
There I sat at my desk like I always do every day. But this time I sat there staring down at my work I was currently working on. And like I normally do I think and think. My mind and thinking process goes 90 to nothing and it goes in every direction known to man. I can start at one point and end up somewhere totally different. And so I started thinking what would people consider handmade? And all I could come up with was what I would consider handmade. As I sit there staring down at my work, most days I smile and giggle and think to my self isn’t it amazing that you can making a living off of what your love doing? Maybe not a craft or a hobby. But maybe you love helping people, or organizing or whatever it is you love. As long as your happy while doing it that’s all that matters right? Because there are people out there that hate absolutely hate their job and working everyday. So what if they could do something they loved?
So what would I consider handmade? Handmade is dreaming of something, waking up and wanting to see it come to life. Getting a idea in your head a vision of something and taking supplies and making that vision come to life. Being so excited thru every second of the time your putting it together or making it that you just can’t wait to see it finished. You skip meals, skip sleeping, skip everything to just see it finished. You live and breathe that creation. You put every last ounce of love and care into your item. You have created something from the ground up with your bare hands like a building. Its sitting in your chair sewing or embroidering for hours and hours that you get a really bad cramp in your back or get really stiff. Its cutting fabric and making sure you don’t cut your fingers in the process. Its taking a look at something and instantly knowing how to make it, how to craft it and what supplies you will need. Looking at something and go “Oh this is made out of such and such, or Oh this is made with such and such..” This is being able to look at something else that was handmade and know what was done to make it. Looking at something handmade and knowing someone out there somewhere put a lot of love and effort into making that item. This is only a few things that I would consider handmade.
Handmade products are more than just a product, it is 100% creativity and uniqueness, and that shows in a handmade item. Giving a handmade product instead of mass-produced is more like writing a letter to someone instead of an email it just means more when given as a gift. For about ten years now every year my family gets handmade items I make for them. There homes are all filled with things I have made for them with my two hands. And my grandma looks forward to it every year to see what I come up with new. Because every year its always something new I make for them. And every year I love watching as they open the gifts and their faces light up. And they ask me a million and one times if I really made this. And then tell me I didn’t know you could make all this. I warms my heart to see people appreciate my work. Because I always put my all into anything I make.
You know that feeling you get when you get a package in the mail from amazon, or a package in the mail you didn’t order or forgot about? Yeah that’s the feeling I get every time I come to my desk to work on something new. But the feeling always last the whole time I’m sitting at my desk crafting.

This bow I made… I bought the faux leather mainly because it was on sale and unicorns are/were popular. So I luckily found the feltie design to match this leather sheet I bought. So I embroidered the feltie to match the leather as best as I could. I also had a unicorn horn feltie I had stitched out. I then took the unicorn leather sheet and embroidered the bow design on the sheet, cut it out and glued together. I did that same process with all the other pieces. I took other sheets I thought would go best with the unicorn sheet. Seeing as rainbows and anything sparkly goes with unicorns. I matched each and every piece to match the unicorn sheet. So as you can see it isn’t as simple as sticking a bunch of pieces together with some glue and calling it a bow. You have to be able to match and make the whole bow look amazing with just one simple look at a unicorn sheet. I sometimes don’t have all the supplies needed to make something in my mind come out right. So I find another way to make it look amazing. This is all part of a good crafter. A good cook can go into a kitchen look in their cabinets and see what they have might be 3-4 items and make a amazing meal out of those 3-4 items. These are the crafters of America! They use what they have in order to make amazing items. I’ll tell ya’ll a little secret. The unicorn horn was after thought, lol! I was like oooooooooooo I have a unicorn horn laying around here some where lol! It would go great right here in the middle. Then the unicorn on the side there. lol And this bow in photo above is all embroidered. I personally like the look of the outline stitch better then just cutting the design out on the sheets and gluing. The extra stitching gives it a little extra something. But can you believe those ones that are simply just cut out and glued are sold better then these. I made some where I just cut it with my silhouette.. and put those together and I sold every last one of those. And I like the embroidery one much much better!

I wouldn’t say I was the most popular kid in school or had a lot of friends. So I guess you could say I turned to thinks that made me feel happy. Trees omg, let me tell you! Trees were my thing in high school, they still are. But in high school I look every single last art class they offered. You need one art class for your credits…. what? really? No problem at all. I took every last one. Art, art 1, art 2, art 3. sculpture class, painting, omg so many I don’t rem all the names. But I took every last one. So I would say my love of crafting and art started in high school. I loved making collages and art class and those fun projects the teachers gave you. I always went above and beyond for crafty projects. Okay, anyways… I still have every last project made in these art classes and every last one let me tell ya was a dang tree or something to do with trees. It was all I could draw!!! Lol no joke! My room is still decked out in trees and all the things I paint still. Yes my painting skills got better, no I can’t draw people but trees I can do with my eyes closed lol. So while I was in collage I need a little extra money as does any collage student right? So I Started my business back in 2010, I graduated in 09. And I went to collage for 4 years. And till this day 2020 I have had my business for over 10 years now. When I first started omg I was awful! My bows are uglllllllllly! lol so ugly. But I still had people buy from me and support me. But thru those ten years I was always told what I’m doing isn’t a “REAL” job. So I kept doing what I loved. Making things with my hands from my heart. Making things that made me happy, that made me smile. And in the process making others happy. But each and every day living with that little voice in the back of my head telling me this isn’t a real job, you can never live off of this. But thru each and every year I never gave up. There was times when I wanted to give up and throw in the towel like others have. But there has always been something within me that never could do it. I feel like I would be throwing away a part of me I would miss terribly. I wake up every day and tell my self one day I’ll be popular, I’ll make it big, I can do this! Never give up. If it is something your really love don’t give up on it or your dream.
I wanted to write this blog, to inspire others. And to show everyone what handmade really means to a crafter. What all goes into making a single item. Because when a individual buys from a small handmade shop they are supporting that individual, not a huge multi-Million dollar corporation. But your helping a family eat, helping a family live, your helping a collage student get thru the next day or pay for their education. But thru all of that your inspiring a single individual like my self to keep going. That her dreams one day can be bigger then she ever thought possible.
So the next time you buy handmade from someone just remember you are not only spending money but putting one hell of a smile on their face with your order. You are telling them their dreams are only getting started. And most importantly your getting something made from the heart, and was made with a smile and a giggle. What more could you ask for?
Sincerely, – Handmade-
– Kendra, aka Kendra’s Unique Bowtique –
Supporting one small business to the next. #shop #shoponline #shopsmall #smallbusiness #supportsmall #supportsmallbusiness #kub #kendrasuniquebowtique #blog #kendrasblog #kendrasblogpost