. I get to work with color, incredible materials and our customers and suppliers are wonderful people. It’s a dream come true for me and I hope you will find what we have to offer to be the same for you!
For today's giveaway, A Child's Dream Come True is generously offering the following gift to TWO lucky winner:
~ a $30 gift certificate to A Child's Dream Come True!
In addition, A Child's Dream Come True is offering SouleMama readers 10% off their schooling and craft supplies sitewide. Use code SOULEMAMA at checkout. Offer valid through July 31, 2011.
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Thank you to A Child's Dream Come True!
To enter, please leave a comment in today's post (one entry per person, please). Comments will close on Sunday by 8am EST. Winners will be chosen by Random Number Generator and announced here in this post by Monday evening.
Comments closed! The winners are...
I have been a big fan of their products for some time. Lovely!
Posted by: Rachel Wolf
Neat story. So many wonderful things to choose from.. Thanks for the giveaway.
Posted by: Dawn Suzette
