One of my favorite stores when I was a child (and still is now), is definitely the Build-A-Bear Workshop. Not only did my eyes lit up when I saw that big cotton-filling machine at the door; I remembered my mother’s eyes also lit up. The store was just as appealing to kids as it was to adult. All the clothes and personalize-able items were so addictive that it made my mother spent quite some money there.
There is just something magical about plushies. You don’t have to play with it but just having one around the house makes it more homely. This plushies maker is my recent favorite. I found her on Etsy and was unable to stop myself from screaming “So cute!” in front of my computer.
Andrea Vida is a diy maker from Budapest. She creates “cuddly plush animals with a lot of personality: colorful sloths, rats in tailcoats and even sheep in pajamas.” Her first plushies were made for her own children, and even though they were no longer played with, her husband encouraged her to turn this craft into a business, which has now resulted in a full-time job at her own studio where she makes plushies for sale on Etsy.
“When buying from an artist/maker, you’re buying more than just an object/painting. You are buying hundreds of hours of failures and experimentation. You are buying days, weeks & month of frustration and moment of PURE JOY.”
Even though she makes a lot of plushies every day, she always makes her creatures one by one, so that they are each given an equal amount of attention and a unique personality. She also creates cute clothes for her creatures, which can be dressed on all her plushies, making them interchangeable and safe for children as well as for babies to play with.
